“The war to end all wars” was a term used for First World War in the hopes that the world would suffer no more tragedies. Then, after World War II, the phrase “Never again” was coined in association with the brutality and bloodshed that had occurred. However, today almost 80 years later, are we faring any better? Is the world in a better place asks Azza Radwan Sedky?
Today the term “The war to end all wars” would be used only satirically since not only was the First World War not the final war, but it was also followed by an even more devastating WWII. It is estimated that over 50 million civilians and military personnel died with probably 25 million deaths more from war-related disease and famine during World War II.
Humanity has yet to learn its lesson, and we humans are in no better shape now than we were in the first half of the previous century. In fact, we may be on the fringe of WWIII.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the most vital lesson—that war must be avoided at all costs—hasn’t been applied after WWII. Span the earth with a brisk glance, and you will realize immediately that doom and gloom preside all over the globe. Geopolitically the world is in shambles with wars transpiring perpetually. Merciless and ruthless, everyone is in it for oneself.
An article in the Britannica by Michael Ray, defines the crises accurately. It was believed that 21st-century humanity would be a globalized post-conflict society moving toward collective peace and prosperity; instead, “terrorism, ethnic conflict, civil wars, and hybrid and special operations warfare (techniques used by developed nations to harass or destabilize opponents though non-traditional means) accounted for the bulk of nonstate, intrastate, and interstate violence.” He goes on to mention the Syrian Civil War, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, the Yemen Civil War, and the Russian Ukraine War, amongst many others. As we speak yet another civil war brews in Sudan, the threat of China invading Taiwan is quite imminent, and many more polarizing conflicts are occurring.
The Ukraine War, a case in point, continues to wipe out not only Ukrainians but also many desperate souls in undeveloped countries. It caused global military expenditure to surpass the two trillion US dollar mark. Identical to WWII when countries sided with one combatant against the other, the Ukraine War left the world fragmented as it stirred up partisanship. More importantly, the parties involved as they remain stagnant, refusing to budge, are inching towards a nuclear confrontation. This would then be a full-fledge Armageddon, an annihilation of the world as we know it. And yet all await the other party to take the conceding, backing down step.
Globalization in the 21st Century was expected to connect the world via trade, technology, and travel, but globalization suffered immensely with COVID-19 causing the largest decline in international movement. COVID-19 proved that no matter how much devotion to the well-being of others exists, oneself comes first. Efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic meant that the world must shut down, become more detached, and less in sync. After COVID-19, the speed by which the collapse in activity and communication, followed by countries working autonomously, was unlike anything we experienced before.
Economically the world is struggling, too. COVID 19, the war in Ukraine, the food and energy crises, and inflation have caused severe global inequality. COVID-19 triggered the most serious economic crisis since WWII. It is a gloomy outlook for both developed and developing countries. Economies of countries that relied on movement of people and travel suffered substantially, but suffering occurred elsewhere too, where the poverty stricken were unable to feed their needy or vaccinate them and where imported staples vital for the livelihood of others did not come through.
Of a more prolonged and everlasting effect is the climate emergency that Earth is suffering from. Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, such as global warming, that will radically change the face of the earth as we know it. The result is that earth is warming up at a rate not seen in the last 10,000 years and will disrupt the usual balance of nature with glaciers melting, sea levels rising, and cities vanishing.
You would think that such a calamity would unite the world. It hasn’t. According to the United Nations Climate Change Report of October 2022, “Climate plans remain insufficient.” Nations had made some climate change progress, but, according to Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, “We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world. To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.”
Despite the divisiveness we suffer and the indifference we apply, we are, ironically, bound together in many other ways. Again COVID-19 was very telling; it didn’t take long for the pandemic to hit far and near, proving that we are all in this together.
For the world to wake up and realize what it had brought upon itself, an even more crucial wake-up call should occur. The irony of ironies would be, if extraterritorial beings came to our doorstep, we, inhabitants of this earth, will most definitely unite to serve the general good. We would have an enemy that binds us together. This scenario is farfetched and unrealistic; unfortunately, with how things stand today, the notion of unifying the world’s forces for the good of all is also unrealistic and farfetched.
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