Peace cannot be transactionally imposed. This is because peace is not the absence of conflict. As long as imperfection exists among individuals, organizations, and societies, there will always be conflict. Peace occurs when conflict is managed in a society that respects the rule of law and an individual’s inalienable rights.
Those of authoritarian mind-set think that peace can be created simply by imposing, upon a country and its population, an arbitrary order (from top, down) that must be invariably supported through violence. When this occurs, it may appear that there is “peace,” because there is a superficial state of law and order. In reality, however, there is no peace, but injustice, which percolates and boils until it begets violent revolution after violent revolution. What also occurs is that authoritarian leaders engage in war against their neighbors (for real or imagined affronts) out of greed, or their need to create a diversion or “safety valve” that can release the pent-up energy of their exploited citizenry.
People think ISIS is an entity that can be destroyed. It is not. It is the consequence and condition of the authoritarian mind-set and rule that exists in the Middle East. While ISIS may be defeated, the conditions that created it will simply spawn more terrorists. There is no “deal” that brings peace to such authoritarian regimes. Unless such regimes, either through systematic changes or revolution, create democratic societies that respect human rights and the rule of law, there can be no peace.
Until reform occurs in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and several other autocratic states – and to a lesser extent, Israel (which, though it bears the trappings of democracy, still exerts its influence and power in an authoritative manner) – there can be no peace in the Middle East. And, by supporting and aligning ourselves with autocratic regimes, there is nothing President Trump can do to impose peace. The most he will ever achieve is a superficial semblance of law and order that will beget greater and more extreme violence than that which is sought to be quelled.
Loren M. Lambert © May 23, 2017
Those of authoritarian mind-set think that peace can be created simply by imposing, upon a country and its population, an arbitrary order (from top, down) that must be invariably supported through violence. When this occurs, it may appear that there is “peace,” because there is a superficial state of law and order. In reality, however, there is no peace, but injustice, which percolates and boils until it begets violent revolution after violent revolution. What also occurs is that authoritarian leaders engage in war against their neighbors (for real or imagined affronts) out of greed, or their need to create a diversion or “safety valve” that can release the pent-up energy of their exploited citizenry.
People think ISIS is an entity that can be destroyed. It is not. It is the consequence and condition of the authoritarian mind-set and rule that exists in the Middle East. While ISIS may be defeated, the conditions that created it will simply spawn more terrorists. There is no “deal” that brings peace to such authoritarian regimes. Unless such regimes, either through systematic changes or revolution, create democratic societies that respect human rights and the rule of law, there can be no peace.
Until reform occurs in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and several other autocratic states – and to a lesser extent, Israel (which, though it bears the trappings of democracy, still exerts its influence and power in an authoritative manner) – there can be no peace in the Middle East. And, by supporting and aligning ourselves with autocratic regimes, there is nothing President Trump can do to impose peace. The most he will ever achieve is a superficial semblance of law and order that will beget greater and more extreme violence than that which is sought to be quelled.
Loren M. Lambert © May 23, 2017
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