International Conferences on Preventing Third World War Can Make An Important Contribution

At a time when several experts and well-informed scholars have expressed serious concerns regarding the fast-paced build-up towards the increased possibility of the third world war, one or more international conferences on prevention of third world war, if planned and organized in an unbiased way with only the objective of world peace and safety being the basic and central concern, can make an important contribution in terms of reducing the worst dangers and risks.

Just now, at the time of writing, the most concerns are being expressed in the context of the debate on Ukraine getting the permission from its weapon suppliers in the NATO member countries, particularly the USA and UK, to increasingly use long-range weapons to attack mainland Russia. However the issue of the increasing possibility of a direct clash between USA/NATO and Russia, something that can quickly become WW3 and a nuclear war involving countries which have around 12,000 nuclear weapons, clearly has a larger relevance and context which goes beyond merely this debate. Although this particular debate has been receiving headlines lately—and rightly so as this is a very important matter– at the same time it should be emphasized that there are also other potential flashpoints around which the possibilities of WW3 and a nuclear war can increase.

Hence if, as we all hope, the issue of deeper strikes into Russia using western weapons by Ukraine somehow gets de-escalated at least for the time being, even then the need for most well-informed and concerned persons of the world to engage deeply with this issue of the WW3 and to hold discussions on this with each other will remain. In other words, the high relevance of an international conference on this extremely important issue—or better still a series of international conferences– will certainly still remain.

These conferences should be seen as a place where some of the most well-informed people from various disciplines having high relevance for this issue can come together to express their views and enter into a free and frank dialogue with other experts, and then they can hopefully release a common statement and recommendations. If this is not possible, then even if there is agreement on a number of important issues with a few differences also being voiced then this also is all right. Basically the desired outcome is that the world’s leaders get a strong warning from some of the topmost experts and scholars that the present path on which they are walking is simply too dangerous for the people of the world including children who have their entire life before them, and this kind of high risk pathways are just not acceptable. Those who push the world on such paths must be identified and asked to change their ways, and if they refuse then they should be isolated, depowered and punished.

The main statement and recommendations of such a conference should be written in such a simple way that their significance is widely understood by common people. These should be disseminated very widely in various languages so as to reach the most number of people. These should be disseminated in various ways such as in the form of written word and in audio and video form.  This statement should make very clear to people how extremely dangerous world war and nuclear war are to people all over the world, while the recommendations should show the way forward for moving away from such extreme risks.

While the attempt should be to have the presence of some of the most well-informed persons on the main and related issues, mere scholarship will not be the criteria for selection, as the idea is to get together people whose sincerity and deep commitment to world peace with justice is beyond question.

It should be clear that this is not at all intended to be a place for extended academic discussion or for academic theories. Very clearly just two tasks should be the focus of efforts—preparing a statement on the very high risks arising from recent events and mistakes as well as from structurally embedded causes of high risks, and secondly a set of recommendations for moving away from such high risks and dangers.

Who will host these conferences? Some countries like India, Brazil and Mexico come to mind for this, but the non-aligned movement can also host such a conference.  

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071.