Peace, War and Consciousness

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 25 Dec 2023

Robert Kowalczyk and Klaus Schlichtmann – TRANSCEND Media Service

The Normative Current: Abolishing War and Establishing True Collective Security

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world. And that is an idea whose time has come.” — Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885)

25 Dec 2023 – Full Consciousness — The most sublime meaning of that deeply mysterious, quintessential human concept necessitates a tranquility and a caring understanding of reality. Each of those two traits require keen awareness, high intelligence, and a humble and open acceptance — along with all absence of desire, greed, jealousy, fear, and anger. With true Consciousness one achieves an understanding of others and therefore is at peace within one’s self and with the world. In such a state of existence, a confusion in priorities, particularly for, or in support of, a war is an impossibility. Only can the mind’s darkest calculations lead to war.

We are now living in a world of power, desire, greed, fear, and anger. Whether nationally or among nations, one finds ongoing conflict or sees future wars beginning to fester — all accompanied by the taking of one side against that of another. These are projections of wars within ourselves, born at birth, or through trauma, education, experience, or indoctrination into a belief that has become dogma, whether it be nationalist, communist, capitalist and/or one of the many disproportionate forms of pseudo democracy.

This paper proposes a cure for this illness. A remedy that has long been proposed in numerous short-lived agreements and with well expressed phrases since antiquity, thoughts that are especially needed in this, our highly confused and volatile moment. Humanity can no longer face the entangled complexities that now battle for expression within most minds. We all need support and understanding, ranging from a hand extended in sincere friendship to the advice of the best of our psychologists. Our world has simply become a pot about to boil over, as individual neurosis potentially overflows into a mass psychosis — war. An age of our world that has become actively and willingly non-conscious.

Dr. Klaus Schichtmann is a scholar who has researched, taught, and extensively published on peace and security issues, including Transcend Media Service, has long been advancing a cure which he terms, The Normative Current. The essence of his work recognizes clauses within the laws of national constitutional found in many countries that allow cooperation and peace. It also appears in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, along with expressions and appeals for peace which have been flowing through all cultures since the earliest of times. A partial listing of the results of his work can be found below.

Having known Klaus for a number of years, working together we have recently formulated a theory that is asking to be proven — the use of an A.I program to address peace and sustainability. This theory includes an advanced state of the art computerization of accumulated knowledge towards peace, including those that appear in this essay along with other countless theories, methods and expressions. Our hope is to apply an accumulated programmed input towards a deeper, fuller understanding of the roads towards peace which are waiting to be taken. More on this will follow in a future essay(s) on these pages.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (to be realized by 2030)

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
2. End hunger, achieve food security, and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. (Source: https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

If this is to be accomplished within the coming years, we need a strengthened, sovereign United Nations Organization that UN Member states themselves have empowered ‘by law,’ having one by one surrendered part of their national sovereignty. Each nation must realize that real cooperation and effective partnerships require an effective collective security system to sustain it.

The Normative Current

There already are effective laws that have been drawn up, which are found in many, especially European constitutions, that can help to implement the 17 Sustainability goals. These constitutions, adopted after the Second World War, provide for ways and means to ensure cooperation and see to it that the UN can operate effectively. In fact, a single Nation can start the process of the transition toward an international peace based on justice and order, by conferring primary responsibility for the maintenance of International Peace and security on the United Nations Security Council. To help save the peace of the world, Europe may have to go through the eye of the needle. Real cooperation and effective partnerships require that there is collective security to guarantee it.

IRELAND: For the purpose of the exercise of any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations, the Government may to such extent and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be determined by law, avail or adopt any organ, instrument or method of procedure used or adopted for the like purpose by the members of any group or league of nations with which the State is or becomes associated for the purpose of international cooperation in matters of common concern. (Article 29 IV, 2°, originally of 1 July 1937)

FRANCE: On condition of reciprocity, France accepts the limitations of sovereignty necessary for the organization and defense of peace. (Preamble, 1946, reconfirmed in 1958)

ITALY: Italy renounces war as an instrument of offense to the liberty of other peoples or as a means of settlement in international disputes, and, on conditions of equality with other states, agrees to the limitations of her sovereignty necessary to an organization which will ensure peace and justice among nations, and promotes and encourages international organizations constituted for this purpose. (Article 11, Constitution of 1948)

GERMANY: (1) The Federation may through legislation transfer sovereign powers to international organizations. (2) With a view to maintaining peace the Federation may become a party to a system of collective security; in doing so it shall consent to such limitations upon its sovereign powers as will bring about and secure a peaceful and lasting order in Europe and among the nations of the world… (Article 24, Constitution of 1949)

DENMARK: Powers which according to this constitution rest with the authorities of the kingdom, can, through a bill, to a specifically defined extent, be transferred to international authorities, which are instituted by mutual agreement with other states to promote international legal order and cooperation. (Article 20, 1953)

NORWAY: In order to secure international peace and security, or in order to promote international law and order and cooperation between nations, the Storting may, by a three-fourth majority, consent that an international organization, of which Norway is or becomes a member, shall have the right, within a functionally limited field, to exercise powers which in accordance with this Constitution are normally vested in the Norwegian authorities… (Art. 115, 1965/2015)

BELGIUM: The exercises of given powers may be conferred by a pact or law on institutions coming under international civil law. (Article 34, 1971, reconfirmed 1994)

LUXEMBOURG: The exercise of the powers reserved by the Constitution to the legislative, executive and judiciary may be temporarily vested by treaty in institutions governed by international law. (Article 49 A., 1973)

GREECE: To serve an important national interest and promote cooperation with other states, authorities may be vested by a convention or agreement in agencies of an international organization … Greece shall freely proceed … to limit the exercise of national sovereignty, insofar as this is dictated by an important national interest, does not infringe upon the rights of man and the foundations of democratic government and is affected on the basis of the principles of equality and under condition of reciprocity. (Article 28 II., 1975)

SWEDEN: Decision-making authority … may … be transferred to a limited extent, to an international organization for peaceful cooperation of which Sweden is a member, or is about to become a member, or to an international court of law. (Chapter 10, Article 7, 1976, reconfirmed 2011)

PORTUGAL: Portugal commends the abolition of all forms of imperialism, colonialism and aggression; general, simultaneous and controlled disarmament; the dissolution of political-military blocs and the establishment of a system of collective security, in order to create an international order capable of assuring peace and justice in relations among peoples. (Article 7 II., of 1976)

SPAIN: By means of an organic law, authorization may be established for the conclusion of treaties which attribute to an international organization or institution the exercise of competencies derived from the constitution. It is the responsibility of … the Government, depending on the cases, to guarantee compliance with these treaties and the resolutions emanating from the international or supranational organizations who have been entitled by this cession. (Article 93, of 1978)

AUSTRIA: By law or by a State Treaty which must be ratified in accordance with Article 50 (1), specific sovereign rights of the Federation can be transferred to intergovernmental institutions… (Art. 9, para 2, of 1981)

THE NETHERLANDS: The Government shall promote the development of the international rule of law. (Article 90) … Legislative, executive and judicial powers may be conferred on international institutions by or pursuant to a treaty… (Article 92, of 1983, unchanged in 2008)

SWITZERLAND: Art. 2 (Aims), No. 4: It is committed to … a just and peaceful international order … Art. 140 (Mandatory referendum) … b. Entry into organizations for collective security or into supranational communities … (1999 Constitution)

A number of countries, India, Costa Rica, Japan, Timor-Leste, Singapore, the Philippines, Guatemala, Argentine, Burundi, Congo and Zaire have similar provisions in their constitutions. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution in particular is significant in that it has, similar to the stipulation in the French Constitution, already agreed in principle to limitations of its national sovereignty, aiming at an International Peace based on Justice and Order. Of interest is the 2002 Constitution of the newly established sovereign Nation of East Timor declaring it aims at “cooperation with all other peoples … the peaceful settlement of conflicts, general, simultaneous and controlled disarmament, establishment of a system of collective security and a new international economic order ensuring peace and justice in the relations among peoples.”

Accordingly, to pave the way, after WWII the United Nations Charter prohibited the threat and use of force and stipulated that Member states may confer “primary responsibility for the maintenance of International peace and security” on the Security Council (Art. 24) and provide it with a basic law or operating manual (with a list of standard operating procedures, SOPs), to guide its policing actions as the UN’s executive. Article 106 provides for a transitional period, during which the Organization is to evolve and move from an armed, negative-peace to a positive, sustainable peace. During the transition the five permanent members of the Security Council are to guarantee safe passage.

Statements of Peace Through the Ages

In the following, powerful quotations are cited, attesting to the desire for peace in all parts of the world; as part of The Normative Current, these statements, since time immemorial, show a strong desire to bring about international peace and genuine human security.

Margaret Mead (1901 – 1978): “  this  is  meant  to  be  a transition  from  armies  to  police,  from  seeing  the  world  as  a set  of  warring  national  entities  to  seeing  it  as  one  civic  unity.” (Margaret Mead, 1942)

1961 The McCloy-Zorin Accords Between the USA and the USSR, unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1961, aimed at “the dissolution of military installations, including all bases” as well as the total “abolition of military training and the closure of all military training establishments.”

Karl Jaspers (1883 – 1969): “World order, with the abolition of absolute sovereignty, would mean the abolition of the old concept of the State in favor of mankind. The outcome would not be a World State (that would be a world empire), but an order, perennially re-established in negotiation and decision, of States governing themselves within legally restricted domains: an all-embracing federalism.”

1949, a US Congress Resolution was adopted, aiming to “seek” the UN’s “development into a world federation open to all nations with defined and limited powers adequate to preserve peace and prevent aggression through the enactment, interpretation, and enforcement of world law.” An identical Resolution was also introduced in England.

1945, as a young journalist attending the UN Conference in San Francisco John F. Kennedy stated: “Things cannot be forced from the top … The international relinquishing of sovereignty would have to spring from the people—it would have to be so strong that the elected delegates would be turned out of office if they failed to do it.”

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 1940: “As we think ultimate reality to be, so we behave. Vision and action go together. If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.”

Manabendra Nath Roy (1887 – 1954): “Dictatorship of any form, however plausible may be the pretext for it, is excluded by the Radical-Humanist perspective of social revolution … To make democracy effective, power must always remain vested in the people and there must be ways and means for the people to wield sovereign power effectively…”

The Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Geneva 1924 recommended the 30 national groups (including Japan, the Philippines, Egypt etc.) “to submit to their parliaments drafts for a constitutional amendment looking toward … The interdiction of any recourse to war…”

1899 and 1907, the Hague Peace Conferences, based on the knowledge of the Enlightenment, were the first to bring the nations of the world together in a global confederation, aimed at abolishing war as an institution, to achieve disarmament and establish an international court for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Baron Kijūrō Shidehara (1872 – 1951): “Let us create a world without war (sensō naki sekai) together with the world-humanity (sekai jinrui).”

Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924): “There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace.” (January 22, 1917)

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948): “We do not want to remain frogs in a well. We are aiming at world federation … on no other basis can the problems of the modern world be solved …”

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934): “Humanity is going to need a substantially new way of thinking if it is to survive … We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”

Uchimura Kanzo (1861 – 1930): “Civilization which exists only under the aegis of squadrons and army corps is an anomaly. It is not civilization, it is barbarism pure and simple!”

Kang Youwei (1858 – 1927): “One World is one world because all the boundaries which created divisions (and hence oppositions) have been abolished. It is called the Age of Complete Peace-and-Equality.”

Article 34 of the Brazilian Constitution of 1891, in honoring the French Article a hundred years earlier, stipulated: “The Republic shall cooperate with all other nations for the purpose of the peaceful and reciprocal development of their respective wealth, and shall renounce the undertaking of any war of conquest, as well as against the liberty of any people.”

Leo Tolstoi (1828 – 1910): “If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”

Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885): “To love is to act … Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime.”

The French constitution of 1791 declared, with regard to relations with foreign nations: “The French nation renounces the undertaking of any war with a view of making conquests, and it will never use its forces against the liberty of any people.”

Simon Bolivar (1783 – 1830): “A just cause can never be defeated … To do something right it must be done twice. The first time instructs the second.”

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772 – 1833): “If mankind are brought into existence, and by nature formed to enjoy the comforts of society and the pleasure of an improved mind, they may be justified in opposing any system, religious, domestic or political, which is inimical to the happiness of society, or calculated to debase the human intellect.”

Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1802): “…without a compact of nations among themselves, peace cannot be founded or secured. Hence, it requires a special form of alliance, which one could call an alliance for peace (foedus pacificum). This would not be the same as a peace treaty (pactum pacis), for, while the latter seeks merely to end a particular war, the former seeks to put an end to all wars forever.”

Ogyū Sorai (1666 – 1728): “We must not rest until right livelihood is within reach of every human being upon this earth we love and cherish. We all have a role to play in achieving this goal.”

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716): proposed a universal international system based on justice and order, in which China, too, was to participate. “Nothing is accomplished all at once…”

John Amos Comenius (1592 – 1670): “We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood … Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity…”

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616): “The world is not one man’s possession. it is shared by everyone.”

Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466/1469 – 1536): “The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.”

Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126 – 1198): “Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred and hatred leads to violence.”

Lactantius (250 – 325): “The arms of the nations shall be burnt; and now there shall be no war, but peace and everlasting rest.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43): “Peace is freedom in tranquility.”

Mozi (c. 470 – c. 391): “The wise man who has charge of governing the empire should know the cause of disorder before he can put it in order.”

Confucius (c. 551 – c. 479): “Within the four seas all men are brothers.”

Ashoka (c. 304 – c. 238): “With our thoughts, we make the world … May the partisans of all doctrines in all countries unite and live in a common fellowship.”

Isaiah (c. 740 – c. 686): “And he shall judge between the nations … and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Maha Upanishad (c. 800 to c. 600): “One is a relative, the other a stranger, say the small minded. In truth, the entire world is a family (Sanskr. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam).”

1269 BC, a clay tablet treaty was signed by Hattusilli III, King of the Hittites, and Ramses, Pharaoh of the Egyptians; it was perhaps the first Peace Treaty in history, pledging eternal friendship, lasting peace, territorial integrity, nonaggression, mutual help, etc.

An Appeal for The Normal Current Project

We would like to make an appeal to all those peacemaking professionals and the many who work towards peace to join us in one of three ways:

Please add to the ideas and examples formulated above in whatever way you can by replying to this article below or by sending either of us your additions, recommendations, thoughtful considerations, questions or any other form of contribution you have concerning our ideas, ideals or work.

For those who are peace workers, and who have an expert knowledge on the use of A.I. and would like to work with us, please do contact us at your earliest opportunity.

If you know of other publications where this may essay may be appreciated, please post it there along with a reference to Transcend Media Service (TMS) https://www.transcend.org/tms/ along with its many fine contributions towards Peace over these many years.

We extend particular appreciation to Antonio C.S. Rosa, Editor of TMS, for his lifelong work on spreading the truth of peace and in allowing us this space to express our ideas, ideals and hopes.

Wishing everyone a fine and more peaceful 2024, as we all work to a more vibrant, peaceful, and equalized and sustainable world. Let’s all roll up our sleeves, reflect on the possibilities, and work to create a better world throughout the new year.

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Robert Kowalczyk is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. He is former Professor and Chair of the Department of Intercultural Studies in the School of Art, Literature and Cultural Studies of Kindai University, Osaka, Japan. Robert has coordinated a wide variety of projects in the intercultural field and is currently the International Coordinator of Peace Mask Project. He has also worked in cultural documentary photography and has portfolios of images from Korea, Japan, China, Russia and other countries. He has been a frequent contributor to Kyoto Journal. Contact can be made through his website portfolio: robertkowalczyk.zenfolio.com. Email: journey04@mac.com

Dr. Klaus Schlichtmann is author of numerous scholarly articles and several books, including Japan in the World. Shidehara Kijuro, Pacifism and the Abolition of War (Lexington 2009), and A Peace History of India. From Ashoka Maurya to Mahatma Gandhi (Vij Books 2016). Born in Hamburg, in the 1960s he traveled overland to India, and returning to Germany he became a peace activist and environmentalist. As a world federalist and a member of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) he participated in many international conferences. Having received a scholarship to do research in Japan, his dissertation on Shidehara and Article 9 was published in German in 1997.  Dr. Schlichtmann can be reached at kschlichtmann@law.email.ne.jp  Contact: klaus.san@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 Dec 2023.

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