Collective Security within Reach

Contents Foreword by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury Introduction Part 1: Blueprint for a Viable System of Collective Security Understanding International Insecurity: Humanity in the Throes of Adolescence Tools to Craft a New System of Collective Security Elements of Bahá’u’lláh’s Blueprint for a System of Collective Security Part 2: What Have We Built So Far? Efforts at Collective Action by World Leaders Determining Final Boundaries Determining the Principles to Govern Our International Relations Codifying International Agreements, Laws and Obligations Arms Control and Reduction Committing to the Principle of Collective Security Creating a Standing International Force Creating an Effective International Tribunal Working Towards a World Federation of States and Equitable Distribution of Critical Resources Part 3: What We Should Build Next Core Group of World’s Leaders to Meet Agree Upon Shared Principles and Priorities Governing International Relations

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Strengthen the Security Council’s Ability to Act Swiftly, Effectively, Equitably and Decisively Strengthen the Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Regimes and Accelerate Arms Reduction Revisit and Fix Permanent Borders Overhaul the World Court Codify International Security Law Towards World Government and Equitable Distribution of Critical Resources Towards World Federation Conclusion Bibliography References and Notes Index

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Blueprint for a Viable System of Collective Security In the middle of the 19th century a Persian nobleman’s son by the name of Mírzá Husayn-‘ Alí proclaimed to the world that He was . the latest in a series of divine teachers sent by God from time to time in our collective history to guide and educate us in accordance both with our capacity to receive spiritual truth and with our needs. Bahá’u’lláh, as He came to be known, claimed that He had brought the answer to the ills currently plaguing humanity and urged both the religious and secular leaders of His day to examine His teachings and apply them for the good of their people.

Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation was prolific and amounts to over a hundred volumes of writing. These works, together with the interpretations of the two authorized interpreters, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, are collectively known as the ‘Bahá’í writings’.1 It is these writings that inspired the ideas on collective security in this book.

Understanding International Insecurity: Humanity in the Throes of Adolescence Before attempting to solve any given problem, especially one involving human relations, it often helps to put the problem in context and to study the dynamics that drive it. Not only may we learn about possible solutions but the exercise can help motivate us to take the necessary steps to solve the problem. This is no less true of the global problems involving threats to our security and peace. The Bahá’í writings help us to put these problems into context and to understand what drives them.

The Bahá’í writings offer a powerful image to help place human society and its current problems in proper context. Imagine that humanity, as a collective whole, is an individual person. This 3

c oll ective securit y within reach

person begins life as an infant and gradually develops into a toddler, a young child, an adolescent and finally a mature adult. Just as the individual passes through each of these stages, so does humanity as a whole. And just as each of these stages is marked by developmentally appropriate behaviour, so too are the stages of humanity’s evolution and development marked by corollary behaviour. We need only to study the history of humanity to see how accurate this image is. One way in which this evolutionary behaviour presents itself is in the breadth of the community to which a society is willing to extend its loyalties. The wider the circle of loyalty, the more mature the community. So, for example, loyalty only to one’s clan or tribe represents a less mature form of social organization than loyalty to a city-state or nation. As the members of a society become less self-centred and more willing to consider the interests of a broader social circle, the circle of unity expands and the society becomes more diverse and complex in its organization. So far, the highest form of social organization humanity has reached is a federation of nations in which the individual units are willing to cede larger degrees of sovereignty for the good of a wider collective whole.

The Bahá’í writings explain that the human race is now experiencing the final throes of its turbulent adolescence, marked by acts of rebelliousness and behaviour that push boundaries of propriety to their farthest limit. Wars, human rights atrocities, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, brutal militias, insurgents and gangs, and our clinging to unfettered nationalism all reflect humanity’s adolescent attempts to define itself and to establish what legal and moral boundaries it will not cross. The Bahá’í writings assure us, however, that this stage will pass and that humanity will make it to adulthood and maturity, shedding the upheavals of its adolescent years. Although our past and present appear bleak, we are promised that our future is unimaginably bright and glorious.

This perspective on our seemingly entrenched behaviour is not only critical to our understanding of why we have been behaving in this manner but, more importantly, provides us with the hope that these troubles, too, shall pass and that things will get 4

Blueprint for a Viable System of Collective Security

better. Such hope, in turn, motivates and spurs us to do the work necessary to hasten the end of this adolescent stage and openly to embrace our maturity. The Bahá’í writings do not abandon us here. They go further and paint a picture of what our collective life will look like once we have attained maturity. This picture will not only help us recognize maturity once it arrives but also gives us a concrete vision and specific goals to accelerate the transition from adolescence to maturity. The writings tell us that the next inevitable stage in our collective growth will be marked by a growing awareness of our oneness, which will result in increasing unity and in an understanding that we must owe our first allegiance to humanity as a whole. One of the critical components of this stage of maturity is the creation of a system of collective security as envisioned by Bahá’u’lláh – a system that will bring us the security and peace that we crave and deserve.

The Bahá’í writings also stiffen our resolve to do what is necessary by pointing out that our institutions, laws and the policies that drive them are there to serve our best interests and to bring us happiness. If they no longer fulfil these fundamental purposes or, worse still, if they are positively harming us and we are being sacrificed for their preservation, we should have no qualms about scrapping them and relegating them to the dust heap of items that have outlived their usefulness. Everything in this world, we are reminded, is subject to change and deterioration. We cannot expect institutions, laws and policies that we have built, however painstakingly, in the past to be exempt from this immutable law.

Nor can we expect to be able to bring about the kind of positive transformation we all yearn for if we stubbornly cling to old ideals, social assumptions and outmoded ways of doing things. Having let go of the old, however, we must create policies, institutions and laws that meet the needs of our times. This requires that we be imaginative and apply the full force of our creativity. We must be willing to think outside of the box.

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