see below the whole manuscript of the book 'Realignment' (English Language)
Klaus Moegling
'Realignment.
A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible'.
(Fourth International edition 2025, last update April 12, 2025)
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I would like to thank the proofreaders, who corrected the various chapters in English and often gave useful advice about the contents as well.
If you would like to give me feedback on the book contents, please email me at:
klaus (at) moegling (dot) de
I will try to reply to this in a timely manner.
I would appreciate it if you would share the reference to the website and the book on your email distribution list. Making the manuscript public is a political act in the interest of the common goal - the preservation of living conditions on Earth.
With kind regards
Klaus Moegling
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A beautiful planet and two important Questions:
How can we protect the next generations from the current generations and preserve the planet?
How can we change the current global systemic structures so that a structural realignment emerges which is characterized by justice, respect for nature, democracy and peacefulness?
The Fourth international and english Edition (2025) begins here, exclusive and free of charge:
Author: Klaus Moegling (c), 2025, Fourth International edition
Realignment.
A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible
– analysis, vision and development steps from a holistic perspective
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Citation option:
Moegling, Klaus (2025): Realignment. A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible. Kassel, 3rd updated and expanded international edition, https://www.klaus-moegling.de/international-edition/, March 10, 2025, last update: April 10, 2025.
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Text:
"Restoring and maintaining world peace requires different international political structures and must not be left to individual nation states or military blocs. Russia's current invasion of Ukraine is a vivid illustration of this. "
A short Introduction:
Wars, social inequality, global warming, pandemics. Every day, the world faces new challenges, which can only be overcome by a far-reaching realignment that addresses the causes of the various global problems.
The world is in disarray: In many regions of the world, peace has been destroyed, wars are taking place in various forms. People are being tortured, shot, blown up or starving to death. Many states are becoming increasingly authoritarian and repressive internally and dangerous externally.
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas are the most recent examples of the failure of international cooperation.
Injustice on a global scale is growing: a few rich people are earning more and more, a large part of the world's population has no access to basic foodstuffs and clean drinking water. The economy does not serve people. The cultural approach to digitalization promotes a life in illusory worlds and the transformation of the human. The handling of pandemics is inadequate. Refugee movements are increasing and the associated migration problem is becoming more difficult to manage, even for rich societies. At the same time, right-wing populism and right-wing extremism are on the rise.
The environment is increasingly being destroyed. Global warming will lead to a dramatic shift in the ecological balance.
'Save yourself who can!' or thinking about a new beginning?
The answer to this is a plea for a new order.
A peaceful world based on the principle of sustainability is possible.
The realignment must already begin now with the first necessary steps.
But: We are running out of time.
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Table of Contents
(The manuscript 'Realignment' was last updated on 2/26/2025).
Prefaces
| | Preface to the fourth international and the sixth German edition: Don't give up!
8
| | Preface to the third international and the fifth German edition:
A reorganization of social conditions is becoming more urgent.
10
| | Preface to the second international and the fourth German edition: A negotiated solution is possible.
16
| | Preface to the third German edition: The present book project and the political movements
29
| | Preface to the second German edition: What can encourage us?
31
| | Preface to the first Gertman edition: Order - disorder - reordering
32
| 1 | Analysis of current global crises – orders dissolving
37
| 1.1 | Economic crises
38
| 1.1.1 | Global structures of greed
56
| 1.1.2 | Resistance to neoliberal market radicalism
| 1.1.2.1 | The protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO)
56
| 1.1.2.2 | Occupy Wall Street
58
| 1.1.2.3 | G20 protests in Hamburg
61
| 1.2 | Political crises: Crisis of the United Nations, retreat of democracies, and return of authoritarian rule
65
| 1.3 | Attempts at world domination and hegemony
78
| 1.4 | Military crises and arms policies
95
| 1.4.1 | The growing potential for military violence
95
| 1.4.1.1 | Arms exports and the military-industrial complex
95
| 1.4.1.2 | The return of the rearmament spiral
129
| 1.4.1.3 | Environment, military and war
143
| 1.4.1.4 | Asymmetric wars and 'New Wars'
153
| 1.4.1.5 | Media and 'enemy images'
158
| 1.4.2 | Peace protests and peace movements
166
| 1.4.2.1 | Easter march movement, protests against the Vietnam War and NATO double decision
166
| 1.4.2.2 | "No blood for oil!" - Protests against the Gulf War
169
| 1.4.2.3 | Current protests against the militarization of the world: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), Peace Brigades (PB), appeals for peace on the war in Ukraine
172
| 1.5 | Ecological crises
193
| 1.5.1 | The battered biosphere turns against humans
193
| 1.5.2 | Resistance and protests against ecological destruction
216
| 1.5.2.1 | The resistance of indigenous peoples
216
| 1.5.2.2 | Fridays for Future (F4F)
219
| 1.5.2.3 | Extinction Rebellion (XR)
223
| 1.5.2.4 | Professionalized environmental Non Governmental Organizations: Greenpeace and Mighty Earth
226
| 1.5.2.5| The Last Generation
233
| 1.6 | Cultural crises
240
I1.6.1I Culture and art in Capitalism
240
I1.6.2I The cultural problem of churches and religions
247
I1.6.3I Cultural upheavals
264
| 1.7 | Mental health crises: Enforcement of instrumental rationality, narcisissm and mass neurosis
267
| 1.8 | The crisis of masculinity and the emancipation of women
276
| 2 | Impending global scenarios - Disorder as a principle of order
286
| 2.1 | The military annihilation scenario
287
| 2.2 | The ecological devastation scenario
291
| 2.3 | Failed states and the helplessness of the international community
300
| 2.4 | Religious fanaticism and terrorism
302
| 2.5 | Collapse of the world economy, overpopulation and famines
304
| 2.6 | Cyber wars
309
| 2.7 | Digital empires and the media transformation of the human
311
| 2.8 | Mass crises of meaning, psychological distortions and escapes
316
| 2.9 | External planetary threats of the future
319
| 3 | The basis of a social realignment also lies in the psychological education of the individual
326
| 3.1 | Inner worlds, sociality and social relations: Those who are not clear in their relationship to themselves also do not have any clarity in their relationships to others
326
| 3.2 | Education and the work on the social self: By empathic community experiences to the educated self
333
| 3.3 | Humanistic psychology and therapy methods
354
| 3.4 | Meditation as experience of self and world
360
| 3.5 | Democratic education on the way to a new type of politician
372
| 4 | Socioeconomic, institutional and socioecological foundations of sustainable development and effective peace policy
378
| 4.1 | Taming the Tiger: Transforming the global economy for sustainability and peacebuilding
378
| 4.2 | Democratic Renewal of Societies, Institutions and ways of life
396
| 4.3 | Social justice from an international perspective
400
| 4.4 | The ecological preconditions of peace
403
| 4.5 | Setting limits on digital world domination
420
| 5 | Realignment of the system of international relations
428
| 5.1 | Denationalization and strengthening of democratic structures at the regional level
429
| 5.2 | Further development of global governance
432
| 5.3 | Simultaneous strengthening and democratization of the UN
434
|5.4 | Can the EU play a central role in disarmament and arms control?
444
| 5.5 | Disarmament of nation-states, clandestine and terrorist organizations, and armed individuals
449
| 5.6 | Establishment of a democratically controlled world police and a UN monopoly on the use of force
452
Excursus: Should NATO make an offer of membership to Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation? A utopian draft.
458
|5.7| The UN Pact for the Future 467
| 6 | First Measures on a long road of social pacification
479
| 6.1 | Economic development steps
482
| 6.2 | Democratic development steps
486
| 6.3 | Ecological development steps
489
| 6.4 | Peace policy development steps
496
| 6.5 | Social support steps
499
| 6.6 | Steps to control digital development in democratic societies
502
| 6.7| Educational measures against the construction of concepts of the enemy
503
| 7 | Classification of the present approach in the theories of international relations
506
| 8 | Summary and epilogue: A new world order
514
Bibliography 538
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First of all, the last chapter 8, which summarizes the entire manuscript of several hundred pages and provides perspectives, should be placed at the beginning.
The table of contents can then be used to decide which chapters should be read in greater depth.
Final Chapter 8:
Summary and Epilogue: A new world order
The holistic approach
Only rarely do political science approaches succeed in going beyond a partial specialization of their statements or a focus on a single theoretical approach. For this reason, the complexity of social processes can only be grasped in a one-sided and sometimes under-complex way. For example, neoliberal theories of economic development are linked to economic interests and are therefore deliberately formulated in a one-sided and partially specialized way in order to exclude alternative perspectives and to provide their clientele with strategies for action aimed at maximizing individual profits.
The book is therefore based on a holistic approach whose primary interest is to analyze and assess social perspectives from different angles in order to formulate requirements for future social development that is oriented towards universal values and human interests in peace, justice and the preservation or restoration of a balanced ecology. This approach is primarily based on eight systems theory assumptions:
1. Everything is connected to each other: the single parts to each other and the parts in turn to the whole. Events that are taking place far away can therefore have a great effect in the vicinity.
2. Within this order, political activity can cause an effect that leads to a change in the partial relationships among one another and thus also leading to an influence on the social whole.
3. Structures strengthen the whole against the dynamic of the parts. However, structures are built up of individuals, which in turn can change structure-forming rules.
4. There are different system levels. Organizational patterns at the various system levels are less hierarchical; systems usually have multivariate organizational patterns. Information and influences run in all directions, downward, upward and on the horizontal plane.
5. In contrast to a simple machine, wholes in the sense of living systems do not function in a linear-causal sense, but changes result from cyclic information patterns with multiple feedback loops.
6. Living systems are characterized by the principles of self-organization and self-renewal (autopoiesis). This means that a functioning system is able to define its order relatively independently, to change it and to reorganize it in a learning process.
7. A realignment of the whole emerges when the various partial activities of many individuals work together intensively enough and in a way that is systemically appropriate for the structural change.
8. When partial areas interact in a systemically coherent manner, they develop a system-changing dynamic. Then – also in a disruptive sense – qualitative changes can occur at high speed, a global realignment.
Often areas, that are separate from each other, such as body, mind, psyche and society, as environment, economy and health or as identity, religion and war, are understood as interrelated areas. Here too, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Partial areas interact systemically and can generate a dynamic and global effect. For example, the spread of the corona virus shows us how the social handling of the virus can lead to fears of contagion in people, changes in interpersonal behavior, economic crisis such as the collapse of corporate sales and mass layoffs as well as political crises. In the same way, the Corona crisis has shown that a neoliberal economic regime, in the course of which privatization and commercialization of health care is carried out, is not capable of successfully fighting a pandemic. The terrible price is vast numbers of seriously ill and dead people.
Not understanding how everything is connected can therefore be utterly dangerous. Underestimating the effects of everyday behavior, that is, at the micro level, can also be extremely dangerous. Underestimating how the daily media coverage of murders and human torture and the virtual participation in these events can affect young people is to overlook the psychological vulnerability of people. Mass shootings in schools and deadly attacks, but also the willingness to kill in war, are an expression of this ignorance.
On the other hand, educational processes that occur on a democratic basis and are oriented toward sustainability cannot be valued highly enough for their significance for the whole. Peaceful meditation, interpersonal love and helping each other can also yield processes with global charisma, if empathy and willingness to help become the basis of a collective solidarity.
The connection also becomes clear when we look at the combustion of brown or hard coal for heating as well as for industrial energy production and its connection to the release of additional climate gases. The climate warming caused by CO2 emissions, among other things, has a wide range of effects, from changes in ocean currents, the formation of deserts, the increased occurrence of violent storms, the melting of glaciers, the rise in sea level, to the thawing of the permafrost and the corresponding release of climate-relevant methane. The climate and ecological changes and upheavals lead to mass exodus and migrations of people, which in turn are not willingly accepted by the locals and lead to violent conflicts and a shift in the balance of political power.
Wars arise when the political possibilities of the actors involved to resolve a conflict have failed. Only the historical contextualization of military conflicts can show which interests, measures and refusals to cooperate led to the outbreak of war. As a rule, economic interests, such as the arms industry's pursuit of profit or the exploitation of fossil fuels or rare earths, are linked to power-political or geopolitical options. These different interests as well as the historical genesis of a war must be considered in context if considerations for ending a military conflict are to be realistic and successful.
This book is devoted to these interrelationships and to the possibilities of having an ethically justifiable political influence on the whole.
A vision cannot be accused of being visionary.
The book begins with a critical analysis of the current state of society in a global context. The central social areas are analyzed and evaluated in terms of their connections: economy, politics, ecology, military and culture.
The focus will be on global structures of greed, which found their historical expression in colonialism, but also in post-colonial times their extension and systemic modification.
Subsequently, a focus is also placed the reconstruction and classification of the international resistance movements that resist the dominant economy, social injustice, the climate destruction and against the militarization of the world.
In a second step, negative scenarios are developed for these areas. The question here is what the future of global society will look like if we fail restrain the threat of a global military catastrophe, to prevent the climate catastrophe, to counteract the tendencies of de-democratization, to eliminate social inequality and to prevent the digital transformation of human values in the context of a culture that is hostile to humanity.
The sketching of such negative scenarios, which are constructed in the sense of heuristics from a combination of facts, theoretical assessments, assumptions and hypotheses, is, in addition to the critical analysis of the actual situation, the basis for the demand for a radical reorganization of world society so that such a development can be prevented.
In a third step, the positive vision of a (still) possible global development is then described, which can occur if the right measures are taken and the decisions necessary for this can be enforced and implemented through civil society resistance, democratization and international networking. This vision is based on ecological necessities, the criteria of democracy, peaceful coexistence, the protection of human rights, a humane economy, social justice, an enlightened culture, i.e. on the principle of a multidimensional sustainability. However, concerning the various dimensions of sustainability in regard to the current and future climate threat situation, the primacy must be the ecological dimension, against which every measure and strategy must be measured.
On the basis of the critical analysis, the negative scenarios and the positive vision of planetary development developed on various levels, the first concrete steps are then developed that can be applied to the current state of global politics, the neoliberal economy, global ecology and diversified cultural lifestyles.
As already said in the introduction: Such a vision cannot be developed on the basis of an established and narrowing view on the shortcomings and limitations of the present. The constant accusation of insufficient realism misses the intention of the visionary project. Therefore, a vision cannot be accused of being visionary. Only the first steps towards a long-term approach to a vision must be based on what is currently available. Here it is then also legitimate to ask to what extent the first steps are realistically chosen.
The positive vision of a new order, on the other hand, is an expression of what is ideally desired and wanted and can only be redeemed in several generations - if mankind is actually still given time until then.
Time dimension of a realignment
The positive vision of a reordering presented in this book has been developed against the background of the analysis of the actual situation and negative scenarios, but also of desirable developments, in order to enable the survival of the human species. For this it is urgently necessary to recognize the own responsibility of the present generations, so that the time of reversal and reorganization is not missed - thus once again Hans Jonas (1979/2015, 8f.):
"What comes to technology, however, ethics has to deal with actions (...) that have an unprecedented causal reach into the future, accompanied by a foreknowledge that also, as always incomplete, goes far beyond anything experienced before. To this is to be added the sheer magnitude of the long-distance effects and often their irreversibility. All of this places responsibility at the center of ethics, with horizons of time and space that correspond to those of action."
Those who argue in this context that man is fundamentally evil, that man behaves like a wolf towards others, and that therefore a positive vision of human development is naive and unrealistic, should be reminded that there are enough worldwide examples in the recent history of mankind of positive humanitarianism, of civil courage, of commitment against oppression, of helpfulness and empathy – from Bertha v. Suttner, Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzei to Greta Thunberg.
The many forms of support and help that people give each other in families, circles of friends, political actions or work relationships also speak a positive language with regard to development possibilities of human beings. It must also be emphasized that we have only an ontologically and phylogenetically very short development phase of mankind behind us. We have possibly only walked the first few centimeters of a path that is thousands of kilometer long. Visions of human development in the future must therefore not only cover a few decades but also a range of many generations – so said Wilhelm Reich in his speech to the 'Little Man':
„You always think in too short terms, Little Man, just from breakfast to lunch. You must learn to think back in terms of centuries and forward in terms of thousands of years. You have to learn to think in the terms of living life, in terms of your development from the first plasmatic flake to the animal man, which walks erect but cannot yet think straight. You have no memory even for things that happened ten or twenty years ago, and so you keep repeating the same stupidities you said 2000 years ago. More than that, you cling to your stupidities, such as your ‘race’ ‘class’ ‘nation’ religious compulsion and suppression of love as a louse clings to a fur. You do not dare see how deeply you stick in the morass of your misery. Every once in a while, you stick your head out of the morass to yell, Heil! the croaking of a frog in a marsh is closer to life.“ [1]
Sense of life and development of personality
People must find out why they want to live on this earth, what values and what meaning of life they want to pursue. They must clarify for themselves what social order they are striving for and, in this sense, work for a new order if the previous world order does not correspond to their ideas of a 'good responsible life‘.
Accordingly, they have to develop, mature, grow and create breakthroughs for themselves and for each other on the personality level and in their social relationships. People – regardless of culture and region – can find ways for themselves to develop in the context of like-minded people through changed forms of politics, new life contexts, forms of solidarity-based economic activity, through educational processes, therapeutic interventions or meditation practices.
At the personality level the prerequisite for this is, among other things, the development of mindfulness, i.e. the ability to perceive and reflect attentively with regard to one's own thoughts, feelings and actions. This often requires pausing, lingering and slowing down in one's own life. People who become aware of themselves in this sense – it has been argued – are not so easily manipulated, do not lose themselves in virtual worlds or other addictions, are less fearful, do not identify with their alienation, develop individuality and civil courage. The combination of mindfulness, personality maturity and democratic capacity through educational processes of various kinds is seen as a good basis for having a positive influence on economic, ecological, social and political structures.
It should be noted that this ability to make decisions about a good life in responsibility is only available in societies that function relatively well systemically and are not involved in wars and oppression by extreme illegitimate rule. For regions such as the Gaza Strip or Sudan, different conditions currently apply. Here, it is simply a matter of survival or finding ways to escape.
Determinants of realignment
In particular, the threat of ecological devastation, increasing social injustice, the military annihilation scenario, increasing de-democratization, de-humanization in the course of digital transformation and the increasing occurrence of pandemics pose threats to the survival conditions of humanity for which decisive sustainable countermeasures on a global scale must be effectively implemented without further delay. Sustainable development refers here multidimensionally to ecological, economic, political and cultural aspects of global development with ecological aspects as priority and means not only the preservation of the basis of life for future generations, but also the healing of what has been destroyed. Due to its global nature, such a development cannot be initiated by nation states alone, but must urgently be coordinated transnationally with the involvement of a reformed UN.
In the course of constructing a positive vision of social change, the socio-economic prerequisites for a peaceful and ecological coexistence in the sense of a post-growth society and alternative economies with a clear orientation towards the common good are also described. The economy must primarily serve people and not primarily the profitability interests of its shareholders. Various resistance movements against the neoliberalized economy and for a common good-oriented economy are outlined and analyzed. Steps out of the grip of a greedy economy, including processes of expropriation or re-appropriation, are described and provided with examples of a human and ecologically oriented economy.
The present positive vision of societal development opportunities has also at the level of international politics presented proposals, which will be briefly summarized again here.
The proposals can be outlined at various levels and are extremely topical due to global political developments, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the wars in Yemen and Syria dramatically demonstrate:
1. The consistent democratization of the United Nations through a democratically elected world parliament, the restructuring of the UN Security Council and an elected and strictly controlled world government;
2. Linked to this is a gradual development of a denationalization of political rule in favor of a regionalization to a sensible degree according to the principle of subsidiarity;
3. A revaluation and restructuring of international jurisdiction from which no UN state can escape;
4. An international disarmament and dismantling of states, armies and illegitimate organizations in favor of a democratically controlled monopoly of the use of force by the United Nations;
5. The use of disarmament profits, i.e. the peace dividend, for the urgent and globally relevant sustainable development tasks - first and foremost for climate protection, peacekeeping, health systems and the eradication of world hunger.
We are of course far from a demilitarization, a denationalization and an implementation of universalism as well as an establishment of cosmopolitan structures of order. The Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 and the inability of the United Nations to act preemptively here and also to respond effectively in military escalation shows this in a dangerous way.
Nevertheless measures to achieve this state of international reorganization are an important key to global pacification and to the release of resources, especially for the poorer part of the world. If, through the drastic reduction of armament expenditures in the course of disarming the nation-states, the trillion-dollar resources necessary for the development of the poorer regions of the world could be raised, economic reasons for mass migration and the associated conflicts and problems would also be at least considerably reduced.
Also by the timely countermeasures against the ecological climate collapse, which require significant investments, the ecological reasons for future mass migration will be reduced, at least in the medium term, due to the time delay caused by climate slowness.
Political scientist Farsan Ghassim determined in an empirical study that the idea of a global democracy and a democratic global world government does have appeal among the populations of a number of influential countries - according to Ghassim (2021):
"In all the countries surveyed, clear majorities support the idea of a global democracy. The international average is 65 percent. The range extends from 57 percent in England and 61 percent in the USA to 68 percent in Brazil and 74 percent in Japan. Germany, at 64 percent, is in the middle of these five countries."
Don't let anyone tell you that no one wants global democracy. Ghassim's survey results make it clear: It's not hopeless to work for a change in global governance structures.This resonates with many people. More people are interested in global democracy than nationally oriented politicians would have us believe.
The biosphere responds to human intervention
The overexploitation of nature does not go unanswered. Planet Earth is beginning to defend itself against humans. However, a catastrophe on a global scale can still be prevented.
The United Nations IPCC World Climate Report makes it clear that between the – likewise problematic – 1.5°C degree target and the 2.0°C degree target by the end of the 21st century, there is a significant difference for the global climate situation, especially for already disadvantaged regions and populations:
„Populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences with global warming of 1.5°C and beyond include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods (high confidence). Regions at disproportionately higher risk include Arctic ecosystems, dryland regions, small island developing states, and Least Developed Countries (high confidence). Poverty and disadvantage are expected to increase in some populations as global warming increases; limiting global warming to 1.5°C, compared with 2°C, could reduce the number of people both exposed to climate-related risks and susceptible to poverty by up to several hundred million by 2050 (medium confidence)“ [2]
Achieving the 1.5°C target is probably - now from the perspective of 2024 - no longer possible. However, the measures required to achieve this would have to be initiated immediately and would have to go well beyond the 45% global CO2 reduction by 2030 compared to 2010 and the complete CO2 neutrality by 2050 required by IPCC . [3] In view of the currently accelerating global warming, the existence of uncontrollable tipping points, the effect of climate feedback effects, but also the millions of deaths from starvation as well as the threats to world peace due to climate development, there will by 2050 be no more time for climate neutrality measures.
Nor can it be assumed that the measures envisaged by the Paris Climate Convention will be sufficient to come close to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2.0°C by the end of the century. It is already foreseeable that even compliance with the Paris Climate Convention will lead to global warming of more than 3°C with dangerous consequences for planetary life. But not even meeting the climate targets of the Paris Convention is guaranteed. [4]
Recent studies by IPPC (2021 b, 12, 2023) make it clear that the climatic situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years, so that only less than 300 giga tons of CO2 may be consumed worldwide from 2021 onwards if the 1.5 degree target is still to be achieved with a probability of 83%. And this CO2 residual budget must also be allocated in such a way that it is possible to speak of climate justice.
The IPPC (2023, 12) states in its 2023 Synthesis Report, for which over 9000 studies were analyzed, that the 1.5 degree limit will be reached very soon, but that there is nevertheless hope for pushing back global warming if drastic measures are taken in the short term:
Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, with the best estimate of reaching 1.5°C in the near term in considered scenarios and modelled pathways. Every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards (high confidence). Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years (high confidence).
However, climate justice in the broader sense also means that the richer regions of the world must largely finance the ecological protection and prevention measures for the poorer parts of the world, including the necessary conversion to climate-friendly renewable energy production. In this way, centuries of colonial and post-colonial exploitation of entire regions of the world can be compensated step by step, at least partially, in financial terms.
In this book, therefore, the necessary packages of measures are outlined in stages over a period of 15 years. By then, all important decisions must have been made and the necessary measures introduced in order to be able to change the global development process in time.
In addition to achieving emission reduction targets earlier, the main priorities here are
- Switching to renewable energy supplies in the electricity and heating sectors;
- Redirecting public financial resources away from the weapons industry and towards financing climate prevention and protection measures;
- Promotion of efficiency and energy-saving measures instead of technical solutions in the sense of 'carbon engineering';
- Development of fiscal incentives for ecological redirection and a more effective CO2 emissions certificate market;
- Special financial support for the regions of the world that are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change.
The knowledge for socio-ecological transformation is available; however, the political will of those responsible must continue to develop so that these measures are actually implemented as quickly as possible.
The relationship between nation-state disarmament and the establishment of a UN monopoly for the use of force
Furthermore, in view of the growing threat, it is necessary to take the first sensibly coordinated steps with regard to global disarmament without further delay:
The technology of nuclear weapons is currently being modernized and further developed by all nuclear powers at great expense. There are increasing attempts to use artificial intelligence and cybercrime in warfare. Private mercenary armies, nuclear armed hypersonic missiles, the use of autonomously deciding killer robots as well as the militarization of space are threatening. The armament madness no longer knows any ethically determined limits.
However, there is also a risk of unintentional interference by programs that take on a life of their own. In particular, there is a risk of the uncontrolled further development of artificial intelligence into a 'super intelligence' that is superior to humans in terms of its technological intelligence. There is a danger that such a 'superintelligence' will take control of the internet and destructively interfere with the critical civil infrastructure. This can lead to considerable social disruption and even civil war-like situations if medical care in hospitals collapses, traffic lights at intersections no longer work, the power supply breaks down or pensions can no longer be paid. An 'accidental nuclear war' is also entirely conceivable through the intrusion of artificial intelligence or the failure of AI in weapons systems and is unfortunately not unrealistic. Renowned international AI researchers warn against this. (Bläsius 2024)
In the current situation, we are still clearly in a world of growing multipolar threat. Individual nation-states, power blocs and alliances backed by the international arms industry, as well as terrorist militias and clandestine organizations, threaten world peace in a way not seen since the so-called end of the 'Cold War'. Democracies are also currently becoming defensive or are in retreat. Autocracies, armed to their teeth, are attempting to assert hegemonic interests in their regions of the world using hybrid, partly hidden, partly open warfare.
The Russian war in Ukraine is only the negative culmination of this trend toward internal and external repression. The Russian invasion of Ukraine made the threat tangible for Europe as well. The ongoing war in the Middle East in 2024, which culminated in Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and the disproportionate retaliation in the Gaza Strip with 10,000 deaths, especially among Palestinian civilians, shows how unresolved conflicts and a lack of effective transnational structures repeatedly lead to dramatic historical events.
This means that the nation-state disarmament of the world is imperative, but it would be an expression of dangerous naivity if especially those states and alliances with democratic self-claims and with at least to some extent developed democratic structures were the first to begin to radically disarm and to demilitarize unilaterally. The result would be a defenselessness that would be exploited by authoritarian and politically immature regimes as well as terrorist and politically extremist organizations. Nazi rule and aggressive military technology would not have been stopped by good persuasion, carol singing and cheerful music. This is not to devalue forms of social defense in principle, but in peaceful resistance to aggressive totalitarian regimes, people who refuse and resist are imprisoned, tortured or killed immediately.
However, forms of social defense, such as refusal to cooperate, demonstrations and mass strikes, can play an important role, for example, when a regime is on the decline and no longer has the support of its own military.
In the first steps, disarmament in the nuclear and conventional fields can only be achieved through international disarmament negotiations, supported by a transnational alliance of democratic states and regions, in the context of the United Nations.
This international disarmament can only take place if it is supported by a global civil society movement that provides the necessary impetus and a powerful support for this process. The success of the peace movement in the 1980s and 1990s proved this. The ‚Mayors for Peace‘ movement, the civil society activities of ICAN or the activities of the 'Women's International League for Peace' (WILPF) point in the right direction.
At the same time, or rather in the individual steps leading up to these precisely coordinated disarmament measures, UN blue helmet troops with an expanded mandate and the a UN world police force must be established as a counterweight and for corrective measures. Without the synchronization of international disarmament of the nation states and the establishment of a functional, supraregional, regional and locally structured and well-equipped executive, an irresponsible power vacuum would arise.
Although a global expansion of an alliance system is unlikely, it should be considered. Even if this seems absurd at first glance, we should at least consider whether an expanded and transformed NATO could take over the global policing function within the framework of the United Nations. The prerequisite for this would be the integration of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation into NATO and, in the next steps, the integration of the People's Republic of China and other countries. In this sense, the expanded and technically upgraded NATO would provide the necessary global police security structure for the UN - provided that the UN were democratically reformed. The integration of Ukraine and the Russian Federation into NATO would be the offer to end the war in Ukraine. A win-win situation. Certainly, the risks and also the resistance would have to be considered when discussing such an unconventional solution to many problems (see Chapter 5.6 and the associated excursus for more details).
In any case, the world would be certain of a huge peace dividend.
As I said: rather unbelievable in view of the current upheavals.
But even in another scenario, the world will not be able to avoid global disarmament if it wants to find the necessary resources to tackle global problems and crises.
Accordingly democratic disarmament decisions lead to disarmament being carried out by all states as a parallel and controlled transparent process. States that refuse to disarm should be subject to economic and political sanctions in such a way that they primarily affect the ruling and refusing elites. Illegal organizations are to be prosecuted, sanctioned and dissolved at the national and supraregional levels by the world police.
Russia's war in Ukraine shows once again very clearly that a world police operation or the deployment of UN-led troops only makes sense if a state accused of military aggression cannot threaten to use nuclear weapons.
Parallel to this, democratic structures beyond the nation-states must be established and expanded step by step at the regional and UN levels. In this context, courageous civil society engagement as well as the democratic organization of the necessary social change on the global level have an important and indispensable function. In order to implement a democratic and socio-ecological reorganization, all previously successful forms of civilian resistance are to be used, from mass protests and mass strikes to boycotts of goods. Also appropriate voter behavior and involvement in socio-ecologically oriented and peace-politically committed institutions, parties and trade unions of course play an important role.
Some hopeful developments have begun
Even if climate policy is not yet developing effectively enough, even if world hunger has still not been eliminated, even if the international security system has suffered a major defeat with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, existing positive world political developments should nevertheless not be overlooked. In many places around the world, there are currently protest and resistance movements working for a more peaceful and sustainably developed world in terms of a new order.
On the question of social transformation, Friedrich Engels developed considerations as early as 1895 which, in my view, are still valid today - according to Engels:
"The time of surprise, of revolutions carried out by small conscious minorities at the head of unconscious masses is over. When it is a question of a complete transformation of the social order, the masses themselves must be involved, must themselves already have understood what it is all about, what they stand up for with life and limb. History of the last fifty years has taught us that. But for the masses to understand what has to be done, long, persistent work is needed, and it is precisely this work that we are doing now, and doing it successfully, which is driving the opponents to despair." (Engels 1895)
A social transformation and reorganization will therefore not take place via a single global disruptive outburst but will consist of very many movements and political measures that are persistently taken with a long-term perspective.
At present, mass protests by adults can be observed worldwide, but it is in particular the youth who are taking a stand against violence and climate destruction. For example, at the "March for Our Lives" in March 2018 U.S. students very clearly and loudly demanded a social transformation in the area of the arms industry and the laws that control it, against the interests of the arms lobby and the associated politics. On the occasion of the series of mass murders in U.S. schools, about 800,000 students and adults showed solidarity in an impressive demonstration organized by survivors of the massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with the aim of building a longer-term political movement against the activities of the U.S. gun lobby, especially the NRA, the corresponding gun industry and the politicians they pay. [5]
Likewise, the worldwide resistance of indigenous peoples and their support groups against the destruction by the fossil industry of the livelihood environment and natural basis, represents another, not to be underestimated, counter-movement against the overexploitation of nature and against the climate destruction. The Ogoni people in Nigeria, the Sioux in North Dakota, indigenous inhabitants of the rainforest in Brazil or the Cree Nation in northern Alberta are fighting against the destruction of their livelihoods with public relations, blockades, legal disputes and protest camps. They become politicized in the course of these disputes and recognize the connection between capitalism, state repression and the destruction of natural habitats. Young people work together with older generations in resistance to the fossil fuel industry.
The fact, that in March 2019, for example, student protests in connection with school strikes against the destruction of the climate and for effective and timely climate protection took place in about 2,000 cities in 120 countries worldwide [6], is also a sign that committed civil society resistance is emerging in the student generation. In Berlin alone, 25,000 students took part in the strike. [7] Six months later, there were already 240,000 people in Berlin, for example, and worldwide several million young people supported the climate strike. In particular, the fact that pressure of institutional refusal is also being used here in the context of a school strike makes one attentative. The 'Fridays for Future' (F4F) movement initiated by the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg shows that young people are increasingly willing to resort to more radical civil society means. They have understood that everything is at stake ("We are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future.", "There is no planet B"). It will be extremely interesting to see what effect these mass protests of the F4F movement will have. This depends on the extent to which they can stabilize, network and expand to other fields of action, as well as involve the older generations. The question also arises whether the connection between internationally working structural features of the capitalist economy, the political system and the destruction of the biosphere will be recognized. Also the own consumption behavior, for instance boycotting products manufactured or operated in a climate-damaging manner, will play an important role.
his is - after the break with the established culture of the 68 generation – possibly the beginning of another cultural revolution, which however, due to the massive threat situation, could now encompass much broader parts of the world population with a global reach.
About 27,000 scientists [8] from Switzerland, Austria and Germany ('Scientists for Future') have, as this is written, signed a declaration supporting the climate protests of the young people. Similar activities are emerging in other countries. International support from currently about 15,000 scientists of the 'Alliance of World Scientists' from 182 countries is for instance being created. These scientists state, "The students are right. The scientific results clearly support their climate policy commitment." Parallel networks of parents ('Parents For Future') and teachers ('Teachers For Future') also support the student protests and call on the school authorities to refrain from school disciplinary measures in case of strike participation. 'Students For Future' are also emerging at universities and they organize strike actions at universities and „Public Climate Schools“.
The commitment of young people in particular gives us hope that effective and long-term counter-movements will emerge and that a new generation will, in the sense of a radical cultural upheaval, break free from the stupefying media embrace of the military-industrial complex, from the priority of one-sided career interests, and from the depoliticizing and climate-damaging consumer orientation.
In this context, Western society could give back something of what it robbed from the subjugated peoples over centuries in the course of the colonization processes – according to the former German development minister Jürgen Todenhöfer:
"The history of the West is a history of brutal violence and great hypocrisy. Nowhere in the world does the West fight for the values of its civilization, but rather exclusively for its short-sighted interests. For power, markets and money. Often with terrorist methods. The sufferings of other peoples and cultures are of no interest. (...) The West needs a non-violent humanist revolution. Instead of misusing the values of its civilization to rape other peoples and cultures, it should fulfill its centuries-old promises to humanity." [9]
This also means that the rich regions of the world, such as the EU or North America, must lead the way in reducing climate-relevant emissions. Poorer regions in the world must still be given some time to catch up with developments that were denied to them by colonization and an unjust world economic order. However, here too, it is important to achieve sustainability in industry, transport, agriculture, etc. as early as possible.
Of course, the ban on nuclear weapons initiated by the United Nations and the international NGO ICAN and which came into force on 22.1.2021, is also cause for hope. Although this ban applies legally only to the ratifying nations, it sets new international ethical standards to which the international peace movement can refer. Now, for the first time, a ban treaty is anchored in international law alongside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the nuclear states have to confront.
The UN agreements on the destruction of nuclear weapons, to which 73 states had already signed up by the beginning of 2025, represent a first step. A further 21 states are in the process of ratification (ICAN 2025). These figures need to be expanded and, in parallel, the reduction of national arsenals of nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons must begin by means of a binding UN resolution.
Also the worldwide movement of 'Mayors for Peace' with more than 8,000 participating cities from 165 countries, which support the immediate shutdown of operational nuclear weapons and the dismantling and destruction of all nuclear weapons, gives reason for hope with regard to the destruction of nuclear weapons.
Another interesting initiative is the suggestion for the establishment of a Finnish Ministry for Peace and Sustainable Development presented by the Finnish 'Women for Peace' in March 2021 on the occasion of the International Women's Day. This initiative, supported by some Finnish NGOs, criticizes the waste and misinvestment of societal resources for armament and war. The initiating women call for the establishment of a Finnish ministry that will ensure that a considerable part of the money spent so far on the military is spent on peace, poverty reduction and hunger eradication, and ecological development aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They also call on other countries to establish such ministries to work for a more peaceful, just and environmentally sustainable world. The further development of this initiative must be followed closely. [10]
The movements critical of racism, currently e.g. 'Black Lives Matter', also represent a political activity to be taken into account for the social reorganization. [11]
'Black Lives Matter' is a protest movement originating from the US Afro-American community, which opposes the systemic racism in the society. It was founded as early as 2013 due to serious cases of racism and also because of latent everyday criminalization, but it became a mass protest movement against racist police assaults, especially due to the videotaped and documented murder of George Floyd, which also spread internationally.
"Black Lives Matter' (BLM) has no centralized structure, but is a 'grassroots movement' that is networked in a decentralized manner. BLM arranges demonstrations, marches, and rallies. BLM slogans such as "Hands up! Don't shoot!", "No justice, no peace!" or "Is my son next?" spread through the media worldwide in the course of these protests.
Starting with the police-involved chokehold death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, mass demonstrations were organized in the U.S., where millions of people took to the streets. There were also protests in Europe. For example, in Vienna in the early summer of 2020, about 50,000 participants, and in Berlin in June 2020 - despite Corona - 15,000 mainly young people demonstrated against social racism.
Former and re-elected U.S. President Trump, on the other hand, described the demonstrators as 'terrorist antifa' and, based on riots by only a few who violently exploited the demonstrations, threatened the entire movement with operations of the National Guard: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts." [12]
In the wake of such statements, heavily armed right-wing-oriented white civilians gathered at monuments of former U.S. colonial masters, racist politicians and generals in order to, with the use of firearms, including rapid-fire rifles in some cases, prevent these monuments from being brought down by activists.
The movement has already so far, at least in large parts of the USA, achieved a new discussion about the racism issue and suspensions of violent police officers and criminal court proceedings have been initiated. It has also been achieved that colonialism, slavery and neo-colonialism are dealt with again. The movement should however, deal self-critically with tendencies of splinter groups in order not to become racist themselves by discriminating white Americans across-the-board. The eminently justified protest movement must also try to prevent plunder and destruction from being carried out in the shadow of the protests. This makes it easier for the opponents to classify Black Lives Matter as a terrorist movement. Here the reckless shift in standards for defining 'terrorism' is striking. In Turkey, demonstrators against the Erdogan regime are also labeled as terrorists by the regime. In Hong Kong, protests against China will also be regarded as terrorism in the future due to the enforced security law. The former and re-elected US president Trump called the American Antifa terrorists. In the same way, Putin called the Ukrainian government members fascists and terrorists.
Autocrats and authoritarian regimes shift the concept of terrorism, thus creating conditions for democratic opposition to be persecuted and threatened with repression.
Right-wing extremist and right-wing populist political parties are gaining electoral success worldwide and are once again taking a more offensive role. At the same time, resistance is forming - hopefully in good time - among the populations of the affected countries. At the beginning of 2024, for example, several million German citizens protested against the extreme right. The occasion was the conspiratorial meeting of national-chauvinist politicians - including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) - in a villa in Potsdam. There, they discussed the deportation of millions of citizens with a migration background and their supporters. This led to an outcry among the German public and a demonstration movement in all German regions that lasted for months. This also gives hope. [13]
In the spring of 2025, there are numerous mass protests and large demonstrations in Europe against right-wing extremism and against authoritarian governments. People are beginning to defend themselves against state arbitrariness, corruption and electoral fraud in predominantly grassroots democratic movements. Is this the beginning of a lasting European wave of protest, in which people increasingly resist the rightward development, authoritarian states and fight for just and livable conditions?
In states such as Romania, Greece, Hungary, Spane or Italy, the degree of repression is still relatively low. Authoritarian regimes, such as those in Turkey, Georgia or Serbia, are trying to discredit these protests, as is happening in Russia, in terms of treason and terrorism, and to use force against them.
The deceased French resistance fighter and diplomat Stéphane Hessel accordingly called on the youth of the world in particular to revolt against such shifts in meaning and injustices and to get involved in making the world more equitable:
„It is true the reasons to be indignant can seem today less clearly related or the world too complex. Who's doing the ordering, who decides? It is not always easy to differentiate between all the currents that govern us. We are not any more dealing with a small elite whose joint activities can be clearly seen. It is a vast world, of which we have a feeling of interdependence. We live in an interconnectivity as never before. But in this world there still are intolerable things. To see them, it is well and necessary to look, to search. I say to the young people, Search little, and that is what you are going to find. The worst of attitudes is indifference, to say "I can do nothing there, I'l just manage to get by." By including yourself in that, you lose one of the essential elements that makes the human being: the faculty of indignation and the commitment that is a consequence of it.“ [14]
In addition to working for peace and an ecologically intact world, this commitment should include the preservation of the still existing democratic leeway, which was historically fought for by previous generations at great sacrifice. This should be linked to the commitment to worldwide democratic structures under the umbrella of the United Nations and to the socio-ecological redirection of societies in the course of a systemic transformation of world capitalism. The following overview, which must certainly be supplemented by many other initiatives, gives at least a rudimentary insight into the diversity of NGOs, initiatives and movements, which could be the initiators and supporters of such a global reorganization:
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Who are the social forces of a socio-ecological reorganization? All socio-ecologically, democratically and peace-politically engaged citizens, parliamentarians, parties, trade unions, parliaments and institutions in local, national, regional and global contexts as well as worldwide resistance NGOs and initiatives such as:
Transparency International, ATTAC, Network for Fair Trade, Fair Trade Forum, foodwatch, Fridays For Future, Scientists For Future, Amnesty International, Alliance internationale pour la defense des droits et des libertes (AIDL), Extinction Rebellion (XR), Smash Cruiseshit, Seebrücke, Greenpeace, Global Witness, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Doctors Without Borders, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) – Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), World Future Council (WFC), Friedensinitiativen und -foren, Women for Peace, Women’s International League for Peace‘ (WILPF), Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag, Netzwerk Friedenskooperative, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Peace Brigades International, Democracy without Borders, UNPA Campaign, Democracy International, Civicus, Asia Democracy Network (ADN), Asia Forum of Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), Asia Democracy Research (ADRN), Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), Democracy for Hongkong (D4HK), Open Russia, Pussy Riot, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Rete Italiana per il Disarmo, Movimento Nonviolento, Sea-Watch, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), digitalcourage, International Commitee for Robot Arms Controll (ICRAC), Campaign to stop Killer Robots, WWF, Safe School Declaration, Save the Children, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), Peace SOS, World Beyond War, Wuppertaler Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, UNESCO Associated Schools Network, International Rescue Commitee (IRC), The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Study (ACDHRS), African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), Palestinian Center for Human Rights, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem), Human Rights Watch, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Netzwerk politischer Kommunen (Kommuja), Tamera, Kommune Niederkaufungen, Greenpeace, Service Civil International (SCI), Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg, Ende Gelände, OXFAM, Ehrfurcht vor allem Leben (EVAL), Global Justice Now, World Vision, The Humanitarian League Advocacy , Pacific Climate Watch , Science for Peace, Nobel Peace Prize Watch, No More Bombs, Ziviler Friedensdienst, Nuclear Age Peace, Socio-ecological union international, Sortir du nucleaire Paris, Swedish Peace Council, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, Veterans for Peace, Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World BEYOND War, South Africa, Seattle Anti-War Coalition; Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity; Friends of the Earth Australia, Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear, Basel Peace Office, Cameroon for a World BEYOND War, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Cessez d’alimenter la Guerre, Disarmament and Security Centre, Global Campaign for Peace Education Japan, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Hawaii Peace and Justice, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Movimiento por un mundo sin guerras y sin violencia, LobbyControll, Campact, Mighty Earth, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Mayors for Peace ...
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A world government for planet Earth, which is small in the cosmic scale, will have to come true anyway sometime because of future requirements and problems. However, this will not be a totalitarian world regime of an enriching and power accumulating clandestine world elite, but a democratically structured world society on the basis of the structurally reformed United Nations in cooperation and subsidiarity with the various global regions. The international democratization process must also be accompanied by a democratization of production and value creation. The economic and political system must be based on the same democratic principles. In this connection in particular, the present draft differs from most ideas of global reorganization.
There is no alternative
Many will currently be of the opinion that the vision developed here is unrealistic, that this can never be implemented in the future, that a comprehensive orientation towards the common good contradicts the human character. I would like to counter this negative anthropology once again:
Firstly: Who can say now, at the more or less beginning of human history, what development potential humans as a species and the human community will have in the future?
And secondly, I would like to ask: What is the alternative? Without a democratically controlled global union and an accompanying socio-ecological and democratic transformation of politics and economy, humanity will not be able to secure the future of coming generations. Planet Earth will literally be on fire due to ecological and military catastrophes. The first fires are already burning.
Who is actually naive? The one who sees the developments and takes radical countermeasures or the one who pleads for 'business as usual'?
In this context, radicalism is something completely different from extremism. Radicalism in the social transformation process means starting at the root ("radix") of problems: It is about the worldwide and in all regions of the world step-by-step transformation of capitalism in favor of a relationship between economy and politics, which is characterized by responsibility and orientation towards the common good. Economy and politics must serve the needs of all people and let the principles of justice, democracy, peacefulness, science and ecological responsibility become their guiding paradigm. Such a system, which is to prevail worldwide, can no longer be called capitalism, but provides for a state framework for the economic process in a national, regional and global context, which releases market-economy processes from their robber mentality, regulates questions of property and wealth distribution differently, eliminates the tension between economy and ecology, controls technology development ethically and releases the creative economic power of the people for the purpose of the common good. The corresponding transformational steps toward a radical reorganization in this sense have been described in detail in the context of the present book. [15]
Therefore, once again in conclusion the demands in current interpretation of Marx/Engels [16]:
Internationalists and global citizens from all over the world unite! You have nothing to lose but the chains of your nation-state, the destruction of your liberties, the exploitation by multinational corporations and finance-capitalist speculators, the revenge of the biosphere, digital ankle cuffs, armament spirals and wars, mental programming, misguided investments and value creation as well as the nuclear devastation of the planet.
What is to be won is a peaceful, socially just, democratic, economically sensible and ecologically responsible world!
However, the commitment to a global realignment must by no means be violent, i.e. in an extremist sense. Therefore, we should distance ourselves from the supposed consequences of Marxist thinking. Violent revolutions in history have only led to other forms of open or structural violence. Violent protests today further lead to a stigmatization and criminalization of the protests. The resistance should be peaceful and powerful, in that the mental creative forces, the creativity and intelligence, the solidarity and the civil courage of the people in the commitment, already in the beginning show what will be the task in the future: A new social order that takes into account, supports and promotes people of every skin color, every race, every age, every gender and every region in their basic needs for material provision, for work in solidarity, for a life in harmony with nature, for democratic self-determination and for freedom with responsibility.
There is no reason to give up, the struggle for a life worth living on Earth is far from over! The representatives of the fossil industry, the arms industry, the warlords, the financial speculators, the billionaires, the autocrats and dictators are confronted worldwide and in numerous places by many people united in protest against the destruction of present and future living conditions. In the cooperation and networking of social movements, initiatives, trade unions, parliaments and political parties and institutions oriented towards a new order, it is now important to show a strong will for change and to make an effective contribution to a global new order in a wise, peaceful and yet powerful radical way.
And: Change cannot be postponed much longer due to the enormous threat situation. Change must begin now and be continued at all systemically interrelated levels. A change of direction is still possible. Civil society movements, organizations and initiatives in all parts of the world can have synergistic effects and become an effective force that brings about a new quality of social life and a future worth living for future generations.
Notes Chapter 8
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Reich (1948/2013, 97f.).[
[2] IPCC (2018, 13).
[3] Cf. IPCC (2018, 16).
[4] Cf. Scientists for Future (2019, 80)
[5] Cf. https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2018-03/march-for-our-lives-washington-demonstration-waffengesetze-parkland, 25 Mar. 2018, 17 Mar. 2019.
[6] In: https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-516131.html, 15 Mar. 2019, 15 Mar. 2019.
[7] Cf. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/fridays-for-future-im-newsblog-veranstalter-25-000-teilnehmer-bei-demo-fuer-den-klimaschutz-in-berlin/24106530.html, 3/15/19, 3/15/19.
[8] Cf. https://www.scientists4future.org/, 3/15/19, 9/10/19.
[9] Todenhöfer 2019, 292f.
[10] Cf. Klötzer/ Launokari (2021) (Women for Peace – Finland).
[11] Cf. Yann Durand: "Black Lives Matter" - Nur ein Strohfeuer im Kampf gegen den Rassismus? https://www.dw.com/de/kommentar-black-lives-matter-nur-ein-strohfeuer-im-kampf-gegen-den-rassismus/a-53959251, 27.6.2020, 20.3.21; Jiréh Emanuel/ Mariam Aboukerim/ Naomi Lwanyaga: Black-Lives-Matter-Demos:„Wir sind Deutschland“, https://taz.de/Black-Lives-Matter-Demos/!5689380/, 13.6.2020, 20.3.21; UN verurteilen tödliche Polizeigewalt gegen Schwarze. https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2020-05/usa-polizeigewalt-schwarze-vereinte-nationen-kritik, 28.5.20, 20.3.21.
[12] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/george-floyd-proteste-minneapolis-1.4921880, 29.5.20, 20.3.21.
[13] Cf. Moegling, Klaus (2024): Stärken die Anti-AfD-Proteste die Demokratie?
In: Telepolis, https://www.telepolis.de/features/Staerken-die-Anti-AfD-Proteste-die-Demokratie-9626421.html, 13.2.2024, 16.2.2024.
[14] Hessel (2011).
[15] Cf. chapter 5.7
[16] Cf. Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 60).
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Preface to the 4th international and the 6th German edition:
Don't give up!
3/10/2025
(last update: 4/12/2025)
We might doubt (and despair) if the necessary reorganization of our social conditions will still be possible.
The global political situation will become even more problematic with the re-election of Donald Trump as president at the beginning of 2025. Strange demands by the US president are further disrupting the current international (dis)order, such as the possible annexation of Greenland and even Canada as another US state, the occupation of the Panama Canal, the eviction of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip and the construction of a Riviera there, complete with hotels and recreational landscapes under the leadership of US corporations, the desired access to Ukraine's mineral resources, threats against Iran and extortionate interventions in world trade with horrendous tariffs. The historic scandal in the Oval Office between Trump, Vance and Selensky is an expression of the current US administration's movement to distance itself from the European NATO states. Not to mention the domestic political uncertainties caused by the US president and the interest groups behind him for migrants, for state employees and for anyone who does not share his political opinion. The question is how long the US can still be called a democracy if attempts are also made to fill all judicial positions with Trump loyalists.
In particular, the Trump administration's attack on U.S. universities and its calls for restrictions on freedom of science are signs of a de-democratization of the U.S. political system.
But the situation in Russia is even more extreme. But the situation in Russia is even more extreme. Russia has been waging a war of aggression for three years and is taking possession of parts of the territory of Ukraine. All opposition is being repressed. The Russian economy has been converted into a war economy, and the Russian state is increasingly indebted. On the Russian-Ukrainian front, hundreds of thousands of people have already been killed or seriously injured. The civilian population on both sides is exposed to military attacks and longs for an end to the war.
With regard to the PRC, it is not known to what extent an attack on Taiwan is being planned. China's activities in the South China Sea also give rise to mistrust and insecurity. The Uyghurs are being brutally suppressed in Xinjiang province. In Tibet, human rights are being violated and the population is being robbed of its culture. China's access to the global economy as part of the Silk Road project points to structures of exploitation at the expense of the affected countries and the people living there. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the PRC has not been involved in any war in recent decades and is trying to constructively contribute to the peace process in the war between Russia and Ukraine with a noteworthy Sino-Brazilian peace plan.
- 8 -
Hamas' brutal and inhuman attack was met with a disproportionate Israeli attack on Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, resulting in well over 50,000 deaths, mostly among the Palestinian civilian population, almost half of it children. Even if a ceasefire and an exchange of hostages are currently (January/February 2025) taking place, the road to true peace is still infinitely long. It will likely take generations for the wounds inflicted by both sides to scar over – if this can ever be achieved at all.
Military conflicts in Congo, Sudan and Yemen receive relatively little attention in comparison. The Turkish attacks on the Kurdish Rojava, which are in violation of international law, are also barely being noticed, although the Kurds played a major role in defeating ISIS and are guarding thousands of ISIS prisoners there. In addition, there are dozens of other asymmetrical conflicts between warlords, jihadists and drug cartels, particularly in Africa and South America, that challenge the monopoly on the use of force of states.
At the same time, the climate catastrophe continues to roll in and is now also affecting regions in the rich countries of this planet. The world is heading towards a climate warming of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times. However, the necessary measures to contain the climate catastrophe are by no means being taken. On the contrary, the prevailing political agenda – driven by right-wing extremists – is prioritizing the preservation of local privileges, group-focused enmity, and the expulsion of refugees.
Alongside the conflicts in Yemen, im Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war in Sudan is another area of conflict that only attracts the attention of the public in the global North when it appears that the conflict could harm their interests. Zaki Al-Maboren, who was born in Northern Sudan and has been living in Germany since the late 1980s, highlights the different interests of various states. On the one hand, the conflict is in the interest of European states, as the rebel army of the 'Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) is preventing refugees from reaching the Mediterranean and thus from reaching Europe. On the other hand, Russia and the United Arab Emirates are financing the rebel army in order to be able to import the gold available in Sudan. Thus, Russia is financing the war in Ukraine with gold from Sudan, among other things. Al-Maboren summarizes the current situation in Sudan:
“The war in Sudan is a war for resources. In addition, there are massive environmental problems such as drought and strategic decisions by the major powers. The Red Sea is the most important waterway in the world. Because the Russians have lost their base in Syria, they are building a new military base in Sudan.” [1]
But where is the mediation activity of the United Nations in these conflicts? There are some approaches, but ultimately the mediation activity of the United Nations has so far had no peace-building effect.
The United Nations is less and less able to fulfill its global responsibility.
The structure of the UN must be fundamentally democratized. The establishment of a UN Parliament to complement the UN General Assembly plays a major role here. The Security Council should also be democratized. At the moment, however, the opposite is happening. The permanent members of the UN Security Council in particular are blocking its reform and are responsible for the inability of this supreme international body to make decisions. How nonsensical and counterproductive is a structure that allows an aggressor country, if it is represented on the UN Security Council as a permanent member, to use its right of veto to prevent its military aggression from being condemned and appropriate measures taken against it!
All these destructive tendencies show that a systemic reorganization, as presented here in the present manuscript in contexts and necessary steps, would have to be courageously initiated by those people and groups of people who, through current developments, critically see through and feel the responsibility for the development of this planet within themselves. They should not be discouraged by the current destruction, but should know that there are many people worldwide who think and feel similarly. It is not yet clear who will prevail in the long term – the world's destroyers or those committed to sustainable development.
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In spring 2025, a series of ongoing mass demonstrations and large demonstrations can be observed in Europe, which are an expression of people's dissatisfaction and anger towards authoritarian and corrupt governments. This can be seen, for example, in Hungary, Georgia, Serbia, Spain and especially Turkey, where people are protesting against increasingly authoritarian regimes and the robbery of their democratic rights and economic livelihoods (usurious rents!). The question is whether these are isolated waves of protest or the beginning of a sustained and spreading wave of protest in Europe directed against increasing militarization, increasingly authoritarian forms of government, economic inequality and right-wing radical developments. [2]
The mass protests in Israel against the erosion of the rule of law and the disproportionate response to the Hamas attack by Netanyahu's government, parts of which are far-right, are already lasting longer. In the United States, protests against the Trump administration and, in particular, against the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, begin in many places in the spring of 2025. Musk has been discrediting the resistance to his job cuts and dismantling of democracy as acts of terrorism:
“According to the organizers, protests were held at each of the 277 Tesla showrooms in the U.S. on Saturday, March 29, and more than 500 actions were held globally. Since early February, Tesla's share price has plummeted from $416 to $275. And on March 29, the price fell from 275 to a record low of 260 US dollars. Musk is livid in an interview with the right-wing Fox News network and demonizes the movement as terrorism.” [3]
It is important to bear in mind that all the individual and collective actions must be taken in accordance with the values of democracy, social justice, peacefulness and ecological sustainability. One's own forms of resistance must be in harmony with the values for which one is committed. These are paths that open up when you set out and start walking. Much will change in the near future for people who have already set out, simply by living in harmony with the (shared) world in a spirit of solidarity. In many places - but not everywhere - the new life can already begin in the old structures in a way that is worth living. However, systemic changes take time. For fundamental system changes, we need to look to future worlds that we will probably not live to see, but for which we can set out and that our next generation will (perhaps) be able to experience.
I hope that the present manuscript in its fourth international edition makes a small contribution to orientation and reflection on this path.
Klaus Moegling
Notes:
[1] Quote taken from the interview with Matthias Lohr and Zaki Al-Maboren: “Dieser Krieg ist kompliziert”. In: Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine, March 28, 2025, p.4.
[2] Cf. in more detail: Crăciun, Claudiu (2025): Power and Protest in Central and Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[3] Jaspert, Robin/Sachs, Miriam u.a. (2025): Proteste in den USA, Israel, Serbien und der Türkei: Wer nicht kämpft, hat schon verloren. In: der Freitag,
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/proteste-in-serbien-usa-tuerkei-und-israel, 2.4.2025, 6.4.2025.
Preface to the third international edition:
A realignment of social conditions is becoming more urgent
4/23/2024, last update: in 12/12/2024
A new, third international edition of 'Realignment' has become necessary [1] because social change is accelerating in a conflictual way. The war in Ukraine is coming to a head and is now claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and seriously injuring people on both sides. Newer and ever more dangerous weapons technologies are being used, and the two camps are increasingly irreconcilable. Both states fighting with each other are actively trying to draw their allies into the fighting and further into the war. When will there finally be direct negotiations again? How many more people have to die, how many more have to be severely damaged for their lives, how much more civilian infrastructure and ecology has to be destroyed before those in power have an insight and sit down at the negotiating table?
In the present book, e.g. in Chapter 5.6 and the excursus belonging to it, answers are given as to how the confrontation between the NATO states and Ukraine on the one hand and the Russian Federation and also Belarus on the other can be overcome. However, this requires going beyond the limits of conventional security policy thinking.
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At the beginning of October 2023, approximately 3000 members of Hamas attacked the state of Israel, creating a bloodbath on its border and taking hostages. Israel's reaction was equally brutal. Tens of thousands of people, mostly children and women, were killed in the Gaza Strip and a large part of the civilian infrastructure was destroyed. The Israeli government and Hamas are more irreconcilable and hostile than ever. The war has now spread to Lebanon. Reciprocal attacks between Israel and Iran followed. The Israeli government is fighting Hezbollah and taking advantage of the transition in Syria, allowing fighter jets and missiles to attack Syrian military installations, which can be understood as an act of aggression in violation of international law. How can this development be reversed? Will the level-headed forces on all sides be able to prevail at some point or is the military escalation dynamic unstoppable?
At the same time, military conflicts between the Iran-backed Houthis and Hezbollah on the one hand and the United States and Britain on the other are escalating. In Sudan, the RSF militia, which is supported by the Russian Wagner Group, among others, is fighting against Sudanese government troops (SAF). UN Security Council resolutions are being disregarded by both sides. The 14 million people who are currently fleeing in Sudan are suffering as a result.
Attacks by the Turkish army on Rojava and southern Kurdistan in October 2024, inter alia, are carried out with drones, artillery and fighter jets. This weakens Kurdish areas that are in the process of developing their self-government, also with regard to guarding the IS prison camps. Turkey is also taking advantage of the unstable situation of regime change in Syria and intensifying its attacks on the democratic experiment in Rojava.
At the same time and parallel to these multiple conflicts, problematic military partnerships are emerging between the Russian Federation, North Korea and Iran. These increasingly involve the exchange of armaments and weapons technologies, as well as geostrategic cooperation. Thousands of North Korean soldiers are already fighting in Ukraine.
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The role of the People's Republic of China in this is currently still indifferent. Selective cooperations, for example with the Russian Federation, individual provocations in the South China Sea and threats against Taiwan, are offset by an interest in economic cooperation with Western states. In May 2024, China and Brazil drafted a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. Western states should take a serious look at this plan. It is to be hoped that the forces in the PRC that are inclined towards cooperation will retain or gain decisive influence.
Meanwhile, the ecological crisis continues to worsen, with the necessary measures to combat and prevent climate and environmental destruction being severely hampered by existing military conflicts and increasing investment in weapons technologies and armaments, as well as the massive CO-2 emissions caused by the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Trump's re-election also suggests an extension of the fossil age and thus significant pollution of the biosphere with greenhouse gases.
Particularly worrying are the transnationally hardly controlled investments in the technological development of AI in connection with weapons systems. The question arises here whether humans are able to responsibly control or monitor the use of AI in weapons systems.
The major powers represented in the UN Security Council are still refusing to implement far-reaching reforms of the United Nations. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that global problems can only be solved by democratizing and strengthening the United Nations. In this context, we must rely on existing reform tendencies within the UN and the work of influential NGOs that are geared towards transnational understanding and that are taking a long-term approach to developing and implementing reform proposals step by step. However, the first successes in the transformation of international cooperation would have to come much faster and be much more effective than is currently the case given the existing problems. The US election outcome in 2024 means that necessary reforms will be slowed down even further due to the national chauvinism of Trump and his supporters.
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There is hope in the civil resistance movements, such as those against right-wing extremism and the strengthening of right-wing extremist parties, as well as the peace movement, which is hopefully becoming more effective and pushing for negotiations and diplomacy.
The replacement of right-wing populist governments with democratic parties, such as in Brazil or Poland, should also be seen as positive. At the same time, the outcome of the US elections at the end of 2024 will see a return of a US government led by Trump and, with that, new international economic, ecological and geostrategic upheavals.
It has happened: Donald Trump and the Republicans have won the US election by a clear margin.
For US society in particular, this could mean that society will become increasingly divided, social tensions will intensify, and the wealth of a small social class will increase.
The structural violence in many societies increases in the intensifying struggle for power and economic exploitation opportunities. However, the possibility of a far-reaching peace - as critical peace research by Galtung and Senghaas shows - is linked to structural violence in the respective societies. A society that is moving to the right, that also gives in to right-wing populists in its midst, in which extreme right-wing parties are gaining influence, increases the structural violence that acts inwards through intolerance and hatred of everything beyond the mainstream that is perceived as normal. Such societies also become less capable of peace towards the outside world – on the contrary: they tend towards military conflicts and war.
Therefore, all social movements that are geared towards cooperation, solidarity, ecological sustainability and an increase in social justice are a source of hope. These are the building blocks of a social realignment that should look beyond a legislative period to a different time. There will be new elections again and possibly a pendulum effect back to democracy and international understanding.
I fear that we ourselves, or our generation, will unfortunately no longer be around to experience many of the necessary changes. Our lifetime is too limited for that, and some changes may only occur in the next generation or two.
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The United Nations will have to play a special role in the future. Without the United Nations finding its true purpose and changing accordingly, there will be no successful engagement against global crises. Either humanity understands this and also ensures change, or it will not be able to look forward to a good future.
The debate about the structure, processes and goals of the United Nations is currently in full swing, and it is by no means clear who will prevail in the medium term. Pessimism, on the other hand, weakens the forces of those who devote their energies to democratizing and strengthening the UN. However, a kind of moratorium for the United Nations can be expected for the next four years, along with a decline in US commitment.
Nevertheless, in my political life, I have repeatedly experienced how we have achieved successes that many people previously thought unlikely. When determined and positive people come together, network, organize and work together politically, they can achieve a great deal – locally, regionally, nationally and transnationally.
Klaus Moegling
[1] The actualization and expansion of the 3th international edition of the 'Realignment' has now been largely completed on April 5, 2024. Only minor updates will be made from time to time where necessary.
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Preface to the Second International and the fourth German edition:
A negotiated solution is possible.
9/15/2023
The second international edition of the book 'Realignment' is based on the updated and expanded 4th German language edition. The second international edition is an editorial special case. The idea behind it is to make social science knowledge publicly accessible, i.e. to democratize it worldwide.
The editing of the manuscript coincides with times of upheaval and destruction of former orders.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an unexpected escalation is developing.
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation is a disaster and cannot be justified by anything. Even if diplomatic opportunities were not used enough in the run-up to the war, Russia's security concerns were ignored, and political and military forces, some of them problematic, attempted to assert themselves in Ukraine, this does not legitimize the Russian invasion and the bombing of residential areas and infrastructure. Shootings, rapes and child abductions by Russian soldiers cannot be legitimized by Russian arguments for the 'special military operation'.
The attack and the associated invasion of Russian troops represent a blatant violation of international law and an aggressive destruction of the European security order as well as a breach with the UN Charter.
This preface will develop the prospects of finding a way out of this situation without indulging in illusions.
Were offers to negotiate a mistake?
One frequently hears the accusation that the offers to negotiate with Russia were naive. A more extensive military buildup in the West - and also in Ukraine - should have been pursued in good time. Also the Western peace movement and a widespread peace policy habitus must be blamed for the fact that the political-military-industrial complex led by Putin dared this attack. Could more consistent measures of military deterrence have had greater success instead of diplomacy?
In regard to this one has to ask: What would have been the alternative? Should we have allowed the presentiment of the Russian aggression to force us into an even more extreme armaments spiral that would prevent the necessary future-oriented investments in order to combat the climate crisis, world famine and prevent pandemics?
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Should‘nt negotiations have been carried out within the framework of the existing institutions? If the institutions and discussion formats created between nations within the framework of the international security architecture are not taken seriously and perceived, then ultimately there is no hope for peaceful global development. Then only the power of arms will rule. Of course, attempts had to be made to persuade the Russian government to back-down and make acceptable compromises via the OSCE, the Normandy format, the NATO-Russia Council or via bilateral talks. This was not done without backing it up with the threat of massive sanctions. It was necessary to risk relying on the rationality of Putin and the politicians and industries associated with him. A more massive arming combined with an even more extensive deployment of NATO troops to its eastern flank and Ukraine’s admission to NATO would directly have led to a military confrontation.
How is the United Nations reacting?
So far, the UN has been remarkably restrained. Although there have been special meetings of the UN Security Council and a condemnation of the Russian aggression by the UN Secretary General, the structural problems of the United Nations are also evident in this dangerous world political situation. A state invades a neighboring state - with obviously pretextual reasons - and thereby violates international law, among other things, all essential norms of the UN Charter. This would be a classic case for measures in cases of "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or acts of aggression," which have been laid down in Chapter VII of the UN Charter. In the case of a war of aggression violating the sovereignty of a state, the UN Security Council can decide, if all diplomatic measures and sanctions have been unsuccessful, to use world police and even military force. [1]
But one cannot seriously believe that the Russian Federation would not make use of its veto power if a corresponding request were to be discussed in the Security Council.
On February 25th, 2022, Russia also vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Russian attack and calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops. [2] Precisely for this kind of situations a reform of the UN Security Council is urgently needed. A state that militarily attacks another state must lose the right to vote in the UN Security Council - especially if this is a permanent member with veto rights.
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Of course, the UN General Assembly can also initiate a decision that would require intervention on behalf of the UN in accordance with the UN Charter. But even the decisions of the UN General Assembly have only a recommendatory character for such a case. This also applies to an emergency resolution in the sense of "Uniting for Peace.", which is important but also cannot overrule the veto powers in the UN Security Council. [3]
As long as the UN Security Council exists with its current powers, it is therefore necessary that
* Any veto by a permanent member in the UN Security Council must become the subject of controversial discussion there in a UN General Assembly to be convened specifically for this purpose,
* A veto in the UN Security Council can be overridden and cancelled by a two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly. A second veto in this matter is then no longer possible.
The Russian veto against a condemnation of the Russian invasion once again demonstrates in a serious way, and pointing at conflicts that have claimed countless human lives, the urgent need for structural reform of the United Nations.
The abolition or modification of the veto right of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which has already been demanded internationally several times [4], as well as its changed composition and the upgrading of parliamentary assemblies within the framework of the United Nations, must no longer be held up on flimsy grounds.
Restoring and maintaining world peace requires different international political structures and must not be left to individual nation states or military blocs. Russia's current invasion of Ukraine is a vivid illustration of this.
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World police action carried out as robust UN blue helmet missions
From this point on - and of course too late but nevertheless urgently needed - what would have to be initiated internationally?
· Inevitably, NATO countries must also make sure militarily as well as take appropriate safeguards whether they can successfully counter a further escalation of the war beyond the borders of Ukraine. If Article 5 of the NATO treaty is activated [5], the appropriate defensive measures in the event of an attack on a NATO state must also militarily and later, on behalf of the UN world police, successfully implemented. However, securing defense capability is only justifiable in terms of peace policy within the framework of a dual strategy whose priority goal is the creation of political peace structures within the framework of an international security architecture. The criticism here is that both NATO and the EU - in view of the war in Ukraine - are primarily pursuing the military strategy and neglecting the diplomatic path. But the relationship between the military and diplomacy should also be the other way around.
· It is difficult to decide whether Western countries should continue to supply Ukraine with more and more weapons. Against it speaks the to be expected military escalation drama, which will lead to a further destruction of human lives, environment and infrastructure.
If offensive weapons are delivered to Ukraine, there is a risk of military counterattacks by Ukraine on Russian territory, which would further accelerate the escalation dynamics. There is also the danger of the Russian Federation using a tactical nuclear bomb in the event of its own military failure, with an incalculable risk for further escalation. It would be irresponsible to ignore this. At least one argument in favor of supporting Ukraine with weapons that primarily serve defensive purposes, such as defense systems against combat jets and drones as well as anti-tank weapons, is that it would be a matter of providing military support to a defending state, which would resist the invasion of a despotic foreign power.
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· In any case, economic sanctions, which have a profound impact on the economy of the Russian Federation, must now be introduced with patience and with the awareness that restrictions and economic losses will not only hit the Russian side. Previous sanctions policies, e.g. in Iraq, have shown that they were often misguided and harmful to the civilian population. If, for example, medical aid can no longer reach a boycotted country, the sick, the elderly and children are ultimately the sufferers and victims of this sanctions policy. Therefore, especially measures to freeze accounts and expropriations of Russian villas and real estate, e.g. in the south coast of France as well as in the expensive streets of London, which belong to the financial oligarchies ruling in Russia and supporting the 'Putin system', are important. The blocking of accessible cash reserves of the Russian state as well as the cutting off of Russia from a technology transfer, which is relevant for its armament industry,
hit the Russian government and its 'elites' hard. It was also right to exclude Russia from the SWIFT international payment system, at least for the largest banks, and possibly even for the entire Russian banking system.
· In the event of economic difficulties in Russia and the resulting increasing pressure on the Russian government - including from Putin's circles of supporters - this could lead to the Russian government having to give in and to return to the negotiating table. This must be the declared aim of all measures. The OSCE, the UN, the Normandy format or the NATO-Russia Council are institutional contexts that provide a suitable framework for this. But not only the Russian Federation must return to the negotiating table but also the Ukrainian government must return from its military option in favor of negotiations.
Furthermore, parallel to this and afterwards, political science and history, the responsible politicians and the media public are called upon to deal with the prehistory of this war in an unbiased and multi-perspective manner and to analyze to what extent diplomatic mistakes, but also the interests of Western states, corporations and institutions were partly responsible for Russia's breakout from the international security architecture.
Who are the economic and geopolitical winners of this war? Which actors of which different power constellations on the Russian, the Ukrainian, but also on the Western side had an interest in starting or provoking the war? These questions and research assignments should not be intended to relativize Russian war crimes and violations of international law, but rather to help improve awareness and the ability to act in future international crisis situations.
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The Appeal for Peace
The 'Appeal for Peace' proposes a diplomatic negotiation initiative through the UN General Secretariat. [6] The UN Secretary General is called upon to finally take the initiative and form a highly legitimized and high-ranking negotiating commission.
High-ranking means that the commission should include personalities at least at the foreign minister level. It would be particularly important that representatives of China, India and Brazil, who are economically and politically relevant for the Russian Federation in particular, also participate in this commission under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General. Highly legitimized means that a large majority of the UN General Assembly endows this commission with negotiating power. The commission, led by the UN Secretary General, should bring the Ukrainian government and the Russian government to the negotiating table to achieve a ceasefire as a precondition of peace negotiations and solutions. National and transnational governments are urged to commit to such a negotiating initiative. Now, at the latest, is the time for diplomacy. There is a danger, as Jürgen Habermas (2023) also points out, of reaching a 'point of no return' whose escalation dynamics can no longer be stopped by either side.
Furthermore, parallel to this, political science and history, the responsible politicians and the media public are called upon to deal with the prehistory of this war in an unbiased and multi-perspective manner and to analyze to what extent diplomatic mistakes, but also the interests of Western states, corporations and institutions were partly responsible for Russia's breakout from the international security architecture. Who are the economic and geopolitical winners of this war? Which actors of which different power constellations on the Russian, the Ukrainian, but also on the Western side had an interest in starting or provoking the war? These questions and research assignments must not be intended to relativize Russian war crimes and violations of international law, but to help improve awareness and the ability to act in future international crisis situations.
· The aim of the negotiations would then have to be the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine, combined with reparation payments to Ukraine.
· The United Nations International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court must also investigate the case and hold those responsible, including the Russian government, accountable. The March 2023 conviction of Russian President Putin as a war criminal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague is an important first step in this regard.
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· The two Russian-oriented parts of the eastern provinces in Donbass, Donetsk and Luhansk, would have to be granted a relative autonomy status within Ukraine, as is the case, for example, for South Tyrol in Italy. This process would have to be safeguarded by world police measures controlled by the UN. A neutral status for Ukraine, under the protection of the UN, is also conceivable in the future.
- Crimea could be an exception to this rule, since it is predominantly inhabited by Russians and the historical act of donation by Crushchev to Ukraine in 1954 was just as questionable under international law as the takeover of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014. Here, it could be agreed that Crimea would remain in Russian administration until, after a period of 15 years, a new decision on Crimea's state membership is made in OSCE- or UN-controlled referenda. But this is, of course, a decision that would have to be made in the context of future negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian governments under the guidance of the UN or the OSCE.
- If Putin is still in office, negotiations will probably have to begin with him. In the medium term, however, we must hope for a change of government in the Russian Federation.
The focus must be on democratic change in the Russian Federation, which must be carried out from within, i.e. primarily by Russian civil society. This will be a dangerous path for those currently engaged in Russia against the Ukrainian war, since the Russian government relies on repression and has already arrested thousands of people. [7]
A Russian government that behaves differently under international law and returns to democratic principles and respect for the UN Charter, will be more likely to agree to a robust world police operation on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Such consent by the states directly involved is a prerequisite for a combination of civil society mediation attempts and world police operations under the protection of the United Nations in order to regain and secure Ukraine's sovereignty over the upcoming negotiation.
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A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible.
The development of the world and the international community has currently been pushed back by Russia's attack on Ukraine and the associated threat to also use nuclear weapons in the event of a military intervention by the West. The existing nuclear reactors in Ukraine can also be used as a weapon of nuclear contamination in the war in Ukraine. For this, only the power supply and the supply of cooling water would have to be interrupted long enough. This is a clear step backwards on the path towards a more peaceful and sustainable global development - especially since even the People's Republic of China is reluctant to condemn Russia's actions. It is not only world peace that is at risk, but also the fight against the climate crisis, which can only be fought together and using the necessary resources in a time of peace.
Nevertheless, the development perspective must remain oriented towards a long-term time frame, and international politics, institutions and NGOs, as well as international civil society, must not give up too quickly, but must - especially in view of the suffering of the Ukrainian population - in addition to the measures mentioned, also take the necessary steps to expand the international security architecture even more urgently.
In this context, the first priority should – also for states with nuclear weapons - be the ratification of the nuclear weapons ban treaty initiated by ICAN and put into force by the UN. This would be the right alternative to the nuclear rearmament projects now starting everywhere.
Corresponding perspectives of a new security order in Europe have been published very recently by the NGO 'Rethinking Security' [8].
It is apparent that the main problem is that powerful members of the UN Security Council, due to the military power of these members and the inadequate structure of the UN, and without the United Nations being able to take action against them, do not abide by the rules of international law. This has been shown by violations of international law by the USA (e.g. Iraq war), by China (Tibet) or now by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. The United Nations must be democratized and at the same time strengthened, so that in the future, in the event of military aggression by a state, it will be able to act more effectively in terms of peace policy than before.
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A second upheaval occurred about a year before the Russian aggression: Finally, the US presidency of Donald Trump has ended.
It is still to be hoped that with the presidency of Joe Biden and Kamalla Harris the time is over when one had to be ashamed of the president of the most powerful state.
Certainly, the influence of the social 'elites' that brought Trump to power and supported him (for far too long) are still present. Also, there are still very many incorrigible ignoramuses who were blinded by his lies or opportunistically adapted here. Nevertheless, there is hope that at least a return of the USA to the diplomatic level will take place. This applies in particular to multilateral cooperation at the level of the United Nations. Initial measures taken by the U.S. government indicate that it will seek to continue cooperation in the areas of climate protection, health policy and peacekeeping. This concerns the renewed signing of the Paris Climate Convention, the resumption of cooperation with the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). However, the prolongation of the New Start treaty in cooperation with Russia was suspended by Russia in the course of the war in Ukraine. It is to be hoped that this will be reversed and that China will also join the New Start Treaty in the future as a further necessary step towards international disarmament.
But other signs make it clear that the new US administration is holding to the goal of requiering two percent of a NATO country's gross domestic product for its military expenditures as a target to be achieved.
There seems to be no realization here that this money should be spent elsewhere in a more urgently needed way. Children are still starving every day. There is still a lack of funds for peacekeeping missions of the UN. The pandemic and its consequences require trillions of US dollars to even begin to repair the damage caused. The approaching climate crisis, however, and the fight against the climate catastrophe – insofar as this can still be fully achieved – will cause the greatest costs and unspeakable suffering. What a fatal signal it is, therefore, to continue arming and to want to implement a policy of deterrence? The war in Ukraine cannot therefore be an argument for further rearmament either.
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The war in Ukraine - and this is often displaced in the West - is only one war among dozens of other current symmetrical and asymmetrical violent conflicts. Especially in Europe, this war comes into focus because it takes place in geographical proximity and is also a war among whites with similar cultural traditions. The war in Yemen, for example, has already lasted much longer and has already claimed many more victims, especially among children. But it takes place at a great distance from Europe and between foreign cultural ethics. This is experienced as not so threatening, although it is just as problematic in terms of international and human rights law and terrible war crimes are also taking place there.
The way out to a meaningful reorganization in the global context can - this is a central thesis represented here - only lie in the strengthening and democratization of the United Nations, which is to be demanded worldwide by democracy initiatives, democratic parliaments and parties, non-governmental organizations and civil society protest movements.
This book gives numerous suggestions for the realization of this project on different time levels.
The social conditions analyzed in the first part of the book - in particular the most unpleasant variant of neoliberalized capitalism and the deficits of the political system, which are pronounced differently in different regions of the world - make it clear that there must be a fundamental and systemic reorganization. The social transformation must take place step by step in an orderly and internationally coordinated manner in order to avoid violent excesses and social disruptions that will ultimately lead to social destruction in the sense of a destroyed state system or a growing number of dictatorships.
A meaningful way to a new order in the local, national, regional and international context - and especially in the connection of these levels - can only take place through a democratization of all social spheres. This must be done peacefully and democratically, otherwise it will not happen.
The problem is that we are still a long way from this and in some cases common tendencies can be observed: Nationalistic attitudes, autocratic tendencies, refusal of international cooperation, unrestrained profit thinking, an increasing wealth gap and growing social differences, arms exports to areas of tension, numerous wars of various kinds and ecological ignorance. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the development of the climate in particular leaves only a window of time of about 10-15 years open for mankind in which the right decisions can be made and realized.
This means that at present and in the near future actually nobody can hold back any longer. A social commitment on all levels is required if a positive development if a positive move toward systemic realignment is to be achieved.
The publication of the international (English) second edition in open access could be a (small) help on this way.
Yours sincerely,
Klaus Moegling
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Notes:
[1] Cf. in particular Article 43 of the UN Charter.[
[2] "Russia blocks Security Council action on Ukraine," in: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1112802, 2/25/2022.[
[3] Although the UN General Assembly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine by a large majority of 141 votes (with 45 abstentions and 5 votes against), the adoption of the resolution has 'only' a symbolic significance and reflects the global state of mind regarding the war in Ukraine. Cf. https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2022-03/un-vollversammlung-verurteilt-russischen-einmarsch-mit-grosser-mehrheit, 3/2/2022.
[4] Cf. on the demand for a democratically elected UN Parliament with more comprehensive powers as well as the reform of the UN Security Council Leinen, Jo/ Bummel, Andreas (2017): Das demokratische Weltparlament. Bonn: Dietz-Verlag. Zumach, Andreas (2021): Reform or Blockade. What future for the UN? Zurich: Rotpunktverlag and Moegling, Klaus (2020): Reordering. A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers. In English, the international edition (free to read): https://www.klaus-moegling.de/international-edition/
[5] NATO Treaty, Article 5: „The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.“https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm, 4/4/1949.
[6] Cf. The complete text of the Appeal for Peace in German and English as well as the various lists of initial signatories can be found at https://www.klaus-moegling.de/peace-appeal/.
[7] EU foreign affairs envoy Josep Borrell spoke of demonstrations in 58 Russian cities at his press conference on 26.2.2022. The 'Frankfurter Rundschau' also lists the protests in Russia against the Ukraine war from the civilian population, from Russian aid organizations, journalists, artists and scientists and refers to the demonstration ban of the Russian state, to the brutal procedure of the Russian police apparatus as well as to the number of arrests made: Cf. https://www.fr.de/politik/news-ukraine-konflikt-russland-widerstand-proteste-krieg-wladimir-putin-erschrocken-prominente-opposition-zr-91374943.html, 2/27/2022.
[8] Cf. Rething Security (2022):Turning the Perspective Overcoming Helplessness. Rethinking Security Report 2022. In: https://www.sicherheitneudenken.de/media/download/variant/269297/rethinking-security-report-2022-turning-the-perspective.pdf, 2/18/2022.
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Preface to the first international and the third German edition:
The present book project against the background of
the political movements
4/23/2020
The third edition of this book attempts to outline the theoretical and practical foundations of a social reorganization - based on an updated critique of the conditions. The book tries to make the first steps on the way there in the course of a positive vision, as well as to develop non-violent implementation strategies.
The literary work on the three previous so far represents a project of collective experience evaluation and knowledge construction over several years. In each edition, I integrated the understood knowledge and reflected experiences of many people with whom I have been seeking dialogue for years: experts in various fields, colleagues, students, as well as the many contributions to discussions in the context of readings, lectures and Internet forums, which I have been able to process for this purpose since the second edition. I have tried to network this knowledge and these experiences respectfully and to make them the subject in my own way.
Furthermore, it was important for me not to write merely from a theoretical perspective or solely about the experiences of others. Therefore, this book in its various editions has also emerged from my own political experiences in the environmental and peace movements, in the field of education, as well as party-political and trade union cooperation. This book is thus a part of and an expression of the various movements that carry out civil society resistance and, connected with this, emerged from these movements and reflecting them.
The historical development of cultural upheavals shows that such a social change can only be successful for a longer period of time if it is based on a well thought-out socio-political vision. Here we will plead for this vision to include a socio-political model that is democratic, internationalist, oriented towards the common good and socio-ecological, and that allows the cultural achievements of the period of Enlightenment to become the starting point of a new order that has so far remained stuck in rudiments. In this context, the system-relevant questions of the fair distribution of property and wealth and a different quality of life and work must also put to question.
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Perhaps the Enlightenment period, in my opinion the greatest cultural achievement in human history, has so far reached only a minority of humanity. An extended enlightenment is still massively blocked in its development by various dogmatic religions, by a lack of consciousness as well as a neoliberal predatory capitalism. Also, Immanuel Kant, for example, could not yet overlook the ecological problem and the susceptibility of instrumentalizing his thoughts for the then emerging capitalism. A second wave of enlightenment, learning from the blind spots of the first enlightenment, and consistent action towards a global reordering based on a radical socio-ecological and democratic orientation are necessary if humanity is to survive at a level worth living at.
The rapid worldwide spread of coronavirus showed that the world is a global village. Developments in one region can take effect very quickly in any other place through globalization and thus it can affect literally all people worldwide. This is true for a virus, for the climate crisis and for war and peace. Therefore, more than ever, the principle of each person's responsibility for this world applies, just as the need exists to face global problems also with global responsibility.
I would like to thank again all readers' forums, discussion groups, seminars, collaborators and friends as well as my colleagues at 'Scientists for Future' (S4F) (1) and in the 'Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag' (2), who gave me valuable hints and impulses for the realization of the third edition in the discussions. Without this lively exchange, the present draft would not have come about.
With the best and (still) hopeful greetings
Your Klaus Moegling
P.S.: I would be happy to continue receiving your feedback and comments at ([email protected])
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Preface to the second German edition:
What can encourage us
3/10/2019
Although the second edition of the book 'Reorganization' presented here has remained unchanged in the core content of the concern, it has been revised again in some places. It was expanded to include additional aspects and, in particular, updated to include some important developments. Further literature that has since been published has also been included.
This new edition is also an expression and result of the discussions that have taken place about my book in the past year in seminars, at conferences, in various discussion circles, and of reader suggestions that have been communicated to me directly. Many thanks for this!
Dear reader, you now have in front of you a book oriented to human science with a socio-political focus, which attempts to offer critical analyses and possible solutions for essential problems of our time and the future to be expected.
We are in a global transformation phase with a clear acceleration dynamic. The world is increasingly becoming disordered. Many people feel helpless at the mercy of the globalization dynamic, and some are looking for easy solutions, e.g., in fundamentalist-oriented religions or right-wing populist groups.
What can give hope, however, are the current youth protests that can be observed worldwide. Many young people have realized that the current ruling generation of adults is destroying their chances for a future worth living. They are beginning to fight back. They are joined by adults who are similarly minded and who can also see the approaching catastrophes. It becomes clear here: A new radicalism in civic democratic engagement is necessary. Otherwise, the threatening developments can obviously no longer be prevented.
Anyone joining one of the growing protest movements should ask themselves at least four questions:
- How do I want to live in the future?
- What prevents me from living in this way?
- What should a reorganization of the world look like in the essential aspects in which this quality of life becomes possible?
- What do I have to change - also in cooperation with others - on all levels of society, but also for myself personally, so that this reordering and this life in the future can become more probable?
This book attempts to offer suggestions for the reader's own search for answers to these questions.
A change of course and a reorganization are (still) possible. But time is pressing. The IPCC's current world climate report (3) calls for a decisive change of course by 2030, and measures to combat world hunger or prevent war leave no time at all. And: How much longer can we afford a lack of democratization at the UN level?
I am happy to enter into a conversation with you again this time. I am very grateful for your feedback on this book.
With warm regards
Your
Klaus Moegling
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Preface to the first German edition:
Order - disorder - reordering
6/5/2018
Before developing the central questions of the book, some general remarks on the meaning of orders will be made first.
On the ambivalence of orders
Orders are ambivalent. They can be both constructive and destructive.
Orders and their rules folded into them initially structure and relieve decisions in a constructive way. They thus facilitate living together by helping to cope more easily with the complexity and the associated confusion of life.
Orders in human societies are therefore more than an expression of annoying secondary virtues, but give security, provide an overview and offer orientations as well as identifications. Psychological orders are connected to social orders. The emotional identification with a social order usually comes along with a high potential of energy used to defend this order
Human orders are the expression of social conflicts and struggles. The outcome of these social conflicts is solidified in social orders, in which power and domination relations are reflected.
However, social orders must be elastic if they are to endure for a long time, i.e. they must contain a certain degree of readiness to innovate in order to be able to adapt to new requirements. Functional orders or systems therefore have the ability to renew themselves in the event of dysfunctional (dis)orders occurring (homeostasis). This means that a system takes measures to get back into balance and to establish a functional order. (4)
On the other hand, social orders that cannot be renewed quickly enough due to rigid social forces of inertia are replaced by other social orders. This happened to an ossified feudal system with its feudal lordship, with an order of estates and guilds and their restrictive regulations to limit production, price formation, technological development and trade. This was also experienced by the so-called real socialist systems, whose rigid planning systems, combined with massive restrictions on individuality and repression of the individual, were no longer able to withstand system competition with the various variants of capitalism. The orders that constituted them were eliminated and replaced by new ones.
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From the need for reorganization
A new order of the world in its different dimensions becomes all the more urgent, if the old (dis)order leads more and more to the destruction of the human living conditions on planet earth: Massive supply crises, mass exodus and brutal distribution struggles for what is left, ecological catastrophes as well as devastating military conflicts could make the earth uninhabitable in large parts for centuries possibly even for millennia.
For such a scenario of annihilation there can then be only one alternative, which is to be seen in the radical and timely reorganization of the world.
Visions of a new order of the world have often already been drafted. Especially after the world war catastrophes of the 20th century as well as after the collapse of the East-West confrontation there were drafts for the reorganization of the world ('New World Order'). Nevertheless, these conceptions usually did not range from the micro-systemic perspective to the macro-systemic perspective, and certainly the interaction of these systemic perspectives for a new order was not taken into account.
Realignment from a holistic perspective
However, the reorganization of the global and international system - as is emphasized in this book - has social and psychological prerequisites. Political, economic, ecological, interpersonal and psychological orders are to be thought and understood in a holistic sense in a connection.
Here, it must be clarified exactly what is meant by holism or wholeness in order to avoid misunderstandings:
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Order, disorder and reordering from a holistic point of view.
The understanding of holism presented here critically distances itself from diffuse and mystical holistic convictions and is also aware of the misuse of holism in fascist political orders, such as German National Socialism. Nevertheless, this term will be used here because of its enormous epistemological value. The prerequisite for this is a precise definition: Holism in the sense understood here means the consideration of the different levels or dimensions of human existence and leads to a description, assessment and development of scenarios and visions in the understanding of the interrelationships of these levels and the factors and feedbacks acting on them. Disciplinary, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches in the perception of human, societal and planetary developments address the different dimensions such as the psychological, the social, the ecological, the economic and the political-structural level. This refers first to the cognitive perspective of holistic perception when it comes to understanding the connections with the mind. In addition, the thinking of human beings is to be understood in connection with their bodily being and their sensual-emotional possibilities of perception and experience, which are to be connected with the ability to reflect in thought in the sense of maturity, critical faculties and responsibility. (5) Or to put it another way: Knowing something is different from feeling something. But both influence each other and lead to understanding. Body, emotion and intellect seem to be separate levels and yet they are in intense contact with each other. The personal maturation process in the sense of a conscious integration of intellect and emotion must not be neglected if a social maturation process is aimed at. Holism in thinking and perception can address the relationship of the parts to the whole as well as the relationship of the parts to each other against the background of the whole. Through this, the interdependence of all living things emerges, connections between local and global events and structures, between social togetherness in the lifeworld and political interaction at all levels, as well as the connection between sociality and ecology become clear.
Perceptual performances and strategies isolated and related to only one dimension will not produce the cognitive performance and will not have the effect that can lead to a radical reorganization.
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In this sense, the long-time director of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Uwe Schneidewind, points out that
"only systemic approaches, which do not shy away from a broad inter- and transdisciplinary bridging, offer orientation in a reality that is becoming more complex. This is all the more true at a time when, in the face of increasing specialization, the courage for such designs is diminishing rather than increasing in the science system."
(Schneidewind 2018, 11)
Purely technical approaches cannot capture more complex interrelationships. Disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity must complement each other in a meaningful way. Also an omission of bodily-sensual possibilities of experience, can lead to a one-sided and necessary perceptions suppressing thinking. The splitting off of the emotional leads to an impoverishment of the human personality, to a reduced ability to perceive and to a destructive return of the split off. The exclusion of a critical perspective of reflection, in turn, can lead to mystical transfiguration and ideological concealment of inhumane conditions.
Only if a new order, a systemic reorganization is wanted by the overwhelming majority of the people living on planet Earth, will it have a chance. One should have no illusions about this. A fundamental reorientation can only be achieved with the people and not against them.
Hopefully, the conditions for this will not occur only when generations have experienced massive suffering and no longer see any other way out than in a radical change of direction. The author agrees with the authors of the Club of Rome study published in 2017, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Anders Wijkmann and others, that such a transformation is possible in principle. For this, a "new narrative", a "new Enlightenment", but also an emotional involvement as well as a decisive change in the decisive behavioral patterns of mankind in the life-world, regional and global context are indeed necessary. (6)
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Underlying questions
In this sense, the central questions of the present book mark the epistemological interest that is to be addressed:
In what respects can we speak of a crisis-like development of humanity? Which negative scenarios of a worsening of the crisis are conceivable and probable? Will humanity still be able to prove itself capable of learning in time? To what extent must a fundamental change of the economic system take place? How must human beings change psychologically, socially and in their behavior for a new start? What role can education, therapy, meditation, alternative lifestyles and solidarity-based economies play here? How is the relationship between nation states, regions and transnational systems to be shaped in the future? Can a democratic reorganization of the United Nations oriented toward a positive vision of global development succeed? In what way must man's relationship to nature be redefined? How can a regional and international reorganization look like, in which effective and responsible climate policy interventions lead to a reversal of climate development? How can the cooperation of privately organized arms industry, politics and military be effectively broken up? How should the question of property and the future distribution of wealth be regulated? Which groups of people, social movements and organizations will have to implement a radical reorganization?
And above all, what will be the first transformative steps on a long road to a reordering that embraces human beings and their psychological, social, ecological, economic, and sociopolitical orders in local, regional, and global contexts? (7)
The holistic approach leads to an analysis and to a vision of social-human development, which at first astonishes and lets the reader go to own borders. But if one gets involved and lets go of those reservations that often consist of a mixture of prejudices and fears, an awareness and a sense of foreboding for the future changes in a comprehensive way can arise, which is what this book is about: The reordering of life on our planet.
Klaus Moegling
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ChApter 1
Analysis of current global crises
- orders dissolving
Before a positive vision of social development can be sketched out, it is necessary to
convincingly justify the necessity for such a development. In a first step, this will be achieved in chapter 1 through a critical analysis of current social conditions. In the next chapter, the urgency of a systemic change in the global context will be made clear by developing possible negative scenarios (chapter 2): What will happen if the current development cannot be decisively stopped? In other words, this chapter deals with negative developments that cannot be predicted with certainty, but whose occurrence is possible under certain conditions.
When it comes within the realm of human imagination how devastating and destructive such a scenario can be to the possibility of human life, only then will it be possible for the force necessary to prevent this from happening. Only then will it be possible, with the necessary determination, to design a positive vision of planetary development that is fundamental and radical, that starts at the root. An approach to the root of social problems must also face the systemic question. Property and wealth relations cannot remain untouched by this.
Nor does radicalism mean smashing windows, setting cars on fire or even violence against individuals or groups of people. The use of violence is not radical, but extremist and contradicts the vision of social realignment presented here.
As radical as a vision of social reorganization is and must be, i.e., one that addresses the systemic foundations, given the existing and impending threats, the next step is to sketch out the first reform steps, based on current social reality and differentiated in time, that can lead to the realization of this future-oriented vision of social development (Chapter 6).
Seen in this light, the analysis does not get stuck in the negative, but rather opens the view for a possible positive development, if the measures required for this are taken as soon as possible with the necessary decisiveness and systemic coherence.
Here, the courage for vision and utopia is required, as the social philosopher Ernst Bloch already formulated in 1918 at the end of World War 1:
"We have longing and brief knowledge, but little action and what explains their absence with, no width, no prospect, no ends, no inner threshold, imagined crossed, no utopian principle concept. To find this, to find the right, for the sake of which it is proper to live, to be organized, to have time, for this we go, we hew the fantastic constitutive ways (...) and look there for the true, real where the actual disappears - incipit vita nova." (Bloch 1918/2018, 11)
But before the vision, the work of critical analysis must be done, so as not to take the 'constitutive path' into the unknown.
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1.1 Economic crises
1.1.1 Global structures of greed
Economic crises in a capitalistically shaped global system, in whose highly developed neoliberal late phase we are obviously situated we obviously find ourselves, must first be analyzed on the socioeconomic level. In a next step, however, the psychological and social dispositions associated with private economic modes of production, the private levying of the generated surplus value, and the corresponding structures must also be described.
Already in the middle of the 19th century, Marx/Engels far-sightedly analyzed how the process of globalization takes place in capitalism:
"The need for an ever-expanding outlet for its products chases the bourgeoisie all over the globe. Everywhere it must nestle, everywhere it must cultivate, everywhere it must establish connections. The bourgeoisie, through the exploitation of the world market, has made production and consumption cosmopolitan." (8)
Marx/Engels see the fact that investors are constantly looking for new investment opportunities and producers are constantly looking for new sales markets as economic acts of compulsion, which are the expression of capital valorization crises when the technical possibilities of production and - continuing this thought -– also the communicative possibilities of investment activity are constantly developing.
The colonialism of the global North in the regions of the global South served - in addition to geostrategic considerations of power expansion - above all the economic exploitation of the human and natural resources of the militarily conquered world regions. Wars of conquest, human trafficking, slave labor, ethnocide, environmental destruction, plunder, the destruction of functioning infrastructures and the overexploitation of natural resources, as well as the establishment of an imperial world economic order, are characteristics of the colonial phase of global development. The wealth of the global North is based on the brutal exploitation of the global South. Wealth and poverty are here in a destructive functional relationship.
In his world-famous book “The Open Veins of Latin America”, the Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano describes how the European colonizers managed to bleed an entire continent dry - with consequences that can still be massively felt today - according to Galeano's analysis based on dependency theory (1970, 14):
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“This is Latin America, the region of open veins. From its discovery to the present day, everything has always been transformed into European or later North American capital, and as such it is accumulated in the distant centers of power. Everything: the land, its fruits and its mineral resources, the people and their labor and consumption power, the natural and human resources. The form of production and class structure of each place was gradually determined from the outside through its incorporation into the universal machinery of capitalism. Each was assigned a function, always with regard to the development of the respective foreign metropolis, and an endless chain of successive dependencies was formed (...)”
Postcolonial studies deal, among other things, with the prolongation and also the modification of these structures after the actual period of colonialism in the course of decolonization after the Second World War. The theme here is that the global injustices resulting from colonization and also the thinking and feeling in the societies of the global North continue to exist into the present day.
Ina Kerner, professor for the dynamics of globalization and for postcolonial studies, describes the resulting tasks:
They consist first of all in, "to change the common view of European colonialism, which tends to be positive or at least trivialized, and to create a critical awareness of its late consequences. Furthermore, it is a matter of developing and strengthening non-colonial patterns of thought, behavior, representations and institutions. (...) On the one hand, through precise empirical analyses and theoretical reflections that shed light on how far colonial causes and path dependencies actually extend - for example, in relation to problems such as poverty, strong social inequality, authoritarianism or a lack of the rule of law in former colonies. (...) It is clear that a critique of one's own context always has something self-referential. Against this background, postcolonial theories problematize the unreflected aspects and the power effects of Eurocentrism. For this has always served to legitimize global claims to power and domination." (Kerner 2020)
While in colonial times it were primarily corporations such as the British East India Company, the Dutch East India Company or the U.S. United Fruit Company that brutally exploited colonial or neocolonial relations of domination in Asia and South America, in postcolonial times the role of multinational corporations of a modern character must be examined more closely.
The winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Josef E. Stiglitz, is not far removed from Marx/Engels' analysis when he criticizes the takeover of market power in the important economic sectors by a few corporations. This concentration is associated with the elimination of a free interplay of supply and demand in favor of unrestrained market power and the enrichment of a few private individuals at the expense of the majority of the population:
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"These mega-corporations use their market power to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. By setting higher prices, they have effectively lowered consumers' standard of living. New technologies enable these companies to engage in mass discrimination - which they do - because prices are set not in the marketplace (as a single price that reflects supply and demand), but by algorithmic determination of the maximum price a customer is willing to pay. (…)
Where financial deregulation was most advanced, financial sector abuses such as market manipulation, predatory lending, and excessive credit card fees were also most common." (9)
The current variant of neoliberalized capitalism is the worst version of capitalist social formation, since the state largely dispenses with the necessary controls and regulations of capital. The state sees itself primarily in the role of enabling economic growth and private appropriation, without recognizing that economic growth can be a very problematic variable.
In contrast to Marx/Engels, however, Stiglitz (2019) sees the opportunity not in a systemic overcoming of capitalism, but in a "progressive capitalism" that restores a genuine market function and that once again embeds capital in society and is socioecologically regulated by the state.
The penetration of inner spaces
Capitalism expanded worldwide in the course of its historic triumphal march. Not only did it advance from Europe into all geographical areas of the earth, but it also penetrated into the inner spaces of human coexistence - according to Elmar Altvater (2006, 22):
"The micro- and nanostructures of life are put into value and thereby manipulated in such a way that the transformation into commodity and its exploitation in monetary form come out. Private spaces of retreat are not safe from the constraints of money and capital. Forms of social coexistence are more and more contractualized and thus subjected to the logic of monetary market equivalence. Capitalist valorization is an all-encompassing and yet, in the internal space of the planet, limited and confining principle whose rules are to be followed as if they were commandments of God."
According to this, people are also psychologically penetrated by exploitation interests, consumption offers, media influence and the logics of capitalism contained therein. In particular, the inevitability of a connection between wealth, private property and economic growth seems to be an unquestionable paradigm. There seems to be no escape from this systemic hegemony of thinking and feeling.
This critical analysis certainly has socioeconomic plausibility and must be taken into account in the analysis of worldwide capital concentration, an inequitable distribution of wealth, global investment activity, overexploitation of mineral resources and ecological devastation, destructive arms investments, and recurring economic and financial crises fueled by speculation. (10)
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Nevertheless, the human being - despite existing structures - should not only be regarded as an object of economic developments. Each and every individual decides for himself or herself on which side of global events he or she wants to be: Value creation does not necessarily have to be destructive even in the times of a technical-digital development stage of capitalism. Economic investments can certainly be aimed at a value creation process that is geared toward sustainability. No one is forcing arms companies to forego investments in arms conversion in the sense of producing peace goods. No one is forcing energy suppliers not to make a transformation to a solar energy supply future in time. Nobody forces politicians to behave in a national-chauvinistic way or to accept bribes from the economy. No one is forcing banks to participate in risk speculation on the financial markets instead of being content with the returns from loans to home builders and to small and medium-sized businesses.
There can be a right life, at least in serious approaches, even under the wrong social conditions: Greed would have to be neither a central political nor a priority economic principle. Behind this are decisions of the individual to surrender to the existing structures with the whole personality and to submit to the paradigm of egocentrically controlled greed.
Social and human rights consequences of neoliberalized capitalism
The situation is different for those who suffer from neoliberalized capitalism and the economic policies associated with it. Whereas prosperity gains for larger parts of the population and the expansion of the middle classes could be observed after the Second World War, especially in industrialized countries, neoliberalization caused a reversal of this process. Low-wage sectors also expanded in Western countries and wage dumping, temporary work and pseudo-self-employment led to a decline of the middle class and to corresponding social fears among those threatened with social relegation. In the regions of the world that remained dependent during the post-colonial period, these development trends were even more dramatic. Within the economic framework defined by the World Bank and the IMF, these countries serve as debtors and interest payers, as suppliers of raw materials and as cultivation areas for monocultures,according to Latin America expert Sabine Kurtenbach (2019), who is using Colombia as an example:
"Colombia could become the breadbasket of South America with very different agricultural products because it is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Instead, almost only palm oil is grown for export." (11)
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International capital is particularly interested in stabilizing its investment activities and the associated profits through authoritarian governments in the post-colonial regions of the world. Democratically elected governments, however, which are interested in a nationalization of natural resources, a dissolution of the international division of labor in the interest of the rich nations and the large corporations originating from them, are fought with all means, with secret services, sanctions, with media propaganda and finally with military means. The example of Chile is the best known example of how a democratically elected government was overthrown via a military coup with the proven support of the CIA, and a neoliberal regime was installed in 1973 under a right-wing military dictatorship. (12) The devastating social effects of the neoliberal model in Chile have repeatedly been the cause of mass protests combined with brutal deployments of the Chilean military. In the capital Santiago and other cities, for example, there were demonstrations in 2019 with over a million people protesting the total privatization of the country, low incomes and pensions, the undemocratic constitution, high water prices and tuition fees. A referendum for a new, fairer Chilean constitution failed in 2022 due to one-sided media propaganda and the resulting vote against the draft constitution.
Another variant of authoritarian investment protection lies in the direct influence of multinational corporations on governments in post-colonial countries, such as Nigeria, in order to defang movements against corruption and exploitation by corporations in these countries. The example of the winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize ('Right Livelihood Award') Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his fellow campaigners shows how the interest of the oil company Shell was enforced by the Nigerian military government. The critic of the overexploitation of nature, the oppression of the Ogoni people and the expropriation of national mineral resources, in this case oil by Shell, was sentenced to death by hanging together with his companions in what international observers consider an unlawful trial.
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Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades-in-arms were executed by the military government's executioners in 1995, despite worldwide protests. Shell denied interfering, but nevertheless paid the families of those killed $15.5 million in compensation 14 years later. (13)
The consequences of such repressive policies of multinational corporations and their supporting governments are - in dependency theory formulation - structural heterogeneity and marginalization. Small farmers displaced by land grabbing find themselves in the squalid conditions of ever-expanding urban slums, without regular income and a minimum of health care and clean drinking water. On the other hand, the upper classes profiting from the exploitation of the land and corrupted by the corporations, as well as the foreign managers with their families, live in walled and guarded settlement fortresses that look similar everywhere and worldwide. Such structural heterogeneity, however, is not a prerequisite for a democratic system; rather, it usually leads to authoritarian solutions in order to be able to maintain these conditions of social exclusion of the majority of the population.
The global economic mechanism underlying these relationships is described in dependency theory by the phenomenon of unequal exchange. This means that the existing wealth of a postcolonial country, in the form of mineral resources and labor, must be given away cheaply to the richer regions of the world. In contrast, the services of the industrialized regions in the form of manufactured goods or technical services must be paid for at high prices in the poorer parts of the world. (14)
Large corporations are now positioning their representatives directly in the political arena
However, multinational corporations are also engaged in a competition to outbid each other, with those that do not grow fast enough being swallowed up by the larger company. Hedge funds also buy the majority of shares in corporations, break them up and liquidate parts of the corporation that do not generate above-average returns, without regard for the jobs and people employed there. It is obvious that greed is the economic principle of economic concentration and in connection with it the leading interest of finance capital. (15) V. I. Lenin calls the epoch dominated by finance capital, i.e. the fusion of industry and bank capital, the phase of imperialism, the most developed phase of capitalism:
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Definition of Imperialism:
"1. concentration of production and capital, which has reached such a high stage of development that it creates monopolies which play the decisive role in economic life; 2. fusion of banking capital with industrial capital and the emergence of a financial oligarchy on the basis of this 'financial capital'; 3. the export of capital, as distinct from the export of commodities, acquires particularly important significance; 4. international monopolistic capitalist associations are formed which divide the world among themselves, and 5. the territorial division of the division of the earth among the great capitalist powers is ended." (16)
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Whether these five characteristics are sufficient to identify imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism remains to be seen. Doubts are reasonable, since Lenin could not have known the excesses of digitalized capitalism (17), did not take into account the fundamental differences in interests of different capital fractions, and does not make any ecological statements here.
In any case, capitalism seems to be taking on new forms again and again, with the result that ever fewer companies have increasing economic power and financial strength, the capital of major banks and corporations can no longer be distinguished, new value chains are emerging, and in the process ever fewer people are able to accumulate ever more capital. In addition, it is becoming increasingly apparent that large corporations have little need to send lobbyists to political representatives. They either position corporate employees or close associates in political positions themselves or sign up government representatives shortly after they leave office so that they can use their political networks. The former managing director of Greenpeace International, Thilo Bode, speaks of a "political-economic complex" that increasingly undermines democracy and ensures that the different economic interests of multinational corporations are enforced in competition with each other. (18)
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Gerhard Schröder, Mario Draghi, Joschka Fischer, Christine Lagarde, Richard B. 'Dick Cheney', Emmanuel Macron or Donald Trump are just a few of the numerous personalities who were either positioned directly from international corporate boards into leading political offices or joined corporate boards shortly after leaving government.
The question here is whether capitalism can be socially reformed, or whether the combination of collective greed, economic concentration and financial speculation can only be broken by a change of system, i.e. by a radical reorganization of the economy and politics.
Certainly, this cannot be considered only at the systemic level, but must also be linked to the individual in his or her social context. For example, social scientists Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen (2017) point out that the systemic exploitation of people and nature in the course of neoliberalized capitalism has a psychosocial counterpart in the context of an imperial way of life. The imperial way of life is not only anchored in institutions and structurally entrenched forms of domination, but can also be found in people's individual cognitive and emotionally controlled and social behaviors through an act of psychological and socializing transmission.
First, the imperial way of life is based, first, on the exploitation of the low-wage sector in rich societies and, second, on the exploitation of the global South by the global North. Furthermore, even the marginalized people in the low-wage sector of the rich regions in turn exploit the labor force in the poorer regions, since they also profit from the cheap prices of imported products. Here, neither the basic human needs of the exploited nor the necessities of sustainable development are taken into account due to the massive human and ecological consumption of resources.
The imperial way of life basically needs regions and people to whom the costs of production and consumption can be outsourced. For a socio-ecological transformation of society, the imperial way of life has to be overcome structurally and also psychosocially.
U.S. critique of the neoliberal model of capitalism
In the U.S., too, there are beginnings of a critique of the system that takes the interconnectedness of bank and corporate capital and their entanglement with the political ruling forces as its starting point, which ultimately led to today's neoliberal version of capitalism.
Noam Chomsky, holder of ten honorary doctorates, analyzes the 'Washington Consensus' initiated by large corporations and the financial sector as an expression of neoliberal enforcement of interests against the poor regions of the world and especially their impoverished populations. The Washington Consensus was supported and promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). (19)
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The Washington Consensus of 1989 stipulated, among other things, deregulation, privatization, lowering of corporate taxes and trade liberalization as guidelines for an ostensible support by the World Bank and the IMF , especially of the states of the global South. In reality, it deprived these countries of the possibility to impose protective tariffs and to fend off international finance capital, which - as the Nobel Prize winner for economics, Joseph Stiglitz (2002), impressively analyzed - led to the further impoverishment and financial bleeding out of these countries.
But even the formerly rich states, such as the United States, Great Britain or other European states, became socially divided due to the neoliberalization of capitalism and the unboundedness of the markets, especially the financial markets. This led to an increasingly rich upper class and a decline of former members of the middle classes into social poverty:
In "most advanced countries, the market economy has been failing large swaths of society.
Nowhere is this truer than in the United States. Long regarded as a poster child for the promise of free-market individualism, America today has higher inequality and less upward social mobility than most other developed countries. After rising for a century, average life expectancy in the US is now declining. And for those in the bottom 90% of the income distribution, real (inflation-adjusted) wages have stagnated: the income of a typical male worker today is around where it was 40 years ago.“ (20)
Stiglitz makes it clear that a 40-year neoliberal experiment has failed miserably and calls for a socially contained capitalism ("progressive capitalism" (21)) in which the state must once again recognize its central role and social and ecological responsibility.
While Stiglitz sees the central problem above all in the decline of state activity in neoliberalized capitalism in favor of corporate interests, early on the U.S. economist Michael Hudson (1939/2003, 1) drew attention to the enormous importance of state intervention strategies interested in global political hegemony. He summarized his historically oriented fiscal policy studies of fiscal policy as follows in his introduction:
"One lesson of U.S. experience is that the national diplomacy, embodied in what now is called the Washington Consensus, is not simply an extension of business drives. It has been shaped by overriding concerns for world power (euphemized as national security) and economic advantage as perceived by American strategists quite apart from the profit motives of private investors."
Chomsky (2000, 23) also sees the connection between state intervention and corporate interests when he criticizes the Washington Consensus:
"The 'principal architects' of the neoliberal 'Washington Consensus' are the lords and masters of the private sector, mostly giant corporations that control vast sectors of the international economy and have the means to dominate the formation of political will as well as to influence public opinion. For obvious reasons, the United States plays a special role in this system."
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In his book, Chomsky also demonstrates - in a manner comparable to Michael Hudson's perception - how U.S. corporations have called for liberalization and deregulation worldwide, but have themselves received massive strategic support from the U.S. government in the form of subsidies and trade benefits. This, of course, is how the Trump administration's current efforts should be assessed: Impose protective tariffs itself, but demand that other states remove them. Chomsky therefore criticizes that the Washington Consensus does not apply to the U.S., but only as a doctrine for countries where the unhindered access of U.S. corporations is to be facilitated and which serves the greed of the rich in the U.S.:
"The vaunted doctrines, in their design and use, serve the purposes of power and profit. The 'experiments' currently being conducted follow a familiar pattern, taking the form of 'socialism for the rich' set within the system of global corporate mercantilism, where 'commerce' consists largely of centrally directed, intra-company transactions between giant institutions that are totalitarian in nature and serve only the purpose of undermining democratic decision-making processes and protecting the lords and masters from the discipline of the market. In their strict tenets, only the poor and helpless are instructed." (22)
On the crisis of neoliberal capitalism
Lenin already analyzed the parasitic structures of exploitation within the global division of labor:
"Monopolies, oligarchy, the pursuit of domination rather than freedom, the exploitation of an ever-increasing number of small or weak nations by a very few rich or powerful nations - all this produced those features of imperialism to call it parasitic or capitalism in rot." (23)
In her book "Madness with Method. Financial Crash and the Global Economy"Sahra Wagenknecht analyzes recent developments that were already analytically conceived in principle by Marx/Engels and Lenin, but could not then have been known in this modernized form. Wagenknecht sees the cause of the 2007/2008 global economic and financial crisis in the reckless granting of loans to insolvent homeowners ('subprime mortgages') driven by bank greed, in the sale of opaque credit paper portfolios based on a lack of creditworthiness ('asset backed securities') on the international financial markets and in the bursting of the real estate bubble created in this way, which in turn led to the shaking of the banking system.
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The prerequisite for this was the deregulation of financial markets and international capital movements. The phase of loan securitization and the sale of the corresponding portfolios was the basis for above-average returns - according to Wagenknecht (2008, 39):
"For one thing, the margins in this business were much higher than in traditional lending, which usually yielded less than 10 percent, and for another, the volume of loans could be extended in this way far beyond the limits of the equity capital of the bank concerned. Since the bank's profits continued to swell with each loan extended, and since the risk of default was, after all, transferred to the purchasers of the loan securities, construction lenders were henceforth understandably anxious to extend as many loans as possible to whomever they could."
Ultimately, taxpayers had to pay for the bailout of the banks that had acquired the bad mortgage securitizations on a large scale. Nation states supported the big banks because of their supposed systemic relevance ("too big to fail"). Profits were thus privatized and losses socialized. The fact that the losses and the possible threat of national bankruptcies were then used to generate additional returns by means of high-dollar bets on the financial markets is an additional aspect of the rotten nature of this economic and financial order. (24)
In capitalism, economic crises are attempted to be solved with a return to economic growth - in other words, with exactly the same medicine that ultimately led to the economic crisis. Growth thinking leads to overproduction, because affordable consumption is limited. Overproduction crises lead to recession, with consequences for political and cultural stability. Right-wing extremism and 'angry citizens' are typical manifestations of the crisis nature of modern capitalist societies.
The reliance on limitless economic growth also fails to recognize the ecological limits of our planet and is gradually destroying the foundations of human civilization. The already occurring climate catastrophe, the littering of the earth as well as the destruction of the biodiversity, which is indispensable for the ecology of this planet, are an expression of a primarily growth-oriented economy and consumption orientation.
This criticism refers not only to the conditions of the global north but likewise to the capitalist development path in the countries of the global south - so the political scientist and activist Alexander Behr (2022, 29):
"A brutal class struggle is also underway in many other countries of the global South. The national bourgeoisie serves the interests of transnational corporations. In the short term, it may be able to rely on a growing middle class to secure its imperial way of life. But the hegemonic development path - whether state interventionist as in China or neoliberal as in Brazil - is deeply destructive and will further intensify resource conflicts in the future. It thus ultimately endangers the security of supply for all people."
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Greed as the psychological basis of economic action
Greed describes a mental attitude and psychological mood in which a person ruthlessly and egomaniacally tries to accumulate values and resources in the form of monetary equivalents, real estate, stock shares and production facilities. Greed is the basic psychological structure and motivational condition of neoliberalized capitalism. Greed, combined with the opportunities offered by late capitalist structures, has led to 1.1% of humanity owning 45.8% of the world's wealth at the end of 2022. In contrast, more than half of the world's population owned only 1.2% of the world's wealth. (25)
Greed also manifests itself in the mass attempts of the wealthy to move their accumulated money abroad without paying taxes - Hans-Jürgen Burchardt (2017) discusses capital flight and tax fraud via accounts on the Cayman Islands or in Panama:
"However, 28 German banks appeared in the Panama Papers, including six of the seven largest money houses. Along with England, Switzerland and Luxembourg, Germany ranks eighth among the eleven countries that favor illegitimate financial flows the most worldwide. The estimated assets of foreigners in Germany, which they do not have to account for at home, amount to approximately three trillion euros. This includes a lot of money generated in developing countries and transferred abroad by the elites there. These facts make two things clear: poverty - here as elsewhere - is not based on a lack of resources, but on unequal distribution and legal and illegal tax avoidance. And German and European policymakers have every opportunity to take action against it." (26)
Economic greed is evident not only at the individual but also at the collective-continental level, where rich continents and regions want to exploit poorer regions and parts of the world even beyond the existing level of inequality. Thus, in the course of the liberalization and deregulation of world trade steered by the World Bank and the IMF ('Washington Consensus'), the EU demands from countries of the continent of Africa the dismantling of protective tariffs, with EU producers simultaneously throwing EU-subsidized agricultural products and US corporations their subsidized production onto the African market in a neo-colonial sense:
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"European trade agreements with African countries have so far insisted on radically opening Africa's markets. This makes it tempting to sell agricultural surpluses, which have been boosted by EU subsidies, in Africa,: For example, the sale of European dairy products, meat or poultry on African markets has increased significantly in recent years. African smallholder farmers - the majority of the working population - cannot compete against these often highly subsidized food products. They lose their source of income and migrate to the cities. There, they learn that, thanks to EU trade agreements, even the few local industries will soon be in ruinous competition with EU companies with global market clout, and there is little hope of more employment. Who can then be blamed for listening to the Bremen Town Musicians, who once taught us: We can find something better than death anywhere! We must decide today whether we want to gear our agreements with Africa toward a genuine partnership or whether we want to declassify the African economy into a junk bazaar that forces more and more people to seek their fortunes elsewhere." (27)
In this context, Nadège Compaoré (2017, 3) criticizes the exploitation of African mineral resources by foreign mining companies and investors ("structural power imbalances in Africa's mining sector"). Here, too, the phenomenon of unequal exchange is evident (Senghaas 1974), in which mineral resources are bought cheaply in the countries of the South and ready-made technical goods from the North are sold back at a high price. The political scientist Compaoré demands that Africa's mineral wealth be used for the benefit of the people living there ("Mineral wealth can be garnered to benefit its people" (Compaoré 2017,5)) and calls for inclusive participation processes via the influence of civil society groups and local communities.
Economist Franklin Obeng-Odoom (2020, 2021) analyzes the same phenomenon in terms of land privatization and African land grabbing, where people are evicted from their land where they have lived and farmed for generations or got there into servitude by the landowners. He calls the privatization of communally owned land under colonial and post-co-lonial processes and structures the "tragedy of the commons" and calls for decolonization of land on a large scale. By this he does not mean the nationalization of land but its socialization, i.e. an appropriate share in the profits and land rights for those who work and produce there and organize themselves. Obeng-Odoom emphasizes the importance of dealing with land in the analysis of social relations and capitalist economy, but also for the people themselves:
"... land is not capital as in the conventional sense and land is not one thing, but rights and interests. It is, for many people, identity, another name for nature or spirit. Land is power." (Obeng-Odoom 2021)
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The negative consequences of greed are not only evident in relation to poorer societies, but also permeate richer societies in a brutal and destructive way, especially with regard to the production of weapons. Every year in the U.S., people the size of a medium-sized city are killed with firearms. The murders of students and teachers in U.S. schools are a frightening illustration of how the gun industry can get its way and how hurdles to gun acquisition are kept low through lobbying, buying top politicians, and generous campaign contributions to those in power.
The political scientists Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen (2017) point out that this form of collective Western greed and especially the structure of needs of the ruling and profiting elites is embedded in an imperial way of life. Imperial ways of life are based on a mentality that assumes that one part of the global society is entitled to live off the resources, such as labor and mineral resources, of the other part. It is taken for granted by the profiteers that their good life can be made possible by the bad life of the others. Waste of resources, environmental pollution and climate destruction are accepted for their own standard of living. However, the negative effects are to a large extent externalized, i.e. left to the poorer parts of the world. This is anchored as a hegemonic consensus in the societies of the global North in particular, but also in the thinking of the profiting and often corrupt elites of the global South:
"The imperial way of life is an essential moment in the reproduction of capitalist societies. It is produced through discourses and world events, is consolidated in practices and institutions, and is the result of social struggles in civil society and in the state. It is based on inequality, power and domination, sometimes on violence, which are simultaneously producted by it. It is not external to subjects. Rather, it brings forth subjects in their everyday minds (...), normalizes them, and at the same time makes them capable of acting: as women and men, as utility-maximizing individuals who feel superior to others, as striving for certain forms of the good life." (Brand/ Wissen 2017, 45)
This then also means that greed and imperial lifestyles are not a detached psychological construct or lifestyle element, but are anchored in the structural conditions of producing and the commodity character of the produced products. To accumulate and consume as much as possible is a characteristic of the capitalist social system. To own more and more, to increase the rate of profit, to maximize property and to achieve speculative profits are behaviors that are immanent to the system and an expression of a generally accepted capitalist consensus on values that is reinforced by the media.
Hegemony in this sense means not only that manifest pressure of domination is used to stabilize the prevailing conditions, but also that a latent manipulation of people takes place. Those ruling strata that profit excessively from unrestrained economic growth in the global North, but also in times of crisis in times of recession, succeed in anchoring a consciousness, even in the middle classes down to the socially graded strata, that capitalism, the pursuit of profit, the depletion of nature, consumerism, low wages and an unconditional orientation toward economic growth are irrevocable variables. In this sense, Alexander Behr (2022, 57) analyzes:
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"This leads to the fact that relevant parts of the population agree with the prevailing conditions and perceive them as having no alternative. Endless economic growth, the exploitation of people and nature, and the constant development of new consumer goods are seen as guarantees of welfare, prosperity and security. There is a wide-ranging social consensus on the level of consumption to aim for: it is considered desirable and normal for a middle-class family to own one or more cars, to regularly buy new clothes for fashion reasons or to fly on vacation. Those who do not do this generally lack the means to do so - only a minority reduce their own level of consumption of their own free will."
An example of economic greed: Cargill - "the worst company in the world" (Mighty Earth)
Cargill Incorporated is a multinational company headquartered in Minnesota, USA, whose global sales increased from USD 113.5 billion in 2019 to USD 177 billion in 2023. (28) Descendants of the founding Cargill and MacMillan families own about 85 percent of the company. The Cargill Group offers various products and services related to food production and marketing:
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Cargill Incorporated ·
" · grows cotton, wheat, oilseeds, corn, barley, as well as millet, and sells, transports, stores and processes the raw materials.
· manufactures feeds (and additives) for cattle, swine, poultry and fish, advises U.S. farmers and provides risk management services worldwide;
· is the world's largest producer of ground beef and ready-to-fry hamburgers; one of its main customers is McDonald's, for which Cargill also produces Chicken McNuggets; ·
· produces manufactures food products such as cocoa and chocolate, glazes and fillings, tortillas, salt, oils and fats, sweeteners, meat and egg products, and highly processed products;
· Manufactures food additives such as starches, proteins, emulsifiers, pectins, carrageenans, lecithins and other chemical products; produces coatings for pans and baking sheets, additives for cosmetics, road surfacing, biofuels, road salt and deicing agents." (29)
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Furthermore, Cargill is involved in financial services and provides, among other things, a hedge fund ('Black River Asset Management') that owns over ten billion dollars in assets.
The general public and consumers are hardly aware of this company, as it is not named as a supplier on the products. Products from Cargill are in numerous foodstuffs without this being apparent.
The NGO Mighty Earth has now taken a critical look at this multinational company, which by now has around 160,000 (2023) employees in 70 countries. The former congressman and current chairman of Mighty Earth, Henry Waxman, is making a comprehensive indictment of what he sees as an extremely money-grubbing and immoral company:
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"The people who have been sickened or died from eating contaminated Cargill meat, the child laborers who grow the cocoa Cargill sells for the world's chocolate, the Midwesterners who drink water polluted by Cargill, the Indigenous People displaced by vast deforestation to make way for Cargill's animal feed, and the ordinary consumers who've paid more to put food on the dinner table because of Cargill's financial malfeasance - all have felt the impact of this agribusiness giant. Their lives are worse for having come into contact with Cargill." (30)
Cargill has repeatedly been known for selling low-quality and infected meat, finances the destruction of rainforests, e.g. in Brazil or in Bolivia, for soy cultivation and cattle pastures, engages in 'land grabbing' on a large scale, and sources products, e.g. cocoa beans, from African plantations that exploit kidnapped child slaves. (31)
A leading human rights organization (International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF)) accused various corporations, including Cargill, of massive violations of children's rights as early as 2005:
"A leading human rights organization and reputable civil rights firm filed suit against the Nestlé, Archer Daniels Midland, and Cargill companies today in Federal District Court in Los Angeles. The complaint alleges their involvement in the trafficking, torture, and forced labor of children who cultivate and harvest cocoa beans which the companies import from Africa. The suit was brought under two federal statutes, the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act." (32)
In the United States, Cargill has also been sued several times for violating clean air laws.
Cargill, which makes billions in profits, is a multinational agricultural corporation that Mighty Earth believes is responsible for destroying ecologically intact regions and turning them into monocultural and chemically devastated areas:
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"Cargill is America's largest privately-owned company, surpassing the second place Koch Brothers by billions of dollars in annual revenues. Cargill is the corporate behemoth at the nexus of the global industrial agriculture system, a system that it has designed to convert large swaths of the planet into chemically dependent industrial scale monocultures to produce cheap meat, palm oil, and chocolate." (33)
International economic regimes, such as the Washington Consensus, but also intergovernmental economic agreements would facilitate such corporations' unhindered anti-environmental and anti-human corporate activities. In particular, corporate rights of action under bilateral treaties ensure the unrestrained investment activities of large corporations. Instead of regulating and controlling these corporations, the world is left to their free use. There is a destructive economic understanding of freedom behind this, which in its structural safeguarding ensures that multinational corporations are the winners of globalization and that the majority of people and their natural living conditions are globalization losers. This dynamic will continue to increase as long as the global balance of power is not drastically changed and no socio-economic transformation toward a complex reorganization is achieved that is wanted and supported by the majority of people.
Conclusion: Unbridled greed for profit is an expression of destructive economic and political orders in the interest of the rich and powerful. Colonial structures that served the expansion of power and the maximization of profits of the global North find their extension and modification in the global structures of order of the postcolonial era.
Due to their systemic tendency to self-destruction, such private economic orders, which can be described as capitalist, repeatedly end up, after seemingly stable phases, in enormous crisis developments, which particularly affect the poorer parts of society.
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Investments in value creation through production and services are increasingly being replaced by the speculative use of financial resources on the international financial markets. Huge speculative bubbles are being created that no longer bear any relation to real value creation. The bursting of these bubbles can destroy still functioning orders and destroy the existence of millions of people. If this has a particularly negative impact on the poorest countries in the global South, it can be assumed that the distribution struggles will intensify there and that poverty migration will increase.
The trend toward ever greater multinational corporate concentrations is leading to extra-parliamentary economic countervailing powers that have a massive influence on decisions made by governments and other institutions. Using the example of the multinational corporation Cargill, the damages of such corporate activities in the ecological, political and human rights fields were outlined, as recorded and criticized by the international NGO Mighty Earth.
But a counter-hegemonic power is also growing against the economic and political power of the corporations . The resistance and protests against neoliberalization in the form of the attempt to install problematic free trade agreements (MAI, TTIP, CETA, MERCOSUR ...) show corporate activities their limits and let the possibilities of a social reorganization shine through in the tangible transformation process.
In this sense, Brand/ Wissen (2017, 15) also summarize:
"The imperial way of life is based on exclusivity; it can only sustain itself as long as it has an outside to which it can shift its costs. This outside is dwindling, however, as more and more economies access it, and fewer and fewer people are willing or able to bear the costs of externalization processes. The imperial way of life thus becomes a victim of its own attractiveness and generalization."
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1.1.2 Resistance to neoliberal market radicalism
1.1.2.1 The Protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO)
The 1999 World Trade Conference organized by the WTO in Seattle (34) on the northwest coast of the United States was initially accompanied by peaceful rallies and demonstrations with some 50,000 participants who came from a wide variety of backgrounds and world regions:
"It is a colorful crowd that defies the world's powerful on this rainy morning: The demonstrators, nearly 50,000 in all, have costumed themselves as turtles or butterflies or invoke the 'protest of the century' on raincoats. Farmers from the U.S. Midwest are there, as are rainforest protectors from France, Greenpeace activists from Latin America and Chinese fighting for Tibet's freedom. Pupils and students chant the name of that organization, which some, by their own admission, did not even know recently: 'Hey, hey, ho, WTO has to go!' Away with the World Trade Organization!" (35)
Then, however, the previously peaceful protests by various globalization-critical NGOs, including numerous trade unionists, and committed individuals on the part of some militant critics of world trade relations turned violent. They attacked delegates, blocked roads and smashed windows, including those of McDonalds and Nike. However, as is so often the case, this was a small minority who did not heed the organizers' call to protest nonviolently and creatively. The scale of the violent actions was subsequently exaggerated in media coverage, but led to increased attention in the world press and on television news programs.
The mayor of Seattle imposed a nighttime curfew on the downtown area. The governor of Washington state then declared a state of emergency, and a perimeter around the convention center was ordered. The National Guard and state police were also called in, and their deployment led to attacks even on peaceful demonstrators. (36)
The opening ceremony of the WTO summit had to be canceled because the safety of the delegates could not be guaranteed. (37) Press conferences and first WTO meetings could not take place due to the blockade of the ministry building. People had chained themselves together in the entrances of the conference building.
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The political motivation for participating in the protests varied widely, ranging from views that saw the liberalization of world trade as affecting national concerns, to criticism of the lack of transparency in WTO decision-making processes, to much more radical analyses that opposed world capitalism and the international domination of giant corporations in principle, but not globalized conditions in principle - according to the more socialist-oriented opponents of WTO activities:
"The development of a political movement against global capitalism requires above all a conscious recognition that capitalism, and not the increasingly global character of modern society, is the real enemy. Capitalist globalization - that is, the subordination of people to the profit interests of a few hundred giant transnational corporations - cannot be fought by turning to a historically outmoded system of relatively isolated and uncoordinated economies." (38)
In Seattle, the successful resistance against the 'Multilateral Agreement on Investment' (MAI) was continued. Almost unnoticed by world public opinion, attempts had been made in previous years on the part of the OECD to establish investment protection for multinational corporations even beyond the borders of the OECD. This would have meant, for example, that multinational corporations could sue a national government for damages before the controversial international arbitration tribunals that undermine state sovereignty if their investments, for example in fracking, were impeded by environmental laws of a nation state. Through the determined resistance and international public relations work of various NGOs, including the consumer protection organization 'Publican Citizen' founded by Ralph Nader, it was possible to successfully fight this corporate request in 1998, which later sought to find a way back into bilateral treaties. (39) (40)
One of the participants in the Seattle WTO protests described the creativity of forms of resistance not seen in this form in previous protests:
"One of the most remarkable aspects of this action was the presence of art, theater, dance and poetry: a true celebration of resistance. The demos were broken up with giant puppets, costumes (including 240 sea turtles), beautiful banners, stilt walkers, singers, dancers, rappers, and the street theater (coordinated by Bread and Puppet Theater) was the most professional and effective I've ever seen. People could even view art from the air: after several smaller demos before Nov. 30, an artist helped people form letters with their bodies so that the words 'Rise Up' could be read from above." (41)
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The protests in Seattle caused considerable disruption to the WTO conference, which was ultimately unable to realize its economic policy goals in Seattle. Above all, however, they brought the World Trade Organization and its neoliberal approach to international economic policy into the focus of a broader world public for the first time. People around the world now began to consider what impact the world trade agreements supported by the WTO and the liberalization of world trade would have on the development of poorer regions of the world as well as the environment.
For political scientist Ulrich Brand, the WTO protests in Seattle were an expression of continuing and intensifying counter-hegemonic movements - according to Brand (2005b, 100):
"'Seattle' was a first international crystallization point of social movements after years of political paralysis. While the protests in the 1980s against the World Bank and IMF were carried by the metropolitan solidarity movement and were primarily directed against neoliberal structural adjustment programs in peripheral countries, today the initiatives are truly acting globally."
1.1.2.2 Occupy Wall Street
The anti-capitalist movement 'Occupy Wall Street' (OWS) emerged in September 2011 as a site occupation with tents in New York's Zuccoti Park, directly adjacent to Wall Street, in clear reference to square occupations in the wake of the 'Arab Spring'. Moreover, the global economic and financial crisis that had occurred earlier was an important backdrop for the OWS protests. The start of the Occupy movement was made possible by the interaction of various groups and social networks in the media, such as the consumer-critical Canadian magazine 'Adbusters' or the hacker collective 'Anonymous', which called for participation in the globalization-critical square occupation. The political intention was directed in particular against the activities of international finance capital.
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A separate (contested) Twitter account @OccupyWallStNYC was also set up, which was used to communicate with great broad impact. The OWS movement sees itself as a grassroots, multicultural, peaceful movement critical of capitalism:
"Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants." (42)
The site occupation in New York led to other occupations in the United States, e.g. in Portland and Oakland, and also abroad, e.g. in Frankfurt in front of the European Central Bank building or in Hamburg in front of the HSH Nordbank building. In London, there were sit-ins at various locations. In Rome, about 150,000 people demonstrated in October 2011. In Spain, the grassroots movement 'I Democracia real ya!' ('Real Democracy Now!') supported the OPW protests called for worldwide on Oct. 15, 2011. Several million participants demonstrated in 82 countries and 911 cities. (43)
Accompanying demonstrations also took place in New York, partly supported by various trade unions. Access to the New York Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs was blocked, leading to clashes with the New York police and arrests.
The square occupants administered themselves horizontally, i.e., renouncing hierarchies. Daily meetings with speeches and consultations took place on 'Liberty Plaza', which was renamed to its original name. Demands were posted on occupywallst.org or published in the 'Occupied Wallstreet Journal'. Numerous celebrities, such as Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Naomi Klein, Josef E. Stiglitz, Noam Chomsky and Immanuel Wallerstein, supported OWS, gave speeches, publicly expressed their solidarity. The statement "We are the 99 percent." became the slogan of OWS.
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The political demands of OWS are not uniform; although they tend to be anti-capitalist, they are characterized by a broad spectrum of socialist to anarchist criticism of the excesses of financial capitalism. In this context, calls for regulation of the banking system, taxes on the rich, and speculation taxes have in particular been raised repeatedly. In the manifesto posted in 2011, the following summarizing self-image can be found:
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"We are peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to make known the following facts.... They have used illegal foreclosure measures to take our homes from us without having the original mortgage. They have allowed themselves to be bought out by taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give their managers exorbitant bonuses ... They have granted huge sums of money to politicians responsible for regulating them (...) They continue to perpetuate inequality and discrimination in the workplace, by age, color, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation (...) They have contaminated the food supply with their negligence and undermined agriculture through monopolization. They have made profit by torturing, caging, and cruelly treating countless animals, and they deliberately conceal these practices as well. They have deliberately not taken back life-threatening defective products in their pursuit of profit (...) They continually try to deprive workers of their right to negotiate wages and improve their working conditions. They have consistently moved jobs offshore, using that as leverage to cut workers' pay and health care (...) They have sold our private lives as commodities (...) The list could go on and on (...)" (44)
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In the winter of 2011/12, the actual Occupy movement died down, and the tents of the protestors, who became fewer in the winter, were also cleared away by the police. The last Occupy tent camp disappeared in Tel Aviv in 2014. However, there were numerous globalization-critical follow-up projects, and important contacts had been made in the course of the OWS movement that led to further networking and cooperation. (45) The social media accounts of OWS continued to be used. (46)
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Similar to the consequences of the 1968 movement, the young people shaped by OWS will make their way through the public institutions, through the parties and NGOs and bring their experiences into the new work contexts and into their political engagement. Even if such movements are only present in the world public sphere for a while and dissolve in their organizational idiosyncrasy, their influence is not lost - according to the German journalist and author Caroline von Eichhorn (2016):
"Activists from the origional camp in New York's Zuccotti Park, for example, are involved in the 'Debt Collective,' an organization that highlights how many people are suffering from debt and organizes strikes or other actions against it. Many of the ideas of the '99 percent' are channeling themselves back to where they were before and during Occupy: in politics. As with Bernie Sanders, who ran for the Democratic Party as a candidate for the U.S. presidential nomination. As with the Occupy-inspired parties Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece."
1.1.2.3 G20 protests in Hamburg
The G20 protests in Hamburg in July 2017, which became known in particular for the violent excesses in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel, referred to a G20 summit in the Hanseatic city. The G20 centers on the economically strongest and politically most influential industrialized and emerging countries and the EU. (47) The G20 countries represent 85% of global economic output and three quarters of world trade. (48)
In the self-image of one of the key players in the G20, the Federal Republic of Germany, the G20 summits of the heads of government as well as the meetings of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors which take place several times a year, constitute an important regulatory instrument and an effective way of combating global economic crises - as can be read on the homepage of the German Federal Ministry of Finance:
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"The G20 has existed since 1999 and became the most important forum for economic policy coordination at the global level during the 2008/09 financial crisis. Today, the G20 is the most important forum for international governance and regulation. G20 cooperation has been instrumental in stabilizing economies and financial markets in the aftermath of the 2008/09 crisis. To this day, the consequences of the crisis continue to shape the work of the G20. Increasingly, however, it is also about working together in a forward-looking way to avoid potential new crises, learn from experience and make economies more resilient." (49)
The topics negotiated at the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg included the partnership with African countries, displacement, migration and flight, climate protection, women's rights, tax justice, digitization and the UN Development Goals 2030. On the one hand, the G20 countries declared their support for free trade and opposed nation-state economic protectionism. On the other hand, the Unites States were claiming to take protectionist measures to protect its economy. While climate protection is usually defined in terms of strengthening renewable energy production, the United States also emphasized at the summit that it wanted to convince other countries of the 'clean' use of coal, oil and gas. Also, at the time, under the Trump administration, the U.S. reaffirmed its desire to withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which was clearly supported by the other G20 countries, including China and Russia. (50)
From the point of view of organizations such as ATTAC, Campact or Greenpeace, the criticism of the G20 states centers on the lack of contribution of these states to the elimination of global social injustice, the connection between economic growth, resource exploitation and environmental pollution, and the support of free trade agreements that would especially serve corporate interests.
On July 5/6, 2017, a counter-summit was organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, ATTAC and BUND, focusing on the question of a different economic system that would eliminate poverty and social inequality. At this counter-summit 70 events took place, in which about 1500 interested people participated. On the eve of the summit, a concert for solidarity with poorer regions of the world 'Global Citizen Festival' was held with 12,000 listeners. The announced large demonstration with several 10,000 participants under the motto 'Borderless Solidarity instead of G20' at the end of the summit was peaceful. However, during the days of the summit itself, especially on July 7/8, war-like scenes took place in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel district in the course of the protests against the G20 summit, some of which continued for the next four days. Ongoing clashes between special police units and those prepared to use violence led to a spiral of violence that got out of control. Police officers were attacked with Molotov cocktails, with slingshots and iron bars. About 200 police officers were injured. Burning barricades were set up in the streets. Fires were set by black-clad and masked or hooded protesters. Sporadic looting of stores took place, cars were set on fire. Water cannons, batons and pepper spray were used by the police. Several hundred people were arrested.
Some original eyewitness accounts of the events:
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"In the afternoon, it still seemed like a street party in many places. On the Reeperbahn, people sat in front of the stores and drank; perhaps also to protect their businesses. Only towards the evening it escalated again and again. Especially at the hot spots around Fischmarkt, Messehalle, Sternschanze, Reeperbahn and Hafenstraße."
"As we were walking along Schanzenstraße, a man with an iPad ran towards us. Then we saw that an Apple store was being looted. A woman was desperately trying to hold the door shut, shouting, 'You call yourselves anti-capitalists? What a load of shit!'"
"You could tell a lot of the police officers were overtired and scared. It just sucked for everyone involved."
"In the afternoon, everything was relatively peaceful. It was only around 7 p.m. that the mood on the Schulterblatt escalated to pure aggression. It was absolutely no longer about politics there, but only about the discharge of violence and frustration. This was not a critique of capitalism. Many of the people were very young, maybe 14 or 15, 20 at the most. They seemed to use the opportunity to fuck up without consequences. In between, the militant bloc set fires and destroyed shop windows. Since many were completely dressed in black and hooded, you often couldn't tell who belonged to whom." (51)
With regard to the protest against the G20 summit in Hamburg, the media focus was primarily on the violent riots in the Schanzen district. Here, the problem of violent riots in the context of peaceful protests becomes fully apparent:
· The peaceful, discursive and creative part of the majority's forms of protest receives less attention and becomes marginal in the case of violent riots by a minority. This, therefore, offers interested media the opportunity to distract from the actual globalization-critical concerns of the majority of demonstrators by showing mainly spectacular scenes of violence that disparage the entire movement.
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· Violent protest reveals the pent-up anger in the face of many governments' inability or unwillingness to solve problems of social injustice on a global scale, to take the necessary steps to secure peace and to implement effective climate policies. On the other hand, the inability to contribute to peaceful problem-solving approaches is also evident on the part of the violent protesters. Resistance and protest should, in my opinion, already show the new quality of a future form of society. This is not to be seen in throwing Molotov cocktails, setting cars on fire, looting stores or throwing stones at policemen. Such a form of resistance is in its own way similarly inhumane as the violence of worldwide structures of inequality and in its effect counterproductive and to be rejected.
Due to the intensemedia coverage, the fundamental criticism of this form of G diplomacy is overlooked. It is true that organizations such as the African Union (AU), the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) are invited to the G20 summits. Yet they have no voting rights. Most countries - notably all African countries except South Africa - are excluded from G diplomacy - be it G7/G8 or G20 - and have to accept what is decided without them. The right place for such discussions and decision-making processes, however, would be in the competent bodies of the United Nations - provided that a democratic and transparent place for such processes would be created here in the future. (52)
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Easter march: Peace activist and singer Joan Baez with friends at the Easter march 1966
Occupy Wallstreet: Protests against financial speculation with great public impact.
1.2 Political crises: Crisis of the United Nations, retreat of democracies and return of authoritarian rule
Thomas Hobbes' famous saying "Homo homini lupus est" [53] is in line with the assessment of international relations in realism theories, which is based on the predator mentality of states that would attack each other in a chaotic and unguided world political situation, i.e. without an overarching regulating hand. As a consequence, all states would then have to arm themselves ad infinitum in mutual competition in order to be able to defeat other states classified as dangerous. Hobbes' solution to ending the chaotic state within a society was a strong ruler or state power that would end the "bellum omnium contra omnes"-"war of all against all." If one transfers this assessment to international conditions, a strong central power on the world political level would have to be demanded, to which all states would submit by treaty. However, this demand would contradict the principle of sovereignty of the nation-state, which is still dominantly anchored in the Charter of the United Nations and which grants the UN only limited possibilities for action. Moreover, this could only be legitimized in a justifiable way if the UN decision-making structures actually met democratic requirements.
United Nations – expectations and reality
From its founding conception, the United Nations Organization (UNO) was indeed to become the guiding power of international relations, within the framework of which justifiable compromises in conflict situations were to be found through international negotiation processes by diplomatic means. This would then correspond to the approach of the theory of institutionalism, which assumed an institutionalized reconciliation of interests at the international level - as in the preamble to the UN Charter:
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WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, AND FOR THESE ENDS to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS. [54]
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The increase in wars of various forms, the climate catastrophe, worldwide inequality in the distribution of property and wealth, hunger in the world, but also the need to combat pandemics require a strong, democratically organized and efficient UN that safeguards the interests of all peoples. However, the UN - according to the thesis to be substantiated further on - due to its undemocratic and oligarchic organizational structure, serves above all the enforcement of the interests of the nuclear weapon states represented as five permanent members in the Security Council, which clearly contradicts the principles laid down in the Charter Preamble.
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The UN General Assembly represents almost all states and should actually constitute the central decision-making power. But a key feature of the UN's democratic deficit is already inherent in the recruitment of the Assembly's members: The members of the UN General Assembly are not democratically elected delegates, but diplomatic officials of the individual nations who are subject to instructions. The world policy decisions of the UN General Assembly are furthermore only recommendatory. Such decisions and resolutions of the UN General Assembly are not valid under international law.
The Security Council, and above all the permanent members with veto power, is the real body of power, without the USA, Russia, the PR China, Great Britain and France having a democratic legitimizing mandate. Their power is fixed and results from the outcome of the Second World War as the victorious powers. Because of its veto power, the Security Council is often blocked on controversial issues and unable to make decisions, since there is yet no universalist orientation, but rather the orientation of UN policy to national geostrategic interests. In addition, the UN Security Council is not representative, i.e., large nations, such as India or Brazil, are often not represented. [55]
The political scientists James Cockayne (UK) and Christoph Mikulaschek (US) see the silo character of separate institutional areas and the institutional turf wars between the different institutions as a major cause for the UN's lack of efficiency in solving transnational problems. They refer to the revalry between the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council in the fight against international terrorism:
„An example of the challenges of overcoming these institutional barriers to improved response to transnational security challenges is counterterrorism. The twenty-four different parts of the UN system engaged in counterterrorism have repeatedly been the subject of structural reform proposals. While the coordination and cooperation among the counterterrorism bodies has recently improved, none of the far-reaching structural reform proposals has been implemented thus far. One of the reasons underlying the structural reform deadlock is an ongoing struggle between the Security Council and the General Assembly over control of the UN’s counterterrorism program. Only when such turf wars can be resolved will the UN improve its capacity to respond to transnational security challenges.“ (Cockayne/Mikulaschek 2008, 4)
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Furthermore, the principle of nation-state sovereignty and the associated policy of non-interference in internal affairs leave it up to individual nations or their governments to decide whether to respect human rights or to suppress their populations. All attempts so far have failed to reform the UN Charter clearly in line with the hitherto controversial 'responsibility to protect'. There is still no universally recognized mandate under international law for the UN to intervene in cases of massive human rights violations, for example, with regard to the right to liberty and the right to physical integrity, which should take priority over everything else. There is also no UN mandate to intervene in internal national affairs against the destruction of ecological resources that are indispensable for mankind, e.g. with regard to the rain forests, in the case of the lack of precautions against the spread of viruses that endanger humanity, or even against the vote of an oppressing, endangering or destroying national government.
Moreover, the fact that the U.S. is the largest donor to the United Nations is not likely to be helpful to a reorientation of the UN. 22% of the UN's core budget comes from the United States [56], which also uses its money to pursue its own policies, for example, by the withdrawal of U.S. UNESCO funds in the event of a decision taken against U.S. interests [57] or the cancellation of funds for UN actions against climate change.
It is doubtful whether the United Nations on the basis of its current constitution and the structural demcratic deficits can still be regarded as a serious actor within the framework of an effective peace and security architecture with a conflict-preventive function, as stipulated in Article 1 of the UN Charter. [58]
Only a radical democratic reform of the UN and the associated reorganization of international relations within the framework of the United Nations can counteract this. [59]
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Article 1 of the UN Charter
“The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.” [60]
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The United Nations is also increasingly being undermined by regional alliances, e.g. in the case of the Syrian war, Russia an Turkey, and the 'club governance' (G 7/8 or G 20), in which influential states become independent and do not adhere to the principles of the UN Charter or thwart the ability of other states to exert influence.
In this context, the long-time UN rapporteur and journalist Andreas Zumach objects to speaking of the UN as a single actor operating as one person. This ignores the fact that the United Nations consists of a multitude of nation-state actors who - with varying degrees of weight - try to assert their interests. - Zumach (2021, 14):
"In fact, member states determine the UN's actions. Whether the UN takes care of a problem at all or not, whether it succeeds or fails in doing so - that is always the result of the interests of member states, which either prevail or do not prevail in the decisions of the Security Council, the General Assembly or other bodies and institutions of the UN system. However, member states with high political, economic, and military power particularly often prevail and
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determine the UN's actions. This fact, together with the fact that some of these predominant member states, especially the United States, have broken the UN Charter and other provisions of international law in a particularly flagrant manner in recent years, without these violations having any consequences, has now led many long-time supporters of the UN to resign themselves to the point of cynicism."
However, contrary to this resigned turning away from the UN, in the course of his book, Zumach argues - in view of the UN's quite observable peace policy achievements over the past 75 years - for a structural reform of the UN and a consistent democratization of the United Nations.
In my opinion, the interests of the Global South, as diverse as they are, should also be given greater consideration. Even if the USA does not want to realize it, international politics is on the way to a multipolar structure. The Global South is well aware of its colonial past and the post-colonial structure that is still at work in this historical background. This historical context is also reflected in the balance of power in the UN Security Council, in which not a single state from the Global South is a member of the circle of permanent members endowed with power. Although the Global South is courted by the Global North, China and the Russian Federation primarily because of its natural resources, world trade and international decision-making structures speak a different language. However, according to political scientists Johannes Plagemann and Henrik Maihack
(2023, 23), who are experienced in working in African states in particular, there are considerable opportunities in an understanding, respectful and cooperative consideration of the Global South:
"A better understanding of the differences in the perception of international politics between the Global South and the West becomes more urgent the more the West loses its dominance. In a multipolar world, the human challenge of the climate crisis cannot be solved by the West alone. New political alliances between the global North and South will be necessary to solve global crises. Especially as a multipolar world at least offers the potential for a more equal and therefore more democratic international order. This is also in the long-term interests of German and European foreign policy. We need to better understand how the countries of the Global South view international politics, because it is worthwhile. Where we have so far mainly seen risks, there are actually opportunities."
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"The future belongs to patriots" - or the past?
Former and later reelected U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2019 at the 74th UN General Assembly also made clear the deliberate weakening of the UN in a national-chauvinistic manner. Trump dared to deny the representatives of the United Nations their legitimacy in the sense of a multilateral community of understanding by stating:
"If you want freedom, take pride in your country," Trump continued, "If you want Democracy, hold on to your sovereignty. If you want peace, love your nation. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first." And: "The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots." [61]
Here he repeated his provocative statement, made before the UN, that the future does not belong to global citizenship but to nation-state patriots. Democracy can only be maintained within the nation-state framework. Only people who love their nation automatically contribute to peace in the world. It would be impossible to express more clearly that history is forgotten. National-patriotic attitudes and nationalistically fed emotions have always been a reason and a mass-psychologically produced motivation for interstate wars.
Trump equalised cleverness in political leadership with national chauvinism of political leaders, in his case with "America first." The fact that Trump could allow himself to do this as U.S. president before the United Nations is an expression of the currently observable weakening of the United Nations, which cannot effectively defend itself against such a mockery of its own rights with regard to multilateralism and international understanding.
Nation-state democracy is also in crisis
However, it is not only at the level of the United Nations that democratic deficits can be observed; numerous nation-states that previously considered themselves democratic are also in crisis.
Several decades ago, the German social scientist Tilman Evers (1991, 3f.) correctly criticized the democratic deficit of traditionally representative democracies:
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"These include disenchantment with politics and a loss of trust among the population, focusing political content on election dates and media publicity, ignoring longer-term and programmatically 'cross-cutting' issues, party discipline instead of openness to discussion and learning, hierarchical internal structures and patronage of offices, undermining parliament in favor of the executive branch, and asserting competence instead of solving problems."
British social scientist Colin Crouch first published his widespread essay on post-democracy [9] in 2004. According to Crouch, Western democracies are on the way to a post-democratic state in which democracy exists only formally. Democracy, he said, is primarily organized formally through elections, in which decisions are made primarily on what PR agencies advising the parties consider relevant. The state increasingly refrains from intervening in the economy and leaves the essential social decisions to the economy and the profiteering elites behind it. Since national democracies had hardly evolved any further and were incapable of international cooperation, the international interdependence of corporations continued to develop in the course of advanced globalization:
"I am not saying that democracy no longer exists. But I am saying that we are moving toward a condition I call post-democracy. By this I mean a situation in which all the institutions of democracy continue to exist - and are even strengthened in some cases - but at the same time the political energy has been drained out of them. They are nothing but empty shells. (...) The problems facing politics today - whether environmental protection, the scarcity of resources, control over the globalized economy - can no longer be grasped with the instruments of national democracy. It simply doesn't work anymore, it's pointless. The result is a frustration that leads to a loss of political energy." (Crouch 2008)
Democracy in an ideal sense as a participatory form of politics hardly takes place in the representative political system anymore, but rather appears in social movements and non-governmental organizations, which are still most likely offering resistance against the concentrated power of the corporations. Crouch does not yet see the stage of post-democracy reached, but he thinks that the Western democracies are on the way to a post-democracy and he critically questions the current development:
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"The question is: Do we see democracy only as a formal process of elections from which heads of government emerge? Or do we also see it as a culture of debate, of permissible criticism, of civil rights and concern about inequality of all kinds? The latter might be difficult." (Crouch 2008)
Of course, one must ask whether all Western democracies can be viewed in this undifferentiated way or whether one should not distinguish between individual political systems. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that representative democracy has a participation problem that can lead to a lack of identification with democracy as a system.
In this context, it is therefore necessary to discuss the need to find a sensible balance between forms of representative democracy and elements of direct democracy, such as citizens' petitions, appeals and referendums.
However, if forms of direct democracy become too powerful, they devalue democratic elections, elected parliaments and their representatives. The question also arises as to whether referendums always lead to better political solutions or whether they might lead to questionable decisions in case of manipulation, agitation and demagogy. If, on the other hand, direct democracy takes place only with high hurdles or as an alibi, citizens often feel left out and left behind between elections. This is a missed opportunity for democratic activation and participation.
These considerations on the lack of balance between direct and indirect forms of democracy can also be applied to the United Nations. Here, too, there is a deficit of co-determination opportunities for the world's citizens on a global level.
Due to the lack of opportunities for co-determination, the aloofness of many parliamentarians and dissatisfaction with many parliamentary decisions, a creeping disenchantment with politics has developed in many predominantly representative democracies in recent decades, combined with a tendency to vote for right-wing populist parties and politicians.
In these democracies, such as Germany, Japan or France, there has been little change in recent years – apart from the temporary restrictions of fundamental rights due to the Corona pandemic. There have been drastic changes, however, in a number of former representative democracies that are clearly moving in the direction of an autocratic form of government, such as Turkey, the Philippines, Hungary and Russia. With the re-election of Trump as US President and the measures taken by his government to restrict freedom of expression, the USA also seems to be on this path. Other states that could never be described as democratic, such as China, are increasingly expanding digital control over their citizens and are entering the state development phase of a digital autocracy.
The Transformation Index (BTI) of the Bertelsmann Foundation which has been compiled for 129 developing and emerging countries since 2006, shows a decline in democratic structures and an increase in national autocracies:
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"More and more people are living not only in less equal, but also in more repressive environments. At the present time, 3.3 billion people are governed autocratically (4.2 billion democratically) which is the highest number since the study began. Of the 129 countries studied, the BTI classifies 58 as autocracies and 71 as democracies. But it is not so much the slight increase in the number of autocracies that is worrying. More problematic is the fact that civil rights are being curtailed and the rule of law undermined in an increasing number of democracies as well. Former beacons of democratization such as Brazil, Poland and Turkey are among the countries that have fallen the most in the Transformation Index". [62]
The EIU Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit Limited group also shows the same trend for 2023 compared to previous years. Less than 8% of the world's population would live in a fully-fledged democracy. In contrast, around 40% of the world's population live in authoritarian states. The other half of the world's population lives in 'flawed democracies' or hybrid systems, which only have the rudiments of democracy but are interspersed with undemocratic structures or are clearly flawed (Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2024).
Social change only through a multidimensional strengthening of democracy
Despite this currently observable retreat of democracies in the global context, the idea of democracy as a suitable social way of life and a political form of governance at both the state and transnational level should be retained. This also applies to the economy. It is precisely here that the existing democratic deficit is also present - even in those states that are still largely classified as democratic.
Only in democracies can human rights, such as freedom of opinion and expression, be realized. Only in democracies democratically committed people do not have to live in fear of being arrested the next morning after taking part in a demonstration. Only in democracies can the will and the needs of different segments of the population be adequately taken into account in participation procedures and political compromises.
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Neither right-wing populist legitimized and autocratic forms of rule nor traditionally left-wing ideas of an authoritarian socialist state in transition to communism ('dictatorship of the proletariat') are suitable to cope with the present and future problems of human and social development. Only through further democratization in the national, regional and global context, a social change towards more peace and less wars can be achieved. Here we must agree with the approach of the liberalism theory of international relations, which assumes, among other things, that states which have succeeded in peacefully and democratically settling their differences of interest and conflicts are also more inclined to negotiate and compromise internationally than autocratic or dictatorship states.
Of course, capitalist social structures as well as the associated greed for profit of people have to be restrained and systemically excluded in the society so that they do not undermine democracy. In particular, the practice of neoliberalized and unleashed capitalism and the concept of democracy do not fit together. There is an obvious contradiction here between the interest (and greed) of a few very rich people and the will of the majority to live an adequate and self-determined life.
'Facade Democracy' and 'Deep State'?
Recently, it has often been criticized that democracies have degenerated into facade democracies, which can exist because they have a surveillance 'deep state' ready for those who are not fooled by this.
Typical for the contradicting connection between neoliberalized capitalism and a formal affirmation of democratic structures are first of all systemic tendencies toward sham democracies or facade democracies.
Psychologist Rainer Mausfeld (2017) describes facade democracy as follows:
"Major political decisions are increasingly determined by bodies and actors that are not subject to electorate control. So while the shell of a representative democracy appears largely formally intact, it has been almost completely stripped of its democratic core. Democracy thus no longer poses risks to the actual centers of power."
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Certainly, democracies are always threatened by emptying and erosion. They depend in particular on the political interest, commitment and civil courage of their citizens. Democracy cannot be taken for granted. Under the influence of interested circles and profiting power elites, it is in danger of degenerating into a facade democracy if its citizens lose interest in it, are socially and economically devalued, become the object of sophisticated media propaganda or do not receive the necessary educational opportunities. Then it would also be obvious to combine facade democracy with a „deep state“,which is controlled by forces acting in the background (in the depths) and largely invisible to the public. The combination of „facade democracy“ and a „deep state“ could function on the basis of subtil manipulation mechanisms of its citizens. If individual social groups were to see through the concept of facade democracy, system stability could then be guaranteed by an increasingly repressive order and an internal security architecture based on continuous control in a „deep state“ manner. [63]
Whether the Western democracies can already or still be described as 'facade democracies' and as 'deep states' in this sense depends on the outcome of the political confrontations between the engaged citizens and the political and economic 'elites' that stand by the side of the economically powerful. The outcome of these confrontations has not yet been decided. The mass protests currently taking place all over the world are showing the first effects, e.g. in the area of climate policy, until the Corona pandemic and its restrictions significantly reduced the effectiveness of the protest movements.
To describe the most developed Western democracies, such as the political systems of the Scandinavian states or of states like France, Germany or Great Britain, as ‚facade democracies‘ or as a 'deep state' - despite all the deficits that still exist - is, in my opinion, unjustified and exaggerated at present: Neither in historical comparison nor in intercultural comparison were there, and are there, more opportunities for democratic participation without fear of persecution and state threat. [64] Nevertheless, this does not mean that these states are not also threatened by systemic regression and are in need of significant systemic improvements in order to maintain or even improve their previous level of participation. These states and their populations are also under the exploitation pressure of international capital, for which the participation of citizens becomes inconvenient, for example when they protest against climate destruction or the devastation of their region for the extraction of mineral resources.
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Even if the former German Federal President Joachim Gauck belongs to a more conservative position, his assessment of democracy as a form of ruling contains life experiences in two social systems that should be appreciated:
"For I know from my own experience what it means to have no human and civil rights, no freedom of assembly and opinion, no independent courts, no self-managed interest groups, no freedom of the media. I wish young people and those who have never had to live in bondage could make a liberal democracy their inner conviction anew or again. After all, we, the citizens, are the ones who either waste freedom or defend and preserve it. Even if it is not free of defects, democracy remains the best form of government we know and the refuge and desire of the oppressed worldwide." (Gauck 2024)
Historical experience with so-called ‚real socialism‘ does not offer any meaningful social alternatives either. All societies based on real socialist state dictatorship have already been disproved many times historically, since each time they led away from the desired 'empire of freedom' and towards the realm of Stalinist or Maoist mass extermination and deprivation of freedom. No humane society can be organized through authoritarian political structures, repression and state-organized exclusion. The massive restriction of freedom will not result in freedom in social responsibility, but only oppression.
Therefore, the view should be taken here that a containment and transformation of uninhibited capitalism, a socio-ecological development of society oriented towards the common good, and a peaceful global community will only be possible through an increase in civil, economic and national as well as transnational democracy and a corresponding change in decision-making structures. [65]
In this context the question of economic participation or private ownership of the means of production must also be raised. Experience in the Soviet-style states has shown, on the one hand, that it is counterproductive and economically extremely questionable to prohibit any private ownership and any form of market-economy activity. Neither the tasks of allocation, production and distribution, nor the satisfactory supply of goods could be solved in this way in order for the needs of the people to be met. On the other hand, Western democracies are massively threatened by the economic interests of huge agglomerations of capital. In particular, multinational corporations, in conjunction with the financial capital behind them, are trying to undermine democracies and constitutional structures through their market power, lobbying, corruption and international trade agreements. This is accompanied by excessive international financial speculation, the extent of which is many times that of global economic value creation. At best, a transformed capitalism that regulates corporations, prevents market dominance by corporations, and unbundles and divides multinational corporations and legally obligates them to pursue public welfare-oriented goals and practices is compatible with actually implemented democratic political structures. It is questionable, however, whether such a form of economy, which includes small businesses, medium-sized enterprises, free-market operations on a manageable scale, downsized and partly nationalized corporations, as well as forms of solidarity-based economy and eco-communities, can still be called capitalism.
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Probably a new understanding and the terminology of 'democratic socialism', 'eco-socialism' or an 'eco-social market economy', in which a state that is still to be democratized assumes its responsibility in a regulating way, would describe this more correctly. In any case, an economy oriented toward the common good with mangeable free-market elements would fit better with a participatory democracy, which, however, would have to bring representative and direct-democratic structures into an even better balance than has generally been the case to date.
Democracy as a form of rule is in the sense of the US president Abraham Lincoln - who was assassinated in 1865 by a racist - the government of the people, by the people, for the people.[66] And this does not mean 1% of the population, but rather probably 99% of the world population.
The participation of the 99% in the successes of the economy and their participation in democracy must coincide in principle. The social spheres of the economy and the political system should be committed to democratic norms. The economic and political systems must not come into systemic contradiction with one another. If this were the case, a representative electoral democracy would increasingly become a democratic playground whose freedom would be restricted if the economy were in crisis.
1.3 Attempts at world domination and hegemony
The concept of hegemony in international relations can be understood as an extreme form of unilateral international politics by a world power that ruthlessly seeks to assert its chauvinistic and geostrategic interests, and, by the adherence to absolute state sovereignty, is radically opposed to the very basic idea of the United Nations - according to Gareis/Varwick (2014, 348):
"It thus depends heavily on the theoretical guiding principles in the states concerned whether a unilateral or multilateral strategy is seen as promising. The United Nations can only play an important role in international politics if its member states rely on multilateral strategies to deal with the problems and challenges, i.e. success for the United Nations is extremely preconditional. In the real world, it is apparent that these preconditions are not always met. Too rarely are member states willing to put the United Nations at the top of their foreign policy priorities and, more importantly, to change their understanding of the foreign policy of 'sovereign' states."
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The attempt to exercise hegemonic rule was critically analyzed in particular by Antonio Gramsci [67] and further elaborated in later political science works by contemporary authors [68]. Here, the focus is on the attempt of the capitalist West, and in particular on the geostrategic interests of the USA, to dominate world politics in a secured military manner and to use military aggression in a targeted manner in order to enforce political and economic hegemony in the global context.
This is associated with the creation of a dominant consciousness in the population of the dominant state or association of states and presented by the media, that this dominance is justified, in conformity with international law and fair. In the mainstream of these societies, this leads to identification with the hegemon and to a lack of awareness of the injustice of the hegemon's dominance. A difference is made between good states that are perceived as positive and free and states that are perceived as negative and unfree, which are demonized and devalued. Criticism of one's own statehood is undesirable here and can lead to the devaluation and exclusion of the person or group opposed to the hegemonically generated attitudes. Hegemonic rule thus takes place not only in structures but also through identifications and political attitudes.
However, this concept can also in regional hegemonic terms be applied to other actors, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Russia, which are constantly striving to expand at least their regional sphere of power and hegemonically enforce their political and economic interests there.
The extent to which the EU also wants to by military means secure regional hegemonic interests depends on the extent to which the EU sees itself as a peace power or whether it wants to participate as a global player on the military level. [69]
Within the framework of a hegemonic order of rule, an identification with mainstream concepts within society takes place, which are staged by the media and initiated by the rulers in order to create a consciousness in the population that can be rephrased as 'identification with alienation'. In the case of international dominance, this can also be rephrased as imperial consciousness. [70]
Political activist Ralph Nader also makes the social mechanism transparent by which, for example, the second Iraq war, instigated during the Bush Jr. administration and described by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as illegal under international law [71], experienced only ineffective civil society resistance:
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"When the president beats the drums of war, the dictatorial side of American politics begins to rear its ugly head. Forget democratic processes, congressional and judicial restraints, media challenge, and the facts. All of that goes out the door. It's the president, stupid - plus the clique that surrounds him and the vested interests that reflexively support him. Dissenting Americans may hold rallies in the streets, but their voice is drowned out by the bully pulpit." [72]
As examples of proxy wars of interested hegemons, the Korean War in the 1950s, the Vietnam War, the military intervention in former Yugoslavia, the Iraq War led by Bush-Junior and a military alliance, as well as the catastrophes in Afghanistan and Yemen could be mentioned as examples. These were wars that must be described as illegal and contrary to international law were staged by NATO countries, among others. [73] In all of these wars, there was no unanimous vote of the UN Security Council and no case of self-defense within the meaning of the UN Charter of an attacked nation, which could trigger an international alliance case and a UN intervention.
The war in Ukraine is a mixed form of war. On the one hand, the Russian Federation tried to implement its hegemonic ambitions over Ukraine through its military invasion. On the other hand, it is also the war of the hegemon with a global ambition, the United States, against a regional hegemon, the Russian Federation, which wants to expand its sphere of influence. Ukraine was thus caught up in the conflict of interests between two great powers that are trying to enforce their hegemonic interests - certainly with economic and geostrategic self-interests.
A corresponding propaganda with well-directed fake news, perpetrator-victim reversals and targeted manipulations should ensure the appropriate awareness of the hegemonically dominated.
After 40 years as a defensive alliance against the Warsaw Pact countries, NATO should have dissolved as a result of the disappearance of the supposed threat. The adversary had been lost. However, the actual development took a different direction, according to the political scientist and peace researcher Peter Strutynski (2008, 222f.):
"Militaries which like any other professional group have a strong need to safeguard their vested interests, reacted very creatively to the world political epochal upheaval by constructing new risks. They were in detail described in the NATO Declaration of Rome: The illegal transfer of weapons of mass destruction was among them, as were the dangers posed by terrorist attacks, the spread of crime or the disruption of supplies of vital raw materials, and the disruption of free world trade."
However, these are all predominantly military reasons for intervention, which are not legitimized by the current UN Charter.
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USA and China as descending and ascending hegemons
Currently, the U.S., as a rather economically declining hegemony, sees its position threatened, especially in relation to China. Despite the human rights situation, which must be criticized, and the restriction of democratic freedoms, China has had an enormous economic, social and political success story spanning several decades. China achieved this with a different political and economic model than the one implemented by the United States. China consists of a mixture of central government planning and control combined with free-market elements. China has been admitted to the World Trade Organization, although it has a central government with a state party that directs economic development. There is a state-approved 5-year plan and regulation of capital movements in China. At the same time, however, there is a spectrum of semi-state-owned corporations, privately-owned enterprises, and joint venture business cooperations in which Western entrepreneurs and Chinese entrepreneurs invest, produce, and market together. China now has the second-highest defense investment - after the U.S. - is building up the 'New Silk Road' international trade project, and is intensifying its global political and economic influence, including in Africa and Europe. [74]
The US is now reacting to China's increasingly important role and to its own economic decline, already in Trump's first term of office and also in 2025 in his second term, by continuing a trade war in which it unilaterally imposes protective tariffs on China on the grounds that China's exports are harming the US economy. The legitimate question is whether the subsequent escalation of reciprocal protective tariffs and trade blockades will also be the beginning of a military conflict – as Listl concluded years earlier (2019, 72f.):
"If the U.S. fails to achieve its goal to massively weaken its main strategic enemy China with its trade war in order to maintain U.S. hegemony, the next stage of escalation would be, for example, the blockade of the sea routes where China performs a large part of its foreign trade, which according to Trump is contrary to U.S. interests."
In addition, the USA is already in the process of encircling China militarily. The U.S. has established 20 military bases around China, missile systems are installed, U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines are stationed in the Pacific near China. [75] It is to be hoped that the Chinese leadership will behave more intelligently and seize the opportunities of international negotiated solutions. Diplomatic counteraction by the UN and the EU would also be required here. [76]
Nevertheless, a critical understanding of political science and sociology must not lead to a one-sided view of the different political systems. Of course, the criticism of the neo-imperialist policies of Western alliance systems and Western hegemonic intentions, is justified and can be proven with many historical examples. The CIA-led overthrow of democratically elected governments in Persia and Chile, for example, are historical evidence of this. But also the 3rd Gulf War with the illegal invasion of a military alliance of states supporting the US as well as the NATO air raids in former Yugoslavia, which were not legitimized by a UN decision, are examples of this. Likewise, a critical look must be taken at states such as the People's Republic of China and Russia. There, too, the connection between social condition inside a state and military aggression by this state must be addressed without illusions.
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Here, the focus is on attempts at regional hegemony and military aggression, such as Russia's actions in Ukraine or Syria. According to Amnesty International – there is evidence that Russian warplanes have bombed hospitals, markets and mosques in Syria. [77] The Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 and beyond was waged as ruthlessly as Russia's attacks in Chechnya and Syria, for example. China is consistently expanding its hegemonic sphere of power without compromise. First of all, there is the invasion and brutal occupation of Tibet. Then there is the treaty-breaking systemic synchronization of Hong Kong and the destruction of the democratic system there, which involved numerous arrests and the military-assisted crushing of civil society opposition. Likewise, the treatment of the Uighurs in the province of Xinjiang, which massively violates human rights, the increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward Taiwan, and the military activities in the South China Sea are part of these hegemonic claims. Extremely dangerous is China's attempt to designate Taiwan as a Chinese province and to seek 'reunification'. If China militarily attacks US-protected Taiwan, the threat of a third world war looms.
Of course, China's political record also includes the considerable successes of the Chinese system and Chinese governance in terms of the economic improvement of the average population. On the other hand, however, the internal Chinese human rights violations and the total (digital) control of Chinese citizens weigh heavily. [78]
The social sciences must address the problems everywhere without hesitation and must not look for questionable allies for whom human rights violations and the breaking of international law are concealed through misconceived loyalty. The critical gaze must not only be directed at Western capitalism, but must also turn its attention to the East and to dangerous developments in the Global South.
This applies equally to the international peace movement, which is only credible if it makes no distinctions in its critical approach to states and alliances of states when they dangerously expand their military potential, develop ever more dangerous weapons, violate international law and oppress their populations.
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Certainly, historical developments and contextualizations must also be taken into account. Thus, it is also necessary to understand the security interests of distressed states that do not belong to NATO. In this context, it was certainly counterproductive that NATO moved ever closer to Russia's western border, contrary to previous assurances, without making Russia the same offer of NATO membership. This resulted to reactions in Russia, and there to the strengthening of nationalist forces and the military-economic complex. It is also important to understand China's security interest as it is being increasingly surrounded by U.S. military bases and battleship fleets. Nevertheless, it must be emphasized that international security can be established primarily through international cooperation, diplomacy, and the control of a strengthened and democratized United Nations. International rearmament is not the order of the day, but the disarmament of all weapons systems, carried out together in comprehensible steps. And this must be demanded precisely in view of the Russian Federation's breakaway from the existing international security architecture: The war in Ukraine should not be instrumentalized for a further rearmament spiral, but should be the occasion for intensified disarmament negotiations in view of the definitely existing nuclear threat situation.
The brutal Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent merciless military response by the Israeli military on behalf of a right-wing government, which left tens of thousands of civilians dead on the Palestinian side, also dramatically demonstrate once again the need for timely negotiations between opposing sides and a superior global police force with the right to intervene that is democratically organized and controlled.
Proxy war in Yemen
The Houthi attacks on Western container ships in the Red Sea in 2023 and 2024 draw attention to the activities of the Houthis (Huthis) and the ongoing military conflict in Yemen.
The current war in Yemen [79], which has gone on relatively unnoticed by the general public for a long time, will now be used as an example to illustrate how proxy wars are waged at the expense of the domestic civilian population in the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. These are two powers that want to establish regional hegemony in competition with each other and exploit the difficult domestic situation of a country to realize their own regional political, economic and geopolitical interests.
Yemen, in a volatile situation following the uprising of the Houthi rebels who had largely taken power in Yemen, attracted the geopolitical interest of two major regional powers: Iran and Saudi Arabia. Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, became the scene of a brutal proxy war that lasted for years. The war coalition led by Saudi Arabia is using massive bombardments, blockades and invasion strategies to try to destabilize the Houthi rebels and drive them away from the center of power. The Houthis, in turn, are supported with weapons supplies from Iran.
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Meanwhile, the war in Yemen has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, especially due to Western-backed airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition - according to author and editor Jacob Reimann (2018) in a report analyzing the situation very accurately and published in 'Open Access':
"Above all, the Saudi coalition is guilty of serious war crimes, as the human rights organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International explicitly state in their reports.
Without the support of Western countries, the bombing of Yemen would be unthinkable, and thus, in particular the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada bear a central share of the blame for the war crimes of the Saudi coalition by supplying weapons, air refuleling for Saudi fighter jets, providing logistics and intelligence, or sending military advisers." [80]
Reimann reported already in 2018 - among other things with reference to figures from the UN - that more than three million people are fleeing within their own country. More than 10,000 people have been killed and more than 45,000 injured since the start of the war in March 2015. The number of children killed - according to UNICEF - would be 1600.
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"But these numbers are just the tip of an iceberg. It is complex, because in addition to the Saudis, the Yemeni military, the Houthi rebels, ISIS and Al-Qaeda, two other deadly forces are raging in Yemen as a direct result of the war: cholera and hunger. According to recent UN figures, of the 26 million inhabitants of Yemen, nearly 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance/aid, 76 percent of the total population. The UN calls Yemen 'the world's greatest humanitarian disaster' - and yet the war could hardly be less present in public perception." [81]
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All warring parties must be accused of human rights violations. The Iranian-backed Houthis are accused of arbitrary imprisonments, of planting internationally prohibited anti-personnel mines, of torture, of using child soldiers and of shelling civilian facilities of the other side. However, according to Amnesty International, the largest number of casualties [82] is caused by Saudi-led air strikes, including the internationally prohibited cluster bombs, against civilian facilities, such as hospitals, schools, residential neighborhoods and hotels, even at wedding parties.
Amnesty International (2018) confirms in another comprehensive situation report that weapons outlawed under international law are being used by the Saudi coalition:
"In some attacks, the military alliance used munitions that were off-target, including massive bombs with a wide effective range that resulted in deaths, injuries, and destruction far beyond the immediate target. In attacks in the Sada District the use of cluster bombs, which have an indiscriminate wide-area effect and are largely prohibited, also continued. These bombs, which disperse a large number of smaller bombs over a large area, often do not fully explode on impact and pose a constant threat to civilians. In February 2017, the Military Alliance fired Brazilian-made rockets containing banned cluster munitions at residential areas and agricultural crops in the city of Sada."
This is a pattern that has already occurred several times: A state no longer succeeds in getting the influential power and interest groups in a society behind it. Individual groups arm themselves and, sometimes with the support of part of the military, revolt against the state, which is now increasingly disintegrating. The state's monopoly on the use of force no longer exists; civil war breaks out, and the state becomes a failed state in which no one - including the powerful - is safe. In this situation, major regional powers take advantage of this and unilaterally support one of the groups close to them. They then try to seize military power in the failed state over this group dependent on them and to expand their sphere of influence in the sense of regional hegemony. [83] This is precisely what is currently happening in Yemen - of course at the expense of the civilian population, which is massively affected by bombardment, supply shortages, disease and displacement.
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"This is because people suffering from starving or malnutrition are hardly able to fight cholera on their own. In addition, the symptoms are more severe in starving people and worsen more quickly. At least one child dies every ten minutes in Yemen because of preventable diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory tract infections, according to the shocking results of UNICEF, 1,000 children every week.“Children are dying because the conflict is preventing them from getting the health care and nutrition they urgently need” said Dr. Relaño, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. “Their immune systems are weak from months of hunger.” According to the latest situation report from the UN World Food Programme, 17 million people in Yemen are at risk of food shortages, representing 65 percent of the population, and 6.8 million people are at acute risk of hunger. Over two million children are severely malnourished, in addition to over one million pregnant or nursing mothers. Hunger is the scourge of Yemen, literally tearing society apart. It is being used outright as a weapon by the Saudi coalition, as a military strategy to provoke the population to revolt against the Houthis." [84]
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In addition, as a result of the disastrous UN Security Council Resolution 2216, among other things, the sea route to Yemen is blocked by the Saudi coalition, and the airspace over Yemen is closed. This means that food and medicine cannot be transported to Yemen. In addition the canal and irrigation system in Yemen has been deliberately destroyed, and the health care system has been significantly weakened by the systematic bombing of hospitals. As a result of this bundle of warlike measures that violate human and international rights, the number of deaths from starvation and the number of dying sick people are significantly higher than the number of people killed as a result of direct military action.
Jakob Reimann (2018) draws a conclusion that accuses the public:
"When investigating the Yemen war, photos and videos repeatedly reveal heartbreaking images of babies and young children, emaciated by hunger and cholera, lying in the arms of their desperate mothers, or on bars in destroyed hospitals. The shame causing impact of these images of Yemeni children spending their last physical strength for occasional breathing, just barely not dead, is a slap in the face to the conscience of humanity.
As a monstrous testimony of the shame of man-made misery, they should find their way into the collective consciousness just as much as the images of the emaciated Buchenwald prisoners or those of the children deformed by Agent Orange in Vietnam. But Yemen seems infinitely far away; the brutal war simply finds no place in public perception."
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In the years from 2015 to the end of 2019, 85,000 children under the age of five starved to death during the war in Yemen according to the international NGO 'Save the children'. [85]
In 2023, 400,000 Yemeni children still suffer from extreme hunger. 15 million people still have no access to water in 2023. 21 million people suffer from hunger in Yemen and lack the most necessary medical care. [86]
The members of the UN Security Council must be blamed for not being willing to draft a neutral resolution here that is linked to intervening measures, due to their own geostrategic interests and partial involvement in the Yemen war. The UN Security Council Resolution 2216, adopted in 2015, on the contrary, served as a unilateral statement in the interests of Saudi Arabia, among others, and provided the basis for Saudi Arabia's blockade and military action together with an alliance of the United Arab Emirates and Western powers at the expense of the Yemeni population:
"Since the supplies of Yemen are almost entirely dependent on imports, this UN resolution explicitly means legitimizing a total supply blockade. No fuel; no food; no potable water; no medicine. Virtually zero of anything needed also in Yemen for mere survival.
According to the usual understanding of international law, such a blockade is clearly a war crime. With Resolution 2216, the UN legitimizes a genocide - the genocide in Yemen systematically carried out since 2015 by the SAC with massive support from the USA, Great Britain and France. This means: The UN itself is abolishing its own foundation, international law" (Meggle 2019).
Western countries, such as Germany, are also to blame for supplying further arms to the warring state of Saudi Arabia in 2022, thereby helping to prolong the war in Yemen.
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Conclusion: Although the UN regrets the situation in Yemen showing correct figures, it is part of the problem itself and, due to the interests of the UN Security Council, is not in a position to draw more effective consequences from these assessments or to withdraw Resolution 2216. In Yemen, not only the ruthlessness of hegemonic interest enforcement but also the misery of the United Nations is revealed to its full extent. The United Nations has committed itself unilaterally through Resolution 2216, and is therefore neither capable of effectively helping to restore an overall state order, nor of exercising a moderate influence on the warring parties with the aim of initiating a reorganization of the 'failed state' Yemen in order to help the people.
Here it is irrelevant to discuss the question of who was the actual perpetrator of this war. This was an interplay of reactions and incidents by all actors involved in the war. Certainly, Iran as well as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Western powers assisting with arms supplies, logistics, and espionage, as well as factions operating within Yemen, have all been involved in the escalation of the conflict. It is to be hoped that the UN will nevertheless succeed in exerting a moderating influence on all warring parties, despite the rather unsuccessful mediation attempts so far and the destructive Resolution 2216. The aim should be to establish a UN-controlled no-fly zone, to ensure medical and food supplies, and, if necessary, to send blue helmet soldiers with a robust mandate into the disputed area to keep the warring parties apart. The attacks in late summer 2019 on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia point to the escalation potential of this conflict - especially if Western interests are affected here.
In the spring of 2022, a temporary ceasefire was reached in Yemen under the mediation of the UN special envoy, but this could not be extended in October 2022. Since the outbreak of war in Yemen, the UN estimates that 380,000 people have died as a result of the war, both directly and indirectly. [87]
An international donor conference sought to alleviate the suffering of the war-affected population. However, of the 4.3 billion U.S. dollars needed, only 1.2 billion U.S. dollars were pledged, although it is not yet known whether these pledges will actually be fulfilled in 2023 [88].
There is also the contradiction of supporting one of the warring parties, Saudi Arabia, militarily with weapons deliveries, on the one hand, and alleviating the consequences of the war with Yemen aid, on the other. A more effective approach would certainly be a thorough diplomatic initiative and reconstruction aid accompanied by a cease-fire and a subsequent peace treaty with mutually agreed regulations.
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In the meantime, the Iranian-backed (and directed) Houthis are interfering in the war between Israel and Hamas by attacking the ships of the Israel-supporting West in the Red Sea with missiles. In response to this, 36 targets in Yemen were bombed with airstrikes by a US-led alliance in February 2024. Weapons depots, missile installations and anti-ship missiles were hit. In addition to the USA and the UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand were involved. [89]
These events clearly show how an initially regional military conflict that was not resolved is increasingly expanding and escalating. This applies to the war in Yemen as well as the war in Ukraine and the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organizations.
Notes
(Prefaces and Chapters 1.1-1.3)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
(1) Cf. on the self-image and actions of 'Scientists for Future': https://www.scientists4future.org/, o.D., 13.9.19. (The first date after the link shows the date of publication; the second date is the date of extraction, without this being indicated by 'from' and 'extracted' respectively. In the case of o.D., no publication date is indicated).
(2) Cf. on the self-image and activities of the Federal Committee Peace Council: http://www.friedensratschlag.de/?Wer_wir_sind:Bundesausschuss_Friedensratschlag, o.D. 13.9.19.
(3) Updated: Cf. https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf, 20.3.2023, 20.3.2023.
(4) Cf. in more detail on the basic assumptions of systemic thinking in Capra (1985, 293 ff.); a reference to Luhmann's systems theory (e.g. 1984) was omitted due to the rather social-technological approach, the exaggerated degree of formalization as well as the non-consideration of the subject in Luhmann's systems theory.
(5) Cf. in more detail on the understanding of holism in Moegling (2017, 80ff.).
(6) Cf. Weizsäcker, v. /Wijkman et al. (2017, 197).
(7)This preface to the first edition has been shortened or modified in some places and subheadings have been added.
(8) Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 27).
(9) Stiglitz (2019).
(10) See Altvater (2006) and Wagenknecht (2008), among others, for a detailed discussion.
(11) Sabine Kurtenbach interviewed by Jonas Seufert: https://www.fluter.de/politische-situation-in-suedamerika, 6/20/2019, 7/30/2019.
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(12) See, e.g., https://amerika21.de/video/129730/cia-verschwoerung-allende, 9/14/2015, 9/24/2019; especially here the video interview with Latin America expert Harald Neuber. Cf. also the Spiegel interview with documentary filmmaker Patrizio Guzmán: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/40-jahre-pinochet-putsch-gegen-die-regierung-allende-nachts-hoerten-wir-die-schuesse-der-exekutionen-a-951404.html, 11.9.2013, 24.9.19.
(13) Cf. Erhardt (2009).
(14) See, among others, Senghaas (1974).
(15) See Bode (2018) for details on corporate power.
(16) Cf. Lenin (1917/1970, 94f.).
(17) Cf. chapter 2.7.
(18) Cf. Bode (2018, 33ff.).
(19) On the critique of the Washington Consensus and the corresponding institutional policies, see also Stiglitz (2002, 2010).
(20) Stiglitz (2019a).
(21) Stiglitz (2019b).
(22) Chomsky (2000, 50).
(23) Lenin (1917/1970, 133).
(24) See also Altvater (2006) and Scherrer (2015).
(25) Cf. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/384680/umfrage/verteilung-des-reichtums-auf-der-welt/, 3.1.2024, 6.2.2024.
(26) Burchhardt (2017).
(27) Burchhardt (2017).
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(28) Cf. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/199621/umfrage/umsatz-und-gewinn-des-agrarunternehmens-cargill/, n.d., Sept. 21, 2019 and 2023: https://www.cargill.com/about/doc/1432242761261/2023-cargill-annual-report.pdf, undated, 7.2.2024.
(29) Kwasniewski (2019).
(30) In: https://stories.mightyearth.org/cargill-worst-company-in-the-world/index.html, o.D., 21.9.19.
(31) Cf. source survey at Mighty Earth: https://www.mightyearth.org/cargill_timeline, 9/7/2019, 20/9/2019.
(32) In: https://laborrights.org/releases/human-rights-watchdog-and-civil-rights-firm-sue-nestle-adm-cargill-using-forced-child-labor, 14.7.05, 21.9.19.
(33) In: https://stories.mightyearth.org/cargill-worst-company-in-the-world/index.html, o.D., 21.9.19.
(34) This was the third ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization.
(35) https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-15188884.html, 6.12.1999, 5.11.2019.
(36) Cf. https://www.graswurzel.net/gwr/2000/01/ein-wahres-fest-des-widerstands/, 1 Jan. 2000, 5 Nov. 2019.
(37) https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/seattle-strassenschlachten-ueberschatten-wto-gipfel-a-54872.html, 1 DEC. 1999, 5 NOV. 2019.
(38) https://www.wsws.org/de/articles/1999/12/wto-d09.html, 9.12.1999, 5.11.2019.
(39) Cf. https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-15188884.html, 6 Dec. 1999, 5 Nov. 2019.
(40) Ultimately, it was helpful that France turned against May in December 1998.
(41) This quote comes from Vivien Sharples, an activist of the NGO 'War Resisters League', which among other things had prepared the WTO protests. Cf. https://www.wsws.org/de/articles/1999/12/wto-d09.html, 9 Dec. 1999, 5 Nov. 2019.
(42) In: http://occupywallst.org/, 28 Oct. 2019, 6 Nov. 2019.
(43) 43 Cf. https://www.bpb.de/politik/wirtschaft/finanzmaerkte/135540/occupy-bewegung?p=all, 9 May 2012, 6 Nov. 2019.
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(44) 2011 Manifesto, in: https://de.gegenstandpunkt.com/artikel/occupy-wallstreet-gegen-1-uebermacht-profiteure, n.d., Nov. 6, 2019.
(45) 45 Cf. https://www.fluter.de/was-ist-aus-occupy-geworden, 9/9/2016, 6/11/2019.
(46) The compilation of events was made in part based on documentation at http://occupywallst.org/, Oct. 28, 2019, Nov. 6, 2019, https://www.zeit.de/campus/2018-09/occupy-wall-street-protestbewegung-nordamerika-erlebnisse/seite-3, 2018, Nov. 6, 2019; Cf. https://www.bpb.de/politik/wirtschaft/finanzmaerkte/135540/occupy-bewegung?p=all, May 9, 2012, Nov. 6, 2019, https://www.fluter.de/was-ist-aus-occupy-geworden, Sept. 9, 2016, Nov. 6, 2019, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street, Sept. 28, 2019, Nov. 67, 2019, and https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/nyregion/occupy-wall-streets-twitter-account-is-focus-of-lawsuit.html, Sept. 17, 2014, Nov. 6, 2019.
(47) In addition to the EU (representatives of the EU Council Presidency, the EU Commission and the European Central Bank), the following countries belong to G20: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Republic of Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Before the summits, there are meetings and discussions with various NGOs; transnational institutions are also invited, such as the WTO or the African Union.
(48) Cf. https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardartikel/
Themen/Internationales_Finanzmarkt/G7-G20/G20-7292.html, 4.1.2019, 7.11.2019.
(49) In:https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardartikel/Themen/
Internationales_Finanzmarkt/G7-G20/G20-7292.html,4.1.2019, 7.11.2019.
(50) Cf. http://www.bpb.de/politik/hintergrund-aktuell/251308/g20-gipfel-03-07-2017, July 3, 2017, 7 Nov. 2019; https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/g-zwanzig-beschluesse-101.html, July 9, 2017, 7 Nov. 2019; https://www.zeit.de/politik/2017-07/g20-gipfel-hamburg-live, July 9, 2017, 7 Nov. 2019.
(51) In: https://www.vice.com/de/article/bjxvm3/eingekesselt-zwischen-plunderern-und-sek, 8/7/2017, 7/11/2019.
(52) Cf. e.g. the conception of a Democratic World Parliament at the level of the United Nations in chapter 5.3.
(53) "Man is a wolf to man. “
(54) Preamble to the UN Charter (1945).
(55) Cf. on the criticism of the UN Security Council also v. Sponeck (2019).
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(56) Cf. Bernstein (2017, 4).
(57) In this case: the recognition of Palestine as a member of UNESCO.
(58) Cf. also chapter 1.3.
(59) Cf. e.g. on the campaign for a democratic world parliament (Leinen/Bummel 2017) as well as chap. 5 of the present book.
(60) Retrieved from https://www.unric.org/de/charta, n.d., 8/17/2018.
(61) Quotes taken from: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/09/24/Trump-at-UN-General-Assembly-The-future-belongs-to-patriots/4441569319785/?ur3=1, 9/24/19, 9/24/19.
(62) Bertelsmann Foundation (2018).
(63) Cf. Mausfeld (2017), see also Wernicke (2017).
(64) cf. in more detail Moegling (2020)
(65) cf. chapter 5.
(66) Democracy is "Government of the people by the people and for the people", https://www.quora.com/What-was-Abraham-Lincolns-definition-of-democracy, 12.3.2016, 17.11.2019.
(67) Cf. the selection of the so-called prison notebooks in Gramsci (1979) and the 10-volume series of prison letters in Gramsci (2012) in the new edition.
(68) Cf. on more recent variants in the understanding of hegemony Mouffe/ Laclau (1985), Brand (2003, 2005), Winter (2003), or Eis (2018).
(69) Cf. in more detail chapter 5.4
(70) Cf. Brand (2005a, 9ff.) and Brand/Wissen (2017).
(71) See Annan's statements at https://rp-online.de/politik/ausland/kofi-annan-irak-krieg-war-illegal_aid-9259853, 7/24/2018.
(72) Nader (2004, 219).
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(73) See Ganser (2017) for an overview of the illegal wars instigated and conducted by NATO that undermined the UN order.
(74) Cf. here the argumentation in Listl (2019) and Crome (2019, 13ff.).
(75) See Listl (2019, 73ff.) for further details.
(76) Cf. Crome (2019, 69).
(77) Cf. Amnesty International (2015)
(78) Cf. Chapter 2.7
(79) Status: 3/2023.
(80) Reimann (2018), n.d., 7/24/2018; for more recent statistics on this, see also Reimann (2020).
(81) Reimann (2018).
(82) Cf. Amnesty International (2018).
(83) Cf. more extensively Zartmann (1995) and Chomsky (2007).
(84) Reimann (2018).
(85) https://www.mena-watch.com/im-jemen-sind-bis-zu-85-000-kinder-verhungert/, 8.10.2019, 17.11.2019.
(86) Cf. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/jemen-un-geberkonferenz-deutschland-101.html, 27.2.2023, 24.3.2023.
(87) Cf. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/jemen-waffenruhe-119.html, 2.10.2022, 24.3.2023.
(88) Cf. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/jemen-un-geberkonferenz-deutschland-101.html, 27.2.2023, 24.3.2023.
[89] Cf. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/usa-attacken-auf-huthi-100.html, 4.2.2024, 19.2.2024.
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Rearmament: How many new weapons systems can humanity still afford?
Combat drones: Using joystick to kill people from a distance.
1.4 Military crises and arms policies
1.4.1 The growing potential for military violence
1.4.1.1 Arms exports and the military-industrial complex
It is understandable that - as long as there is no stable and secure international system through the United Nations, as long as there are highly armed states with aggressive geostrategic intentions - states or alliances of states must also have a necessary minimum of defense capability, despite the primacy of diplomacy and international understanding. Weapons systems that are primarily used for defense, such as air defense systems, are acceptable products of a publicly controlled arms industry. The production of weapons, however, should be under state control and not in the hands of private enterprises, otherwise a military-economic complex with disastrous interlocking interests will develop.
The military-industrial complex is to be seen here as an economy of death that generates returns for its shareholders through military rearmament, increase in arms exports and frequently brutal destruction of social order through wars of various kinds. (84) Actually, one should speak of a military-industrial-political complex, since it are politicians who make war decisions and control arms expenditures. As a rule, arms contractors, warlords, arms lobbyists and influential politicians - whether in formal democracies or open dictatorships - form a unit with often mutually compatible interests. Or, to put it another way: without the fear of the enemy fueled by the media, without armed conflicts, i.e. without the mass deaths of people in war zones, no significant profits can be made in the arms industry. This means that internationally viable peacekeeping agreements are not in the interests of the arms industry and the military leadership associated with it, as well as the cooperating (and sometimes profiting) politicians.
It should not go unmentioned here that not only the generals, the bank and corporate bosses and members of governments belong to the military-industrial complex, but also the workers in the arms industry as well as the soldiers in the armies. Both groups have existential interests in the functioning of a privately organized and growth-focused arms industry and identify themselves to a large extent with its goals and structures and at best require a further efficiency increase.
The then outgoing U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower - as a Republican by no means a politically left-wing critic of the system - warned as early as 1961 in a televised speech against the military-industrial complex, which in his view was in the process of undermining the democratic form of government with its influence. Eisenhower urgently warned against the de-democratizing influence of the military-industrial complex:
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"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." (85)
The interests of the military-industrial complex
- arms exports to areas of tension express moral underdevelopment
With her indignant "How dare you?!" question Greta Thunberg accused the heads of state and government represented at the UN Climate Summit 2019 of their ignorance and inaction in the face of the occuring climate crisis. Shouldn't the same indignant accusation be made today against the arms industry and raised publicly against the government representatives approving arms exports to areas of tension: "How dare you!"?
Is the man-made climate crisis not comparable with arms exports to areas of tension? The climate crisis and ethically unjustifiable arms exports represent a global phenomenon caused by man. In the accelerating destruction of social systems caused by arms exports, there are also, as in the global climate crisis, tipping points and feedback effects.
Ultimately, what remains is an increasing dynamic of destruction with dead and injured, failed states, a destroyed environment, and shattered buildings and institutions.
Both - climate crisis and war situations aggravated by global arms exports - arise from the same state of moral underdevelopment, from the same immature mindset that accepts everything that yields results, despite massive destruction of the basics of life.
Apart from the exception, where action is taken because of solidarity with a state under attack, greed for profit as an expression of moral underdevelopment, economic and political motives plays a central role in the export of armaments to areas of tension.
In this context, the term 'areas of tension' refers to all states and regions in which either interstate wars, asymmetric conflicts, massive state-organized human rights violations and state-organized terror as well as civil wars are threatening or already exist.
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However, as already discussed, there is one exception where arms exports to areas of tension are reasonable: When a state is attacked by a more powerful state and all offers of negotiation are in vain, then it may be legitimate to support the attacked state with arms deliveries in a very dosed manner (while maintaining diplomatic efforts). The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents such a case of conflict, which led to legitimate arms exports to Ukraine. Here, it would have been important to formulate a binding and principled 'red line' for arms exports, i.e. what may and may not be supplied. Priority should also be given to weapons such as defense systems to shoot down attacking fighter jets or weapons to defend against drone attacks, as well as weapons to defend against attacking tanks, e.g. bazookas. Weapons that can be used primarily to attack the attacking state in the interior of the country, such as long-range missiles and fighter jets, would have to be beyond the scope of decisions that are justifiable in terms of peace policy.Regarding the economic motives of arms exports even to areas of tension - apart from the exceptional case mentioned above - it can be stated that the arms industry is recording growing returns, has rising share prices, is of particular interest to investors and represents a safe commercial context even in times of crisis.The authorizing politicians, on the other hand, pretend they want to secure jobs and technology transfer, some of them also have economic interests ('revolving door effect'), are under massive lobbying pressure from the arms industry and are acting on the basis of geostrategic interests calculations. (86)
In Germany for example, officially every politically responsible person effectively positions himself or herself against arms exports to areas of tension, since the national and international legal situation and corresponding regulations currently indicate publicly observable barriers in regard to this issue. Nor are arms exports to areas of tension popular. The overwhelming majority (more than three quarters) of the German population rejects arms exports to areas of tension. (87)
In addition to economic motives, geopolitical motives play a role in arms exports. Weapons are mainly delivered to those from whom the authorizing politicians hope to gain an advantage in the event of their military victory. Sometimes even both warring factions are strengthened if their geostrategic weakening corresponds to the interest of the arms supplying nations. The arms deliveries to both Iran and Iraq by the USA and also the then USSR during the first Gulf War are an example of this. The cynical calculation to weaken both sides escalated a war in which about one million people fell victim. (88)
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What specific legal barriers have been erected in the wake of long-lasting protests and clear criticism of arms exports to areas of tension? In the next section of the study this question will be examined first for the international level and then for the national legal bases of licensing practice. The next question asked is how effective these regulations are for the actual practice of arms exports to areas of tension.
International regulations to prevent arms exports to areas of tension
Regulations of the United Nations
The UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), adopted by the UN General Assembly in April 2013 and effective in 2014, is clear. States parties commit to installing a transparent and effective control system for conventional arms exports. According to Article 6, paragraph 3 of the ATT, a State Party may
"not authorize any transfer of conventional arms (...) if it has knowledge at the time of the decision that the arms or goods would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined in international agreements to which it is a party." (89)
The problem here is that not all UN members have ratified the ATT so far: As of February 2025, 116 states have ratified the treaty or acceded to it (“state parties”), 26 states that signed the treaty have yet to do so (“signatories that are not yet states parties”), and 53 states have not yet signed (“states that have not yet joined the treaty”) (as of February 2025). (90) Arms exporters such as Russia and Iran have not yet signed the ATT. The U.S. approved it but had not yet ratified it. Thus it was not valid for them under international law. Trump affirmed in 2019 that the U.S. would not ratify the treaty, saying "Americans live by American laws, not the laws of other countries." (91)
But the Biden administration has also not taken steps to ratify the ATT - according to Rachel Stohl (2022):
„Unfortunately, the Biden administration has been frustratingly and disappointingly silent on the ATT despite support for the treaty appearing in the Democratic Party’s platform and numerous promises to review the agreement and the U.S. role in it. This decision sits firmly in the executive branch’s hands; no congressional action is required to recommit to the treaty. (…)President Biden need only send a letter to the UN stating that it will fulfill its responsibilities as a signatory and be bound by the object and purpose of the treaty, which are to reduce human suffering and ensure a responsible, accountable, and transparent arms trade.“
It is not to be expected that the second term of Donald Trump will see the USA sign, ratify and thus join the ATT.
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Germany has ratified the ATT, which means that the treaty is binding for Germany under international law. Besides Germany, also other states that are among the ten largest global arms exporters; China, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, have signed the treaty. China joined the ATT relatively late; it became legally effective with the UN's letter of confirmation in October 2020.
It can thus be stated that two of the leading arms exporters, the USA and Russia, have not yet decided, or are refusing to join the ATT in a legally binding manner. Even if other major arms exporters, such as China, Germany or France , have acceded to the ATT treaty, its effectiveness will be very limited until at least all permanent members of the UN Security Council are willing to join, among other things, the ban on exporting weapons to crisis regions and areas of tension.
Furthermore, it must be criticized that the ATT does not contain any regulations on binding controls and sanctions. It merely calls on nation-states to transfer the requirements of the ATT into national law and to report the legal basis and licensing practice as well as the characteristics, dimensions and destination of arms exports to the United Nations ATT Secretariat on a voluntary basis. This is to be supported by the incentive of financial support through the ATT Sponsorship Program and the ATT Volantary Trust Fund.
However, it must be noted that these stimuli are not effective enough, since ATT signatory states, such as France, Germany, Great Britain, China and Italy, also export weapons to areas of tension - without there being any support for self-defense in the sense of the UN Charter. Amnesty International (n.d.) lists importing states such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt as examples. For example, in January 2024, the German government approved the sale of 150 Iris T missiles to Saudi Arabia, even though this country is heavily involved in the war in Yemen. Another example of a violation of the ATT is the 230 million euro arms deal in 2024 to Turkey, which is militarily attacking Syrian Kurdish areas in violation of international law (Kirlidokme 2024).
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EU regulations
At the European Union level, there are also corresponding regulations that strictly prohibit arms exports to areas of tension and seek to exercise control over arms exports overall.
Within the framework of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), a so-called "Council Common Position" was developed in 2008 (to be updated and adopted again in 2019). (92) Here, it is first all emphasized that member states must examine applications for arms exports or for the export of weapons technology against the background of international agreements. These are primarily alliance obligations towards the EU and the UN, which arise, among other things, from agreements on imposed sanctions, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the ban on anti-personnel mines (Ottawa Convention), and the ban on chemical and biological weapons (Art. 2 (1) of the "Council Common Position"). Art. 2 (2) sets out eight criteria for the consent or rejection of arms exports. In particular, if a state violates human rights and international humanitarian law, an export license to a final destination must be denied.
If there is a risk that the exported arms and military technologies would lead to internal repression in the recipient country, if serious human rights violations and violations of applicable international law would be committed or are to be expected there, if armed conflicts within the country and with other states would be exacerbated as a result, if an undesirable attitude toward terrorism exists, then the export license must be denied. Also, if a diversion of military technology is to be expected and the risk of a further export of military equipment to unsafe and risky third countries is to be anticipated, the export of military equipment must be denied. With these formulations, the decision making framework is on a par with the UN Arms Export Treaty (ATT).
Problems arise, however, when the provisions of Article 2 (1) and 2 (2) contradict each other. The state licensing practice remains unpredictable and open if, due to alliance commitments, a delivery of armaments is deemed necessary, although these weapons are then used to suppress the own population, for aggression in a neighboring state or for direct delivery to warring parties in areas of tension. For example, the German arms deliveries to Turkey and Saudi Arabia as well as the arms deliveries by France and Italy in the Libyan conflict should certainly be mentioned here. The U.S. and Russia also supply weapons worldwide to their allies involved in military conflicts, without this being legitimized by regulations of the UN Charter.
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Wolf-Dieter Vogel, a journalist specializing in arms exports, also points out that the Council's Common Position is not legally binding in the sense of an EU regulation. (93) Obviously, the Council deliberately leaves a considerable margin of maneuver for the member states when it comes to exporting military equipment. The lack of legally binding provisions for the decisions and the potentially contradictory provisions of Art. 2 (1) and 2 (2) also provide an unfavorable prerequisite for sanctions against EU states that do not comply with the Council's agreement on arms exports to regions of tension or to states that disregard human rights.
National regulations using the example of Germany
Each state has its own regulations concerning arms exports, and they can vary in strictness or negligence. The example of Germany will be used here to demonstrate the extent to which normative expectations with regard to arms trade are formulated there. These will then beexamined in a subsequent step - as also for the global and European levels - to determine to what extent aspirations and reality can be brought together.
The restrictions on the export of weapons from Germany to other countries refer first of all to the fundamental peace requirement of Article 26 (1) and the claims of Article 26 (2) of the German Constitution, in which the manufacture of weapons and the export of weapons are declared to be subject to approval ("Weapons intended for warfare may only be manufactured, delivered and brought into circulation with the approval of the Federal Government". (GG Art. 26 (2)).
For example, in the coalition agreement of 2017, the German government referred to the ATT, the EU's 'Common Position of the Council', the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (AWG) and the War Weapons Control Act (KrWaffKontrG), among other things, and stipulated for itself restrictively with regard to arms exports:
"Respect for human rights in the recipient country plays a prominent role in the decision-making process. If there is sufficient suspicion that the military equipment to be supplied will be misused for internal repression or other ongoing and systematic human rights violations, a license will not be granted as a matter of principle." (94)
In addition to compliance with human rights, the second decisive criterion is the question of reliability in terms of peace policy or the threat posed to interstate peace in the recipent country:
"According to § 6 KrWaffKontrG, there is no entitlement to the granting of a license for the export of war weapons. Such a license must be denied if there is a risk that the weapons of war will be used in an act that disrupts peace, that obligations of the Federal Republic of Germany under international law will be impaired, or if the applicant does not possess the reliability required for the act." (95)
Actually, these regulations are formulated in a sufficiently restrictive and responsible manner. Nevertheless, Wolf-Dieter Vogel criticizes that these formulations are rather claims and not legally binding regulations ("The German arms export guidelines are not legally binding" (96)). In my opinion, this criticism can indeed be related to regulations in a coalition agreement as well as to the Federal Export Report, but neither to the AWG nor to the KrWaffKontrG, which have the character of law and on the basis of which prosecution can or should be initiated in case of violations.
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The official procedure for obtaining a weapons export license involves a preliminary inquiry by a defense company to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy about the possibility of exporting weapons or military equipment. The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), a higher authority of the Federal Ministry of Economics, is involved in the control of war weapons control, to which war weapons stocks and changes in stocks must be reported on a regular basis. In addition to a political assessment of the recipient country, a long and detailed weapons list defining which equipment is subject to export control (Export List to the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (2018)) is decisive for the approval of a preliminary inquiry. If a preliminary inquiry from an armament company is rejected, the project is, at least through this official channel, usually not pursued further. If the preliminary inquiry is approved, the arms export can usually proceed. An arms export that is to take place outside Europe to countries that do not belong to NATO or comparable states, or that are considered problematic states, leads, if politically significant, to negotiations in the Federal Security Council (BSR), a cabinet committee chaired by the Chancellor and including, among other things, several federal ministers. There, inter alia, relevant applications for arms exports are negotiated in private. The meetings of the Federal Security Council are secret. Neither a meeting date nor an agenda is announced in advance. The German parliament (Bundestag) is only informed afterwards when a decision has been made. However, the Federal Security Council is not subject to parliamentary control by the Bundestag. As a rule, it decides autonomously on arms deliveries and is only obligated to the federal government where this is stipulated by law. In this context, arms export licenses are related to German security policy and its strategic orientation, as defined by the Federal Security Council and the federal government.
The evaluation possibilites for the Federal Security Council also remain due to the fact that transnational sanctions policy and alliance obligations based on intergovernmental treaties (KrWaffKontrG § 27 ) (97) must be observed. For example, Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty of NATO (1949) obligates the signatory states:
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"In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.“
Another problem is that the German arms control law partially contradicts the implementation of European legal norms. There is still no effective control and sanctions policy at the European level due to the legally non-binding nature of the relevant EU regulations. This enables arms exports from Germany to other EU states, which in turn tolerate arms exports to areas of tension. Thus, exports from the EU country in question to third countries, also including areas of tension, is possible.
Indeed, in 2015 the German government formulated guidelines for post-shipment controls, in which, among other things, the final destination of the exported weapons in the recipient country is to be controlled in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, in particular the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA). The problem here arises first of all concerning the principle of exemplary verification and the lack of personnel for complete verifications, as well as concerning the fulfilling of trade interests, when formulated like this:
"The competitiveness of German industry and defense cooperation with third countries must not be jeopardized by the system of post-shipment controls." (98)
Accordingly, there is no effective way of dealing with direct investments by armament companies in areas of tension or when investments are made in a supposedly safe state outside the EU and NATO. If, for example, German technology is transferred to Australia and a weapons or ammunition factory is built there in cooperation with a German arms manufacturer, there is no guarantee that the weapons produced there will not be exported to areas of tension or used there by the arms-producing state involved, given the corresponding statements by the Australian government and the deliveries have already been made. (99) If a munitions factory is built in South Africa by a German arms manufacturer, then we should not be surprised if German know-how is used to kill people in the Yemen war.
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The reality of arms exports
The aim here is to start a little earlier in the data analysis in order to be able to follow the development over a longer period of time and determine the changes over time in connection with political events.
The Swedish peace research institute SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) already in its report published in spring 2018 (100) states, that the international arms trade has increased by 12% in the last five years compared to 2008 - 2013. The U.S. arms industry ranked first among arms-exporting nations, with a 34% market share. The contracts for this were signed under the administration of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Obama. The second largest exporting country was Russia (minus 7.1% arms sales), followed by France (plus 27%), Germany (minus 14%) and China (plus 38%). The arms industries of these five countries were responsible for 74% of all arms sales from 2012-2017. Nearly every third weapon sold was delivered to Middle East countries, which have doubled their arms imports over the past five years. Correspondingly, every second U.S. weapon was sold to the Middle East. German arms sales to the Middle East increased by 109% over the last five years.
In 2019, the U.S. already had an arms export share of 36% and arms exports in the period 2015-2019 76% higher than the exports of the second largest exporting country Russia (minus 7.1% arms sales) (SIPRI 2020a).
Overall, in the global context, annual arms sales increased by 42% by 2018 compared to 2002. Five US companies were at the top of the list of arms-producing companies:
"For the first time since 2002, the top five spots in the ranking are held exclusively by arms companies based in the United States: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics. These five companies alone accounted for $148 billion and 35 per cent of total Top 100 arms sales in 2018. Total arms sales of U.S. companies in the ranking amounted to $246 billion, equivalent to 59 per cent of all arms sales by the Top 100. This is an increase of 7.2 per cent compared with 2017." (101)
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Most weapons were sold to India (tensions with China and Pakistan). Saudi Arabia, which is actively contributing to the destabilization of the Middle East and flying destructive military operations in Yemen, was the second largest importer of arms (tripling its arms purchases in the last five years). Saudi Arabia is followed by Egypt, the Arab Emirates, and China.
China reduced its imports as it increasingly produces weapons itself. The increase in China's arms exports (38%) relates primarily to Pakistan, Algeria and Bangladesh.
"Since 2003, the German government has steadily expanded its relations with Saudi Arabia. The goal of the Federal Republic was and is primarily to promote foreign trade, but some of the more recent deals had a clear security dimension. The peak of the cooperation, which has meanwhile been pursued by three German governments, was the planned sale of 270 Leopard battle tanks to the desert kingdom. Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, however, this deal was highly problematic. First of all, this concerned the equipment of the tanks ordered. The tanks in question are the Leopard 2A7-+, which have been converted for counterinsurgency operations in inhabited areas, making them particularly suitable for suppressing domestic unrest." (102)
This clearly means that, despite political discussions and differing political statements by the respective governments, arms deliveries are almost universally made to areas of tension. The economy of death grows with each hotbed of tension - according to Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher of the 'SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme':
"Widespread violent conflicts in the Middle East and concerns about human rights have led to political debate in Western Europe and North America about restricting arms sales (...) Yet the USA and European states remain the main arms exporters to the region and supplied over 98 per cent of weapons imported by Saudi Arabia." (103)
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Arms exports to areas of tension often result in massive military oppression of the civilian population by the various warring parties (see Syria or Yemen), even including racially motivated genocide attempts, such as currently in Myanmar (Burma) with regard to the Muslim ethnic group of the Rohingyas or in 1994 in Rwanda with regard to the mass murder of the Tutsi population by Hutu militias.
The bombing of the Gaza Strip in 2023/2024, which violated international law and resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, especially among the civilian population, was also carried out with Western weapons in a disproportionate response to Hamas' brutal attack on Israeli territory.
Data from SIPRI (2020) also make clear that the U.S., Russia, France, Germany, and China, the five largest global arms exporters, export weapons everywhere - regardless of whether these are areas of tension.
SIPRI (2023) now points to a trend reversal in the regional distribution of arms imports. In particular, European countries increased their arms imports, which is certainly related to the growing tensions with Russia in connection with the war in Ukraine:
„Imports of major arms by European states increased by 47 per cent between 2013–17 and 2018–22, while the global level of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1 per cent. Arms imports fell overall in Africa (–40 per cent), the Americas (–21 per cent), Asia and Oceania (–7.5 per cent) and the Middle East (–8.8 per cent)—but imports to East Asia and certain states in other areas of high geopolitical tension rose sharply. The United States’ share of global arms exports increased from 33 to 40 per cent while Russia’s fell from 22 to 16 per cent, according to new data on global arms transfers published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).“
Figures from the Swedish peace research institute SIPRI made it clear for the period 2015-2019 that arms exports were rising steadily. Arms exports to areas of tension were not exempt from this:
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Table 1: The 10 largest arms exporter and importers (104)
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Arms exports 2015-2019 Arms imports 2015-2019
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rank Country Share in % Country Share in %
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 USA 36 Saudi Arabia 12
2 Russia 21 India 9.2
3 France 7.9 Egypt 5.8
4 Germany 5.8 Australia 4.9
5 China* 5.5 China 4.3
6 UK 3.7 Algeria 4.2
7 Spain 3.1 South Korea 3.4
8 Israel 3.0 United Arab
Emirates (UAE) 3.4
9 Italy 2.1 Iraq 3.4
10 South Korea 2.1 Qatar 3.4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the meantime (2022), Ukraine has become the third-largest
arms importer (SIPRI 2023a).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* China's arms exports are most likely to be set higher, as no traceable international insight into Chinese arms exports is available .
Table 1 clearly shows that the U.S. and Russia were by far the largest arms exporters, accounting for more than half of all arms exports (57%). Neither these two states, nor the eight following countries in the ranking of exporters, were deterred by international arms export bans in relation to areas of crisis and tension. Almost all of the world's leading arms importing states were located in areas of tension or were involved in wars and asymmetrical armed conflicts (except for Australia).
For example, arms exports to the area of tension in the Middle East increased by 61% (!) when comparing the years 2010-2014 with the period 2015-2019. (105)
Syria, Yemen and Libya in particular are war zones where wars are being fought primarily with weapons imported from the USA and Europe (including Russia).
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SIPRI (2023) now shows that meanwhile Ukraine, which was affected by the Russian invasion, has the largest arms import increases and became the third largest arms importer in 2022:
"From 1991 until the end of 2021, Ukraine imported few major arms. As a result of military aid from the U.S. and many European states following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine became the 3rd largest importer of major arms during 2022 (after Qatar and India) and the 14th largest for 2018-22. Ukraine accounted for 2.0 per cent of global arms imports in the five-year period."
For the period from 2019 to 2023, the proportions of heavy weapons exports changed significantly (Table 2)
Table 2: The 10 largest exporters of heavy weapons and percentage changes (SIPRI 2024)
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Exporting Exporting country Exporting country Percentage change
Country Percentage share % Percentage share % from 2014-2018
of global heavy exports of global heavy exports to 2019-2023
2029-2023 2014-2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USA 42 34 17
France 11 7,2 47
Russia 11 21 -53
China 5,8 5,9 -5,3
Germany 5,6 6,3 -1,4
Italy 4,3 2,2 86
Great Britain 3,7 4,1 -14
Spain 2,7 2,7 -3,3
Israel 2,4 3,1 -25
South Korea 2,0 1,7 12
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the course of the war in Ukraine, the arms companies in the United States were able to increase their arms exports in the comparative period. Exports of heavy weapons, such as tanks and missile systems, increased from 34% to 42% of global trade. Exports from France and Italy also increased significantly. At the same time, Russian exports fell by 53% from 21% to 11% of global trade in heavy weapons as a result of Western sanctions policy.
- 108 -
Example Libya
Since the fall of the Gaddhafi regime in 2011, Libya has been in an extremely unstable political situation. For many years, a military confrontation took place between the troops of General Haftar and the government troops of the al Sarraj government, repeatedly interrupted by short ceasefires. Despite an arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council, which was extended again in June 2020, weapons were supplied to the area of tension by various states. Turkey sent Syrian mercenaries, weapons, and drones to support al Sarraj. Qatar also supports the government forces. Russia, the Arab Emirates, as well as Saudi Arabia supported Haftar. Russia sent mercenary troops from private Russian military companies, among others, to Libya. (106) But even within NATO and the EU, the support provided went in different directions. While Turkey, which is interested in exploiting Libyan gas reserves, provided military protection for al Sarraj, also Italy, which as well is interested in exploiting the oil fields off the Libyan coast and in holding back refugees, supported al Sarraj by military equipment. Italy has a longer tradition here, having already supplied al-Gaddafi with military helicopters, which he then used against his revolting population in 2011.
France, along with Russia, supports General Haftar. Both countries, in turn, have interests in securing contracts worth billions, offering access to the Libyan energy market, pushing back Islamists, and using Libyan Mediterranean ports. In addition, all parties have geostrategic interests and want to strengthen their influence in the Arab region. (107)
While Germany calls for international negotiations to enforce an arms embargo, the German government in the background is approving large-scale arms deliveries to states that in turn deliver weapons to the Libyan conflict zone - for example, since the beginning of 2019, the German government has approved arms exports worth more than 1.3 billion euros to states that are fueling the Libyan war. (108)
Due to economic and geostrategic interests, all relevant arms export regulations are ignored. Even an arms embargo unanimously imposed by the UN Security Council hardly shows any effect.
In 2023, Böhm/Nahr (2023) describe the situation in Libya as follows:
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"Since the fall of long-term dictator Muammar al-Ghadhafi in 2011, there has been almost uninterrupted war in Libya. Militia bosses, political clans and foreign militia are fighting for power and oil in the vast, sparsely populated desert country. Recently, Hamuda's leader, the internationally recognized Prime Minister Dbaiba, had to fend off his rival Fathi Bashagha, who also claims the office and is supported by the powerful eastern Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar. (...) Fighters loyal to Dbaiba managed to repel the attack last summer. Since then, calm has prevailed. For the first time in years, the guns are silent. The local warring parties in Libya are tired, and their international supporters from Turkey, Russia, the West and the Gulf are busy with other things. Recently, even the head of the CIA was in the country to mediate between the hostile politicians in the east and west of the country. (...) Libya is divided, there are two parliaments, two prime ministers, a multitude of armed groups and the elections originally scheduled for December 2021 have been postponed indefinitely."
A UN Security Council resolution of 30.10.2023 continues to call for the holding of free, general elections for Libya and expresses its concern about the security situation in Libya and its destabilizing effect on neighbouring states.
To summarize: The example of the Libyan state shows how massive military interventions, arms exports to different groups combined with geostrategic and economic interests can destroy a country in the long term. Libya has the status of a failed state and it remains to be seen whether future elections can lead to unification and stabilization of the country.
Arms exports from the EU to areas of tension.
In 2012, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the same year, however, EU was the world champion in arms exports. Despite the regulations of the ATT and the 'EU Common Position', massive deliveries of weapons were made from the EU specifically to areas of tension:
"Out of 51 authoritarian regimes worldwide, 43 received European arms deliveries. Out of 47,868 export licenses applied for, only 459 were rejected. German arms exports to the six Gulf Cooperation Council states alone - including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - amounted to 1.42 billion euros in 2012!" (109)
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But even after 2012 this did not develop differently. Besides Germany, mainly France, GB, Spain and Italy are involved in arms export business. Its share of the arms trade came to 22.6%, almost a quarter of global arms exports - according to a 2020 question from the Left Party in the European Parliament. The exports go primarily to areas of tension such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, the United Emirates and Algeria. (110)
The claims of the "EU Common Position" do not seem to work. When alliance obligations and own geopolitical and economic interests are in the room present, the "Common Position" becomes wastepaper or is bypassed.
Regulations concerning export of goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes ("EU Dual-Use Regulation") have also not yet entered into force due to differences of opinion in the European bodies. These dual-use goods include electronic products such as jammers, which can be used, for example, to interfere with the Internet and cell phone reception also against the civilian population. Likewise military trucks can be militarily upgraded by attaching a gun carriage and a machine gun.
The EDA (European Defense Agency) however, is already working at full speed within the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) with regard to the coordination of European armament efforts. The EDA is supposed to be responsible, among other things, only for supporting intra-European research and development of military technology. This is taking place within the financial framework of PESCO, in which the participating EU states have committed to increase their investments in defense equipment by 20%. In this context, it is beyond the competence and control of the EDA if a technology developed in this way also becomes the subject of arms exports to third countries.
The current development with regard to European military cooperation illustrates this problem even more sharply. The so-called 'European Peace Facility' (EPF), launched in December 2017 at the EU level based on the request of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, claims to primarily unburden EU development cooperation costs for the security architecture in Africa by, among others, providing a fund of €10.5 billion outside the regular EU budget for this purpose.
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In addition to offering military training the EPF explicitly plans to provide export of weapons, ammunition and security technology.
"Currently, the EU has limited capacity to engage in military or defense activities such as capacity building and provision of training, equipment or infrastructure. The EPF will contribute to building capacity of armed forces in partner countries for peacekeeping, conflict prevention and for addressing security threats. For instance, the success of EU military training missions is sometimesquestioned due to the inability of the partners to take advantage of what they have learned because of often very rudimentary equipment or infrastructure. The EPF will enable the EU to provide comprehensive support through integrated packages that may include training, equipment, and other forms of assistance. This will make it easier for partners to manage crises and security threats on their own." (111)
While the intended separation of civil development cooperation and military spending could indeed have positive effects on the actual volume of civil development cooperation, it is not without risks. In particular, there is a danger that these billions could also be used to finance arms exports to third countries which, firstly, are to be regarded as crisis areas and, secondly, are not safe end-use states, i.e. which themselves forward or sell these arms to areas of tension. (112)
This would then also be a new quality of the official EU foreign and security policy, if arms deliveries could be made openly to third countries or crisis areas.
The EPF is currently being discussed at EU level but the outcome of the decision is still open.
EPF funds in 2022 and 2023 will also finance, among other things, military assistance to Ukraine (Bundesregierung 2023).
German arms exports to areas of tension
In the second decade of the 21st century, almost €17 billion worth of armaments were exported from Germany. In the past decade, armaments worth almost €17 billion have been exported from Germany. In the same period, the German government approved arms exports worth around €63 billion for future exports. (113) Also the year 2019 is expected to generate substantial returns for the future.
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Table 3: Licenses for arms exports from Germany (114)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number and value of individual
licenses for military equipment
granted by the German government 2018 in € billion 2019 in € billion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 11,142 individual approvals 11,479 individual licenses
€ 4.82 € 8.02
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to NATO states, EU states
and NATO-equivalent states € 2.28 € 4.48
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to third countries € 2.55 € 3.53
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to developing countries € 0.37 € 1.35
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to developing countries that Egypt (€ 0, 8),
qualify as areas of tension Indonesia (€ 0,2),
India (€ 0,93),
Pakistan (€ 0,63),
Morocco (€ 0, 61)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Ukraine is the most important destination of German arms exports. (see Table 4)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Tab. 3 makes first of all clear that the value of arms exports from Germany increased sharply from 2018 to 2019 (from € 4.82 billion to € 8.02 billion). Furthermore, about 44% of the arms exports went to third countries that are either areas of tension and crisis areas themselves or countries in which the final destination of weapons cannot be controlled. But even the final destination of exported weapons to EU states is not guaranteed. For example, weapons produced by the Rheinmetall subsidiary were delivered from Italy to the Saudi coalition fighting in Yemen until 2019.
Arms exports to developing countries have also increased significantly. This includes arms exports from Germany to states experiencing interstate tensions or human rights violations.
The total number and value of individual licenses issued by the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Security Council are not to be considered equivalent to actual exports of military equipment. Nevertheless, they provide an insight into the arms exports to be expected in the coming years. In this context, arms exports are not just about weapons. There are also, for example, trucks, boats and mine-clearing equipment. These can easily be converted or used to support warlike activities.
In addition to the individual licenses, there are also collective licenses for 2019 worth approximately half a billion euros. Most of the licenses for military equipment relates to armored vehicles and military trucks (€3.06 billion). (115)
In 2023 and 2024, export licenses for military equipment increased again massively compared to previous years. In 2023, €12.13 billion and in 2024, €13.2 billion (by December 17, 2024) in licenses for arms exports from Germany were issued due to military support for Ukraine.
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Table 4: The 10 countries with the highest cumulative values for licensed arms exports from Germany (1 January to 17 December 2024) [116]
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Rank Country Total value of individual licences and reportable transactions General licence no. 33 in euros
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Ukraine 8,137,164,112
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Singapore 1,217,944,022
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Algeria 558,719,786
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 United States 298,518,591
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Turkey 230,842,622
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 India 224,037,084
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Czech Republic 189,581,537
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 Israel 161,067,512
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 United Kingdom 152,462,666
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 United Arab Emirates 146,585,330
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Positions 5, 8 and 10 alone illustrate the problem of German arms exports on the basis of the example used here for 2024. Furthermore, it is well known that Egypt in particular is supporting the Saudi coalition in the war in Yemen, so German weapons are likely to be used here, although there is an international arms export embargo supported by Germany for the war in Yemen.
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In previous years, arms exports to the warring parties in Yemen involved in the Saudi coalition also dominated – according to political scientist and journalist Markus Bickel in 2018:
“Although the European Parliament called for an end to arms deliveries to the countries involved in the conflict as early as 2016, the German government continues to issue export licenses unconcerned. In the past three years, the Federal Security Council has approved military goods worth over a billion euros for Saudi Arabia alone. Egypt received arms exports worth 850 million euros and the United Arab Emirates 474 million euros.” [117]
The German government later justified arms exports to Ukraine – in a departure from its official position of not exporting arms to areas of tension if possible – by citing Ukraine's right to self-defense and the obligation of UN states to provide military support to an attacked member of the UN. In total, Ukraine has received support (as of 2023) of already €14 billion in the form of weapons, direct payments or humanitarian assistance since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022 (German government 2023b). By February 2024, support for Ukraine in the form of weapons, direct payments, and humanitarian aid had increased to €30 billion. This makes Germany the second-largest bilateral supporter of Ukraine after the U.S. since February 24, 2022, the date of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (German Embassy Stockholm, 2024).
In 2023 alone, the German government set a new record for arms export licenses, worth around €12.1 billion. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs announced that €6.44 billion of the licenses were for war weapons and €5.76 billion for other military equipment, such as armored vehicles. With €4.44 billion, Ukraine was again the main recipient country. In 2024, Ukraine, with 8.1 billion euros in licenses, continues to be the country with by far the largest German export licenses for military equipment (Table 4). Ukraine was treated similarly to a NATO country (Handelsblatt 2024).
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Example of arms exports to Turkey.
Arms exports approved in one year are not comparable to arms exports actually taking place in that year. Although the Federal Security Council has been cautious about approving arms deliveries to Turkey since the invasion of Syria, the NATO country Turkey nevertheless, for instance, received nearly €350 million in arms deliveries from Germany in 2019. (118) The excuse given by the government in such cases is that these are older licenses that have to be fulfilled.
In 2024, however, it is again for approx. 231 million euros of licenses granted by the German government for arms exports to Turkey (see Table 4).
Turkey is currently an aggressive state that has intervened militarily outside its national borders several times in violation of international law (Syria, Iraq, Libya). Furthermore, there are serious domestic human rights violations (arbitrary arrests of opponents of the regime, long imprisonment without conviction according to the rule of law, questionable jurisdiction, elimination and banning of parts of the opposition). If the German government were serious about the ATT of the UN and the Common Position of the EU Council, as well as about the legal claims formulated in German laws and agreements, it would – due to the worsening situation in regard to Turkey – consistently withdraw given approved licenses for arms exports to Turkey.
If Turkey crosses the Syrian borders with Leopard 2 tanks from Rheinmetall and fights the Kurdish population there with German weapons and with other weapons originating from Germany, then the German government must be blamed for not having recognized the contemporary signs in time and can hardly avoid being accused of complicity. In the future, the argument of joint NATO membership must also be dealt with more critically. As long as NATO tolerates a member state that violates international law for geostrategic reasons, joint NATO membership can no longer be a sufficient argument for arms deliveries within the NATO alliance.
Already in the first four months of 2020, Germany had again exported nearly half a billion weapons (40% more than in the same period in 2019). This does not yet include dual-use armaments.
The left-wing politician and member of the Bundestag Sevim Dağdelen demanded after a report published by 'Der Spiegel' news magazin:
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" 'The export of almost 40 percent more war weapons than in the same period last year in a world where conflicts are increasing every day is completely irresponsible,' said Dağdelen, disarmament policy spokeswoman for her parliamentary group. 'Especially with the war weapons exports to Egypt and Turkey, the German government is encouraging the conflicts in and around the Mediterranean and is thus blatantly violating its own indifferent arms export guidelines in the process.' She said that anyone who would take seriously their own commitment to carry more responsibility internationally would have to stop the exports of war weapons all over the world." (119)
Interestingly enough, numerous states are now no longer listed in Germany's arms export list - including Turkey - on the grounds that this could be used to identify arms companies that have delivered weapons to these states. The classification of these states as classified is done to protect the trade and business secrets of the arms companies involved. In the future, of course, this will make the identification and control of arms exports increasingly difficult and can be seen as a problematic success of the arms industry's lobbying activities.
The exports to Turkey were the first arms deliveries to be declared a secret by the German government and were probably only made public due to an error - according to Dağdelen in a paper published by the Left parliamentary group
"On the homepage of the Federal Ministry of Economics, however, a parliamentary answer was published –presumably by mistake - according to which Turkey received a total of war weapons from Germany last year worth 345 million euros, which is more than a third of the total German war weapons sales amounting to 824 million euros. In 2018, Erdogan was already the record holder among the recipients of German war weapons exports (770.8 million euros), with 242.8 million euros. Turkey is also among the top ten recipient states from January to April 2020. Against the background of Turkey's numerous wars of aggression in Syria and currently in northern Iraq, which violate international law, the arms deliveries are particularly reprehensible." (120)
The current interest in arms imports from Turkey is shown by the haggling over Sweden's accession to NATO in 2024 in connection with trade agreements for the purchase of fighter jets from Turkey (Meinardus, 2024). On the other hand, Turkey also uses arms imports to expand its own military know-how and to develop and produce its own weapons, which it in turn exports to areas of tension, including the delivery of Turkish drones (Bayraktar TB2) and armored vehicles to Ukraine and the delivery of electronic material for weapons of war to the Russian Federation, which is at war with Ukraine (Pehlivan, 2023). At the same time, Turkey purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system, thereby duping the USA, which was interested in selling its own defense system (Marz, 2023).
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Example of arms exports to the warring alliance in Yemen.
The war in Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, is partly internal but has also increasingly become a proxy war between the Saudi-Emirate coalition and Iran, which supports the Houthis. (121) The U.N. Security Council sided with the Saudi alliance, unilaterally imposing an arms embargo on the Houthis in 2015 in its Resolution 2216. Weapons continue however, to unabatedly be supplied largely to the opposing side. UN Resolution 216 is the basis for the blockade of Yemen and the military actions of the alliance of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and supported by Western states.
The three largest arms exporters to the Saudi alliance waging war in Yemen are the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
Germany is also involved in exporting weapons technology to this area of tension: For example, there were deliveries of 33 patrol boats produced in Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) to Saudi Arabia, which are used off the coast to enforce the Houthi blockade. The argumentation of Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) that these are only patrol boats is contradicted by the fact that they are militarily relevant as blockade boats and, of course, that they retrospectively can be armed with for instance machine guns. (122)
In total, Germany has, according to the German Ministry of Economics, approved weapons to the Saudi coalition waging war in Yemen for approximately €1.2 billion since the beginning of 2019 (a total of 224 deliveries). (123) Hereby, the German government violates its own coalition agreement, in which the halt of arms deliveries to those involved in the war in Yemen was agreed upon.
In a press release of the magazine 'Die Zeit', the data is summarized in a different way:
"According to this, 21 arms deliveries worth 802 million euros were allowed to Egypt alone within 15 months. For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there were 76 authorizations with a total value of 257 million euros. For three other members of the alliance - Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait - arms exports amounted to a total of 119 million euros." (124)
Only for Saudi Arabia the arms supply freeze was largely observed in 2019.
In the Yemen war, there are thousands of victims, especially among the civilian population, due in particular to the permanent bombardment of Yemen by the Saudi alliance.
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Western weapons as well as weapons from Germany were used also here. In the meantime, more than 100,000 people have been killed by armed violence in Yemen. In 2020, the journalist Jacob Reimann illustrated the extent of the bombing:
"Massacres of civilians on behalf of the Saudi-Emirate coalition have always been on the agenda: schools, weddings, funerals, marketplaces, refugee boats, hospitals and mosques have been deliberately bombed time and again. In total, the coalition has already carried out 21,259 airstrikes against Yemen in over five years - an average of more than eleven attacks per day. Since the coalition members - with the exception of Egypt - have only rudimentary arms industries of their own, they rely on the complicity of predominantly Western arms exporters to commit their war crimes. After the U.S., France, Russia, and the U.K., Germany ranks fifth among the main exporters to the eight members of the coalition during the years of war." (125)
However, most of the victims died as a result of the sea and border blockade due to which the Yemeni population was cut off from food and medicine supplies. In the years 2015 to the end of 2019 alone, 85,000 children under the age of five starved to death in the Yemen war, according to the international NGO Save the Children. (126)
The members of the UN Security Council can be accused of being unwilling to draft a neutral resolution with intervening measures due to their own geostrategic interests and their partial involvement in the Yemen war. UN Security Council Resolution 2216 adopted in 2015, on the other hand, acted as a unilateral statement in the interests of Saudi Arabia, among others, and provided the basis for Saudi Arabia's blockade and military measures in conjunction with an alliance of the United Arab Emirates and Western powers to the disadvantage of the Yemeni population:
"Since Yemen's supplies are almost entirely import-dependent, this UN resolution means in particular the legitimization of a total supply blockade. No fuel; no food; no drinkable water; no medicine. Almost zero of everything that is needed even in Yemen for mere survival.
According to the usual understanding of international law, such a blockade is clearly a war crime. With Resolution 2216, the UN is legitimizing genocide - the genocide that has been systematically carried out by the SAC in Yemen since 2015 with massive support from the USA, the UK and France. In other words, the UN itself is abolishing its own foundation, international law" (Meggle 2019)
Western states, such as Germany, can also be accused of supplying further arms to the belligerent state of Saudi Arabia in 2022, thereby helping to prolong the war in Yemen.
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The German company 'Rheinmetall' was heavily involved in the arms deals with the Saudi coalition. Until 2019, the company delivered aerial bombs from its Italian subsidiary RWM Italia to the Saudis, bombs that were used against the civilian population in the Yemen war. This is confirmed by bombs of German origin found in Yemen. It was not until 2019 that these arms deliveries from Italy were banned as a result of an intervention by the Italian government. (127)
The current Greenpeace study on German arms exports draws the following conclusion in regard to such corporate activities:
“These examples of armaments cooperation, the establishment of subsidiaries in third countries as well as German technology and know-how transfer, reveal loopholes in the German arms export legislation and the associated procedures. These concern the export of technical support and know-how as well as the control options for investments by German armaments companies building up production capacities abroad. These regulatory loopholes have not been closed even after the revision of the Political Principles of July 2019.“ (128)
Conclusion: Although the UN deplores the situation in Yemen with correct figures, it is itself part of the problem and, due to the interests of the UN Security Council, is not in a position to draw more effective consequences from these assessments or to withdraw Resolution 2216. Yemen not only reveals the ruthlessness of hegemonic interests but also the full extent of the United Nations' misery. The United Nations has committed itself unilaterally through Resolution 2216 and is therefore neither capable of effectively helping to re-establish a national order, nor of exerting a moderate influence on the warring parties with the aim of initiating a reorganization of the 'failed state' Yemen that helps the people.
It is pointless to discuss the question of who actually caused this war. This was an interplay of reactions and incidents by all actors involved in the war. Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Western powers supporting the conflict with arms supplies, logistics and espionage, as well as the groups operating within Yemen, are all involved in the escalation of the conflict. It is to be hoped that the UN - despite the rather unsuccessful attempts at mediation to date and the destructive Resolution 2216 - will nevertheless succeed in exerting a moderating influence on all warring parties. The aim is to establish a UN-controlled no-fly zone, ensure medical care and food supplies and, if necessary, send blue helmets with a robust mandate into the contested area to keep the warring parties apart. The attacks in late summer 2019 on the oil facilities in Saudi Arabia point to the potential for this conflict to escalate - especially if Western interests are affected.
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In spring 2022, a temporary ceasefire was achieved in Yemen under the mediation of the UN Special Envoy, but this could not be extended in October 2022. Since the outbreak of the war in Yemen, the UN estimates that 380,000 people have died as a direct and indirect result of the war.
An international donor conference attempted to alleviate the suffering of the population affected by the war. However, of the 4.3 billion US dollars required, only 1.2 billion US dollars were collected in pledges, although of course it is not yet known whether these promises will actually be realized. There also remains the contradiction of supporting one of the warring parties, Saudi Arabia, militarily with arms supplies, among other things, on the one hand, and alleviating the consequences of the war with aid to Yemen on the other. A thorough diplomatic initiative and reconstruction aid, accompanied by a ceasefire and a subsequent peace treaty with mutually agreed regulations, would certainly be more effective.
In the meantime, the Houthis, who are supported (and directed) by Iran, are interfering in the war between Israel and Hamas by attacking the ships of the Israel-supporting West in the Red Sea with rockets. In response to this, 36 targets in Yemen were bombed by a US-led alliance in early February 2024. Weapons depots, missile installations and anti-ship missiles were hit. In addition to the USA and the UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand were involved.
Meanwhile, in 2024, the Yemeni Houthi rebels are sending missiles to Israel in return and attacking international shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
These events make it clear how an initially regional military conflict that was not resolved is increasingly expanding and escalating. This applies to the war in Yemen as well as the war in Ukraine and the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organizations.
Military-industrial complex and revolving door effects
The largest arms companies are based in the USA. The five arms companies with the highest turnover are based in the USA. This is also where the military-economic complex has above-average influence - after all, high returns and a lot of jobs depend on it.
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Tab. 5: The world's 10 largest arms manufacturers (by turnover in millions of US dollars) (compiled according to SIPRI 2024a, 9)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rank
2023 2022 | Company | State | I Turnover| I Change I
for amarments* from 2022 to 2023 in %
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1 1 | Lockhead Martin Corp. | United States | 60.810 | -1,6
| 2 2 | RTX | United States | 40.660 | -1,3
| 3 3 | Northrop Crumman Corp. | United States | 35.570 | +5,8
| 4 4 | Boeing | United States | 31.100 | +2,0
| 5 5 | General Dynamics Corp. | United States | 30.200 | +3,2
| 6 6 | BAE Systems | United Kingdom | 29.810 | +2,3
| 7 9 | Rostec** | Russia | 21.730 |+49
| 8 8 | AVIC | VR China | 20.850 | +5,6
| 9 7 | NORINCO | VR China | 20.560 | -2,7
| 10 10 | CETC | VR China | 16.050 |+13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* SIPRI: “Defense revenue” refers to revenue from the sale of defense equipment and services to military customers at home and abroad. Military goods and services are defined by SIPRI as goods and services that are specifically intended for military use and include related technologies. Military equipment is military-specific equipment; it does not include general purpose goods such as fuel, office equipment and uniforms.
** SIPRI: Rostec is a holding company with no direct manufacturing capacity and would therefore not normally be included in the top 100 (see note b). The company was included in the 2023 ranking because data is not available for almost all other Russian defense companies. Some of the companies for which data is no longer available are controlled by Rostec and were represented in previous Top 100 rankings: High Precision Systems, KRET, Russian Electronics, Russian Helicopters, United Aircraft Corp, United Engines Corp and UralVagonZavod.
- 123 -
The arms industry also includes equipment companies, private military research institutes, and companies specializing in military transport. Here, too, there are numerous links between politics and the arms industry - Richard B. 'Dick' Cheney was the most prominent example of a US top politician(129) who promoted the Iraq war and whose former company Halliburton consequently profited from equipment and transport orders. According to Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008) such exploiting of a public office signified an affility for corruption. (130)
The "open revolving door system" exists in all nation states. This can also be demonstrated by the example of Germany, where former decision-makers in the political system, in particular former members of the Federal Security Council, move to the arms industry, as do former high-ranking officers.
Dirk Niebel's (FDP) consultancy work for Rheinmetall, Franz Josef Jung's (CDU) move to the supervisory board of Rheinmetall, or the appointment of Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch (SPD), former state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, a long-serving chief executive of the German Security and Defense Industry Association (BDSV), which is mainly involved in lobbying, are all examples of this disastrous revolving door effect. (131) Another prominent example is the former Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (2000-2002) and former Air Force General Harald Kujat. He was chairman of the NATO Military Committee (2002-2005) after his time as the highest-ranking German soldier and link between the Bundeswehr and the German government. He became chairman of the supervisory board of the defense contractor Heckler & Koch in 2019. (132) As a reminder, it was Heckler & Koch that illegally supplied 5000 G36 assault rifles to the embargoed district of Mexico (Guerrero). These weapons were then used, among other things, to murder the teacher students in 2014 who were on their way to a demonstration against the merging of Mexican politics and organized crime. (133)
Even though Harald Kujat has recently spoken out in public several times in 2023/2024 in favor of ending the war in Ukraine, which he considers hopeless, and has called for negotiations, this does not mean that he is against arms deliveries to Ukraine - as Kujat said in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in 2024:
"Whether the 61-billion-dollar aid package that has been under discussion for months will even be approved in Washington is not foreseeable. The EU had 'achieved a lot so far', but could not make up for the decline in American support. Nevertheless, it is important 'that this is continued. That is what the Federal Chancellor wants to achieve. We must give Ukraine the certainty that this support will not be cut off. " (Fasbender, 2024)
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Wars as economic stimulus
Wars are often promoted by warring politicians and some affirmative economists as stimulus packages for the domestic stagnating economy. Joseph Stiglitz (2008) (134) contradicts the views that wars de facto are suitable as economic stimulus programs and calls for the true costs of wars to be made transparent:
"At the beginning of 2003, the U.S. government said that the Iraq war would cost only $50 to $60 billion. Was this merely a mistake, or were the politicians simply too optimistic? First, at the beginning, only the war costs in the narrower sense were taken into account, i.e., the operational expenditures. Ignored were the war costs in the broader sense, such as interest payments on war loans, the costs of caring for war invalids and veterans, or money for the intelligence services. (...) One must also consider all the things that could have been done for the economy with the three trillion dollars in war spending. For example, building American infrastructure instead of destroying Iraqi infrastructure. From an economic standpoint, war and mass destruction is the worst economic stimulus program."
Also, it would certainly be more than cynical to choose to discuss the mass suffering and deaths of people on a merely economic level. This would present a world view that would give priority to economic priorities over the necessities of humanity: People torn to pieces, children who lose their parents and parents who hold their dead children in their arms, are all victims covering the spectrum of economic interests of private-sector profit-seeking as well as of national economic expectation of economic stimulus from the booming arms industry in the event of war.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration's efforts to secure a contract with Ukraine for rare earths at the beginning of 2025 show how economic interests also play a role in military conflicts at the exclusion of humanitarian considerations.
The role of private military companies and security services
Private military and mercenary companies are also increasingly playing a role in military conflicts. For example in Afghanistan and Pakistan, private mercenary troops act on behalf of the U.S. against terrorist groups financed by drug trafficing; sometimes they are also used against states.
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Moisés Naím describes this relatively new armaments industry in his book "The End of Power“:
"Often starting as small companies out of anonymous office parks in the outskirts of London or suburban Virginia, firms such as Blackwater (now renamed Academia), MPRI, Executive Outcomes, Custer Battles, Titan, and Aegis took on key roles in different military operations. Some were bought by larger firms, some went out of business, and some remained independent. Among other recent opportunities, private military firms have found a market for their services in protecting commercial vessels from Somali pirates. Mercenaries, with all the ancient associations of the word, have turned into a booming and diverse industry." (135)
The state as well as the private-sector use of mercenaries from private security or military companies entail even greater risks, e.g. with regard to compliance with the law of war, such as the Geneva Convention or the Hague Convention on Land Warfare.
The killing of 17 civilians in Iraq by Blackwater mercenaries in September 2008 (136) highlighted the activities of private military and mercenary companies and led to broader discussions about the legitimacy of state cooperation with such companies, which originate mainly from the United States and the United Kingdom.The 'Wagner Group' is a military company with direct contacts to the Putin government that is fighting particularly brutally in the Russian invasion and is responsible for numerous war crimes.The soldiers of the Russian Wagner Group are also known for their extremely robust actions and covert operations.
The Wagner Group's attempt to turn against its own opponent, the government of the Russian Federation, in a coup attempt in June 2023 is particularly curious. This ultimately ended after the failed coup attempt with the crash of the plane in which the head of the Wagner Group was flying and was thus also killed.
But other institutions and organizations, such as multinational corporations, some NGOs and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) also work with military security companies. The market for this has high growth rates. (137)
Mercenarism or privately paid military services have existed in history for a long time, but today's private military services are, according to Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008, 2f.), characterized by the specifics of their organizational embeddedness,
"One of the main differences between the current private providers of military services and private military organizations in the past is the corporatization of military services. The services are now provided by private firms, operating as businesses to increase value for their shareholders, and many of them are part of bigger multinational corporations."
Mercenaries from private security companies or military companies are often used by governments of highly developed states, as they are more experienced in at using highly specialized technical equipment, and fallen members of military companies attract less public attention. Mercenaries can also be used behind the front lines. Thus they can also be used more flexibly in the fight against terrorist groups, i.e., in part by circumventing national and international law, in the sense of secret armies with illegitimate missions. The transition to private military companies also corresponds to the trend toward cost-saving, profit-increasing and lower-risk outsourcing in a neoliberal sense.
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Relativization of the state monopoly of force
The attempted coup by the Russian Wagner Group and the associated march on Moscow in 2023 showed how the state monopoly on the use of force can face competition from an increasingly powerful mercenary organization, even in an authoritarian state.
However, the use of mercenaries from private security companies is also highly problematic in Western democracies, as it relativizes or undermines the monopoly on the use of force of democratically legitimized governments:
"While a key principle of modern states is that they alone have the exclusive legitimacy to exercise violence - the state monopoly of violence - the reliance on private companies for its execution increases the distance between decision making and implementation of force, creating an intermediate actor with its own private, profit-maximizing goals. This thus challenges both the ability of government to exercise direct control over the use of force and the accountability of security providers to the electorate." (138)
Hence, the SIPRI researchers Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008, 17) aptly summarize the problem of private military companies as follows:
"The continuing expansion of the private military services industry raises many issues. The view that outsourcing is economically efficient can be challenged on a number of grounds, not least when these services are provided in operationally deployed contexts. The involvement of private companies in assisting military operations in armed conflict situations such as Iraq also raises serious concerns about the democratic accountability of armed forces, the status of civilian contractors in military roles, and the political influence of companies that have a vested interest in the continuation of the conflict."
The Frankfurt political scientist Tim Engartner refers to the difference between democratic objectives of a state and business cost-benefit thinking and its consequence for an army supposedly controlled by parliament. Along with a sell-off of state services and institutions, such as the postal service or the German railroad, the military also comes under the spotlight of state privatization efforts in a neoliberal sense:
"As in the case of privatization in other areas that were previously the responsibility of the state, there is still a divergence of interests between the profit motives of the private sector and the public service obligations of the public sector. Short-term savings potentials cannot justify the surrender of parliamentary control and the associated de-democratization. Otherwise, a moderately democratic state runs the risk of giving away security-relevant information and leaving decisions making that affect one of the most precious goods of all - the good 'peace' - to private companies."
(Engartner 2018, 13) (139)
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Civil society as a target
A further level of escalation of armed conflicts is the targeted bombing of civil society institutions. The violent attacks and mass murders in military conflicts do not stop at educational institutions or children and teachers. The organization "World Vision" in its initiative "Safe Schools Declaration", which is supported by UNICEF, states among others:
"In the last decade, the number of violent conflicts has nearly doubled, resulting in one in four children worldwide not attending school. The scale of attacks on educational institutions is staggering: the recently released 'Education Under Attack 2018' report documents more than 12,700 attacks on educational institutions between 2013 and 2017, in which more than 21,000 learners and teachers were injured or killed. More than 1,000 attacks (targeted or as "collateral damage") on schools were documented in each of the Democratic Republic of Congo (639 of these in the Kasai region alone in 2016/2017), Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Nigeria, and Yemen. Between 500 and 999 attacks on schools were recorded in Afghanistan as well as South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine." (140)
This problem is exacerbated when militant groups deliberately use schools and hospitals in order to escape enemy attacks. Accordingly, schools, hospitals and ambulance transports are increasingly becoming the target of military attacks, with the argument that enemy fighters are hiding under their protective shield or would operate from there.
In the course of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, civilian objects are also targeted. Not only the energy system of Ukraine was the target of Russian missile attacks in 2022/2023, but also schools, hospitals and residential districts. Furthermore, in March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague convicted the Russian president of complicity in the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children and their release for adoption to Russian parents. Putin can theoretically be arrested from now on in all states that recognize the ICC. Also, of course, this is an important symbolic act that no one should be above the law. The corresponding consequences of this fact for the war in Iraq and for the former US-Präsident Bush Jr. should be obvious.
Likewise, the killing of over 1000 Israeli civilians and, in response, the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians - including thousands of children, young people and women - must become the subject of international jurisdiction as soon as possible after the end of the war in the Middle East.
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Conclusion: The military-industrial complex oriented towards private-sector profit maximization should not be understood as a "normal" economy, but against the background of existing political structures, as a destructive economic concept, as an economy of death. Deliveries of weapons to areas of tension, massive lobbying, wars as economic stimulus packages and private-sector warfare with high returns, point to a cynical approach to the fact of deaths on a massive scale among the civilian population affected by warfare. Speculation with shares of arms companies in connection with military conflicts and wars, as exemplified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the associated rearmament pledges by Western governments, lead to high profits for war profiteers. The timely purchase of shares in the arms companies led to high profit increases, which are achieved with the suffering of people affected by war.
The next chapter analyzes how the military-industrial complex, with the support of politics, will continue to assert itself and how a new arms spiral will contribute to the increasing disorder of the world.
1.4.1.2 The return of the rearmament spiral
With the help of the realism theory of international relations, it can be justified that a state must constantly rearm in order to be able to defend itself against a potentially hostile state. This other state, in turn, uses the same argument of a threat situation to arm itself militarily. The prevailing thinking is that security can only be achieved at the price of military strength. This is legitimized by the view that those in favor of peace must arm themselves for war. It is also argued that the backing of a highly armed military is advantageous in building up pressure for international diplomacy negotiations. This, however, creates an initial and increasing dynamic of rearmament between states and military blocs with all the human, political, ecological and economic consequences and risks that this entails.
In the war in Ukraine, it is further argued that peace negotiations would only make sense once the Russian army has been defeated or largely pushed back. Therefore, an escalation of arms deliveries to Ukraine and an increase in arms production are demanded. In this context, Germany has decided on a special fund for arms spending worth 100 billion euros in 2022. Russia is reacting accordingly and is in turn increasing its own arms production.
US companies in particular will benefit from new arms orders. In this context, Germany has also decided on a special fund for armaments expenditure worth 100 billion euros in 2022. The Russian Federation, which is primarily responsible for the military aggression, is reacting accordingly and is transforming its economy into a war economy, thereby increasing its own arms production, which in turn leads to further calls for armaments in Western countries. The escalation spiral continues to develop within the framework of this war-focused mindset, leading to an expansion and intensification of acts of war with unforeseeable consequences.
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A rearmament spiral does not necessarily have to occur
The successful disarmament negotiations at the end of the 20th century within the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, from 1995 OSCE) (141) , in which the USA, Canada and the former Soviet Union also participated, show how diplomacy and talks can be successful in order to get rid of a large part of conventional and nuclear weapons and also to help 'human rights' to achieve a breakthrough. The prerequisite for this was, among other things, civil society support from a broad-based transnational peace movement involving the commitment of millions of people. The agreements concerning the observance of human rights, free elections, freedom of expression, etc., which had already been achieved in 1975 within the framework of the CSCE Final Act, in turn led to numerous Helsinki groups engaged in civil society and to a political opening of the Warsaw Pact states. The resumed INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) negotiations within the CSCE resulted in 1987 in a treaty for the destruction of land-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty) was signed by 22 heads of government from the Warsaw Pact and the NATO countries. The result of this, in turn, was the elimination of approximately 50,000 conventional offensive weapons systems (tanks, artillery, attack helicopters and combat aircraft stationed in Europe) by the end of 1995. Furthermore, as a result of the Helsinki Document of 1992, war prevention and peacekeeping measures were agreed upon between the signatory states. (142) Those who claim that arms control and large-scale disarmament are fundamentally unsuccessful should be countered by this historic negotiation success in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Social orders in the field of military and security policy can certainly change if a corresponding social pressure arises. This seemed to widely have opened the door to a fundamental new order with an associated peace dividend.
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The counterforces also became active ...
However, also the counterforces with regard to a peacebuilding new order mobilized in this situation of change. The military-industrial complex and its supporters in politics have of course no interest in eliminating rearmament programs, since this would eliminate a lucrative business model and chauvinist geostrategic options would no longer be viable.
In recent years, therefore, a new global rearmament spiral has emerged due to the politically supported media staging international enemy images and to existing geostrategic and economic interests. This could lead to enormous returns for the arms industry.
The intervention of U.S.-led troops in Iraq and Turkey's invasion of the Kurdish regions in northeastern Syria in violation of international law, Russia's occupation of Crimea, also in violation of international law, and Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and its attempt to split off parts of Ukraine's eastern and southeastern regions, Iran's proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen violating international law, China's increasing aggressiveness (Hong Kong, Taiwan, South China Sea), and the wars in Syria and Libya, initiated a new rearmament spiral on the basis of regional hegemonic interests instead of primarily resolving conflicts by diplomatic means. In this context, the U.S., China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are continuing their rearmament efforts. The U.S. and NATO are attempting to oblige NATO members to a military budget of of at least 2% of their gross domestic product. In the case of Germany this would mean almost doubling the military budget. In this context, Germany has also decided on a special fund for armaments expenditure worth 100 billion euros in 2022. The Russian Federation, which is primarily responsible for the military aggression, is reacting accordingly and is transforming its economy into a war economy, thereby increasing its own arms production, which in turn leads to further calls for armaments in Western countries. The escalation spiral continues to develop within the framework of this war-focused mindset, leading to an expansion and intensification of acts of war with unforeseeable consequences.), and the wars in Syria and Libya, initiated a new rearmament spiral on the basis of regional hegemonic interests instead of primarily resolving conflicts by diplomatic means. In this context, the U.S., China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are continuing their rearmament efforts. The U.S. and NATO are attempting to oblige NATO members to a military budget of at least 2% of their gross domestic product. In the case of Germany this would mean almost doubling the military budget. (143) In 2004/2005, not only 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the European NATO states, but already 3.5% and also 5% of the GDP are being demanded. For Germany, 5% would already account for about 40% of the national budget. The spiral of escalation continues to develop within the framework of this war-focused thinking, leading to an expansion and intensification of military action with unforeseeable consequences.
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate and former US president irresponsibly escalated the international situation in February 2024 in the sense of extorting protection money - according to CNN's report:
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" 'NATO was busted until I came along,' Trump said at a rally in Conway, South Carolina. 'I said, 'Everybody's gonna pay. They said, 'Well, if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us?' I said, 'Absolutely not. They couldn't believe the answer.
Trump said 'one of the presidents of a big country' at one point asked him whether the US would still defend the country if they were invaded by Russia even if they 'don't pay.
'No, I would not protect you,' Trump recalled telling that president. 'In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.
President Joe Biden said Sunday that Trump 'is making it clear that he will abandon our NATO allies' and outlined the potential consequences of Trump's comments." (Sullivan 2024)
You have to realize this: Trump would encourage Putin to invade Western countries if they did not contribute at least 2% and more of their gross domestic product to the NATO budget. It should also be borne in mind that US armaments companies in particular would benefit from Western investment in armaments. A clear case of international protection racketeering.
The rearmament spiral is accelerated by the media constructing manipulative enemy images (e.g., reciprocal U.S. - Russia, Iran - U.S., Saudi Arabia - Iran, U.S. - China) indicating that the counterpart would seek military superiority in a weapons sector, would not abide by international arms control agreements, would adopt a fundamentally hostile and untrustworthy attitude, would have the wrong ideology or religion, and would plan or fight a war of aggression. (144)
The war in Ukraine has drastically intensified the global arms spiral. Furthermore an escalation of competition between China and the United States can be seen in recent years. This is where a significant global conflict potential is likely to occur in the near future, as China is increasingly catching up with the U.S. in the geopolitical, economic and military spheres and has already achieved superiority in some areas.
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Global arms race in figures
The facts are as follows: Overall, arms spending is on the rise worldwide. The Swedish research institute SIPRI calculated that global arms spending increased to $1.739 trillion in 2017 (2018: $1.83 trillion, 2019: $1.9 trillion). The U.S. military budget accounted for one-third of total global defense spending in 2018 ($649 billion vs. $610 billion in 2017), 2.7 times ahead of China reaching second place (228 billion). China increased its defense budget by 5.6% in 2017, India by 5.5%, and Saudi Arabia by as much as 9.2%.
In 2021, global arms spending rose well above two trillion dollars (2.113 trillion). The top five arms investors were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia. They accounted for 62% of global arms spending (SIPRI 2022).
The defense spending of Russia in 2017, however, decreased by 20% compared to the previous year (2017: $66.3 billion) and again in 2018 by another 3.5%. The reason for the decrease in Russian defense spending was due to economic difficulties. Russia had modernized its army in recent years and had repeatedly tested it in various military conflicts. Russian costs for weapons systems and personnel were also much lower than in Western countries, so these figures are not readily comparable.
However, Russian military spending then increased again in 2019 by 4.5% to over $65 billion. In 2021, Russia again increased its military budget by nearly 3%, using 4.1% of its GDP on defense spending in 2021 (SIPRI 2022).
Russian arms spending then increased significantly again in 2023/2024 in the wake of the Russian Federation's war in Ukraine - SIPRI (2023b) estimates
" that Russia's planned military spending of 12,765 billion roubles (around 140 billion US dollars) in 2024 would be 29 percent higher in real terms than in 2023, which corresponds to 7.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 35 percent of total government spending."
At the same time, and in clear response to the Russian attack, Ukraine has drastically increased its defense spending for 2022 - according to SIPRI (2023c):
"Ukraine's military spending reached $44.0 billion in 2022. At 640 percent, this was the highest single-year increase in military spending ever recorded in SIPRI data. As a result of this increase and the war-related damage to the Ukrainian economy, the military burden (military spending as a share of GDP) rose from 3.2 percent in 2021 to 34 percent of GDP in 2022."
Germany ranked 9th on the global arms scale in 2017 ($47.2 billion) with a slight increase, rising to 8th in 2018 (up 3.8% arms spending) and 7th in 2019. Arms spending by all NATO countries was 52% of total global arms spending in 2017 (about $900 billion in military spending by NATO countries). This increased to 53% of global arms spending for 2018. (145)
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Global arms spending for 2019 increased by another 3.6% over the previous year to a total of $1917 billion. The increase for the USA alone was as large as the total German arms budget (SIPRI 2020b).
The defense budget for 2024 provides for an addition of the normal defense budget and the special assets for Germany - according to the Federal Ministry of Defense (2024):
"Compared to the previous year, the 2024 defense budget has increased by 1.83 billion euros. With 51.95 billion euros from the defense budget and around 19.8 billion euros from the Bundeswehr Special Fund, further important investments in the best possible material and equipment for the troops can also be made this year."
With a defense budget of over 70 billion euros in 2024, Germany will have clearly exceeded the 2% of GDP threshold.
China is arming itself massively. In parallel with its growing economic power, China is increasingly catching up militarily with the USA, and it is estimated that China will be at the same level of armaments as the USA in about ten years if the development continues in the same way.
China is now building its own aircraft carriers, supersonic cannons, special torpedoes and stealth jets. Although China insists that its armaments are exclusively for national defense purposes, the country is expanding military bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea, which is also confirmed by other surrounding states.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis criticized this at a conference in Singapore in June 2018:
"Despite China's claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapon systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion," (146)
There would be Chinese bombers landing on the islands, and in addition to anti-aircraft missiles, there would be missiles capable of attacking ships within a radius of 550 miles. (147)
Meanwhile, China has the largest conventional missile potential. China also has a large arsenal of combat drones and is now the world's largest exporter of such drones. China is expanding – just as the U.S. publicly declares – capabilities for reconnaissance and action in space, e.g., in terms of destroying enemy satellites. (148)
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China is continuously increasing its defense budget, according to SIPRI (2023c):
"China remained the world's second-largest military spender, spending an estimated $292 billion in 2022. This is 4.2 percent more than in 2021 and 63 percent more than in 2013. China's military spending has increased for 28 consecutive years."
The SIPRI statistics of 2020 and 2021 show an increase in the defense budgets of most countries in absolute terms - despite the shrinking gross domestic product (see table 6).
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Tab.6: Arms expenditure in international comparison (taken from SIPRI 2021, 2022, 2023c)
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State 2020 in US $ Change in % World share in % and
billion and (change (2011-2020) (share of nat. GDP in %)
2019-2020 in%)
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1 United States 778 (+4.4) -10 39 (3.7)
2 China (252) (+1.9) +76 (13) ((1.7)
3 India 72.9 (+5.5%) +34 3.7 (2.9)
4 Russia 61.7 (+2.5) +26 3.1 (4.3)
5 United 59.2 (+2.9) -4.2 3.0 (2.2)
Kingdom
6 Saudi Arabia (57.5) (-10%) +2.3 (2.9) ((8.4))
7 Germany 52.8 (+5.2) +28 2.7 (1.4)
8 France 52.7 (+2.9%) +9.8 2.7 (2.1)
9 Japan 49.1 (+1.2) +2.4 2.5 (1.0)
10 Südkorea 45.7 (4.9) +41 2.3 (2.8)
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Total 1.981
(world-wide): US $ trillion
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Share of NATO countries totalled $1103 billion in 2020. The USA, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada accounted for 90 per cent ($995 billion) of total NATO spending and nearly 50 per cent of global military expenditure
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SIPRI (2022): "Total global military expenditure increased by 0.7 per cent in real terms in 2021, to reach $2113 billion. The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 per cent of expenditure".
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SIPRI (2023c): "Global military spending rose by 3.7% in real terms in 2022, reaching a new high of 2,240 billion dollars. Military spending in Europe recorded the strongest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years."
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The Kenyan doctor Bonventure Machuka (2025) takes stock of the effects of the arms trade and armament in African states. Conflicts, such as in Sudan, between Tigray and Ethiopia, in the Sahel zone or in Yemen, are fueled by foreign powers, making it more difficult for the African Union to effectively mediate peace:
“The global arms race is fueled by geopolitical competition between major powers and harms developing countries through proxy conflicts. Sudan and Yemen are prime examples of how arms deliveries from the Global North have prolonged conflicts.(...) The consequences are mass displacement, famine and a deterioration in living conditions.
The economic impact of the arms trade on developing countries is significant. A study in the Journal of Public Health Policy shows that military spending diverts resources from vital sectors such as health and education, undermining development and public well-being.
Similarly, Amnesty International emphasizes that the funds allocated to arms imports are often at the expense of infrastructure and anti-poverty initiatives, leaving millions without access to essential services. The arms race also strengthens authoritarian regimes in developing countries.”
In African states, the problem of corruption, jihadist influences, and the incompetence of state institutions and responsible politicians are compounding the problem, leading to popular dissatisfaction. In particular, the trade in small arms in African states has a destabilizing and dangerous effect on the population (Machuka 2025).
The danger of nuclear war increases
Nuclear disarmament treaties are being abandoned. At the same time, investments are currently being made not only in conventional weapons, but also in nuclear forces and nuclear weapons technologies; there is also a threat of a new nuclear arms spiral – according to the press release of ICAN Germany on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference 2018:
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"The Stockholm-based peace research institute SIPRI warns about the gigantic modernization programs of nuclear weapons states. According to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, the United States alone plans to spend more than $400 billion on its nuclear arsenal within ten years. Also Russia is investing heavily in its nuclear forces and testing new intercontinental missiles. China, Pakistan and India are also increasing their nuclear arsenal. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced last week that the spending on the maintenance and renewal of French nuclear weapons would be almost doubled – to six billion euros a year, a total of 37 billion over the next seven years. In addition, with North Korea the number of states possessing nuclear weapons has recently increased further. All this is taking place in a highly unstable security environment. Never before have there been so great tensions between so many nuclear-weapon states. There is currently no nuclear-weapon state that is not in a situation of crisis or conflict." (149)
In particular, with the development of hypersonic drones and missiles driven by China, Russia and the USA, a new dimension has been reached in the arms race. Due to the speed and maneuverability of the Russian cruise missiles, which, for instance, fly at 32,000 km/h and are equipped with nuclear warheads, defense in the event of an attack is virtually impossible. (150)
Not only are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council constantly expanding their nuclear armament program – also with regard to a more flexible and limited application. Even extremely unstable states, such as Pakistan, Israel, North Korea and India, already have the nuclear bomb due to the transfer of nuclear technology by the permanent Security Council members. Other states that are considered problematic, such as Iran, are on the threshold of nuclear technology.
When radical religious practices, political ideologies, economic interests, and ideas of geostrategic hegemony collide in certain regions of the world, possession of nuclear technology or hydrogen bombs leads to a global threat the consequences of which are unforeseeable.
Conflicts between China and India as well as India and Pakistan (Kashmir conflict) also pose incalculable threats between nuclear powers, some of which cooperate inadequately and non-transparently in the multilateral system. (151)
A new threat arises from the announcementby the former US President Donald Trump that smaller nuclear bombs will be developed and used in military conflicts. 'Mini-Nukes' could be used for a 'limited nuclear strike' in the sense of tactical nuclear weapons. (152) Since the planned 'mini-nukes' are still capable of destroying cities the size of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in terms of their destructive power, these announcements merely further accelerate the nuclear arms spiral and thus also lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons – as confirmed by former US President Trump in 2016 during the election campaign: "If we have them why can't we use them?" (153)
The Russian side also threatened the West with nuclear attacks in 2022 in the course of the war in Ukraine, and nuclear weapons were put into operational readiness.
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The European Union also has massive nuclear armament plans for the future. Here, the focus is on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which involves a complex system consisting of novel and nuclear equipped combat aircraft accompanied by swarms of drones based on satellite network with armed forces on land and sea. The new 6th generation fighter aircraft is a stealth bomber that is also equipped with cyber warfare capabilities and an air combat cloud and it is by artificial intelligence connected with the other combat systems. FCAS is expected to be operational by 2040 but it is still competing with another similar European rearmament project "Templet". The development cost of FCAS is estimated at 100 billion euros. The acquisition cost is estimated at 500 billion euros. (154)
Anti-personnel mines - a terrible war legacy
In 2017, 1.7 trillion dollars were spent on the production of weapons worldwide. In 2018 it was already 1.82 trillion dollars, in 2019 1.917 trillion dollars and in 2022 already 2.24 trillion dollars (see Table 5). International rearmament and the associated alarming situation are again accelerating.
A terrible instrument of violent conflict and dangerous armament are the anti-personnel mines. Although there was a first breakthrough due to the international ban on the use, transfer and development of anti-personnel mines in 1999 with the 'Ottawa Convention', the largest mine suppliers USA, Russia and China have not yet signed the treaty.
There are currently between 70 and 110 million landmines in more than 70 countries in the form of anti-personnel or vehicle mines, which, when hidden in the ground, pose a threat primarily to the civilian population. This situation has hardly changed in 2025 since the period between 2003 and 2016. (155)
Triple-digit billions of dollars will be needed in the future to eliminate landmines - if this can be fully accomplished at all.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) (2024), an association of approximately 1,400 NGOs with the aim of educating people about the distribution channels and victims of landmines, summarizes the figures for 2023:
“The Landmine Monitor 2024 report describes the widespread impact anti-personnel mines have on civilian populations even decades after they were laid. In 2023, at least 5,757 casualties of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) were recorded. Civilians made up 84% (4,335) of all recorded casualties, where the military or civilian status was known. Children accounted for 37% (1,498) of civilian casualties, where the age group was recorded.”
At the end of 2024, then-US President Biden authorized the delivery of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine to stop or slow the Russian military advance, in addition to the use of weapons with a long range against Russia. Russia also deployed dense fields of anti-personnel mines in eastern Ukraine to make a Ukrainian counterattack more difficult.
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Threat of escalation through hypersonic weapons
The Russian Iskander hypersonic missiles with nuclear weapons and stealth technology, which are located in Kaliningrad and elsewhere, can reach Germany, for example, in a matter of minutes. This is a threatening development and an irresponsible measure by the government of the Russian Federation, which must be clearly criticized.
In the war in Ukraine, hypersonic missiles were also used by the Russian side for the first time - fired from fighter jets - and are very difficult to defend against:
"The Ch-47M2 Kinschal ("Dagger") hypersonic missile is one of the most fearsome new additions to the Russian Air Force. The approximately eight-metre-long missiles fly extremely fast and extremely high, but remain maneuverable according to Russian information. According to NATO estimates, they can hardly be intercepted by conventional air or missile defenses in March. The Western alliance has christened the new Russian weapon AS-24 Killjoy ('spoilsport')." (rnd, 2022)
However, the Ukrainian leadership claims that it recently shot down several Russian Kinshal missiles with the help of the Patriot defense system, even if this was not easy (Rugalla, Lukas, 2024).
The USA and NATO are now threatening a backlash, as there are increasing signs that hypersonic missiles ('Dark Eagle', designation: Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) are also to be stationed in Europe, for example in Germany or Poland (Wagner 2021, Reckmann 2022).
The deployment of long-range missile systems under US command in Germany is meanwhile planned for 2026. US hypersonic missiles are also to be stationed here.
These weapons travel significantly faster than Mach 5 (= over 6000 km/h) and carry guideable gliding missiles that are difficult to intercept using existing techniques. A reaction is associated with considerable difficulties due to the high flight speed, the great variability of the gliding missiles and their low approach phase below the radar. The US hypersonic missiles currently in the final test phase are equipped with conventional warheads, but could also be converted for 'dual use' with nuclear warheads. NATO denies this, but how credible is this in the event of an escalating conflict - especially as the Russian hypersonic missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads according to Russian information?
In the event of a software error or a self-dynamic or faulty behavior of the AI, neither the defense nor the comprehensive testing of an appropriate counter-reaction is possible. Even conventionally equipped hypersonic missiles can trigger a nuclear war. They are designed as a means of combat in the sense of a decapitation strike, i.e. to eliminate the opposing government leadership if it is located in buildings located above ground. One can only imagine how a nuclear-armed state attacked in this way will react.
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Therefore, in view of the current aggressive global situation and the (imminent) deployment of hypersonic weapons, an appeal against nuclear armament was launched and a return to disarmament negotiations was called for. (see https://www.change.org/p/gegen-die-atomare-bedrohung).
The German government is the addressee here. The German government is called upon to veto the future deployment of hypersonic missiles and to advocate the revival or further development of nuclear disarmament treaties. Among other things, the Federal Government is calling for the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which is already in force under international law and which would also put an end to Germany's nuclear sharing.
Exiting the logic of deterrence
Of course, naivety is not an option. There are political and economic interests behind the military escalation. The ominous combination of the economic interests of the military-industrial complex, geostrategic interests, national-religious ideologies and the authoritarian profiling of (mostly male) politicians under pressure is leading to a continuous escalation of the global security situation. But in a nuclear inferno, everyone loses - including the billionaires, the ideologues and the warlords on all sides.
At present, military violations and aggression are generally met with even stronger counter-attacks instead of abandoning the logic of deterrence and punishment and choosing the path of negotiation with the involvement of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, such as the OSCE.
The Austrian Nobel Prize winner Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) criticized the blindness and stupidity of the warmongers and the policy of deterrence and escalating punitive actions. She wrote very accurately in this context:
"It will not occur to any sensible person to want to clean up ink stains with ink, oil stains with oil - only blood, that is to be washed out again and again with blood."
(von Suttner, Bertha, 1889)
Use of artificial intelligence in military conflicts
A more recent danger is the use of artificial intelligence via human-robotic systems, e.g. in the use of combat drones and the evaluation of the footage via intelligent algorithms in order to quickly identify and differentiate between humans as the basis of attacks. (156) There are already NGOs that are critically following this development or calling for protests, such as the US civil rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC).
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According to the EFF (157), the U.S. Department of Defense invested $7.4 billion in the development of artificial intelligence for military purposes in 2017. It becomes particularly problematic when drones use criteria, such as race or skin color to autonomously distinguish between people - according to Kate Conger and Dell Cameron (2018) on the EFF homepage:
"Maven was tasked with using machine learning to identify vehicles and other objects in drone footage, taking that burden off analysts. Maven's initial goal was to provide the military with advanced computer vision, enabling the automated detection and identification of objects in as many as 38 categories captured by a drone's full-motion camera, according to the Pentagon. Maven provides the department with the ability to track individuals as they come and go from different locations.
Artificial intelligence is already deployed in law enforcement and military applications, but researchers warn that these systems may be significantly biased in ways that aren't easily detectible. For example, ProPublica reported in 2016 that an algorithm used to predict the likelihood of recidivism among inmates routinely exhibited racial bias."
The international Campaign to Stop Killer Robots already brings together more than 60 non-governmental organizations that oppose killing by artificial intelligence-equipped war machines:
"So far no state has used fully automated weapons systems, but that could change. Major powers like the U.S., Russia and China are already preparing to use "killer robots" in combat. The reason could be the fear of not being able to keep up with a possible future arms race. Although the the German army has so far ruled out acquiring such systems, and the German parliament would have to approve such an operation anyway, German defense policy must prepare for the fact that German soldiers could one day face such systems." (158)
The International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) calls for a ban and a development control regarding autonomous killer machines or killer robots, since major powers such as Russia, China and the U.S. obviously are working at a great speed to develop these weapons. Thompson Chengeta (ICRA) therefore calls at a UN hearing:
"Finally, human control over critical functions of weapon systems and a ban on fully autonomous weapon systems are two sides of the same coin. States are urged to focus on the requirement of human control rather than technical definitions of autonomy. Further, States must move towards negotiation of a legally binding instrument on this issue." (159)
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Computer scientist and AI specialist Karl H. Bläsius (2024) sees a threatening development of nuclear weapons systems, particularly in connection with AI. AI will be interposed for rapid detection in the face of ever faster and more difficult to locate missiles with nuclear load, as humans are overwhelmed with the process of perceiving, deciding and commanding in such a short time. However, if AI is ultimately decisive for a nuclear counter-attack, then there is a risk of 'nuclear war by mistake'. AI can never make 100% reliable statements and does not have the moral and ethical standards that responsible humans might have.
To sum up: Instead of disarmament, the arms spiral continues to grow. The USA is verifiable the driving force behind this trend in terms of the volume of arms spending. However, major states such as China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are also constantly increasing their already high arms expenditures, either overtly or covertly.
The Russian war in Ukraine shows how a state, in this case Russia, develops aggressively when its substantial arms investments make it feel powerful enough to invade a neighboring state in the wake of a neo-imperialist ideology underpinned by ethnic motives.
In particular, the risk of a nuclear conflict is growing as nuclear weapons become more widespread and appear usuable due to the development of mini-nukes or in terms of tactical nuclear weapons. This has once again been clearly demonstrated by the war in Ukraine. The deployment of hypersonic missiles, which can be equipped with nuclear weapons, also poses a significant threat in this context.
The combination of AI and modernized weapons systems is currently leading to a particularly dangerous development, which is already being tested in the war in Ukraine.
The deployment of hypersonic missiles that can be equipped with nuclear weapons also poses a particular threat in this context.
This is in contrast to the efforts to preserve peace through diplomatic means, compromises, and in the spirit of a shared global perspective. Moreover, these trillions of dollars are not available to mankind for more meaningful expenditures in the sense of a peace dividend that in the event of disarmament could be used for combating climate catastrophe, for preventive reactions to famine catastrophes, for the fight for clean water and for the elimination of global social injustice.
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1.4.1.3 Environment, military and war
One aspect of rearmament and military activities that has been neglected for a long time is the massive environmental destruction caused worldwide by the military, especially during and after wars. But the military is also the largest institutional emitter of climate change gases in everyday military operations and exercises. In addition the environmental destruction and emissions caused by the production of weapons must also be added.
The poisoning and destruction of the environment with serious consequences for humans, animals and plants are only now gradually getting public attention in connection with the current protests of the environmental and peace movements. But the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung addressed this aspect in a far-sighted manner already in 2004:
“One thing is damage to the eco-system and eco-deterioration; another is reinforcement of the general cultural code of domination over nature, also a part of the rape syndrome. Countless millions watch on TV not only people killed and wounded but also nature destroyed, poisoned, going up in flames. The war is legitimated. The damage may be deplored, not the legitimation.” (160)
History of military environmental degradation
However, military-related interference with the environment and self-evident legitimizing of destruction of nature in the context of military conflicts and for military use purposes already took place already hundreds of years ago. Ecological destruction by the military was rarely seen as a threat in the past; economic and geostrategic objectives had priority. For example, as early as in the 1st century AD, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder criticized deforestation and the devastation of landscapes in Italy, Spain, and North Africa in order to extract, among other things, timber, copper, and iron ore for trade and war:
"One digs through the earth in pursuit of wealth, because the world demands gold, silver, electron, and copper - there for the sake of ostentation, for precious stones and dyes for walls and wood; elsewhere, to get hold of iron, which for war and murder is valued even more than gold." (161)
The consequences of these massive interventions in nature can still be seen today, for example, in the karstification of large parts of the Italian and Spanish mountain landscape.
Later, colonialism was associated with further environmental destruction and interference with ecologically adapted and functioning subsistence farming systems: Indigenous peasants were forced to leave their land in conquered territories. An intact environment often turned into a monocultural and one-sided plantation desert due to the military intervention of the colonial powers.
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The two world wars transformed numerous regions into landscapes destroyed and contaminated by remnants of war.
According to estimates by the Fraunhofer Institute, approximately 1.6 million tons of conventional and about 200,000 tons of chemical warfare materials lie on the seabeds of the Baltic and the North Seas. Sea mines, bombs and poison gas grenades corrode, become porous and release their toxic charge into the environment and the poison enters the human food chain via the fish. (162)
The two atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 caused, in addition to a quarter of a million deaths in 1945 alone, radioactive contamination of these regions as well as numerous cancer deaths and children born with genetic defects.
There were pesticides used in Vietnam as early as in 1961 by order of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to defoliate the rainforests in order to deprive the Viet Cong of cover and to destroy their rice fields. From February 1967 onwards, the plant poison 'Agent Orange' was used to defoliate the Vietnamese rainforest and to destroy the Viet Cong's rice fields as part of the largest chemical attack in history during the Vietnam War. The dioxin it contained has not been removed until today and is the reason for massive appearances of cancers and genetic defects in Vietnam. In total, 70 million liters of airborne herbicides were spread over Vietnam by the U.S. Army with devastating consequences for nature and human health. (163)
Current environmental destruction by military and war
The 'International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons' (ICAN), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, estimates that approximately 2000 nuclear weapons tests with the explosive power of 29,000 Hiroshima bombs were conducted underground, in water and above ground. The nuclear weapons tests have caused extensive radioactive contamination of various regions as well as approximately 2.4 million cancer deaths today. For instance, the USA conducted a total of 1032 tests from 1945 to 1992. The Soviet Union carried out 456 nuclear weapons tests alone in Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh area between 1949 and 1991. (164)
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However, nobody knows exactly how many millions of people actually fell ill with cancer and died especially as a result of the above-ground tests. The organization 'International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War' (IPPNW) sets the number of victims even higher than the ICAN study 'Threat to Life from Radioactive Radiation'. The study, led by the Munich biochemist Prof. Roland Scholz, concluded as early as in 1997,
"that external radiation exposure from bomb fallout alone could cause 3 million additional cancer deaths worldwide by the year 2000. In addition, there would be the consequences through ingestion of radionuclides in food and the air we breathe. This internal radiation could cause an additional 30 million casualties." (165)
Burning oil wells in the military conflicts in the Arab region, e.g. in the Iraq war, caused massive CO2 pollution of the biosphere. Another example is the burning oil wells of Saudi Arabia during the Yemen war.
But in particular the 30-year bombardment of Iraq should be mentioned here, during which hundreds of thousands of missions of fighter aircrafts with deadly bomb loads caused massive environmental destruction. The U.S. and its allies killed a total of 2.7 million people over 30 years in the course of the 2nd and 3rd Gulf Wars and the subsequent operations and measures, an average of 270 people per day. (166) Furthermore, there was massive ecological damage from bombing, setting fire to oil facilities, and the use of uranium munitions (DU, depleted uranium) – according to the German journalist Jacob Reimann (2021, n.d.):
"On February 24, 1991, the U.S. began the ground invasion of Kuwait and was able to recapture the entire country within a few days. Retreating Iraqi troops set dozens of oil facilities on fire and opened Kuwaiti oil terminals, causing a devastating environmental disaster in the Persian Gulf. (...)
In 1991, the U.S. fired 320 tons of radioactive DU ammunition in Iraq. Cancer rates skyrocketed. As with the chemical warfare of the USA in Vietnam using Agent Orange, DU hits the youngest ones the hardest: In just ten years, there was a seventeen-fold increase in the number of neonatal malformations in Basra. (....) The U.S. has virtually created a new category of human misery and suffering with its DU ammunition."
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Beyond this:
When U.S. troops leave an occupied territory, they often leave behind an ecological disaster that has serious consequences for the health of the people still living there. According to its own statute, the U.S. Army is not allowed to leave any materials behind, thus, everything that is not taken away is burned in so-called 'burn pits.' These are large pits where oil residues, chemical waste, explosives, batteries, paint, wrecked cars, among other things, go up in flames. The fires often burn for weeks after U.S. troops have withdrawn. The resulting unfiltered emissions release toxic particles into the environment, which effect people and the environment. Groundwater is contaminated, cancer and lung disease as well as increased miscarriages occur in the vicinity of the 'burn pits'. Also those who fuel the fires, the U.S. soldiers, have increased rates of cancer and lung disease. (167)
But uranium ammunition was not used only in Iraq. Uranium ammunition used by NATO in former Yugoslavia, among other places, also poisoned the environment and caused radioactively contaminated areas. Radioactive ammunition was also used in Iraq and today in Syria, especially for armor-piercing offensive weapons. As a result, more and more children are born with massive deformities and are often unable to survive.
The correspondent Karin Leukefeld, accredited in Damascus for many years, reports on the health consequences of uranium ammunition made from depleted uranium, which - in addition to its directly destructive effect - is highly toxic to the environment, animals and humans, including future generations:
"The consequences of the depleted uranium ammunition used by the U.S. and its allies in several Gulf wars are still affecting families in southern Iraq and west of Baghdad, in Falluja. Countless children are born dead or with severe deformities: open backs, fused legs, external bladders, one eye or no eye at all, open skulls, to name just a few examples." (168)
Uranium ammunition is also used in Syria. When fired, the uranium burns at up to 5,000 degrees Celsius to form nanoparticles that are 100 times smaller than red blood cells, and falls to the ground as radioactive fine dust that contaminates the environment. (169)
The Russian invasion and the war in Ukraine starting in February 2022 also brought massive environmental destruction affecting people, buildings and infrastructure as well as the biosphere. Thousands of detonations from bomb and missile attacks, blasts, exploding fuel depots, the danger of radioactivity leakage from attacked nuclear power plants, extensive CO2 emissions from operating thousands of military vehicles and fighter jets, destroyed landscapes and mined terrain are the results of this war.
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In a study by de Klerk et al (2023), it was determined that within one year of war in Ukraine, both warring parties emitted approximately as much CO₂ emissions as in Belgium as a whole in the same year. This amounted to 119 million tons of CO₂ equivalents.
Stuart Parkinson and Linsey Cottrell (2022) also summarize their study on the climate damage caused by the military and wars as follows:
„If the world’s militaries were a country, this figure would mean they have the fourth largest national carbon footprint in the world – greater than that of Russia. This emphasises the urgent need for concerted action to be taken both to robustly measure military emissions and to reduce the related carbon footprint – especially as these emissions are very likely to be growing in the wake of the war in Ukraine.“
Susanne Aigner (2022) adds another threat to this damage and destruction in her report on the ecological consequences of the Ukraine war:
"In addition, there are other types of radioactive contamination, one of which can be traced back to the war in the Donbass: since the start of the war in 2014, the old coal mines there have not been properly pumped out and maintained. As a result, some 200 mines have been flooded, some of which were dug with nuclear blasts, spreading chemicals such as mercury and arsenic into the groundwater. As measurements by Ukraine's Environment Ministry showed back in 2016, radiation levels in wells throughout the region were ten times above the limit." (Aigner 2022).
The war in Ukraine leaves behind a destroyed co-environment, for which the Russian Federation will have to pay billions of euros in reparations, although ultimately only the shallow damage would then be repairable here. The hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries, as well as the profound impact on human health caused by inhaled emissions, drinking contaminated water and the radiation to be endured, cannot be offset with money.
Bálint Rosz (2025) summarizes the CO2 emissions caused by the war in Ukraine in the first two years of the war until February 2024 and compares this with the annual emissions of 90 million vehicles with internal combustion vehicles:
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“As more and more experts are trying to point out, the Russia-Ukraine war is also causing significant environmental and climate damage. The latter could be a particularly worrying development, as human civilization itself is fighting its own war on climate change. According to preliminary estimates by De Klerk and colleagues, during the first 24 months of the war (from 24 February 2022 to 23 February 2024), military activities and the destruction of related infrastructure resulted in significant excess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, further exacerbating global climate change. Cumulative emissions over this period are estimated to be around 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), equivalent to the annual emissions of an advanced industrialized country.”
But the military is not one of the biggest global polluters only in military operations, i.e. in war, but also in everyday military operations, i.e. in regions still free of war. As Markus Gelau (2018) writes, using the U.S. military as an example:
"Officially, 320,000 barrels of oil are consumed daily at the 1,000 military bases around the world. Mainly used by the 285 U.S. Navy combat and supply ships constantly in service. Likewise, some 4,000 combat aircraft, 28,000 armored vehicles, 140,000 other vehicles, over 4,000 helicopters, several hundred transport aircraft, and 187,493 transport vehicles (all figures from 2012) consume lots of fuel.
In addition, decommissioned ships and their highly toxic cargo are usually not dismantled and disposed of properly, but simply bombed and sunk with torpedoes and missiles on the high seas. This is said to have been done at least 109 times between 1999 and 2012. Only 64 ships were dismantled and recycled in the same period." (170)
In the U.S. alone, there are, according to Pentagon figures, approximately 39,000 contaminated military training areas, which would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to decontaminate. (171)
Germany, for example, is not an exemption in regard to this problem. This is demonstrated by the massive forest fires on the former training grounds of the GDR army and the Bundeswehr with the associated danger of exploding ammunition in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well as the bombs that are still being found in major German cities.
The German peace and environmental activist Bernhard Trautvetter considers the worldwide military forces to be one of the most dangerous institutional climate polluters causing massive destruction already in normal operation – not to mention war:
"A Eurofighter burns about 3,500 kg of fuel per flight hour, producing about 11 tons of CO2. (...) A tank consumes about 500 liters of fuel per 100 km, depending on the terrain." (172)
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It is assumed that the climate pollution of the U.S. military alone corresponds to the emissions of three countries - this is the result of an enquiry made by scientists at the 'Defense Logistic Agency':
"Based on this data, the scientists determined that if the U.S. armed forces were a nation-state, they would be the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world if only emissions from fuel use were taken into account. This would mean that the U.S. military alone would produce more emissions than Portugal, Sweden, or Denmark.
In 2017, the U.S. military used about 42.9 million gallons of oil each day, emitting more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide. The U.S. Air Force purchased $4.9 billion worth of fuel that year, the Navy $2.8 billion, followed by the Army at $977 million and the Marines at $36 million, emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries." (173)
A study by Dr. Stuart Parkinson (Scientists for Global Responsibility and expert reviewer for the IPCC) not only assumed direct CO2 emissions from transportation and exercises, but also included emissions from weapons production, infrastructure construction, and supply chains. For the largest army by far, Parkinson calculated 340 million metric tons of CO₂-equivalents in 2017, and this is unlikely to have decreased at present. For the global situation, Parkinson calculated that 5.5% of the world's CO2 emissions are attributable to the military of all nations. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the percentage of global CO2 emissions caused by the military is much higher.
Parkinson (2020) summarizes the necessary consequences based on his findings on the military's ecological footprint as follows:
"The key to real reductions in military carbon emissions is thus to shrink the huge military budgets around the world - which totaled more than $1,800 billion in 2018. (...) And the key to shrinking these budgets is to reduce military tensions. So, rather than looking for new, lower carbon ways to fight wars, our governments should be prioritising measures such as diplomacy, international disarmament treaties, fair trade, poverty alleviation and, of course, reductions in carbon emissions right across the economy. Only then can we confidently achieve a more secure world."
Another problem is the ecological contamination from landmines.
The United Nations estimates that more than 100 million landmines have been planted in more than 70 countries in the past decades. (174) Such areas, for example in former Yugoslavia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia or Chechnya, are thus contaminated with explosives and cannot be used for a long time for housing or agriculture, as the clearing of explosives is expensive and can only be carried out step by step over a long period of time.
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Common interests of the environmental and peace movement
The above record could be continued with numerous other examples (use of cluster munitions by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, barrel bombs by the Syrian military, sunken Soviet nuclear submarines in the Baltic Sea, CO2 emissions from military operation in the air and on the ground ...) and shows:
The environmental and peace movements have a common substantive cross point. The demand for an end to environmental destruction by military operations and wars should be addressed by the environmental as well as the peace movement as central political demands.
This assessment is further supported by the fact that the military is not only the cause of climate damage, but the climate crisis is related to capitalist and geostrategic interests (175) will in turn, be the further cause of conflicts to be carried out militarily and to the destruction of political systems, especially in the poorer regions of the world - according to Michael T. Klare (2015), Professor of Peace and World Security at Hampshire College in Massachusetts:
„While the strongest and wealthiest governments, especially in more temperate regions, will be better able to cope with these stresses, expect to see the number of failed states grow dramatically, leading to violence and open warfare over what food, arable land, and shelter remains. In other words, imagine significant parts of the planet in the kind of state that Libya, Syria, and Yemen are in today. Some people will stay and fight to survive; others will migrate, almost assuredly encountering a far more violent version of the hostility we already see toward immigrants and refugees in the lands they head for. The result, inevitably, will be a global epidemic of resource civil wars and resource violence of every sort.“ (176)
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This means that global military activities can be both a cause and a consequence of environmental degradation.
Accordingly, the peace activist Karl-Heinz Peil (2019, 13) (Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag) demands: "For the peace movement (...) only drastic disarmament will make global sustainability and resource protection possible." (177)
This is equally true for the environmental movement, which should focus more clearly on the ecological threat posed by the military in times of peace as well as in times of war. If a rearmament of Germany and the EU is carried out according to NATO requirements (2% of GDP for military expenditures), then this money will be missing for the existentially necessary fight against the climate crisis – according to the international peace networker Reiner Braun and the environmental politician Michael Müller (2018):
"But we live in an uncompleted peace in which social inequalities and ecological risks are increasing. Hunger, misery and environmental destruction generate a violence that can trigger wars. In addition, almost 30 billion euros for the military would be lacking for the modernization of infrastructure, social housing, development cooperation or in the fight against climate change.
Money must flow into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. These are investments that are indispensable for peace. “ (178)
In this context, the question of financing the elimination of environmental damage caused by the military must also be raised. In addition to the warring parties causing the damage, the armaments industry would also have to be involved. For the armaments industry in particular, it is not justifiable that the (considerable) profits are privatized while the costs are shared between the state and the taxpayer. Such externalization of costs and internalization of profits in the defense industry are no longer acceptable. It is completely incomprehensible why, for example, the manufacturers of anti-personnel mines should not also pay for their removal and for damages claims from the victims.
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Above all, the exclusion of the military as a climate polluter from the Kyoto Protocol and the fact that this was also left non-binding in the Paris Agreement, especially under pressure from the USA, also points to the international dimension of the problem. (179) Here, the United Nations is called upon to include the environmental problems in connection with the military and with war operations in the inventory of international climate treaties. This would be easier for them if an appropriate civil society pressure were built up, e.g. by the Fridays for Future movement and the Easter March movement or other activities of the peace and environmental movement.
In particular, attention should be drawn to the disproportion between military spending and investment in environmental protection, which is an expression of a the problematic level of consciousness among the political rulers and, of course, also meets the interests of the arms industry. The peace activist Bernhard Trautvetter (2019a) has documented this impressively in figures for Germany:
"In Germany, too, the indirect environmental impact of armaments becomes immediately clear just by looking at the federal budget: the allocation for so-called defense reached a new record in 2019, jumping from around 38.5 billion euros to 43.2 billion euros. The allocation for the environment, nature conservation and so-called nuclear safety rose from just below 2 billion euros to just below 2.3 billion euros. The relationship between military spending and the budget, which includes environmental costs, is approximately nineteen to one."
We must appeal to the electorate accordingly: No longer to vote for a party that does not have a clear ecological position; no longer to vote for a party that supports the expansion of the arms budget and arms trade, even if this is justified by the job argument; no longer to vote for a party that is prepared to take part in wars that violate international law and are always directed against people as well as the environment.
Furthermore: If the growing international environmental movement, which is currently supported primarily by the younger generation, makes contact with the peace movement in regard to the connection between the military, war and environmental destruction, and starts networking with it, thelong-term social relevance will continue to increase. If the connection between the environmental destruction, mainly caused by an unrestrained pursuit of profit and geostrategic interests, and the violent displacement conflicts as well as the migration of fleeing groups of people is also addressed, then such a social movement could possibly in the long term have an even greater systemic significance than the 1968 movement.
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1.4.1.4 Asymmetric wars and 'New Wars'
Parallel to traditional wars in which individual states or alliances of states fight each other ('symmetrical wars'), changed forms of armed conflicts have been taking place for some time. Terrorist attacks, guerrilla wars, cyber attacks, civil wars, warlord regimes exploiting and dominating the population, and racist-religious riots lead to permanent military conflicts not only in the peripheries but also increasingly in the capitalist metropolises. War returns with a different face to the zones of prosperity also as terrorist threats and mass migrations.
The political scientist Herfried Münkler (2014) distinguishes between symmetrical and asymmetrical wars. The classic war between states with armies fighting against each other on behalf of a territorially limited nation state, and which tend to proceed with the same military strategies and are based on the same military principles, e.g. the attempt to defeat the opponent in a decisive battle, is referred to as symmetrical war. Asymmetric wars are characterized by inequality in terms of military strategy, by serious difference in military strength, and by undermining the regulations of the Peace of Westphalia, which aims at symmetrical conflicts and, for example, also distinguishes between a the treatment of combatants (members of the army) and the non-combatants (civilian population) with regulations in case of war. Münkler (2002, 2004) predicts for the 21st century in particular three types of violent conflicts, which are already increasingly occurring alongside traditional forms of war and can be described as 'asymmetric' wars:
· "Resource wars at the periphery": Local and regional conflicts develop at the edges of prosperity zones, in which warlords with their mercenaries, in conjunction with internationally organized crime on the one hand and multinational corporations on the other, fight for military power over a confined area in order to exploit the raw materials, such as diamonds, oil or tropical timber. At the same time, the local population is subjugated and forced into labor slavery in order to increase the profits from the sale of the raw materials. Examples of this are diamond mines in Congo and opium cultivation in Taliban-dominated regions in Afghanistan.
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Resource wars are difficult to cool down and end with the help of existing means, since sanctions are often shifted to the civil society of the affected region and resource wars are usually linked to the global shadow economy - according to Münkler (2004, 1):
"These resource wars are financed by so-called open war economies, i.e. by their linkage with the capital and commodity flows of the world economy. The consequence of this is that these wars do not end as a result of economic exhaustion, or because those involved in them become more willing to make peace as they become more exhausted, instead the low intensity war itself constitutes the economic flywheel."
Often, the criminal gangs give themselves a legitimate image by ideologically claiming religious or other cultural differences and discrimination as the motive for their activity.
· "Pacification wars": In this case, the prosperous powers, above all the USA or alliances led by the USA, intervene in regional conflicts, e.g. also in resource wars. Also prevention of proliferation of ABC weapons can be given as a motive for pacification wars. The reasons for pacification wars can be based on economic and geostrategic interests, but also on human rights and international law. There is often a mixture of different interests.
The second Iraq war is an example of a pacification war. Here, in addition to massive human rights violations against the Iraqi Kurds, the construction or imminent possession of nuclear weapons by Iraq was cited as a reason for the intervention in Iraq by the U.S.-led alliance.
The claim of a nuclear threat later turned out to be a lie of the U.S. administration led by George W. Bush. Such claims served to forge an alliance and thereby realize economic interests of the arms industry, interests of the oil industry and hegemonic interests of the USA in the Arab region.
Pacification wars are usually short-lived due to the lack of popularity among the own population, the unwillingness in post-heroic societies to risk dead and wounded, and the high costs involved. Therefore, resource wars can often hardly be ended by pacification, or then it only leads to a change in the power constellations in the affected area. For example, the second Iraq war led to the ousting of the Sunnis from power in favor of a central government dominated by Shiites. This, in turn, was one of the reasons why the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was founded in Iraq and then also in Syria, whose military core was composed, among others, of some of the Sunni soldiers of Saddam Hussein's former regime, which originally was brought to power by the CIA.
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· "Wars of devastation against the North." : These are mainly wars of terrorist organizations against the wealthy OECD world. However, in my opinion, this also includes terrorist attacks, e.g. in Russia by Chechen underground organizations or the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 9/11. In contrast to guerrilla warfare, terrorists usually cannot rely on the protection of the civilian population, but use the modern media infrastructure and modern means of transportation in a clandestine manner to carry out their terrorist activities. Organizations such as the IS or the Taliban, use cultural or religious justifications as ideological legitimation. However, the real reasons for such terrorist activities are more likely to be a mixture of religious, power-political and economic interests.
Terrorist organizations attack pedestrian zones, airplanes or holiday centers in groups or, increasingly, via individual perpetrators motivated by them, in order to spread fear among the population of the rich countries of the North: According to Münkler (2004, 3), this is done to achieve, among other things, a withdrawal of troops, e.g., in the context of pacification wars:
"But what they are actually attacking is the unstable psychological infrastructure of the Western world in particular in order to wear down and exhaust the political will of the country under attack. In doing so, they rely primarily on the psychological effects of violence, i.e., terror, which is spread all the more intensively the greater the media density of the country under attack."
This tripartite division of 'new wars', which already exist and will intensify in the future, has a high degree of plausibility. However, the 'new wars' will not completely replace traditional forms of war and war alliances. Often, there will also be a mixed form between traditional and new wars. This is exemplified by the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. In addition to an attack by one state on a neighboring state in the sense of a traditional war - which is hardly considered possible - forms of 'new wars' in Münkler's sense are also being practiced here. Cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, the use of guerrilla groups, missile terror and fighting mercenary armies lead to an aggressive mixture within a military conflict that can hardly be controlled.
In addition to the three new forms of war outlined by Münkler, there are also genuine wars of liberation, in which the majority of a population revolts against dictatorial regimes and achieves political system change first through guerrilla warfare, then through massive civil society resistance, and finally through the military loss of support for the regime. With the global rise of autocratic and dictatorial regimes, an increase in wars of liberation can be expected, sometimes in conjunction with international military interventions. Especially if the non-interference in state sovereignty enshrined in the UN Charter is replaced by a right of the UN and military alliances commissioned by the UN to intervene in dictatorial regimes in the event of massive violations of human rights, more regional and national wars of liberation in the sense mentioned above can be expected as also their successes with the support of UN-led and democratically controlled world police forces with a robust mandate. This fourth type ('war of liberation') is, of course, to be assessed differently in terms of human rights and international law than the other three types of warfare described by Münkler. (180)
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However, it becomes problematic when a self-proclaimed international military alliance, in its own geostrategic interest, acts as a liberation army in order to support resistance movements or to fight autonomy movements. In Yemen, Syria and Libya, we find asymmetrical conflict chains in which a hybrid of guerrilla warfare, counterterrorism, state self-assertion and proxy warfare leads to a devastating situation for the civilian population.
International legal problems of secret armies and interventions by foreign intelligence services
The existence of secret armies in post-war Europe, built up in Western Europe against communism by the CIA, by NATO in conjunction with right-wing politicians and by groups such as 'Ordine Nuovo' in Italy also represents a variant of asymmetrical conflict.
The secret organization 'Gladio' in Italy, for example, was originally set up to from behind the lines carry out attacks in the event of a Soviet invasion. Secret military units were established and trained, and hidden weapon storages were set up in Italy. When the Soviet invasion did not take place, the function of 'Gladio' was changed. In cooperation with right-wing terrorist groups and the Italian secret service, brutal attacks were carried out among the population and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was blamed for this. The intention was to tighten security laws – especially in their application against the Italian left – and to bring about a shift to the right among the population.
Similar secret armies also existed in Germany, Greece, Denmark, France and Belgium, among other countries – according to court transcripts of interrogations and testimony given by Giulio Andreotti, several times head of the Italian government. (181)
Noam Chomsky confirms the research of the Swiss peace researcher Danielle Ganser on the destabilization of Italy by CIA-controlled secret operations and extends this to the situation in South America:
"National regimes that threaten „stability“ are sometimes called „rotten apples“ that might „spoil the barrel“ or „viruses“ that might „infect“ others. Italy in 1948 is one example. Twenty-five years later, Henry Kissinger described Chile as a „virus“ that might send the wrong messages about possibilities for social change, infecting others as far as Italy, still not „stable“ even after years of CIA programs to subvert Italian democracy. Viruses have to be destroyed and others protected from infection: for both tasks, violence is often the most efficient means, leaving a gruesome trail of slaughter, terror, torture and devastation." (Chomsky 1999, 25f.)
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In addition to traditional wars, new forms of military operations that are increasingly difficult to limit and control are emerging. They take place partly in secret on behalf of governments, as guerrilla activities, as military suppression by 'warlords' in cooperation with multinational corporations, or as terrorist patterns of action. These forms of war are no longer covered by the international laws of war, which are inapplicable to them because of the clandestine nature of the methods. Nor do such actors, some of whom operate undercover, adhere to any regulations of the law of war, such as the Geneva Convention or the Hague Conventions on land warfare.
International terrorism takes advantage of the lack of territoriality
Whereas the precondition of the symmetrical wars between states predominantly carried out after the Peace of Westphalia was nation state demarcation, asymmetrical conflicts are characterized by non-territoriality - according to Münkler (2014, 64):
"The basic prerequisite of symmetrical political constellations is their territoriality, i.e. their comprehensibility and thus vulnerability, which can be seen as a guarantee of political rationality. In comparison , the deterritorialization of political actors is comparable to their acting undercover: they are capable of attack without having to take reciprocal responses into account. This is precisely the situation that arose with the emergence of transnational terrorism."
International terrorism does not have to expect a counterattack using the same means, since it is difficult to identify, as it uses the infrastructure of a state and has no demarcated territory. If terrorists use poison gas or explosives for their attacks, they do not have to expect a comparable attack on their own territory, since they are internationally organized and act without an assignable nation-state territory. As the so-called Islamic State (IS) became territorially confinable, it was possible to attack it there and, in part, to defeat it militarily. The IS had to react accordingly and went underground again, from where it could exploit the advantages of asymmetric warfare in the form of international terrorism operating with small terrorist cells.
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Conclusions and perspectives: Asymmetric warfare in a globalized concept are further arguments for a (democratically controlled) world police structure to be installed alongside a UN to be reformed. Whereas conventional wars are to be banned and prevented, the above-mentioned predominantly newer forms of war are to be relentlessly prosecuted as criminal acts of war by the corresponding United Nations world police organs and military units to be installed in the future.
On the one hand, this certainly requires a robust mandate for the UN military, which is to be adopted by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. To a great extent unarmed blue-helmet troops are in this case of little help or are more likely to be used as human shields against attacks by military alliances or interventions by UN-led troops. On the other hand, where terrorist activities are deterritorialized and cannot be assigned to a specific region, a world police structure offers better conditions than nation-state and insufficiently transnationally networked approaches. (182)
1.4.1.5 Media and 'enemy images'
'Enemy images' are constructed by the media. They manipulate people and are part of a socio-psychological preparation for war. This can be shown by current examples. (183)
What is the concept of an 'enemy image'?
The term 'enemy image' refers to all linguistic attempts or patterns of social interpretation to extremely discredit other persons, groups of people, ethnic groups or states with the help of negative symbols or negative metaphors in order to deprive them of their human dignity.
This discrediting is intended to trigger unpleasant emotions toward these groups of people or states, such as disgust, hatred or fear. A prejudiced perception of reality is used with manipulative intent to prove one's own worldview as the only truth and to stigmatize the opponent in such a way that he no longer belongs to the circle of an accepted human community. (184)
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Examples of the development of enemy images
Already Caesar described the Gauls in the middle of the first century B.C. as characterless, undisciplined and unpredictable. He thus discredited the enemy in order to eliminate reluctance to killing and to motivate the Roman troops.
The famous novel "Lay Down Your Arms!" (1889) by the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Austrian peace activist Bertha von Suttner describes the perspective of a young woman who, in the run-up to the Austria-Italy war (1859) (185), critically deals with images of the enemy in Austrian society:
| "Such bad qualities, however, as these lust of conquest, love of fighting, hatred, cruelty, guile, were also certainly to be found, and were admitted to be shown in war, but always by the 'enemy'. To him, his being in the wrong was quite clear. Quite apart from the political necessity of the campaign just commenced, apart also from the patriotic advantages which undoubtedly grew out of it, the conquest over one's adversary was a moral work, a discipline carried out by the genius of culture. These Italians! what a foul, false, sensual, light-minded, conceited people! And this Louis Napoleon! what a mixture of ambition and the spirit of intrigue! When his proclamation of war, published on April 29, appeared with its motto, 'Italy free to the Adriatic Sea,' it called out amongst us a storm of indignation. I did allow myself a feeble remark that this was at least an unselfish and noble idea, which must have an inspiriting influence on Italian patriots, but I was soon put to silence. The dogma that 'Louis Napoleon is a scoundrel' was not to be shaken as long as he was 'the enemy'. Everything proceeding from him was ab initio 'scoundrelly'." (186)
This reveals the principle: To discredit the opponent with negative attributions thus depriving him of the protection of humanity. This is a principle that has been used at all times to eliminate people's scruples about killing. Hitler created the image of the 'Slavic subhuman', whom it was necessary to subjugate in the 'struggle for living space (Lebensraum) for the Aryan race'. Communists were described as 'vermins' that had to be exterminated. Kissinger referred to states that wanted to break away from their dependence on the United States as viruses that needed to be killed. Bush Jr. spoke of rogue states, referring to North Korea, Iraq and Iran. During the Cold War the USSR equated U.S. soldiers with murderers and robbers. Chinese police referred to protesters in Hong Kong as cockroaches.
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Russophobia in the run-up as a pretext for military aggression
On the one hand, in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it is now difficult to call the warning about Russian aggression and about Putin's personality a completely unjustified construction of enemy images. On the other hand, it is also difficult to estimate the share of the effect of the construction of the enemy image 'Russia' on the decisions of the Russian president.
The image of a Russian was painted in western spy films as that of a brutal person with an ugly accent, who murders ruthlessly and, of course, is always wrong. Former US President Ronald Reagan spoke of the former USSR as the "evil empire".
The current russophobia was transferred to the media by the USA and NATO via so-called experts. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily newspaper editor Kerstin Holm (2019), Russia has "little economic and technological development impetus to offer" to its neighboring states and can therefore only compensate for the loss of influence with military force or the threat of it. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also cultivates the enemy image of Russia by demonizing Putin as an evil person ("a smart, but a truly evil person"), as a nationalistic former intelligence officer with great power fantasies. (187) In the context of the NATO image of Russia as an enemy, the extremely dangerous withdrawal from the INF Treaty by the Trump administration in 2019 was also possible without any presentation of solid evidence of a Russian violation of the INF Treaty banning medium-range missiles.
Barely noticed by the public, by the way, an EU task force was founded in 2016, the justification of which is not unproblematic on the part of the EU Parliament. In the press release of the EU Parliament it says:
„The resolution stresses that the EU needs to counter disinformation campaigns and propaganda from countries, such as Russia, and non-state actors, like Daesh, Al-Qaeda and other violent jihadi terrorist groups.
Hostile propaganda against the EU and its member states seeks to distort the truth, provoke doubt, divide the EU and its North American partners, paralyse the decision-making process, discredit the EU institutions and incite fear and uncertainty among EU citizens.“ (188)
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A common enemy image of Russia/Islamist terrorism is thus developed, which treats these two influences equally in terms of their propagandistic pressure. Of course, the information and sometimes disinformation coming from Russia must also be critically observed and attended to. However, no differentiation is made in the statement above by the highest European democratically elected body, and there is an additional discrediting of Russia through the parallel mentioning of the propaganda activity of Islamist terrorists. (189)
Before and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Putin also brutally devalued the democratically elected President Selenskyj, calling him a drug-addicted fascist. Through this, he wanted to psychologically prepare the assassination attempts on the Ukrainian president as a legitimate measure in the Russian public.
Putin was a projection screen for enemy images, but he also used the enemy image construction mediated by Russian state television to push through his aggressive geostrategic goals, which were contrary to international law.
U.S. - Iran: Fabrication of mutual enemy images
A second example can be seen in the Western Islamophobia and the Iranian USA phobia of the USA. There is a media construction of mutual enemy images in both states: USA: Iran as a terrorist mullah regime, as a rogue state that in a discriminatory manner is characterized as a member of the "axis of evil" – according to then U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11. On the other hand, Iran insults the USA as a "great Satan", as an "imperialist devil", as "thoroughly rotten" (see, e.g., Roodsari 2019). The mutual discrediting is an expression of a reciprocal historical influence, the cornerstones of which are marked by the CIA- and British MI6-directed overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq (1953), the installation of the Western-oriented autocrat Shah Reza Pahlavi, the overthrow of the Shah by the Islamic Revolution (1979) led by Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result the Iranian occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the hostage-taking of the staff took place. In the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. tolerated Iraq's use of poison gas and provided Iraq with plans regarding the deployment of Iranian troops. The story continues with clandestine U.S. arms deliveries to Iran; after all, the deal was not to be missed (from 1985, Iran-Contra affair). Steps toward Iran's nuclear armament and provocations toward the U.S. escalated with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who also took an extremely hostile stance toward Israel. Since the nuclear agreement was negotiated in 2015, Iran has – according to the International Atomic Energy Agency – complied with the agreement and refrained from unauthorized uranium enrichment. See Roodsari (2019) for a good overview of the chronicle of events as presented here, characterized by mutual devaluations and accusations. People or states discredited in this way become vulnerable to military attack.
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The discrediting serves the dehumanization and the exclusion from the (own) humane circle of values, and becomes the ethical or moral legitimation for all following measures.
Now that the U.S. and the Trump administration have unilaterally withdrawn the nuclear agreement with Iran, the degrading rhetoric between the two states has again intensified, leading to a dangerous escalation, among other things, in connection with the tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and the assassination by U.S. drones of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Al Quds Brigades, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in early 2020.
The Iranian regime's violent treatment of the protests of Iranian women who wanted to shake off the oppression of the Iranian state and male rule contributes to the creation of an enemy image.
The tensions between Iran and the Western camp intensified in 2023/2024 due to Iran's indirect warfare through the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah on Israeli territory as well as the missile and drone attacks by the Houthis on Western merchant ships - three organizations and groups that are closely allied with and supported by the Iranian regime. By supporting these militant measures, Iran will certainly not be able to lose its enemy status as a member of the 'axis of evil'.
Chinaphobia: The Yellow Peril
A third example is to Chinaphobia and should also be outlined here in more detail. In the 1960s, the then German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger – a former high-ranking NSDAP member and National Socialist propaganda official – was already warning against the "yellow peril" from the Far East. Emphasizing the foreign cultural and completely different character of the Asians and especially the Chinese, some media portray them as dangerous and barbaric. The Chinese are said to be authority-fixated, collectivist, environmentally hostile, deceitful, ruthless, hostile to human rights, aggressive, hegemonic and competition orientated – all prejudice-laden stereotypes that in a general manner are attributed to the Chinese as such.
Recent exclusively negative attributions, such as in Kinkartz (2019), can be summarized as follows:
• Chinese headhunters are stealing skilled workers from the West.
• Chinese steal Western know-how via cyberattacks.
• China wants to expand hegemonically (South China Sea, Taiwan).
• China is destroying its environment and contributing massively to global CO2 pollution.
• China brutally oppresses its minorities (e.g. Uyghurs).
• China is a totalitarian surveillance state ('social credit system').
• China is destroying the Western solar industry through state-subsidized dumping prices.
• The Chinese Silk Road project is an attempt to exploit the resources of other countries (labor, mineral resources, ports).
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There might be some truth in this. However, positive achievements of the Chinese society are not mentioned, such as the growing prosperity of the average population, the political cohesion of such a large national territory, the infrastructural achievements, the highest rate of solar installations in China or the increasing technological innovation capacity.
If one believes that trade wars can lead to military conflicts, then the discrediting of the Chinese and the Chinese culture must be seen in the context of the U.S. protective tariffs against China. (190)
The democratic media as projection of enemy images
Another example presents a reverse point of view. Here the media itself is the enemy image - the 'lying press' or 'fake news'. Enemy images of group-related hostility against migrants, against Muslims or generally against foreigners from the South, have the effect that media that do not act according to these right-wing extremist enemy images is discredited as lying press. Journalists are bombarded with hate and threatening emails or corresponding messages in the social media, or they are denied the floor at press conferences accused of being “fake news” (Trump). The media itself turns into an enemy image – the "lying press" or "fake news“.
The pressure by politicians on the press to produce corresponding enemy images or at least to remain neutral toward the production of enemy images by politicians is increasing. In this way, a mainstream press is being shaped within the frames of which differing journalistic assessments can lead to the end of a journalistic career.
Socio-psychological functions of enemy images
The socio-psychological significance of enemy images will now be outlined on the basis of four theses that point to the manipulative use of enemy images out of a systemic interest:
Thesis 1: Enemy images discredit a counterpart significantly with the help of false or falsified information in the media,. They generate aversion, feelings of threat and hatred in order to overcome humane scruples in dealing with these people.
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Thesis 2: Enemy images are the prerequisite for considering such discredited people, groups or societies as non-human, so that harming or destroying them is not regarded to be inhumane, but an 'act of social hygiene'.
Hypothesis 3: Enemy images are meant to distract attention from one's own systemic weaknesses and to direct social aggression away from its causes and toward external opponents. This can lead to systemic stabilization through turning emotionalized attention towards an external enemy.
Thesis 4: Hate communities are created through enemy images, and their destructive emotional potential is reflected in violent outbreaks that can be politically instrumentalized and directed.
A critical approach to enemy images does not mean that all verifiable facts contained in the justification of enemy images are to be rejected or suppressed. Russia, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, for example, are certainly problematic in terms of their role in international peacekeeping and war prevention. But the one-sided negative evaluation of facts in connection with pejorative and discriminatory attributions constitutes the concept of the enemy image and its destructive effects.
Therefore, it is important to also recognize one's own entanglement in the construction of enemy images and to to make efforts to destroy them.
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Everyone should also ask themselves personally:
• What kind of enemy images do I have?
• What prejudices are involved?
• What general discrediting of others do they include?
• How did these enemy images emerge?
• How can I erase them again?
• Is there a way to erase them together?
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If one opposes the general discrediting of individuals, population groups or states in the form of enemy images, this does not mean that all clashes of interests and antagonisms should now be harmoniously ignored. These clashes of interests and antagonisms exist, and they should not be kept secret. However, becoming aware of enemy images enables tensions caused by these images to be negotiated in civil society and can also lead to compromises. Manipulatively created and emotionally anchored enemy images, however, aim at the destruction and annihilation of the other counterpart.
Construction of enemy images as an act preparing for war
There is already a long historical tradition of constructing enemy images and legitimizing wars with false information or fake news.
Political, geostrategic and economic interests are concealed and enforced through manipulative, media preparation and also official dissemination of enemy images.
The Hitler regime's faked attack by alleged Polish soldiers on a German border post , the declared second attack by Viet Cong gunboats on a U.S. warship in the Gulf of Tonkin that never took place (and at the time only was assumed probable), the tearing out babies from incubators in Kuwait, staged by a media company, and the falsified documents on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction presented by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell before the U.N. Security Council are all well-known examples of faked reasons for war and/or fictitious reasons for the intensification of military activities.
The destructive effects of enemy images enable high growth rates and returns in the arms industry, a branch of industry that profits from 'enemy images' and military conflicts. Without wars prepared and generated by enemy images, there would be no market for the 'economy of death'. Or to put it another way: The demonization of states as the 'axis of evil' is the basis of profits that are otherwise only possible in the drug industry.
If images of the enemy as an extreme form of cultural violence are not fundamentally erased after a military conflict with the help of rituals and procedures of reconciliation, they continue to exist after a war and prevent peace in a broader sense. Societies thus remain culturally ready for war - according to Johan Galtung (2004):
„Any sign that the enemy is still alive will trigger ready-made responses; in the absence of such signs other enemies will be found to complete the Gestalt formed by this type of cultural violence.“
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1.4.2 Peace protests and peace Movements
1.4.2.1 Easter March Movement, protests against the Vietnam War and against the NATO Double-Track Decision
The first Easter March with 10,000 participants took place in the UK in 1958 and went from London to a missile research center. The campaign was initiated by the British peace NGO Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In 1960, the idea of the Easter March was taken up in Germany, and the first march went simultaneously from Hamburg, Bremen, Braunschweig, and Hanover to the Bergen-Hohne military training area.
The precursors of the German Easter March movement had been pacifist protests in the late 1950s against the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany and the expansion of its military power and, in particular, against German Chancellor Adenauer's demand for independently deployable, nuclear-tipped short-range missiles.
An extra-parliamentary grassroots movement emerged that was unusual for the early 1960s in the Federal Republic of Germany and that, as it grew, paved the way for later citizens' initiatives and the extra-parliamentary protest culture of the late 1960s.
While the first Easter March in Germany started with 1200 participants, about 300,000 participants took part at the peak of the German Easter March movement in 1968, which was especially directed against nuclear armament.
In these years, protests focused on protest against the Vietnam War of the USA. Beginning in the mid-1960s, international protests starting in the U.S. led to mass demonstrations, rallies, hearings and panel discussions against the Vietnam War. In particular, the use of napalm bombs and pictures of burning children, the defoliation of the Vietnamese rainforests through the carcinogenic 'Agent Orange' as well as film footage and photos of area bombardments with their devastating consequences led to massive pressure on those in power. The negative publicity in the media led to the ceasefire agreement in 1973 and, from 1975, to the cessation of the Vietnam War and American withdrawal from Vietnam.
The U.S. attempt to protect ostensibly Western interests against communist influence and to keep a corrupt regime in power that refused to hold free elections for all of Vietnam as agreed upon by the Indochina Conference (1954) cost millions of lives:
"A total of 58,000 soldiers lost their lives on the American side in the Vietnam War. In South and North Vietnam, about one million soldiers and two million civilians were killed. An additional two million people became permanently disabled, and still another two million suffered permanent damage from the use of toxic chemicals." (191)
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After the number of participants in peace demonstrations in the 1970s had declined following the end of the Vietnam War, renewed, larger, and more forceful demonstrations took place in the wake of the rearmament through the neutron bomb and the NATO double-track decision and the subsequent stationing of nuclear missiles at the borders to the Warsaw Pact states. Because the USSR modernized its nuclear missiles (SS 20), Western politicians, such as Ronald Reagan or Helmut Schmidt, perceived the USSR as a growing threat. NATO threatened to station new nuclear missiles (Pershing II) at the borders to the Warsaw Pact states if disarmament negotiations were not held promptly. In the early 1980s, large crowds, especially in Germany, demonstrated against this logic of deterrence and its potential dangers. Because NATO planned to stop a possible Soviet invasion with a 'limited' nuclear strike in Germany, about two million people demonstrated in Germany in October 1983 against a potential 'Euroshima' in Europe and Germany. (192)
At the same time, the pacifist 'Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament' (CND) in Britain had greater success as well, according to Wernicke (1997):
"With more than 90,000 national members and 250,000 participants in local groups, CND peaked in 1984, a year after Britain had seen the largest political demonstration since 1909, similar to the one in Bonn's Hofgarten with over a million in 1983."
These mass protests in various European states had their share in the political pressure that would lead internationally to disarmament negotiations and corresponding treaties, such as the 1991 START Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). Contributing factors were of course the fact that the Soviet system was economically and politically finished and that Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985, was forced to make reforms and concessions.
Easter Marches continue to take place and in 2019 resonated with more people in light of global crises and increasing awareness of the connection between environmental destruction, the military, and war. In 2020, Easter Marches fell victim to the corona virus. After that, the manifestations and demonstrations took place again in the context of the Easter marches. In view of the stationing decisions for US medium-range missiles in Germany, the resonance for 2025 and 2026 should increase again there.
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The core of the Easter March movement remains the protest against nuclear armament and the modernization of nuclear weapons, as well as demands for the withdrawal of nuclear missiles from Germany (Büchel Air Base), for the ending of military attacks in the Middle East via Ramstein Airbase, and for accession to the nuclear weapons ban treaty developed by ICAN in cooperation with the United Nations. Other important demands are a ban on German arms exports, especially to areas of tension, and the disarmament and arms conversion of the weapons industry into peace industries. Recent years have also seen resistance to the militarization of Europe and protests against the interventions of Western military alliances in the Near and Middle East in violation of international law.
A quote by the political scientist Christoph Butterwegge (1990), who attempts to characterize the Easter March movement in terms of the significance of its social influence, can serve as a summary assessment:
"The Easter March is the first organically grown mass movement in the history of the Federal Republic that was not appropriated by parties or organizations, but remained independent and non-partisan until the end. Characteristically, the Easter March movement of the 1960s made important decisions in local, regional and central decision-making bodies according to the principle of consensus, without perceiving its minimum consensus (rejection of all nuclear weapons) as a restriction to a single point. Minorities and extreme positions were not excluded but integrated, and heterogeneity and plurality of opinion were understood as the hallmarks of a new protest culture. The Easter March proved that ideological, political, and 'cultural barriers' can and must be overcome if our species‘s interest (in the survival of humankind) in the nuclear age demands the cooperation of all peace forces."
Because this assessment was made shortly after the successes of the Easter March movement in the 1980s, it must be modified somewhat for the 1990s and the first two decades of the 21st century. Despite increasing numbers of participants, the Easter March movement is still waiting for its renaissance. This will probably happen when, on the one hand, people become aware of the growing danger of war and, on the other hand, the peace movement succeeds in uniting with various other protest movements to form a broader culture of protest. (193)
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1.4.2.2 "No blood for oil!" - Protests against the Gulf War
A distinction is usually made between three Gulf wars. The first Gulf War (1980-1988) took place between Iran and Iraq over territorial disputes regarding disputed access to local oil wells and over aspirations toward regional hegemony.
On September 22, 1980, Iraqi troops invaded the oil province of Khuzestan and bombed Tehran. Over the course of the first Gulf War, the world's arms producers supplied weapons of various kinds to the two warring nations without restraint. Iraq, in particular, was able to obtain almost unlimited supplies of weapons from Western sources, which it financed with oil sales and loans from some of the Arab states. China and Russia also supplied weapons to the warring parties. This clearly led to a prolongation of the war.
Iraq frequently and with devastating consequences used poison gas, which is outlawed under international law. In 1988, the Iraqi Kurdish regions, too, were attacked with poison gas by the Iraqi government. World public opinion took rather casual note of thousands of poisoned Kurds in Halabja. Meanwhile, Iran sent children to the frontlines so that trained soldiers would not be shredded by explosive traps set by the Iraqi. In the first Gulf War, 95,000 Iranian child soldiers died. The environmental consequences of countless attacks by both sides on oil tankers and oil platforms were significant. Figures on the number of war dead vary. The highest estimates put the total war dead at about one million. Numerous mines still lie in the contested area and regularly cause casualties.
In 1988, both warring parties finally accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire. Saddam Hussein and Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini signed the agreement. The borders remained unchanged. After the end of the war, the UN Secretary General stated that the aggression had originated with Iraq. (194)
The second Gulf War began in 1990 when Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and seized its oil wells. Iraq's war debts to Kuwait and other Arab countries were so high that Saddam Hussein saw this as the only solution. There were disputes over the oil claim between Iraq and Kuwait, as well as territorial claims on the part of Iraq.
Following Iraq's occupation of the much smaller territory of Kuwait, the UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on Iraq.
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About six months later, the U.S. at the head of a coalition was authorized by UN Resolution 678 to intervene militarily in the conflict and restore the sovereignty of Kuwait. With its air superiority and deployment of massive ground forces, the U.S.-led coalition was able to destroy most of Iraq's military installations and war machines within about two months. Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians died in the first Iraq War. On the Allied side, about 350 soldiers died. Iraq's infrastructure was largely destroyed. Massive environmental damage was caused by burning oil wells, as Iraq had set fire to or blown up over 700 oil wells during its withdrawal—fires that took several months to extinguish. But the environmental damage caused in particular by uranium munition was also immense. The increased number of children born with deformities in southern Iraq in the post-war period has been linked to the use of uranium munition. (195)
Large parts of the Iraqi army fleeing Kuwait were surrounded and a short time later captured in Iraq. Baghdad was not attacked, and Saddam Hussein was left in power.
While there were hardly any rallies or demonstrations in Western countries during the first Gulf War, the reaction during the second Gulf War (the first Iraq War) was more pronounced, although it did not take on the character of a mass movement. Students walked out of school, chanted "No blood for oil!" demonstrated, and spontaneously occupied main roads. Vigils took place in major cities with demands for the protection of Iraqi civil society, among other things. But as quickly as the second Gulf War was over these protests faded away.
The third Gulf War took place in 2003. It followed the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN because Iraq, particularly in the view of the United States, repeatedly kept weapons inspectors away from military storage sites or failed to meet deadlines for weapons inspections. As a result of the economic sanctions and also of the blocking of food and medicine imports, millions of Iraqis, especially children, died from malnutrition and medical shortages.
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Whereas in the first Iraq war George Bush had refrained from defeating Saddam Hussein's regime in order to maintain a regional counterweight to the Khomeini regime in Iran, the administration of his son George W. Bush overrode these concerns. Supposedly backed by a UN resolution calling for Iraq to fully submit to international arms controls, the United States and a 'coalition of the willing' attacked Iraq in March 2003 with the bombing of Baghdad.
The military intervention was justified with the argument that Iraq was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons to attack the USA and Israel. Fake pictures of underground nuclear launch pads were presented to the UN Security Council by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Following the second Iraq War, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that the attack was not covered by UN decisions and was illegal under international law.
Propagandist lies were thus deliberately deployed to assemble a coalition for the attack. Also, the assessment of the alleged dangerousness of Iraq was contrary to the assessment by the UN arms controllers, who assumed that Iraq was 90% disarmed. Saddam Hussein's alleged links to al Qaeda and 9/11 could not be proven either. (196)
This time, Iraq suffered a devastating defeat, and the Hussein regime was ousted. The destabilization of Iraq led to civil war-like conditions with numerous horrific terrorist attacks in Iraq and ultimately gave birth to the regional terrorist organization 'Islamic State' (IS), which at its core resulted from Sunni former military officers of the Hussein regime having gone underground after the defeat of Iraq and allying themselves with various Islamist terrorist organizations.
Although on May 1, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush had announced Iraq's defeat and the end of hostilities on a U.S. warship to the world‘s media, the occupation of Iraq dragged on until 2011, accompanied by numerous attacks and insurgencies. More than 100,000 people lost their lives during this period. (197)
The transparent propaganda maneuvers, violation of international law, torture of prisoners and aggressive interrogation methods, presumed U.S. interest in Iraqi oil wells, and glaringly obvious profits of the military-industrial complex in the U.S. triggered a protest movement in Western countries that was much larger than that against the first Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated all over the world against the attack on Iraq. Russia and China requested that the attack be classified by the UN Security Council as illegal under international law but were overruled by the USA and Great Britain, both permanent members with veto power.
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Germany, too, saw mass protests against the second Iraq war. In Berlin, for example, about 40,000 people protested against the military invasion. Here are some excerpts from the coverage:
"Demonstrators in Hamburg protested against the attacks on Iraq with posters such as 'War is mass murder' or 'While Baghdad burns, Georgie Boy takes off for the weekend' and with chants such as 'We don't want your war, Schröder close the airspace.' Iraqi, Kurdish and Iranian groups also took part in the protests, as did many families with children.
In Frankfurt am Main, several speakers at a rally organized by the peace movement, political parties, churches and trade unions called for an end to the war and warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq. There was harsh criticism of U.S. media for turning the war 'into a glossy reality TV show.'" (198)
In London, several hundreds of thousands demonstrators marched through Hyde Park. In Bern, 20,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the government building. There were also protests in countries in the Middle East, as well as in Asia. (199)
In 2013, the Kassel-based political scientist and peace activist Peter Strutynski summed up the situation created by the second Iraq war in extremely critical terms:
"The Iraq war of 2003, which the top U.S. commander George W. Bush famously declared over on May 1, 2003— 'Mission accomplished'—only really took off afterwards. Today, Iraq faces the complete disintegration of its state. The northern Iraqi Kurdish regions have long been de facto independent, and the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites over the distribution of oil profits has taken on suicidal features. The only consolation in this situation is the fact that the main warmonger, the U.S., has come out of this war empty-handed, economically speaking." (200)
1.4.2.3 Current protests against the militarization of the world:
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), Peace Brigades (PB)
ICAN: Negotiating power against nuclear war, Appeals for peace on the war in
Ukraine
The non-governmental organization ICAN was founded in 2007 in Vienna with significant participation of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) and has its central headquarters in Geneva. ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its campaign against nuclear armament and for nuclear disarmament in a global context. ICAN is currently (201) supported by 541 NGOs in 103 countries. After ten years of preliminary work, ICAN succeeded in getting 122 states of the United Nations to agree to the 'Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty', combined with a request that individual nations sign it as binding.
"Since our founding, we have worked to build a powerful global groundswell of public support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. By engaging a diverse range of groups and working alongside the Red Cross and like-minded governments, we have helped reshape the debate on nuclear weapons and generate momentum towards elimination.
We were awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for our 'work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons' and our 'ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons'." (202)
The 'Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons under International Law', which has been submitted to the United Nations for signature, must be signed and ratified by 50 nations before it enters into force. Of course, it will only be valid for those states that have signed. Critics point out that none of the states possessing nuclear weapons participated in the treaty negotiations and neither did most NATO states.
Ratification is based on national legislation and means incorporation of the treaty into national law. The treaty contains a comprehensive ban on nuclear weapons:
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"The treaty prohibits states from testing, developing, producing, and possessing nuclear weapons. It also prohibits the transfer, stockpiling, use, or threat of use. In addition, the treaty prohibits supporting, encouraging, or inducing another state to engage in such activities. Further, states are prohibited from deploying nuclear weapons on their own soil." (203)
ICAN is working to expand its networking at all levels of society. It puts particular emphasis on convincing states to sign and ratify the treaty.
We must ask of course how it can possibly convince the nuclear states in particular to give up their nuclear weapons and to no longer produce and spread new nuclear weapons. What kind of social pressure by which organizations and social movements is necessary to support ICAN effectively in its efforts to get the treaty supported?
Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC) – a growing international peace network
GPPAC is an international civil society organization founded in 2003 that works nonviolently for war prevention and peacekeeping. It consists of several hundred NGOs organized in 15 transnational (regional) networks.
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"Vision: GPPAC seeks a world where violence and armed conflicts are prevented and resolved by peaceful means based on justice, gender equity, sustainable development and human security for all.
Mission: GPPAC is a global network that links civil society with relevant local, national, regional and international actors and institutions to collectively contribute to a fundamental change in dealing with violence and armed conflicts: a shift from reaction to prevention." (204)
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GPPAC's work is driven by a common strategy based on the 'Global Action Agenda' (2005), which was drafted at international conferences by over 1000 peace organizations. The organization now adheres to its third 'Strategic Plan' (2015) for the period 2016-2020, based on the fact that the human costs of war are unacceptable—not to mention the environmental and economic costs:
"Violent conflict destroys lives, assets, infrastructure, ecosystems and social and economic capacities. It disrupts communities, leaving traumatised victims in situations requiring long-term, high investments to support reconstruction and rehabilitation. The global economic cost of violence in 2013 was estimated at US$9.8 trillion, which represents 11.3% of Gross World Product. Measuring the cost of violent conflict often involves analysing human rights violations and the resulting mortality, injury, displacement or disability rates. However, neither the value of human life, nor human suffering can be quantified in any meaningful way. From the outset, we take the normative position that the costs of violent conflict from a human perspective are simply unacceptable." (205)
In numerous interactions during the approximately 15 years of its existence, members of GPPAC have worked on persuading governments and transnational institutions of their pacificist agenda. GPPAC members are also involved in community mediation processes, provide peace education on the ground, draw attention to the situation of women in contested areas and, in particular, try to make heard the voices of communities that have suffered massive damage as a result of war.
By referring in particular to UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions (206), GPPAC attempts to win over governments and local communities to engage in more effective war prevention.
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Three key points in the current five-year plan (2016-2020) address the GPPAC agenda: "enabling collaboration, improving practice and influencing policy". (207)
GPPAC hence seeks to inform the public well in advance of emerging conflicts, to conduct conflict analyses, to develop activities that promote solidarity, to share knowledge of war prevention strategies with other organizations, and to establish political contacts from local levels all the way up to the United Nations. (208)
Specific actions taken by GPPAC include:
· Promote consideration of women in peacekeeping processes based on UN Security Council Resolution 1325;
· Convince peace educators and educational authorities to include the topic of peacekeeping and war prevention in their curricula;
· Initiate intergenerational dialogue in Colombia to promote a renunciation of violence and develop a culture of peace;
· Start a civil society dialogue for peace and social stability for Northeast Asia in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia;
· Implement a peace education video project with youth in Kyrgyzstan to build their
capacity as 'change agents' for peaceful conflict resolution;
· Cooperate with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the development of strategies and training programs to strengthen civil society organizations, especially in regions of East and West Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia;
· Support and locally implement UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) especially with regard to the peace references contained therein;
· Train 'Peace Champions' in Uganda through projects with youth in 'post-conflict communities' to prevent youth re-radicalization. (209)
The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) (2025) summarizes its concern and its options for action as follows:
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"As a member-led network connecting over 250+ civil society organisations worldwide, we champion a network approach to peacebuilding.
It is simple yet powerful: We connect, collaborate, and catalyse change across regions.
We are a vibrant hub and safe space for local peacebuilders to share their knowledge, exchange experiences, and explore innovative peacebuilding approaches. We embrace inclusive and participatory decision-making, ensuring that all voices, especially those of women and youth, are heard.
We lead peacebuilding efforts.
Our structure guarantees that local peacebuilders are in the lead. We put co-creation at the heart of designing and implementing peacebuilding projects.
Shaping global change based on local insights.
Our influence reaches far beyond our network. We're passionate advocates for locally-led and locally-owned peacebuilding, bridging the gap between local insights and global policy by engaging policymakers at all levels. By leveraging our network's knowledge, we shape global policies and programs. This synergy ensures peacebuilding strategies resonate with local realities, resulting in effective and lasting change.
Three pillars, one goal
We concentrate our peacebuilding efforts around three themes
- Locally-led peacebuilding action: We are deeply committed to ensuring local ownership and leadership for sustainable peacebuilding.
- Inclusion of women and youth: We have unwavering confidence in women and youth as agents of change. Inclusion isn't an afterthought; it's a guiding principle in everything we do.
- Climate security and emerging threats: We firmly believe in putting local leadership and knowledge at the forefront to effectively tackle the pressing challenges of climate change and other emerging threats."
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GPPAC may well be a future candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. The question is, however, whether GPPAC has sufficient civil society power at its disposal both to turn rulers away from violence and toward "peace keeping" and to reduce violence at the structural and systemic level.
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Peace Brigades (PB): Brigade members alongside war victims and peace activists
The organization 'Peace Brigades' (PB) was founded in 1982 and is another international NGO committed to peace and human rights. Its special feature is the deployment of Peace Brigades and the support of local peace workers in conflict zones:
"We provide protection, support and recognition to local human rights defenders who work in areas of repression and conflict and have requested our support. We believe that lasting transformation of conflicts cannot come from outside, but must be based on the capacity and desires of local people. We avoid imposing, interfering or getting directly involved in the work of the people we accompany. Our work is effective because we take an integrated approach, combining a presence alongside human rights defenders on the ground with an extensive network of international support." (210)
Peace Brigades have worked in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, North America, Haiti, Nepal, the Balkans, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico and Nepal. They collaborate with local human rights defenders to open spaces for peace processes, transform violent conflicts, provide targeted legal advice, and save lives through international presence in conflict zones. Their work is shaped by the spirit of peaceful engagement ("non-violence", "non-partisanship") in a civil society. (211)
The work of Peace Brigade members is not without danger, just as the engagement of local human rights activists carries a high level of risk:
"In countries where communities are subject to violent conflict, intimidation or repression, human rights defenders can be key agents for resistance and change, whose work has the potential to bring about the long-term development of democratic civil society and ultimately peace. This often places them at risk, making them targets for threats, abductions, forced disappearance or assassination, and other insidious kinds of attack, including public stigmatisation, defamation or criminal proceedings on trumped up charges." (212)
To date, the idea of the Peace Brigades is unique in scope, as is its highly professional way to support peace and human rights activists in conflict zones, to attract international attention to conflicts, and to protect threatened people.
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Summary assessment: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), and Peace Brigades (PB) are three international NGOs that deploy peaceful means in different ways to achieve peacekeeping and war prevention. ICAN fights for an international ban on nuclear weapons in cooperation with the UN. GPPAC organizes projects for preventive peacekeeping, and PB supports local peace activists and human rights activists with its peace brigades. May the world pay attention and provide financial and political support for their valuable peace work, for their commitment and for their resistance against systemic violence.
Public Denunciation of the Peace Issue -
On the Social Treatment of Appeals for Peace on the War in Ukraine (Moegling 2024c)
Irrespective of the question of whether the Russian Federation bears sole responsibility for the military escalation in Ukraine or whether NATO or influential NATO states, such as the United States or Great Britain, are also partly to blame for the outbreak of war, various peace initiatives attempted to find support in the peace movement and in broader circles of the population with the help of appeals and calls. The means to this end were, in particular, lists of signatories on Internet platforms or websites, sometimes combined with calls for rallies and conferences.
Particularly worthy of mention are Alice Schwarzer's open letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with over 500,000 signatures, and the 'Manifesto for Peace' initiated jointly by Alice Schwarzer and Sahra Wagenknecht, with almost 1.000,000 signatures on the Change.org Internet platform (as of February 2025).
The public reception of this peace action, which reached broader sections of the population, especially by representatives of government policy, political scientists and the media, will be written about in more detail below.
In addition, there was an international appeal by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) at Christmas 2022/23, which was signed by only a few thousand international peace activists. Also a Peace Appeal with first signatories from 10 countries on the internet platform 'Action Network' found so far only a little over 3000 international signatories (as of April 2023).
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Appeal for Peace
A German-Austrian appeal, the 'Appell für den Frieden' (Appeal for Peace), found a little more signatures in the international context with over 7000 signatures so far. It features a peace ecology approach and contains three demands:
National governments and transnational institutions should advocate for three peace-political and -ecological measures in particular:
1. diplomatic initiatives would have to take priority in the war in Ukraine, at the latest from now on. To this end, it is demanded that an international high-ranking and highly legitimized negotiating commission headed by the UN Secretary General would have to clear the way for ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine as a prerequisite for peace negotiations. The German and Austrian governments should strongly advocate such a peace initiative to the UN Secretary General.
2. In future climate protection negotiations, rules and guidelines should be drawn up for more binding consideration of military-related CO2 emissions, obliging individual states to be more transparent. This should include effective controls and strict sanctions for failure to take into account military-related CO2 emissions at home and abroad in national CO2 balances.
3. The war in Ukraine is currently being instrumentalized for the international arms build-up spiral. In addition, almost all major arms control and disarmament treaties have been terminated or suspended by the USA and the Russian Federation. In contrast, controlled and coordinated disarmament negotiations should be called for through the UN. In particular, the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, successfully introduced by ICAN to the UN, should be signed, ratified and implemented by the states to be addressed in a mutually coordinated and monitored process. (Austria has already ratified the treaty).
Common to all these different peace appeals is that such peace policy initiatives have been subjected to extreme 'shitstorms' in social media, in addition to endorsements. The authors also had to listen to or read abusive criticism and personal insults as well as threats. Here we can see a brutalization of the public debate now also around peace policy content via social media, such as Facebook or Twitter.
One also has the impression that organized forces are using the protection of anonymity and their aliases to discredit people advocating ceasefires and peace negotiations as Putin's servants, traitors to the Ukrainian people, paid by Putin and the like.
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Build peace!
The latest peace initiative (in April 2023) was penned by SPD politicians, including the eldest son of Willy and Ruth Brandt, Peter Brandt (historian and retired professor), Reiner Braun (International Peace Office), Reiner Hoffmann (former chairman of the DGB) and Michael Müller (federal chairman of the Naturefriends). This appeal was published in two German newspapers under the title "Build Peace! Ceasefire and Common Security Now!" with 200 signatories, among them the former Bundestag president Thierse, the ex-minister of justice Prof. Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Dr. Margot Käßmann, theologian and former chairman of the council of the EKD, and EX-EU-Commissar Verheugen as well as several political scientists. In this appeal, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is asked to form a negotiating commission together with France and in particular the states together with France in particular Brazil, China, India and Indonesia, which should bring about a ceasefire and peace negotiations in Ukraine. The text states " (...) With each passing day, the danger of the expansion of hostilities grows. The shadow of a nuclear war lies over Europe. But the world must not slide into a new great war. The world needs peace. The most important thing is to do everything for a quick cease-fire, to stop the Russian war of aggression and to find the way to negotiations.
The war has turned into a bloody war of positions in which there are only losers. A large part of our citizens do not want to see a spiral of violence without end. Instead of the dominance of the military, we need the language of diplomacy and peace. (...)" [213]
The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany had already attracted attention with his drastic statements (about Chancellor Scholz: "insulted liver sausage") and his exorbitant demands for arms deliveries for Ukraine, which were made with great audacity. He also immediately intervened here via Twitter in a tone that certainly does not help Ukraine. Andrij Melnyk, promoted to deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, wrote on Twitter that Brandt and Co. should go to hell with their "senile ideas" of "achieving a quick ceasefire" and "making peace only with Russia." [214] No further comment on this ....
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Signing opportunities for ceasefire and peace negotiations in Ukraine:
- Open letter to the German Chancellor
https://www.change.org/p/offener-brief-an-bundeskanzler-scholz
- Manifesto for Peace
https://www.change.org/p/manifest-f%C3%BCr-frieden (almost 1 million signatures!)
- Christmas Appeal
https://www.christmasappeal.ipb.org/german-de/
(ended in early 2023)
- Peace Appeal
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/appeal-for-peace/ (finished at the end of 2024)
- German-Austrian Appeal for Peace: The killing in Ukraine must be stopped!
https://chng.it/N2ggCS5Q (finished at the end of 2024)
- Berliner Appell, Gegen neue Mittelstreckenwaffen und für eine friedliche Welt,
https://nie-wieder-krieg.org/
- Gegen die nukleare Bedrohung, https://www.change.org/p/gegen-die-atomare-bedrohung
Furthermore, similar peace initiatives are known in the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil, the Czech Republic and Italy, among others.
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The propagandistic campaign against the 'Manifesto for Peace'.
The Schwarzer and Schwarzer/Wagenknecht campaigns were able to draw on large networks and publication media that had been built up over many years. This explains - in addition to the high profile of the two personalities - the high number of signatories of these two peace texts.
Therefore, especially the 'Manifesto for Peace', which was linked to a large rally at the Brandenburg Gate, was the focus of public reactions.
The 'Manifesto for Peace' spoke out against an escalating continuation of the war in Ukraine and for immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations. It ends with the demand to the German Chancellor:
"We call on the German Chancellor to stop the escalation of arms deliveries. Now! He should lead a strong alliance for a ceasefire and peace negotiations at both the German and European levels. Now! Because every day lost costs up to 1,000 more lives - and brings us closer to a 3rd world war."
Four examples will now illustrate how attempts were made to falsify the text and the intentions of the two initiators and to discredit them.
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1) The authors were accused in the media and by leading politicians of having written in the text of the manifesto that they were fundamentally opposed to the supply of weapons to support the self-defense of Ukraine under attack. (215)
The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, accordingly also expressed himself pejoratively: "Hello you two Putin's stooges:inside @SWagenknecht & #Schwarzer, you can roll up your manifesto for betrayal of Ukrainians & throw it straight into the trash garbage can at the Brandenburg Gate." (216)
But the fact is: In the text, the authors oppose the "escalation of arms deliveries," which is a different matter. This is about the crossing of 'red lines' that can lead to an uncontrollable escalation dynamic. Jürgen Habermas addressed this with his naming of tipping points, a 'point of no return'. (217)
2. The authors have been accused of a perpetrator-victim reversal. This accusation is first made by the German political scientist Herfried Münkler (218) and then repeated mantra-like by various politicians. Schwarzer/Wagenknecht are accused of primarily seeing NATO and the West as the aggressor and the Russian Federation as the victim. This is also a misrepresentation, since the text of the manifesto clearly names the Russian aggressor. There it clearly states, "The Ukrainian people brutally invaded by Russia need our solidarity." (219)
Nevertheless, political scientist Münkler denounces the text as an "unconscionable manifesto" and Schwarzer/Wagenknecht "are doing Putin's business with ignorant talk." (220) (219)
3. Schwarzer/Wagenknecht are accused of wanting to hand over Ukraine to the Russian Federation via a Russian dictatorship peace. According to Foreign Minister Baerbock: "A dictatorial peace, as some are now calling for, that is not peace. Rather, it would be the subjugation of Ukraine to Russia." (220) But the fact is that the manifesto states:
"Negotiating does not mean capitulating. Negotiating means compromising, on both sides. With the aim of preventing further hundreds of thousands of deaths and worse. That's what we think too, that's what half of the German population thinks. It is time to listen to us!" (223) Such a formulation, however, is far from acceptance of a 'dictatorship peace'.
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4) Schwarzer/Wagenknecht were accused of not distinguishing themselves from right-wing extremism and of accepting that right-wing extremists would take part in the manifesto-related rally. (224). This was also the verdict of 'Der Spiegel': "At the so-called peace demonstration in Berlin on Saturday, the contours of what Sahra Wagenknecht is actually striving for became apparent: a pro-Russian, anti-American, nationally oriented rallying movement. The AfD is reacting delightedly." (225) Apart from the fact that it is impossible to prevent individual right-wing extremists from mingling with the crowd at a rally attended by more than 10,000 people, however, this accusation is also based on a false statement. For example, it is publicly documented via video recording that Sahra Wagenknecht, in her speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, very clearly distanced herself from right-wing extremist participation with the following words:
"Of course, neo-Nazis and Reich citizens, who stand in the tradition of regimes responsible for the worst world wars in human history, have no place at our peace rally." (226)
Green Party co-chairman Omid Nouripour also demagogically distances himself in this direction and insinuates that the chairman of the AFD is one of the first signatories of the manifesto: "The chairman of the AfD is one of the first signatories of the manifesto. The Left Party must ask itself how it wants to deal with the fact that one of its best-known faces signs papers together with AfD chairmen." (227) This statement is also wrong, because the AfD chairman is not one of the 69 first signers, but had mixed himself among the numerous co-signers, which certainly cannot be prevented in an open signing situation like at Change.org.
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Conclusion
Peace activist Bernhard Trautvetter sums up the criticism of society's handling of the 'Manifesto for Peace' and the campaign against the peace movement as a whole in his own way:
"The campaign against the peace movement is based on invalid assertions, it corrodes democratic structures by excluding democrats, it strengthens war profiteers such as the arms corporations in the NATO states as well as nationalists such as those in the AfD, to which it gives attention by claiming that there is an alliance with their participation, it valorizes militarism by taking up its narratives. the campaign against the peace movement goes against the vital interests of people not only in our country, because it increases tensions and the risks associated with the escalation of violence. And it distracts from many worldwide violations of international law in which NATO states are actively involved, for example, with the formulation that one is against war, as if there were no other wars in, say, the wider Gulf region or in Africa." (228)
Despite the repeated denials by Wagenknecht/ Schwarzer and other initial signatories of the 'Manifesto for Peace', the four false statements addressed here are permanently repeated by authoritative politicians, political scientists and the media. In particular, the reporting of this part of the bourgeois press is not an expression of independent and critical reporting, but rather evokes memories of 'embedded journalism'. In contrast, the media, as the self-appointed fourth authority in democracy, must be expected to weigh arguments of contrary peace policy positions independently and critically. All forms of 'embedded journalism' with elements of war propaganda and denigration of dissenters contradict the media's self-claim as the fourth power in a democracy - on the contrary, this represents an influence to undermine existing democratic structures. (229)
Notes
(Chapter 1.4)
(Bibliography see at the bottom at this page)
(84) The remainder of this chapter draws on, among other things, the remarks in Moegling (2020b) on arms exports in areas of tension, and parts of this contribution are adopted in modified form.
(85) Eisenhower, Dwight (1961)
(86) Cf. on the efficiency of investments in the arms industry: Stocker, Franz (2020).
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(87) For example, according to a Greenpeace survey published in 2019, 81% oppose arms exports to countries involved in the Yemen war. Cf. https://www.dw.com/de/umfrage-deutsche-gegen-waffenexporte/a-49169332, 6/13/2019, 18.2.21. According to another representative poll by the opinion research institute YouGov, 64 percent of respondents generally oppose arms exports. 80% of respondents voted against arms deliveries to war and crisis zones. 83% of respondents opposed the export of armaments to Turkey. See https://www.welt.de/newsticker/news1/article176788904/Umfragen-Deutliche-Mehrheit-der-Deutschen-ist-gegen-Verkauf-von-Waffen-an-andere-Staaten.html, 5/29/2018, 18.2.21.
(88) Nepo, Sara, 2012, The Iran-Iraq war 1980-1988. the balance politics of the great powers. In: file:///C:/Users/Klaus_neu/Downloads/2222-2770-1-PB.pdf, 1.3.2013.
(89) ATT of the UN, reprinted in German translation in: German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) 2020, 49ff.
(90) Data according to https://thearmstradetreaty.org/treaty-status.html?templateId=209883, as of 26.2.2025.
(91) https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2019-04/nra-waffenhandel-usa-donald-trump-un-vertrag-att-waffenexport, 5/29/20.
(92) For the complete "Common Position of the Councils" (2008/ 2019), see Annex 2 in the Military Equipment Export Report 2019, op. cit. p.43ff.
(93) Vogel (2015)
(94) Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020), 6.
(95) Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020), 10.
(96) Vogel (2015), n.d.
(97) Cf. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/krwaffkontrg/__27.html, as last amended 27.6.2020.
(98) Cornerstones for the introduction of post-shipment controls on German arms exports. In: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020, 42f). It should be noted here that, in its own assessment, the Federal Republic of Germany was the only EU country in 2019 to have attempted systematic post-shipment controls at all. Cf. Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020, 14).
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(99) Cf. Wälterlin, Urs, (2018).
(100) Cf. http://www.zeit.de/news/2018-03/12/mehr-waffenimporte-in-den-mittleren-osten-und-nach-indien-180312-99-441610, 12.3.18 and https://www.sipri.org/news/press-release/2018/
asia-and-middle-east-lead-rising-trend-arms-imports-us-exports-grow-significantly-says-sipri, 3/13/2018.
(101) See SIPRI data at https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2019/global-arms-industry-rankings-sales-46-cent-worldwide-and-us-companies-dominate-top-5; 9.12.19, 9.12.19.
(102) Steinberg (2013).
(103) SIPRI (2018).
(104) SIPRI Yearbook (2020a, 13).
(105) Cf. SIPRI (2020, 12).
(106) Cf. Knipp (2020).
(107) Cf: Libya: the borderless conflict? In: https://www.daserste.de/information/politik-weltgeschehen/weltspiegel/libyen-180.html, 19.1.20, 21.2.21.
(108) Cf. Salzen, v. (2020).
(109) The Left in the European Parliament, 2020, arms exports/ arms exports. In:https://www.dielinke-europa.eu/de/article/8988.waffenexporte-ruestungsexporte.html, n.d.
(110) Cf. SIPRI (2020a, 13).
(111) European Peace Facility. An extrabudgetary EU fund for peacebuilding and strengthening international security. In: https://op.europa.eu/de/publication-detail/-/publication/b678ff59-7f34-11e8-ac6a-01aa75ed71a1/language-de/format-PDF, 6/13/2018, 21.2.21
(112) Cf. for a critical examination of the EPF: Bergmann/Furness (2019) and: European Military Facility poses significant risks to peace. Press statement by 'Ohne Rüstung leben' together with 17 other organizations. In: https://www.ohne-ruestung-leben.de/nachrichten/article/offener-brief-europaeische-militaer-friedens-fazilitaet-erhebliche-risiken-329.html, 8.10.19
(113) Cf. Germany exports significantly more war weapons. In: https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2020-07/waffenexporte-ruestungsindustrie-kriegswaffen-deutschland, 14.7.20, 21.2.21.
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(114) All figures tabulated from: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020, 8 u. 22).
(115) Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.) (2020, 24), the level of collection permits ibid, p.23.
(116) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (Hrsg.) (2024):
Vorläufige Rüstungsexportzahlen für das Jahr 2024 veröffentlicht und Rüstungsexportbericht für das Jahr 2023 verabschiedet. In:
https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2024/12/20241218-vorlaeufige-ruestungsexportzahlen-2024-ruestungsexportbericht-2023.html#:~:text=Dezember%202024%20sind%20nach%20vorl%C3%A4ufigen,Euro%20f%C3%BCr%20sonstige%20R%C3%BCstungsg%C3%BCter%20zusammen. 18.12.2024.
(117) Bickel (2018, n.d.).
(118) Turkey receives more than one-third of German arms exports. dpa report, 6/23/20, in: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/tuerkei-erhielt-mehr-als-ein-drittel-der-deutschen-waffenexporte-a-52c320a4-147c-4b92-8a35-9fcfe1dd27a8, 6/23/20.
(119) Turkey receives more than one-third of Germany's arms exports. dpa news release, 6/23/20, in: op. cit.
(120) Die Linke, Business with War Weapons Booming. In: https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/geschaeft-mit-kriegswaffen-boomt/, 16.7.20, 22.2.21.
(121) Cf. in more detail on the Yemen war in Reimann (2020b).
(122) Cf. Bickel (2018, n.d.).
(123) Rüstungsexporte: Deutschland liefert Rüstungsgüter für 1,2 Milliarden an Yemen-Allianz, In: https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-04/ruestungsexporte-jemen-krieg-deutschland-allianz, 1.4.20.
(124) Rüstungsexporte: Deutschland liefert Rüstungsgüter für 1,2 Milliarden an Jemen-Allianz, In: a.a.O., 1.4.20.
(125) Reimann (2020b, o.p.).
(126) Cf. https://www.mena-watch.com/im-jemen-sind-bis-zu-85-000-kinder-verhungert/, 8.10.2019.
(127) https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/italienische-rheinmetall-tochter-muss-bombenlieferungen-stoppen,RXsavKn, 1.8.2019, 1.8.2019.
(128) Greenpeace (ed.) (2020, 29).
(129) Former U.S. Vice President Cheney was vice president of the Halliburton corporation from 2001-2009, which profited through its companies as equipment suppliers and transportation contractors from the 2nd Iraq War taking place during that time.
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(130) "Furthermore, a long-term contracting relationship can lead to the 'capture' of the contracting process by the private firms and even to corruption. The close relationship between contractor and customer can create a 'revolving door' between government and industry, with senior personnel often moving from one to the other, and can result in a high degree of lobbying power for firms intimately connected with government activity." (Perlo-Freeman/Sköns 2008, 15).
(131) Cf. Vogel (2015, n.d.).
(132) Cf. Danner (2019); in the meantime, by the way, Kujat fell victim to a power struggle between two major investors and had to leave this position again.
(133) Cf. Eglau (2019)
(134) The following quote comes from a 2008 interview with Joseph Stiglitz by Stephan Kaufmann in the Berliner Zeitung (Stiglitz 2008).
(135) Naím (2014, 118).
(136) Cf. Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008, 1).
(137) Cf. Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008, 2).
(138) Perlo-Freeman/Sköns (2008, 13).
(139) Cf. also the corresponding chapter 'War sells': The Bundeswehr. in Engartner's book (2016, 109ff.).
(140) https://www.worldvision.de/pressemitteilungen/2018/05/22/safe-schools-declaration,o.D, 23.5.18.
(141) Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
(142) Among other things, the Conflict Prevention Center (CPC) and the CSCE Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) were established in Vienna.
(143) Cf. https://www.wdr.de/tv/applications/daserste/monitor/pdf/2017/manuskript-milliardenschwere-aufruestung.pdf, p.1, n.d., 5.4.2018.
(144) Cf. in more detail ch. 1.4.1.5.
(145) In: http://www.rp-online.de/politik/ausland/ruestungsausgaben-steigen-weltweit-usa-spitzenreiter-aid-1.7550249, o.D., 2.5.18, cf. tab.1.
(146) Root (2018).
(147) Cf. Wurzel (2018).
(148) Cf. Schiltz (2021).
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(149) In: https://www.icanw.de/neuigkeiten/msc-abschreckungspolitik-treibt-welt-an-den-abrgund/, 2/15/2018, 3/3/2018.
(150) Cf. Rötzer (2019).
(151) Cf. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3nnaa/trump-tiny-nukesZitat, 5.3.2018.
(152) Cf. Saalmann (2021)
(153) In: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/03/donald-trump-asked-why-us-cant-use-nuclear-weapons-if-he-becomes/, 5.3.2018.
(154) Cf. Wagner (2021)
(155) Cf. for 2003: https://www.landmine.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Publi/broschuere2003.pdf, 7/24/2018 and in comparison for 2016: https://handicap-international.de/sites/de/files/faktenblatt_landminen_3-2016.pdf, 7/24/18.
(156) See, e.g., the U.S. 'Project Maven' in which Google employees are cooperating with the U.S. Department of Defense, according to the New York Times and Taz: http://www.taz.de/Googles-Zusammenarbeit -US-Militaer/!5510134/, 3.6.2018.
(157) Cf. the article by Conger/Cameron (2018).
(158) Adani (2018).
(159) https://www.icrac.net/icrac-statement-at-the-april-2018-ccw-gge/, 9/4/2018, 4/6/2018.
(160) Galtung (2004).
(161) Sonnabend (2010).
(162) Cf. Fraunhofer Institute (2018).
(163) Cf. Langels, Otto (2017): The largest chemical attack in history. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/agent-orange-im-vietnamkrieg-der-groesste-chemie-angriff.932.de.html?dram:article_id=378270, 7.2.17, 9.7.19.
(164) Cf. ICAN (n.d.).
(165) Retrieved from: https://www.ippnw.de/atomwaffen/humanitaere-folgen/atomtests/artikel/de/millionen-krebstote-durch-atomtests.html, No Date, July 13, 2019.
(166) Cf. Reimann (2021, n.D.)
(167) Cf. Leukefeld (2019, 162f.).
(168) Leukefeld (2019, 163).
(169) Cf. Leukefeld (2019, 164) on an analysis carried out by Frieder Wagner of the
Mode of action of uranium munitions.
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(170) Gelau (2018).
(171) Cf. Braun (2019, 4).
(172) Cf. Trautvetter (2021)
(173) Cf. Krebs (2019)
(174) In: https://handicap-international.de/sites/de/files/faktenblatt_landminen_3-2016.pdf, 12/2015, 30/11/2019.
(175) See Klein (2012, 2019) for more detail on the connection between capitalism and climate destruction.
(176) Klare (2015).
(177) Peil (2019).
(178) Braun/Müller (2018), cf. also the lecture given by Michael Müller (Chairman of the Naturefriends of Germany, NFD) in December 2018 at the 25th Peace Council in Kassel (Müller 2019).
(179) Cf. Braun (2019, 3).
(180) Cf. on the establishment of UN-controlled global police structures chapter 5.6.
(181) Cf. on the use of CIA-controlled secret armies in Latin America and in Europe Chomsky (1999, 24ff.) and for more detailed evidence of the operation of secret armies in Western Europe the doctoral thesis by Ganser (2005/2016). While Ganser later formulated partly unsubstantiated theses, e.g. on 9/11, his approach here is transparent and can be regarded as scientifically appropriate.
(182) In the 1995 Bosnian war, 400 Blue Helmet soldiers were abused by the Serbs as human shields against NATO attacks (see, e.g., the documentary at https://www.lr-online.de/nachrichten/hintergrund-menschliche-schutzschilde-sind-kriegsverbrechen_aid-2683689, July 31, 2006, 8/20/2018).
(183) This chapter is based on Moegling (2019 d); the article has been revised and expanded on the basis of additional reader comments. I would like to thank the corresponding readers for their contributions to the discussion, which have led to some further considerations.
(184) With regard to the definition given here, I have referred to my own reflections as well as to corresponding thoughts in Pörksen (2000), among others.
(185) This was the second Italian war of liberation.
(186) From: Suttner (1889), chapter 1.
(187) Cf. Ultsch/Vieregge (2016).
(188) EU Parliament press release justifying the task force, after Hofbauer (2019).
(189) See also Trautvetter (2019b) on the discrediting of Russia in the media.
(190) Cf. Listl (2019).
(191) In: https://rp-online.de/politik/proteste-in-den-usa_aid-8308577, 30 Apr. 2000, 29 Oct. 2019.
(192) See, among others, Vensky (2009).
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(193) In addition to my own observations and categorizations of the Easter March movement, the following sources were used: Butterwegge (1990), https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostermarsch, 8/13/2019, 10/28/2019 and https://www.atomwaffena-z.info/initiativen/geschichte-der-anti-atom-bewegung/artikel/f2082e13bb/die-ostermarsch-bewegung.html, 2019, 10/28/19 and http://archiv.friedenskooperative.de/netzwerk/omhist.htm, n.d., 10/28/2019.
(194) For figures used here, see https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/der-erste-golfkrieg.871.de.html?dram:article_id=127099, 9/22/2010, 10/29/2019, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erster_Golfkrieg#cite_note-92, 10/14/2019, 10/29/2019 and https://www.dw.com/de/vor-20-jahren-endete-der-erste-golfkrieg/a-3577432, 8/20/2008, 10/29/19.
(195) For facts used here, see https://pauls-domain.de/Medinfos_1984-1993/1992-02%20%20Irak-%201%20Jahr%20nach%20dem%20Golfkrieg.pdf, Feb. 1992, Oct. 29, 2019, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweiter_Golfkrieg, May 19, 2005, Oct. 29, 2019 and https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/irak-der-golfkrieg-1991-116582.html, Feb. 24, 2001, Oct. 29, 2019.
(196) Cf. Bittner/Drieschner (2003).
(197) Cf. https://www.lpb-bw.de/irak_krieg.html, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(198) https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/krieg-ist-massenmord-zigtausende-protestieren-in-ganz-europa-a-241716.html, 22 MAR. 2003, 30 OCT. 2019.
(199) Cf. https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/krieg-ist-massenmord-zigtausende-protestieren-in-ganz-europa-a-241716.html, 22 Mar. 2003, 30 Oct. 2019.
(200) Strutynski (2017b, 177).
(201) Data extracted from ICAN English language home page (https://www.icanw.org/campaign/campaign-overview/), n.d., on 30 Oct. 2019.
(202) In: https://www.icanw.org/campaign/campaign-overview/, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(203) In: https://www.icanw.de/grunde-fur-ein-verbot/verbotsvertrag/, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(204) GPPAC (2015, 4).
(205) GPPAC (2015, 6).
(206) Z.B. UN Security Council Resolution 2171 on Conflict Prevention, UN General Assembly Resolution 66 /290 on Human Security.
(207) GPPAC (2015, 11).
(208) Cf. GPPAC (2015, 11ff.).
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(209) See for a fuller account of these GPPAC activities https://www.gppac.net/what-we-do, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(210) In: https://www.peacebrigades.org/en/about-pbi, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(211) See https://www.peacebrigades.org/en/about-pbi, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(212) In: https://www.peacebrigades.org/en/people-we-protect, n.d., Oct. 30, 2019.
(213) https://www.naturfreunde.de/frieden-schaffen-waffenstillstand-und-gemeinsame-sicherheit-jetzt, o.D., 1.4.2023.
(214) https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/peter-brandt-initiiert-friedensappell-prominente-spd-mitglieder-unterschreiben-100.html, 1.4.2023, 1.4.2023.
(215) See, e.g., https://www.rnd.de/politik/manifest-fuer-frieden-junge-politiker-kontern-petition-von-wagenknecht-und-schwarzer-LDP5L5PETFBXJOEEHGMT4HSCY4.html, 2/24/2023, 3/31/2023, or https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-source/kommentar-meinung-krieg-waffenlieferungen-ukraine-konflikt-ist-das-manifest-fuer-frieden-ein-manifest-der-unterwerfung-li.321476, 2/25/2023.
(216) https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/annalena-baerbock-schmettert-ukraine-vorstoss-von-wagenknecht-und-schwarzer-ab-manifest-fuer-frieden-li.316625,11.2.2023, 30.3.2023.
(217) See his interview in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, where he argues for parallel political, humanitarian, and military support for Ukraine and for pushing ceasefire and peace negotiations in the sense of a dual strategy: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/projekte/artikel/kultur/juergen-habermas-ukraine-sz-verhandlungen-e159105/?reduced=true, 2/14/2023, accessed 3/6/2023, (behind a paywall).
(218) Cf. https://rp-online.de/politik/deutschland/herfried-muenkler-nennt-wagenknecht-schwarzer-manifest-verlogen_aid-84912697, 2/14/2023, 3/31/2023.
(219) https://www.change.org/p/manifest-f%C3%BCr-frieden
(220) https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/gewissenloses-manifest-berliner-politologe-herfried-muenkler-verurteilt-friedensaufruf-von-alice-schwarzer-und-sahra-wagenknecht-li.317574, 2/14/2023, 3/30/2023.
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(221) Matthias Kreck critically examines Herfried Münkler's theses and concludes with the following summary: "Mr. Münkler's criticism does not stand up to scientific analysis. And when, in response to his very thoughtful article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, he wishes his esteemed colleague Habermas were "a bit more of a political scientist," the question arises, in view of the scientific errors I point out in this article, whether colleague Münkler should attend the basic course on good scientific practice."
(222) https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/annalena-baerbock-schmettert-ukraine-vorstoss-von-wagenknecht-und-schwarzer-ab-manifest-fuer-frieden-li.316625, 2/10/2023, 3/30/2023.
(223) https://www.change.org/p/manifest-f%C3%BCr-frieden
(224) Cf. https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/politik/wagenknecht-schwarzer-manifest-frieden-afd-100.html, 3/4/2023, 3/31/2023.
(225) https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/kundgebung-in-berlin-querfront-ja-aber-bitte-diskret-kolumne-a-9abaaaab-c006-4cca-947a-f81465217086 26.2.2023, 31.3,2023.
(226) Quote from YouTube original recording: https://www.google.com/search?q=Sarah+Wagenknechts+speech+at+Brandenburg+Gate+2023+demarcation+against+right-wingextremists&oq=Sarah+Wagenknechts+speech+at+Brandenburg+Gate+2023+demarcation+against+right-wing extremists&aqs=chrome. .69i57.19759j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7c9181da,vid:I0AwgCYNz5s, 25.3.2023, 30.3.2023.
(227) https://www.rnd.de/politik/omid-nouripour-die-aeusserungen-von-frau-wagenknecht-wirken-in-der-ukraine-wie-hohn-E6KEVS7BMNAN5ABYGVOUZY4KIQ.html , 2/24/2023, 3/31/2023.
(228) Quote from an as yet unpublished manuscript by Bernhard Trautvetter (3/2023): The Strategic Communication of the Military Lobby and the Campaign against the Peace Movement.
(229) In contrast to this, the journalistic approach of Malte Lehming in the Tagesspiegel, who poses five important questions to the peace policy opponents to be weighed up, is to be mentioned positively. Cf. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/internationales/deutschland-streitet-uber-den-richtigen-weg-zum-frieden-beide-seiten-mussen-funf-fragen-beantworten-9359345.html, 16.2.2023, 31.3.2023.
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An end to the planet in nuclear war: does the UN's nuclear weapons ban treaty offer a way out of this global danger?
Global warming is man-made. Nature is starting to fight back.
Stopping the littering of the oceans - When will this process finally begin?
1.5 Ecological Crises
1.5.1 The battered biosphere turns against humans
The persistance of the planetary ecosystem, i.e. its resistance and resilience, has been under unprecedented attack since the 19th century. Although climate fluctuations have occured in the past, the changes have never happened as rapidly as in the last 200 years. This is a clear indicator that global warming has been caused by human influence. There is an increasing danger that disturbances caused to the ecological interdependencies by outern factors will overwhelm the processing capacity of the ecosystem and the biosphere although serious warning signs and emerging ecological crises can be registered, but the 'point of no return' cannot be precisely determined. [1]
In its synthesis report published in March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made clear the seriousness of the situation, but emphasized that there are still opportunities to contain the climate crisis. For example, Dr. Oliver Geden (2023), a member of the core author team of the synthesis report of the 6th Assessment Report of the International Panel Climate Change, assessed the climate policy findings as follows:
"We need to start getting serious about the world beyond 1.5 degrees temperature rise, because that's what we're heading toward. The synthesis report says that quite clearly. And the question of what that means for the climate system, what that means for the impacts, risks, adaptation and what it means for climate protection. Dealing with this does not mean that we should or should not be paralyzed by it. Even if we go above 1.5 degrees, even if we don't get back down to 1.5 degrees: Every tenth of a degree will matter, at whatever level. We first have to manage to stop the temperature rise, to stabilize the system, at least in terms of temperature rise. And that means we have to get to net zero emissions. That remains the right goal. And for that, it's important that we manage drastic emission reductions, and we have to do that already by 2030. Because at some point, certain things will no longer be possible in terms of achieving the goal."
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Climate development: Ecological tipping points and feedback effects
In this context, we must not assume that the climate will change slowly and thus possibly could be controlled by accompanying adaptation measures. Ecological tipping points and ecological, economic and social feedback effects will lead to an abruptly accelerating dynamic of the critical climate development. Ecological tipping points are defined as climate changes that can no longer be controlled when a certain point of climate degradation has been reached:
"With large scale global warming in the range beyond 2-3°C, [...] there is a growing risk of qualitative changes in the climate system. Such strongly nonlinear responses of system components are often referred to as 'tipping points' of the climate system. What is meant here is a system behavior in which, after a critical threshold has been exceeded, an own hardly controllable, dynamic of the system sets in. Large-scale components of the earth system that could exceed a tipping point are called 'tipping elements'." [2]
There are a number of known tipping elements that are currently undergoing highly problematic change due to man-made climate gas emissions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tipping points and corresponding feedback effects can take place in connection with the following changes: ·
"* Melting of sea ice and decrease in the albedo in the Arctic. ·
* Melting of the Greenland ice sheet and rising sea levels ·
* West Antarctic ice sheet instability and sea level rise ·
* Disturbance of the ocean circulation in the North Atlantic ·
* Increase and possible persistence of the El Niño phenomenon. ·
* Disturbance of the Indian Monsoon Regime ·
* Instability in the Sahel zone in Africa ·
* Dehydration and collapse of the Amazon rainforest ·
* Collapse of boreal forests ·
* Thawing permafrost soil and release of methane and carbon dioxide ·
* Melting glaciers and decreasing of albedo in the Himalayas ·
* Acidification of the oceans and decreasing in the absorption capacity for carbon dioxide · * Release of Methane from Seafloors." [3]
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The ecological development in the 'Holocene', the period of about 10,000 years before the industrial age, could be considered relatively stable for human development possibilities. The 'Holocene' was characterized by the ecological self-regulation of the planet. With the Industrial Age, the 'Anthropocene' dawned, in the context of which humans have increasingly become the dominant planetary shaping force - according to Röckström/Steffen/Noone (2009, 472):
"During the Holocene, environmental change occurred naturally and Earth's regulatory capacity maintained the conditions that enabled human development. Regular temperatures, freshwater availability and biogeochemical flows all stayed within a relatively narrow range. Now, largely because of a rapidly growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized forms of agriculture, human activities have reached a level that could damage the systems that keep Earth in the desirable Holocene state. The result could be irreversible and, in some cases, abrupt environmental change, leading to a state less conducive to human development. Without pressure from humans, the Holocene is expected to continue or at least several thousands of years."
Due to the sanction free, and so far mainly flagrant climate policy of the United Nations, which is free of sanctions, and the attempt of individual nation states, including the U.S. government, to undermine or even reject the UN minimum targets, it is not possible to implement a climate policy oriented towards 'sustainable development', the aim of which is to prevent irreversible socio-ecological consequences. The UN climate policy is striking because the United Nations cannot agree on effective sanctions for failing to achieve climate protection targets. It is therefore to be feared that humanity will not take serious action to protect the climate until the first socio-ecological catastrophes, already observable, have become the rule and threatening to all.
Initial ecological adaptation measures - generated by civil society pressure - at the national and international levels are not yet sufficient to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius or even below 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century in relation to pre-industrial times. Even though the European Union's climate policy measures are very far-reaching and also the most binding on an international scale, they are also not sufficient to take the necessary steps on the part of Europe. The European Green Deal, which was adopted by the EU Parliament in 2022, is already being massively criticized - so Schöneberg (2023):
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"With the climate vote, however, the EU parliamentarians have in this case not only half-baked, but also the climate revelation oath absegnet. Greenhouse gas emissions between Lisbon and Tallinn will fall by more than 3 percent per year - without new disasters. But that is simply too little to slow global warming at 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times."
The European Green Deal is already being watered down again in 2025, in a collaboration between conservative and right-wing parties. The main argument put forward is that the Green Deal would hinder economic growth. An attempt is also being made to lift the 2035 ban on sales of diesel and petrol-powered cars (Bourgery-Gonse (2025)).
The EU climate change service Copernicus has determined that 2024 will be the warmest year measured since pre-industrial times. For 2023, Copernicus measured an average value of 1.48 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. February 2024 was 1.77 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial reference period from 1850 to 1900. (Blume 2024).
But the biosphere is vindictive, it does not wait for human corrective measures when the climate catastrophe is already on its way. Storms and thunderstorms of gigantic proportions, devastation of wide planetary regions and associated mass exodus, flooding of entire regions near the sea, heat, drought and uncontrollable forest fires, as well as destruction of crops by hail and continuous rain are only a few reactions to the currently observable man-made global warming.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also determined that 2023 would be the hottest year since records began at around 1.45 degrees and stated that this would not only cause environmental destruction, displacement of people, military conflicts, but also billions of dollars in damage and famine crises for particularly affected regions.
For 2024, the international weather service Copernicus even predicts a warming of over 1.6 degrees compared to pre-industrial times (Wille 2025), with massive consequences for the ecology as well as for social order.
WMO head Celeste Saulo therefore makes it clear that the climate crisis is not just about weather change:
"The climate crisis is THE defining challenge that humanity faces and is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis - as witnessed by growing food insecurity and population displacement, and biodiversity loss" (World Meteorological Organization 2024)
Jonas' appeal [4] at the time to take preventive responsibility for conceivable negative scenarios is once again supported by the world's leading climate experts. According to the IPPC report, a change of course is still possible if the intensity of climate policy measures is increased enormously. Otherwise, mankind will have to go through an extremely difficult history of development in order to finally be able to respect the biosphere and to overcome the priority of economic exploitation interests, the greed for profit as a measure for ecological behavior, the priority of gasoline-powered combustion engines and coal-fired power generation, the pollution of the oceans as well as environmentally unfriendly mass consumption.
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A report by the Club of Rome in 2024, written together with the Wuppertal Institute (“Earth for All”), also makes it clear that climate justice will play a significant role in the necessary socio-ecological transformation. The yellow vest protests in France, the farmers' protests in Germany and the electoral success of the AfD make it clear that, in industrialized countries too, sections of the population who cannot afford climate protection measures must be taken along. E-cars, heat pumps and photovoltaic systems should not be left only to the wealthy. But poorer regions of the world would also have to be helped through a gradual increase in the UN climate fund for prevention and climate adaptation if a global transformation is to succeed.
The Club of Rome therefore calls for a departure from a one-sided logic of growth towards a differentiated view of necessary economic development for the future: “Industries with a fossil risk as well as high-risk technologies (such as nuclear energy) must shrink. Green sunrise industries (such as renewable energies, sustainable mobility, energy and resource efficiency) and socially important areas (such as education, health, care for the elderly or culture) must grow faster. This socio-ecological structural change will simultaneously lead to growth and shrinkage (...).”
But politics prefers a step backwards in the necessary socio-ecological development. Right-wing extremists, egomaniacs, disturbed narcissists, but also globalization winners currently have too much influence on international climate policy. The fate of future generations does not seem to be a priority for them. Both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump continue to deny the impending climate catastrophe in 2025 and rely on the combustion of fossil fuels. They have no sensitivity for the ecology of the biosphere and the current and future expected climate consequences. Only when the consequences of climate change are drastically felt by the majority of states and their populations will there finally be an attempt to contain the climate catastrophe that has occurred with a greater commitment of funds and resources. By then, however, it may be too late. Most of today's generation-egotistical decision-makers will probably no longer be alive.
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Also in the energy supply from nuclear power plants no solution can be seen. The planetary danger posed by these plants has long been downplayed. But with the terrible reactor accidents and maximum damage among others in Harrisburg, Chernobyl and Fukushima, the consequences of which have not yet been eliminated, it became clear that the civil use of nuclear power is not safely controllable. In addition, there is massive environmental damage caused by the extraction of uranium and the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal. The most toxic substance on earth can still be used for energy production and for the construction of nuclear weapons without the disposal issue being solved. The problem is postponed to future generations.
The war in Ukraine also shows a further danger situation when Russian military occupies nuclear power plants, stores military equipment and weapons there and harasses the technical personnel. At the same time, the danger is increased by artillery fire from the Ukrainian side. Here, the nuclear power plant itself does not have to be hit at all, but the interruption of the cooling chain or the power supply is enough, so that a super-GAU can occur. The German natural scientist and author Karl-W. Koch (2023) therefore warns urgently of a war-related meltdown in Ukraine:
"A meanwhile very clearly recognizable war goal in this context is the destruction of the technical infrastructure of Ukraine, decisively the electrical infrastructure. The easiest way to destroy this infrastructure is to destroy the nodes of the high-voltage long-distance lines and the feed-in points to the medium-voltage networks. The main problem is that the necessary transformers are not available in reserve, either in Ukraine or in the rest of Europe. On the contrary, they have to be built from scratch, precisely tailored to the respective location, and this takes several months in each case.
However, Ukraine's nuclear power plants are also connected to these nodes and transformers. If they are disconnected from the power grid, then the nuclear power plant must be switched to emergency generators (diesel) for cooling. These have a maximum runtime of 3 to 10 days and are not designed for continuous operation. If they also fail, the cooling of the reactors will fail. And these MUST ALSO be cooled when the reactors have been shut down. And the storage pools of the replaced fuel rods at the nuclear power plants (and at Chernobyl, Ukraine's large interim storage facility) must be cooled permanently. Otherwise, each is at risk of a meltdown with the release of huge amounts of radioactivity."
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Animal cruelty and meat marketing
As man deals destructively and exploitatively with the nature surrounding him, so does he treat the animals. The diversity of wild animal species is in extreme decline. Most of the animals held and caged by humans for meat consumption are tortured in a variety of ways within the framework of industrial farming before they are slaughtered. Pigs and cows are kept between metal grids and crammed in without room space to move,they are manipulated with hormone injections and antibiotics for undisturbed and rapid meat growth, and their manure floods are then disposed of in the fields, which in turn poisons the drinking water with nitrates. People, in particular in the rich countries of the North, consume meat products to an alarming extent, so that a large percentage literally bloat their bodies and become morbidly overweight. At the same time, many people in the poorer countries lack the possibility to take in enough calories through their diet, which means that hunger in the world has by no means been defeated yet .[5] There is a disastrous ecological connection between the carbon dioxide and methane emissions and the industrial mass animal husbandry, the animal cruelty connected with it and the average meat consumption as well as the environmental poisoning released thereby, in particular the pollution of the drinking water. The burning of the ecologically valuable rain forest is also to be seen in a connection with the thereby resulting pasture land for cattle, the fodder cultivation for cattle (soy) and the meat consumption.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2019, 17) summarizes the relevant research findings as follows:
"The level of risk posed by climate change depends both on the level of warming and on how population, consumption, production, technological development, and land management patterns evolve (high confidence). Pathways with higher demand for food, feed, and water, more resource-intensive consumption and production, and more limited technological improvements in agriculture yields result in higher risks from water scarcity in drylands, land degradation, and food insecurity (high confidence)."
In order to prevent such criticism of unbridled growth thinking and profiteering, in 2025 the US government is now in the process of cutting state funding for the US representatives of the IPCC. Thus, the February 2025 session of the IPCC in the People's Republic of China will take place without U.S. participants, as the U.S. government has cut their travel funding, banned them from attending, and laid them off:
“The administration under Donald Trump has cut funding to cover their travel expenses. For the next IPCC Assessment Report, expected in 2029, something else could prove to be even more problematic: the office of the US working group on climate protection has also been dissolved and the salaries of its employees cancelled. Co-chair Katherine Calvin from the US now lacks the personnel support for the considerable work and organizational effort. And she herself has been banned from attending the meeting.” (Eickemeier 2025)
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Ecological thresholds for the planet
V. Weizsäcker/Wijkman (2017) use the term planetary boundaries, which refers to ecological thresholds limit values of the Earth. They argue that if these limits are exceeded, there is a risk of irreversible environmental change.
With regard to the following nine factors, a crisis-stricken development can be indentified, whereby above all genetic diversity as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles are already in the high risk range, i.e. beyond the uncertainty range. The most complex danger with consequences for the entire ecological system comes from climate change, which has already exceeded its planetary boundaries. [6]
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Nine ecological determinants of planetary boundaries: [7] ·
* "Stratospheric ozone depletion ·
* Biodiversity loss and species extinction ·
* Chemical pollution and release of novel compounds ·
* Climate change ·
* Ocean Acidification ·
* Land Use ·
* Freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle ·
* Nitrogen and phosphorus flow into the biosphere and oceans ·
* Atmospheric aerosol pollution" [8]
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It must be noted that individual factors must not be considered in isolation, as they are interconnected and interact with each other. Only by taking a holistic view, which allows for both complexity and differentiation, can the scope of the ecological and social damage that has already occurred be understood:
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"Although the planetary boundaries are described in terms of individual quantities and separate processes, the boundaries are tightly coupled. We do not have the luxury of concentrating our efforts on any one of them in isolation from the others. If one boundary is transgressed, then other boundaries are also under serious risk. For instance, significant land-use changes in the Amazon could influence water resources as far away as Tibet. The climate-change boundary depends on staying on the safe side of the freshwater, land, aerosol, nitrogen-phosphorus, ocean and stratospheric boundaries. Transgressing the nitrogen-phosphorus boundary can erode the resilience of some marine ecosystems, potentially reducing their capacity to absorb CO2 and thus affecting the climate boundary." [9]
The destruction of forests - the lungs of the earth
The study of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2019, 3) clarifies the urgency of a change of direction also in the forestry and agricultural dealing with the biosphere ("loss of natural ecosystems ( e.g. forests, savannahs, natural grasslands and wetlands) and the declining biodiversity (high confidence)"). Due to settlement and agro-industrial use, areas of CO2-absorbing and oxygen-producing forests are increasingly being lost. As the UN-commissioned IPCC states:
"Land use change and rapid land use intensification have supported the increasing production of food, feed and fibre. Since 1961, the total production of food (cereal crops) has increased by 240% (until 2017) because of land area expansion and increasing yields. Fibre production (cotton) increased by 162% (until 2013)." [10]
The massively accelerated deforestation of the rainforest, the lungs of the earth, under the right-wing populist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in favor of soybean cultivation areas, cattle pastures and land speculation, intensifies the climate crisis. The preferred method of slash-and-burn cultivation is additionally releasing significant amounts of climate-damaging carbon dioxide. Also the cultivation standards, e.g. with regard to the use of pesticides, generally do not meet the requirements of ecologically oriented agriculture. Considerable parts of the Brazilian rainforest are being cleared or burned with the sole perspective of land speculation in order to be able to market this land later on as cultivation land or even as building land, or in order to use it for the exploitation of mineral resources. [11] The former Brazilian president Bolsdonaro, who was voted out of office in 2022, fatally promoted this development:
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"Bolsonaro has repeatedly spoken out in favor of gold miners and loggers in his speeches, but he makes disrespectful remarks about indigenous peoples ('like a zoo') and civil service environmental officials ('ticket industry'). In the Amazon, this was understood as an incitament even before he changed the law with decrees. Just two weeks ago, the murder of the chief of the Waiãpi people made international headlines. In some places, buildings belonging to the Amazon Indigenous people‘s protection authorities as well as to the environmental protection authorities went up in flames, and unknown persons shot at a civil service helicopter in a deforestation hotspot. Not a week goes by anymore without reports of invasions into Indigenous people‘s territories and of displaced or even dead people. Result: Preliminary official satellite data show that the rate of tree cutting in the Amazon in June was 88 percent higher than in the same month last year, in July it was as high as 212 percent. Currently, the deforestation rate is three soccer fields per minute. Since the 1970s, when large-scale deforestation began under the military dictatorship (1964-1985), about 20 percent of the entire Brazilian Amazon forest has disappeared, an area twice the size of Germany." [12]
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Instead of reacting with a higher taxation on beef and soy exports to the EU, if these result from deforested rainforests, the EU decides the opposite: There will be an international free trade agreement between the MERCOSUR countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the EU and it will have no such restrictions. Instead it will generally significantly facilitate the interstate trade with beef and soy products. This is a direct invitation to further destroy the rainforest and accelerate the climate catastrophe – not to mention the increased need for intercontinental transports of goods by sea and air, which additionally pollute the biosphere.[13]
However, initially only the negotiations for the Mercosur agreement between the EU Commission and the Mercosur states have been concluded by the end of 2024, but the treaty still has to be approved by the individual national parliaments and then ratified by the national governments.
Such measures are clearly contrary to the ecological claims of the EU and the climate goals of the United Nations. As long as the EU does not adopt a different trade and environmental policy, its ecological claims will be exposed as empty phrases.
Due to the postulate of national sovereignty, the UN is currently not in a position to intervene. This would require an amendment to the UN Charter, so that in the event of a massive ecological damage with consequences for the global climate, an internationally controlled intervention, e.g. in the form of economic sanctions, would be possible.
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The 'Responsibility to Protect' should be extended to include responsible intervention by the United Nations. This would first be done by diplomatic means, then by economic pressure and, if these measures were unsuccessful, by world police intervention, giving priority to civil mediation methods and just policing in contact with local citizens' initiatives and indigenous peoples groups. If all this, in case of a massive damage, is not working, the UN military with a robust mandate for ecological peacebuilding would have to be deployed.
However, despite its international climate conferences and the work of the staff of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) based on the Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 climate treaties, the UN is relatively powerless due to the strong position of nation states under the UN Charter. This is also made clear by the fact that by the beginning of 2025, a large proportion of nation states had not yet submitted their climate plans with updated development data for the next period, even though the deadline for this has long since passed.
The atmosphere, the slim gas layer that surrounds the earth, is so thin and vulnerable, and already massively damaged, that future tolerance is no longer possible. It must be considered that the troposphere, the atmospheric layer closest to the earth and particularly important for our continued existence, is only a few kilometers high and accordingly has hardly any compensation possibilities. A development spanning billions of years has been brought to the limit of its ecological resilience in just a few decades by human civilization and its unrestrained economic growth thinking.
Attempts to reach multilateral or bilateral trade agreements, such as TTIP [14] or JEFTA, also show that this is about an unrestrained increase of economic growth without taking natural resources into account. It is about the establishment of international 'free trade zones', which will lead to an increased consumption of natural resources due to increase in production as well as increased transport of goods between the continents. There is also a risk of lowering international standards in the field of environmental protection.
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The neoliberalization of the economy reinforces the global injustice between the richer and the poorer part of the world, already historically created by colonization and the postcolonial period, also with regard to climate development. While the rich countries have been able to enrich themselves further by externalizing climate damage, the poorer countries have not been able to accomplish this development themselves due to the inequitable world trade relations. The rich and industrialized regions burdened the earth's atmosphere with CO2 emissions for over two centuries, with the poorer regions in particular now having to suffer the consequences of the climate catastrophe. This critical assessment must then naturally also have consequences for the demands for future financing of the necessary climate protection measures.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2023, 5) also made clear the double injustice in the global context in its summary analyzing synthesis report based on climate science data:
„Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred. Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people (high confidence). Vulnerable communities who have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected (high confidence).“
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Business with the water
Furthermore, there is an attempt to further privatize natural resources within the framework of these agreements, especially the privatization of drinking water, which indisputably leads to an increase in prices and a decrease in the quality of drinking water.[15]
Through multilateral trade agreements, world capitalism tries to secure itself on the contractual level and to create the most favorable conditions for the overexploitation of natural resources and the valorization of nature. But also transnational institutions, such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, are working on the preconditions for a neoliberal-oriented privatization of resources, such as the freshwater sources available for the production of drinking water. The conflict over access to drinking and process water is intensifying as a result of climate change and the world population growth, which is being used so that international agreements in the future are intended to give priority to multinational corporations:
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"Water - from a source of life to a source of profits
This policy can be traced back to the Washington Consensus (1990), which encompasses a set of economic policy measures to promote economic stability and growth worldwide and in which economic processes are to be liberalized and economic activity largely privatized. This, according to the economic liberal idea, creates the basis for resources to be better allocated and used more efficiently. The Washington Consensus concept is being promoted by the IMF and the World Bank. This includes, among other things, the liberalization of trade policy and the privatization of public institutions. The IMF acts as a lender to central banks, and the World Bank performs this function for private banks. In addition, an international network of regional development banks is linked to IMF, the World Bank and WTO, such as the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Islamic Development Bank. Global water companies, the World Water Council and the Global Water Partnership, work closely with WTO, the World Bank and IMF. They are united by the aim of classifying water as an economic good so that it can be freely marketed. Officially, the policy of water privatization and - in connection with it - the construction of dams is justified with the eradication of poverty. That this argumentation is only a fasade is shown, for example, by the fact that the organizations and corporations involved do not advocate decentralized solutions, such as the use of rainwater. Instead, they promote large dams and capital-intensive infrastructure projects, which are often financed by development aid organizations. A network of lobbyists and industry associations working hand in hand is promoting this method of global water policy." [16]
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The lobbyists, politicians, groups and corporations behind the decisions inspired by the 'Washington Consensus', such as Coca Cola or PricewaterhouseCoopers, work for the most part covertly and non-transparently in order to avoid disruptions to this process, for example via civil society resistance.
The Nestlé Group will now be used as an example to illustrate the problems of water privatization.
Resource conflicts are unavoidable with regard to water. The conflict between the ex-Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, states located on the Chinese border, over access to and control of a water distribution point is an example of this problem:
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Fight for drinking water
"The Kyrgyz Health Ministry in Bishkek said, based on consistent reports, that 31 people were killed and 154 injured in the fighting. On the Tajik side, there was talk of 10 dead and about 90 injured, the internet portal Asia-Plus reported. The authoritarian regime country did not confirm the figures.
The conflict escalated in the middle of this week when Tajik officials wanted to install a video camera near a water distribution depot. Kyrgyz citizens resisted. They first threw stones, as the media reported. Then both sides reinforced their border troops, which then fired at each other.
The water distribution depot is located in Kyrgyz-controlled territory at a canal outlet that fills a reservoir in the Batken region. For the people there, this is the main access to drinking water. Tajikistan claims the area, based on older maps." (17)
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The disputes in Central Asia are one example of interstate water conflicts. Another example is the conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile water. Egypt has already threatened Ethiopia with war several times. Egypt obtains 90% of its drinking water from the Nile and sees its drinking water supply threatened by Ethiopia's planning of dams. Israel, for example, has also, in the course of various military conflicts, managed to divert 90% of the Jordan water to Israel and water is now lacking in regions with very little rainfall in Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Thus, Palestinian farmers are forbidden to drill new wells, while Israeli settlers in Palestinian areas are easily given permission to drill them. [18]
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But there are also internal struggles over the resource of water. More than one billion people have no access to clean drinking water. Springs are drying up and there is less rainfall due to climate change. Furthermore, large-scale agro-industrial projects and the mining of raw materials, e.g. for the extraction of rare minerals for battery production in Chile, claim huge water resources that are then lacking local farmers and robbing them of their livelihood.
Domestic disputes in Kenya, for example, illustrate the dynamics of such an issue. Here, nomadic cattle breeders are fighting against export-oriented agriculture, which claims former pastureland for this purpose. Both the increasing population pressure and the rainfall delays caused by climate change are exacerbating this conflict. Conflicts in northern Kenya are no longer fought with spears but with Kalashnikovs imported from Somalia and lead to increasing numbers of victims in this conflict over the precious resource. Thus, Western consumer needs, such as the increasing demand for roses and tulips, intensify internal conflicts in an African state. In addition, this problem is loaded with ethnic tensions.
Using the Nestlé company as an example, the problem of international attempts to privatize water will now be described.
„Nestlé is a predator, a water hunter" (Maude Barlow)
The multinational Swiss corporation Nestlé is - according to its own presentation - the world's largest food and beverage company, with subsidiaries in 189 countries. The Nestlé group of companies includes brands such as MAGGI, Thomy, Nescafé, Nesquick, Kitkat, Smarties, After Eight, Bübchen, and bottled water, such as the brands S. Pellegrino, Vittel, and Nestlé Pure Life. [19]
A key business ideas of Nestlé is to drill deep wells and market drinking water portioned into plastic bottles. Nestlé, according to the company itself, has recognized its responsibility with regard to the ecological importance of water:
„Water is life. It is essential, but is in short supply – already now – in many places around the world. ... At Nestlé, we unequivocally believe that access to water is a basic human right. Everyone, everywhere in the world, has the right to clean, safe water for drinking and sanitation.“ [20]
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Nestlé thus has a business idea that seems promising for the future, because a dramatic water shortage is looming in many regions. Buying up water sources and obtaining drilling permits for deep wells in order to market drinking bottles filled with water in portions guarantees unimagined profits, even if the water sources have to be guarded from the locals by military security services.
In 2012, the film by the Swiss filmmaker Urs Schnell and the Swiss-born journalist Res Gehriger entitled "Bottled Life" was released, which takes a critical look at Nestlé's water business. The Swiss magazine 'Tagesanzeiger' writes about this:
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"Journalist Gehriger did not let himself be turned away. In Ethiopia, he visited a refugee camp for which Nestlé had provided a water treatment facility in 2003 amounting to 750,000 dollars. Two years later, the company withdrew from the project, and since then the facility has been functioning poorly, and water shortages are once again a daily problem. In Nigeria's capital Lagos, Gehriger finds out that families spend half their budget on water in canisters. Those who can afford it drink Pure Life from Nestlé. Or consider the village communities in the U.S. state of Maine that are fighting the pumping of groundwater and spring water by Nestlé. The right of the strongest pump applies: whoever owns land can pump as much water as he wants. Nestlé extracts several million cubic meters a year and transports the water by tankers to the bottling plants. ‘They want to make profits with our water, paying a fraction of a cent per liter,‘ says one small outraged businesswoman. 'They sell the water we use for the toilet and for washing our hands as expensive spring water,' scoffs another. But because Nestlé brings taxes to the communities, many authorities welcome with open arms the corporation, which is supported by an armada of lawyers and PR consultants. In the film, the battle between David and Goliath boils down to a deadlock: in one place Nestlé wins, in another the local opposition." [21]
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Nestlé itself is trying to improve its image on its homepage, talking about sustainable water management, ecological responsibility and its commitment to humanity in the poor and drought-prone areas of the world.
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However, former UN chief advisor on water issues and Canadian water activist Maude Barlow exposes this PR claim by the corporation as media propaganda to hide its highly problematic activity. In her book 'Blue Future: Protecting water for the people and the planet forever', Maude Barlow (2014) analyzes the profit maximization oriented activities of water corporations, such as Nestlé. In the film 'Bottled Life' she sums up her criticism of Nestlé: “They’re predators, water hunters, looking for the last pure water in the world.“ [22]
Nestlé has a turnover of seven billion euros for bottled water and is the world market leader in this segment. The journalist Rabea Weihser (2013) from the magazine 'Die Zeit' reconstructs the criticism of the producers of the film 'Bottled Life' and characterizes the more exploitative nature of Nestlé's activities:
"They show how the Pure Life brand, through targeted advertising, became a status symbol in Pakistan, and one of the few reliably clean sources of drinking water in Nigeria. No beverage is as widely available as Pure Life. In 27 countries it consists of filtered tap water infused with artificial minerals and it tastes the same everywhere. Where corrupt governments let the public water infrastructure fall apart, Nestlé fills a market gap and makes money on the poorest." [23]
Selling drinking water promises growing profits in the future. As long as the legal framework and the associated understanding of economics allow business with - next to air - the most important resource, water, this will be a growing business field with above-average returns in the future. The lowering of the groundwater level and the exclusion of large parts of the population from clean water supply will be pursued in terms of economic policy by following the 'Washington Consensus' - and, if necessary, with military protection.
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The 'Washington Consensus' as an obstacle to ecological governance
The 'Washington Consensus', which stands for privatization, deregulation and tax cuts for corporations, is an expression of a neoliberal understanding of capitalism. Neoliberalized capitalism is a major obstacle with respect to the climate crisis that is already occurring and which relies on massive regulation and it is the precondition for even more extreme exploitation of natural resources.
The Canadian activist and author Naomi Klein (2019, 30) clarifies the fatal connection between the historical enforcement of neoliberal deregulated capitalism and the simultaneously intensified need to intervene in a regulatory way against the destruction of nature:
„We have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis. We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe—and would benefit the vast majority—are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets. That problem might not have been insurmountable had it presented itself at another point in our history. But it is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when those elites were enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s.“
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states, systemic competition for the capitalist West fell away. Capitalism claimed to be the superior system and dropped its socio-ecological mask. With the emerging climate reaction, capitalism developed in a neoliberal direction that favored unhindered profiteering and increasing exploitation of resources, and a consciousness industry that was supposed to divert attention from this was installed.
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Denial of the anthropogenic part of the climate crisis as business
Contrary to the earlier publications of the IPCC and the IPCC synthesis report published in 2023, in which the leading climate scientists analyzed more than 9000 scientific studies on climate development and assessed their consequences, politicians, such as Trump, Putin or Bolsonaro, deny the existence of the climate crisis and can also rely here, among other things, on bought scientific opinions.
The scientific denial of the climate crisis or the occurring climate catastrophe is well paid by parts of the fossil industry, such as oil and gas corporations. Some corrupt scientists are not only paid by the corporations for their greenwashing but also for denying the man-made climate crisis so that the exploitation of resources can continue. In contrast to 97% of scientists who would analyze the facts about the climate situation based on scientifically correct data, millions of dollars are, for example, by branches with vested interests paid to US think tanks that speak of climate hysteria and natural climate variability and deny the man-made part in climate development. [24]
They claim, for example, that global warming is not anthropogenically caused, but is related to increased solar activity. But exactly the opposite is the case: Measurements of the 'World Radiation Center' as well as the 'Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics' have come to the result that in the last 35 years the solar radiation on the earth even decreased, whereas we during the same period had the fastest increase in climate warming since the beginning of the industrialization. [25]
Interested climate skeptics also claim that the currently observed terrestrial warming of 1oC is not a problem at all, since there have always been climate fluctuations that the earth had to cope with. Also there was no increased CO2 concentration during such warm periods. The warming is a natural tendency after a smaller ice age and is not man-made.
First and foremost the objection to this is that the current rapid warming is not comparable to the much slower warming after ice ages. Also it was investigated that with all climatic changes, which took place abruptly, e.g. with volcanic eruptions on a larger scale, massive escape of climatic gases, like carbon dioxide or methane were involved. According to Scientists for Future:
"But there have been several times in Earth's past when Earth's temperature jumped abruptly, in much the same way as they are doing today. Those times were caused by large and rapid greenhouse gas emissions, just like humans are causing today.
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Those abrupt global warming events were almost always highly destructive for life, causing mass extinctions such as at the end of the Permian, Triassic, or even mid-Cambrian periods. The symptoms from those events (a big, rapid jump in global temperatures, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification) are all happening today with human-caused climate change.
So yes, the climate has changed before humans, and in most cases scientists know why. In all cases we see the same association between CO2 levels and global temperatures. And past examples of rapid carbon emissions (just like today) were generally highly destructive to life on Earth." [26]
Nature is only interesting for capitalism if it has an economic value
Therefore, worldwide counter-movements and initiatives, such as the NGOs Attac, Transparency International, World Commission on Dams (WCD), Lobby Control or Water Aid are clarifying the connections between overexploitation of resources, privatization tendencies, transnational agreements and capitalist profit maximization. The question also arises whether this particular link between neoliberalized capitalism and the threatening civilizational destruction of humanity by the looming environmental catastrophe in fact will lead to a more radical reorientation and a systemic reorganization.
It is true that Soviet-style state socialism also exploited nature to the utmost and irresponsibly crossed ecological boundaries, but there also seems to be a connection between the exploitation of nature and capitalism. Nature is only interesting for capitalism if it has an economic value. Here a mentality prevails that nature is inexhaustible, available for free and usable without consideration of the consequences for the creation of economic value. The overexploitation of nature corresponds to the human greed for the accumulation of wealth that is lived out in capitalism. Therefore, despite all well-intentioned international resolutions, it is questionable whether drastic measures for the preservation of the biosphere can actually be implemented in a rigorous world capitalist system.
The historical development towards the disembedding of the economy (Polanyi, 1957) led to the economy becoming independent and detached from human needs in favor of a the dominance of the economy over social life. The 'great transformation' then also meant the transformation of nature into an economically restricted and anthropocentric human-nature relationship. This process, which has accelerated over two centuries, should now be slowed down again and reversed since it destroys the ecological preconditions for life on earth.
Often the emissions from industrial production and traffic are in the foreground of the climate discussion. Therefore, the once that are skeptical about the negative anthropogenic influence on climate development should finally be presented once again the summarized results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding the greenhouse gas (GHG) triggered solely by agricultural and forestry economic use published in the climate report in 2019. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) consisting of scientists from all regions of the world and cooperating with the United Nations analyzes and evaluates the available research results worldwide on climate development and summarizes the human impact of land use on the climate for the period from 2007-2016. If one knows how, for example, emissions of carbon dioxide and methane in agricultural production processes as well as deforestation affect the amount of forest activity as a CO2 sink as well as oxygen producer, one should be shocked by the following results of the IPCC - unless one ruthlessly represents the interests of the fossil fuel industry or is simply not willing to take note of verified scientific results:
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"Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) activities accounted for around 13% of CO2, 44% of methane (CH4), and 82% of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from human activities globally during 2007-2016, representing 23% (12.0 +/- 3.0 GtCO2 yr-1) of total net anthropogenic emissions of GHGs21 (medium confidence). The natural response of land to human-induced environmental change caused a net sink of around 11.2 GtCO2 yr-1 during 2007-2016 (equivalent to 29% of total CO2 emissions) (medium confidence); the persistence of the sink is uncertain due to climate change (high confidence). If emissions associated with pre- and post-production activities in the global food system are included, the emissions are estimated to be 21-37% of total net anthropogenic GHG emissions (medium confidence)." [27]
The fight against climate destruction can only be socially just.
In 2024, the Club of Rome and the Wuppertal Institute published a joint report (“Earth for All”), which advocates in particular that the necessary measures to contain the climate crisis must be socially just. Without climate justice, the necessary socio-ecological transformation will not succeed. If poorer regions and also poorer classes in the richer regions of the world are not included, then the avoidance of disruptive climate developments and the impact of ecological tipping points can no longer be prevented. The yellow vest protests in France or the farmers' protests and resistance to the heating law in Germany show that even in rich countries around the world, the necessary socio-ecological restructuring will meet with fierce resistance if the existential situation of those affected is not taken into account.
The authors of the report formulate the central question of socio-ecological transformation as follows:
“Is a just world for all possible within planetary boundaries, ending poverty and hunger, inequality and gender discrimination, while ensuring climate action, sustainable food and environmental protection?”
This means that national and international climate protection measures must always ensure a social balance, i.e. provide support and incentives where this cannot be achieved on their own.
Five constellations in East Africa
The impact of climatic changes on people's lives will now be described by looking at conflict situations and violent confrontations in East Africa. SIPRI researchers Malin Mobjörk and Sebastian van Baalen (2016, 1 ff.) use the example of East Africa to develop five constellations in which climate change leads to violent riots or armed conflicts of different kinds:
· "Worsening livelihood conditions": droughts, dwindling rainfall, degraded soils and reduced vegetation cover due to climate change lead to poorer livelihood conditions in a region and increase the susceptibility to survive or to secure livelihoods by using violent means. This leads to participation in actions of armed groups and to chronic insecurity in regions affected by natural disasters. [28]
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· "Increasing migration": When people migrate in large numbers from a devastated region to another region that has better ecological and also economic conditions, violent clashes can occur between locals and migrants in the struggle for resources. Groups with a strong sense of identity are also generally better at mobilizing people for violent purposes. Migration is often a result of a mixture of ecological, economic, social and cultural as well as religious factors.
· "Changing pastoral mobility patterns": when the routes of pastoralists moving with their herds change significantly, e.g. in Kenya, Ethiopia or Sudan, due to drought and associated water scarcity, this leads to fierce competition between pastoralist groups familiar with these routes and to the use of violence to defend the ancestral routes against the newcomers.
· "Tactical considerations": Weather and short-term climatic changes can influence the behavior of armed groups, such as cattle raiding. For example, it can be observed that during rainy seasons, cattle theft by organized groups increases in certain regions of East Africa. During this season, the stolen livestock have sufficient food and water while being illegally transported. Also, the thicker vegetation during this season provides improved protection against detection.
· "Exploitation by elites": In Sudan, and similarly in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda one can observe how ruling elites exploit the struggle for resources between different groups to enrich themselves through corruption, to eliminate political opponents, and to consolidate their own power through hardly noticed constitutional amendments.
The SIPRI researchers summarize their analysis between climate change and violent conflict:
"The relationship between climate-related environmental change and violent conflict does not exist in a political and social vacuum. Political processes permeate every link in the causal chain from environmental change to an in-creased risk of violent conflict. A group's access to natural resources or vulnerability to climate change is determined by both political and biophysical processes." [29]
This means that a climate policy is also a peace policy. Climatic change robs people of their livelihoods, as illustrated here by the example of East Africa, and leads to displacement conflicts and wars.
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To sum up: In its synthesis report published in March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2023) clearly blames human influence for the current climate crisis. Human influence has warmed the atmosphere, the oceans and the land, a development that can only be contained by drastic and immediate measures.
From this follows: Peace with the biosphere on a global scale will only be possible if the relationship between ecology and economy undergoes a paradigm shift. Unrestrained economic growth must be fundamentally restructured in favor of social and democratic control over the most important means of production and the associated forms of enterprise in the sense of a reorganization of production and consumption that is oriented toward the common good and in particular, toward ecology. Companies and collective production facilities must feel responsible for the preservation of the biosphere in a sustainability-oriented sense and be bound by an correspondingly structured and binding international framework for decisions and sanctions. Governmental steering and control activities must set up a calculable planning framework for agricultural and industrial activities within such a restricted market-based scenario.
The prerequisite on the socio-economic level is a revision of the privatization and deregulation tendencies of neo-liberalized capitalism, which is systemically opposed to the necessary interventions and regulations, brought about by worldwide civil society pressure, for the purpose of combating the environmental crisis. A system based on basic neoliberal economic assumptions and on trust in a self-regulating, uncontrolled market is not suitable for ecological regulations that can still prevent or effectively reduce the occurrence of tipping points and feedback effects.
In government measures to initiate a socio-ecological turnaround, social aspects in the sense of climate justice must be taken into account if not only financially privileged elites are to participate in the necessary transformation measures. The necessary global ecologically oriented measures to avoid a climate catastrophe on a scale that is destructive for human civilization and the biosphere must therefore go hand in hand with the restructuring of the economic and political system in a fundamental way and must at the same time ensure a social balance during the socio-ecological transformation.
The example of the Nestlé corporation was used to clarify the criticism of the profit-oriented dealing with the vital resource of water and to illustrate the dangers if corporate activities are not regulated and limited.
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The further example of conflict situations and disturbance of social peace due to climatic changes in East Africa made it clear that climate development and social peace are interrelated. This can, of course, also be applied to the connection between climate escape, migration movements and the resulting societal social conflicts in the rich countries of the North.
A global economic system characterized by a lack of regulation and unrestrained profiteering deprives people worldwide of their livelihoods.
However, not only the systemic and structural level has to be considered, but also the consciousness of the actors within the system. The prerequisite for this on the personality level is that people learn again to understand themselves as parts of nature and to observe the same laws which nature around them is also subject too. It is not enough to want to achieve necessary changes on the structural level if the individual behavior related to the climate contradicts the requirements that others have to face and are required for the structural changes.
This means that the changes on the macro level must in advance also correspond to associated changes on the micro level. Personal changes in awareness of the world around us and further developments in personal lifestyle behavior must go hand in hand with structural changes.
1.5.2 Resistance and protests against ecological destruction
1.5.2.1 The resistance of indigenous peoples
In the course of colonization in recent centuries, indigenous peoples have had to experience what it means when a destructive civilizing power invades their living environment and tries to assert its interests with superior force of arms. The enslavement of African people and their deportation and exploitation in the countries of the colonial powers, the genocide of the Mayas and Aztecs who perished by the introduced smallpox, by mass executions and fights or the destructive work in the Spanish gold mines, the murder of the largest part of the indigenous original population of North America by the US military and settler militias as well as the hunt for the Australian original population of the Aborigines are characteristic for this. Today's ecological devastation of indigenous homelands through giant boreholes, devastation caused by open-pit coal mining, lunar landscapes left behind after open-pit gold mining and poisoned with mercury, the poisoning of groundwater through fracking, nature-destroying oil extraction from tar sands, lithium mining that devours groundwater, and slash-and-burn clearing of contiguous rainforest areas represent the modern continuation of colonial ecological and humanitarian destruction of indigenous peoples' livelihoods.
For economic and geopolitical interests, the inferiority of indigenous races was proclaimed, and they were devalued to 'animals' and 'savages', so that they therefore did not need to be granted human rights.
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Indigenous peoples were murdered, their women raped, labor enslaved, their natural environment destroyed, and all of this was given religious legitimacy or disguised by church missionary activity. Many indigenous communities were destroyed by introduced diseases, such as cholera and smallpox. Their resistance was brutally crushed by the superior weaponry of the white invaders.
Indigenous peoples were later partly forced into reservations, their children were taken away from them, their identity was stolen in Christian boarding schools and schools. The consequences of the cultural and life-world uprooting were then a high suicide rate or also alcoholism and other drug abuse as well as a clearly lower life expectancy among the indigenous people. However, some indigenous communities, particularly in North America, succeeded in securing treaty rights for the use of their natural living environment. It is possible that these were granted to them to appease them, without any belief at the time that they needed to be honored.
For several decades now, remaining indigenous peoples have begun to reflect on their cultural identity, to take up forms of protest and resistance in modern society and, above all, to sue for their once treaty rights - according to Canadian environmental activist and author Naomi Klein:
"Many non-Native people are beginning to realize that indigenous rights - when aggressively supported through legal actions, protest rallies, and mass movements demanding their observance - are now the most effective barrier to protecting us all from climate chaos." (30)
Naomi Klein describes how indigenous communities in North America and Canada in particular, such as the Althabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Mi'kmaq community, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, the Lakota Nation, or the Elsipogtog First Nation, began a long struggle for their rights against the profiteering of the fossil fuel industry. This would be literally David fighting Goliath, as the indigenous people with their lawyers take on the legal departments of large corporations with vast financial resources. But the support of the indigenous people by non-indigenous initiatives from the environmental protection movement strengthened them in their partly quite successful fight against the companies from the oil, gas and coal industry. (31)
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The Sioux struggle against pipelines in North Dakota: Standing Rock
In particular, a conflict in Standing Rock (North Dakota, USA) between Native Americans and the activities of the fossil fuel industry, which received a great deal of media attention, can illustrate the complex problems and the intensity of the conflict. There, the Sioux, with the support of other tribes, fought against a fossil project in which oil pipelines (Dakota Access Pipeline, Keystone Pipelines) were to be routed through their tribal territory. The operator of the billion-dollar project is an oil company backed by the capital of numerous international banks, such as Goldmann Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bayern LB, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, and Bank of America. (32) Sioux feared environmental pollution of their territory due to the gushing of oil from pipeline leaks, which is common in comparable cases, and the impairment of their sacred sites, e.g. burial grounds and cemeteries, due to the construction of the pipelines. (33)
The indigenous inhabitants set up a protest camp with tents on the area designated for the installation of the Dakota Access pipeline, where several thousand protesters stayed for a while before the camp was cleared by the police. There were repeated occupations of construction equipment by the 'Native Americans' living there and altercations with security guards. The National Guard was activated and arrests were made. The protesters undertook a march to the White House to demonstrate against the pipeline in front of President Obama.
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Indigenous activist Eryn Wise tells of her resistance: "It was war. They had helicopters circling over our camp for days, installed stadium floodlights at night, smuggled in informers. They brought weapons to hurt us. People were seriously injured and had to watch the bones of their ancestors being dug up by excavators. When we left Standing Rock, it was not as if we had left a protest march, but as if we had come out of the war - which, unfortunately, we did not win. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. They are aggravated by the fact that the attacks on our country continue. (…) Once again, stereotypes and lies were spread about us. For example, it was claimed that we shot at the authorities with bows and arrows and tomahawks. At no time did we have any weapons with us. It's demoralizing not only to be attacked physically, but also to be beaten mentally and spiritually - by people who style us like cartoon characters." (34)
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While former U.S. President Obama finally decided against the construction of the pipelines due to the protests of the indigenous people and their supporters, the current U.S. President Trump has already reversed this on his second day in office and allowed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. In this, he is accused of a conflation of interests. He himself is said to be involved in the pipeline operating company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP.N) and in the holding company Phillips with his own investments. (35)
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The Sioux, Gros Ventre, and Assiniboine tribes then prepared lawsuits in several U.S. federal courts to have the permit revoked and the pipeline construction halted. (36)
Although the pipelines were built, a tremendous politicization of indigenous tribes and their supporters took place, with many protesting people experiencing firsthand the connection between the capitalist fossil fuel economy, government-backed environmental destruction, and the climate crisis. It has become clear to many people that the struggle for the environment and for the climate against the interests of the fossil fuel industry has entered a decisive phase, which - despite the temporary defeat - is not yet over. So once again, for the time being, the indigenous activist Eryn Wise, who was injured in the clashes, impressively demonstrates her unbroken humanistic and ecological basic attitude:
"But I think the broad resistance across society is underestimated. People have been fed up for decades with the images the United States conveys. Police violence against minorities, unchecked investment in extractive industries, the everyday racism. All of this became visible through Standing Rock. Now something has to be done about it. (...) Everything I do is a tribute to my ancestors. They've been through a lot more than I have. As a Laguna Pueblo woman, it is my obligation to advocate for the next seven generations. I have to make sure there is hope and a home for the children who are not even born yet." (37)
1.5.2.2 Fridays for Future (F4F)
The environmental movement has a long tradition, but never before have there been so many young people on the streets worldwide trying to stop the destruction of the planet.
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"What is Fridays for Future? #FridaysforFuture is a peoples movement following the call from @GretaThunberg to school strike. Why are kids striking? School children are required to attend school. But with the worsening climate destruction this goal of going to school begins to be pointless.
- Why study for a future, which may not be there? -
Why spend a lot of effort to become educated, when our
governments are not listening to the educated?" [38]
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The Fridays for Future movement unquestionably began with Greta Thunberg, the then 15-year-old Swedish girl, who started a climate strike of her own in August 2018 and stopped attending school on Fridays while standing in front of the Swedish parliament with her plywood sign 'Skolstrejk för klimatet', a strike that then turned into an international school strike movement based on this model.
In different rhythms, school children strike on Fridays, suspend school attendance and go public with their demands.
Fridays for Future is a grassroots movement that is mainly organized locally, but has reached the media through various well-known young personalities, most notably Greta Thunberg. The organizational structure is not representative democratic, but a mixture of grassroots democracy and supraregional networks gathered for major and international protest activities.
These local movements, that organize demonstrations, sit-ins, encirclements and rallies, are accompanied by international protest activities amounting to several million participants. Contact is established via homepages, blogs, Twitter messages, etc. This is also used to register displaced people. It is also encouraged worldwide to register the various activities on the F4F homepage in this way.
The climate policy demands of F4F have been concretized, for example, in Germany in cooperation with Scientists for Future (S4F) and are scientifially based and focus on the implementation of the 1.5oC target of the Paris UN Climate Conference of 2015:
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"Fridays for Future calls for the fullfillment of the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 1.5oC target. We explicitly demand for Germany: - Net zero emissions in 2035 - Coal phase-out by 2030 - 100% renewable energy supply by 2035 Crucial to meeting the 1.5oC target is to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Therefore we are by the end of 2019 calling for: - The end of subsidies for fossil fuels. - Shutdown of ¼ of coal-fired power plants - A tax on all greenhouse gas emissions. The price of greenhouse gas emissions must quickly become as high as the costs imposed on us and future generations. According to the German Environment Agency (UBA), that is 180€ per ton of CO2." [39]
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"How dare you?!"
In the meantime, Greta Thunberg has been received by many heads of government and has been able to raise her climate policy demands at international conferences. Her speech in September 2019 to the United Nations, in which she emotionally read the riot act ("How dare you?!") to the delegates and heads of state gathered there, and accused them of complicity in the destruction of the planet, remains unforgotten. She was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize ('Right Livelihood Award') and was a promising nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In the wake of the youth protests, national governments began to put the climate issue back on the agenda; the first climate policy decisions were made, although they are still far from the F4F demands.
With the success in regard to policy decisions and with the at least partial success of the Fridays for Future movement, counter-movements of course emerged, trying to discredit the movement, denying the climate crisis and attacking Greta Thunberg personally but also the F4F movement as a whole.
"Unite behind the science!": Scientists for Future (S4F).
Against this background, it was important that scientists were approached by pupils for supportive collaboration. In response to the F4F movement, an international movement of scientists engaged in climate policy issues was founded: Scientists for Future - starting from Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
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"Scientists for Future (S4F, also Scientists4Future) is a noninstitutional, nonpolitical and interdisciplinary coalition of scientists – committed to a sustainable future. Scientists for Future responds to the historically unprecedented climate, biodiversity and sustainability crisis that poses global challenges to humanity. The necessary processes of change require decisive and immediate action at the political, economic and technical, social and cultural, scientific and private levels. Because time is pressing. Time is pressing. As scientists, we therefore see it as our duty to raise our voices publicly and proactively." [40]
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Perspectives of the climate protest movement F4F
In the further course of the climate protests, it will depend on whether the movement 'Fridays for Future', consistently continues the process already started and also raises other issues, such as peace policy and the question of social justice. Accordingly, networking with other protest movements and opening up to other generations would be the prerequisite for an international protest movement to emerge that not only emphasizes the climate question, but also the system question. The resistance against the planetary destruction by the fossil industry attacks the global economic and trade system, which is based on fossil energy management. The fossil industry will not allow the economic exploitation of oil, gas and coal to be taken out of its hands so easily and without resistance. Therefore, it will be important that the systemic influence of corporations is significantly limited and that their economic and political power is restricted through political networking, including with the trade unions, and through international politically organized activities.
Of course, the importance of political experiences for young people is also important in this context. The exchange with similarly minded children and young people, the making of banners and signs with climate policy demands, the creation and experience of protest chants, the listening to lectures and the exchange of opinions about them, as well as the local and supra-regional organizational and networking activities, will be an effective break in the political socialization of children and young people, which they will not easily forget and which is likely to have impacts on the next biographical phase of political and professional commitment.
Last but not least, there are other support movements besides Scientists for Future, such as Students for Future, Teachers for Future, and Parents for Future, which show that the youth protest is successful in reaching the commitment of further generations.
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1.5.2.3 Extinction Rebellion (XR)
Extinction Rebellion ('Rebellion Against Extinction') is like Fridays for Future an international climate protest movement, but with a much smaller number of activists. XR activists partly work with F4F, give speeches at rallies and participate in F4F actions. However, XR has its own movement core and signature in terms of its activity. XR also differs from F4F in the higher average age of its actors. XR's actions are also more planned, ritualized and rehearsed. Likewise, the actions of the XR resistance against the climate crisis are characterized by a combination of an intensified perceived climatic threat, a warning of the climate-induced elimination of human civilization, as well as greater emotionality, and in some cases deliberately challenging the limits of legality. Nevertheless, XR is at least according to its own publicly repeatedly presented claim, a peaceful civil society protest movement:
"Extinction Rebellion (XR) draws, through peaceful disobedience, attention to the threat of climate collapse and massive species extinction." [41] And further:
"We do not want to use verbal or physical violence in actions or elsewhere. Our strict non-violence applies both online and offline. Discriminatory behavior, insults and any kind of misanthropic statements and actions are unacceptable to us." [42]
Extinction Rebellion originated from organizations in Great Britain, but is now - despite attempts to exert influence from Great Britain - primarily organized in a decentralized and grassroots manner in local groups around the world. It is ultimately decided on the spot how an action will proceed. However, central activities are agreed upon via international communication, such as the two international weeks of action to blockade various capitals in October 2019.
The ecological and political objectives of XR become clear by the following quote from the XR homepage:
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"We are an international socio-political movement. Our goal is to bring about a comprehensive and profound change needed for the climate. In doing so, we want to reduce the risk of human extinction and the collapse of our ecosystems. Through nonviolent civil resistance, we aim to persuade our governments to declare a state of ecological emergency and to create a legal framework to implement our demands. We act out of love for life and for a livable future for all living beings on this planet. We call on all to join the rebellion for survival, regardless of religion, origin, class, age, sexuality, gender as well as political inclination." [43]
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The actions of XR are criticized within the more traditionalist-oriented political science or political scene arguing that XR is irrationally legitimized and based on fears of loss and on grief, as well as merely aiming at emotions. [44]
If you take a closer look, you will discover that XR tries to combine rational argumentation patterns and the inclusion of emotions in a holistic sense. In this context, drastic doomsday scenarios are indeed used, but of course one does not know whether or when they will occur in this form. Nevertheless, in the sense of a comprehensive and also emotionally perceptible warning signal, it can, in the event that climate policy fails, make perfect sense to describe negative ecological scenarios. Some typical types of actions on the occasion of the international climate action weeks in October 2019 will now be outlined by some examples, which illustrate that the actions of XR are about information and reflection as well as more emotional, creative and sensual experiences, such as singing, dancing, yoga, sitting meditation or planting trees:
- London: "Many trees were planted in Westminster today."
- London: "instead of car engines, choirs and samba bands; instead of throngs of busy strangers, free food and open dialogue."
- Paris: "occupation at the Place de Chatelet": "hold free classes on climate change by experts, and hold debates on solutions to combat our climate and ecological crisis. And of course, Parisians gather to dance";
- Paris: "Gazette d'Extinction Rebellion which appears almost four centuries after the first newspaper, the Gazette de France": "revives rebels' spirits and conversations at the end of the day, and the beautifully designed paper is en-thusiastically distributed and shared around campsite";
- Dublin: "Stop the Shannon LNG Terminal (45) plus any new fossil fuel infra-structure!", "a symbolic funeral of the Earth, a samba parade with a pink 'Tell the Truth' boat, a planting of seeds, and some passionate speeches;
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- New York: "They blocked the entrance to City Hall by staging a seated meditation, a peaceful act of resistance rooted in historic acts of civil disobedience";
- Berlin: "Tell the truth at last! was the main topic on Friday, when about 3500 rebels gathered in front of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in order to address our first demand, "Climate Emergency. Now!". We read a letter to the Federal Ministry of the Environment, requiring the ministry to take a stand."
- Buenos Aires, Santiago, Islamabad, Dublin, Cape Town, London: "Last year, 164 activists were killed in the Global South for trying to defend their lands from corporate extractivism. Yesterday, rebels all over the world held vigils to honor them, coming together in a global solidarity action";
- Santiago: "Chilean rebels held a family friendly die-in at Persa Bío Bío, a blockade at Alameda Av., one of the busiest streets of the city, and a protest against the fast fashion industry in Costanera Centre Mall."
- Capetown: "XR Cape Town and XR Winelands took non-violent direct action yesterday against the 'Africa Oil and Power' conference. The die-in performance involved rebels suffocating in vibrant clouds of 'toxic' gas, and was staged to draw attention to the crimes against humanity and the ecocide that the conference is facilitating." [46]
These types of actions, which - in addition to rallies, blockades, leaflets and demonstrations - are characterized by dance, yoga, qigong, theater performances and alarming role-playing, disguises, symbolic actions such as die-ins as well as songs sung together, are viewed critically and degradingly by the traditional political establishment and the media associated with it. But shouldn't protests also be based on the qualities which the protesters want to preserve for the future? Shouldn't resistance and protests also be defined by joy, sensual experience, and creativity? Thus, the transformation designer and author Harald Welzer demands:
"A social movement for a different society must - I almost said: rock. No, that's antiquated, it comes from my generation, with 'street fighting man' and so on. Now a new political generation is emerging, a new movement. It will develop a new political sound, resistance will feel like fun, be irritating, and it will make you want to belong to those who make this utopia a reality. It will itself already be a glimpse of that other reality it wants to achieve. That's the way to do it. And what a way!" [47]
XR activists show - parallel to the creative actions and partly connected with them - a considerable commitment to the climate protests and also risk arrests e.g. because of street blockades, actions in front of parliaments or square occupations. For example, according to XR, approximately 550 XR activists were arrested in London during the two climate action weeks in October 2019.
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Conclusion: to what extent the Extinction Rebellion movement is now evolving into a grassroots climate action movement involving larger parts of the population has not yet been decided and remains to be seen. To call XR a "doomsday cult" well-fed with "hierarchy, intransparency, gurus, and esoteric ideology" (Dittfurth 2019) seems to me exaggerated and misguided. In any case, XR succeeds in winning people for an unconventional, sensual and creative as well as decisive engagement for climate protection, which is oriented towards the principle of non-violent civil and collective resistance.
1.5.2.4 Professionalized environmental Non Govermental Organizations: Greenpeace and Mighty Earth
Greenpeace
Greenpeace, an NGO that has long been professionalized, is probably the world's best-known environmental organization. Founded in 1971, Greenpeace is present in 26 countries and is active in 55 countries. Greenpeace has three million supporting members worldwide. [48]
Typical for Greenpeace are non-violent blockade actions in connection with massive environmental damage caused by corporations or governments:
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"Non-violent actions against environmental crimes In order to point out problems, to draw attention to grievances and to demand and bring about positive changes, nonviolent direct action is an important means for Greenpeace, in addition to other forms of public relations. Greenpeace uses nonviolent means to confront those who cause or are responsible for environmental damage - if possible at the site of the environmental crime. The provocative, combative and, if necessary, confrontational character, the uncompromising, courageous but always nonviolent action with full personal commitment and risk is what is unusual about Greenpeace." [49]
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Especially the actions against the nuclear tests carried out by France in the Pacific, against the disposal of oil platforms in the Northeast Atlantic, against the slaughter of baby seals, against whaling and against the patenting of human embryonic stem cells had an impact and brought Greenpeace manifold social recognition.
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On the one hand, Greenpeace fights against environmental destruction and for climate justice with non-violent, often spectacular actions; on the other hand, the NGO also presents technological and conceptual proposals for improving the ecological situation:
- In 1993, Greenpeace developed a CFC-free refrigerator ('Greenfreeze)';
- In 1996, Greenpeace presented a converted Renault Twingo suitable for series production in order to show that it is possible to develop a passenger car with a gasoline consumption of less than three liters per 100 kilometers (economy car 'SmILE');
- In 2015, Greenpeace presented a roadmap for climate neutrality, using Germany as an example, without any supply bottlenecks ('The Plan').
'The Plan' consists of an energy scenario that calculates how a combination of energy conservation, renewable energy supply, improved power grids and storage options can ensure a complete supply of climate-neutral electricity and heat by 2050, while simultaneously phasing out nuclear power and the fossil fuel industry. [50]
Although Greenpeace advertises that it is independent of corporations, Greenpeace has been criticized for speculating on the financial markets with some of the millions of euros of funding it receives each year. Therefore demands have been raised that the surplus money should be invested to a greater extent in ecological projects. [51]
For some Greenpeace is not radical enough, which caused splits (e.g. 'Robin Wood' or 'Sea Shepherd Conservation Society'), for others Greenpeace goes too far with its actions. The fossil fuel industry is also trying to deny Greenpeace the status of a fiscal tax relief by the discrediting public relations work of an NGO founded especially for this purpose, the organization 'Public Interest Watch' founded by ExxonMobil.
There is also criticism in regard to the Greenpeace structures, which are perceived as undemocratic and within which the 2400 employees worldwide are active. Important decisions are made primarily in a small, unelected leadership circle, and the activists on the ground have too little influence. Greenpeace, on the other hand, maintains that Greenpeace activities would require quick decisions and a high degree of secrecy in the run-up of an action. [52]
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In summary, - despite the criticism levelled at the NGO – Greenpeace was in retrospect an important factor in the fight against environmental crimes committed by corporations and states. Without Greenpeace activities, commercial whaling would not have been largely ended, oil platforms would still be sunk unhindered in the Atlantic, nuclear weapons testing would be conducted on a larger scale and the discharge of textile chemicals into waters of poorer regions of the world would go undetected. Furthermore, movements such as Extinction Rebellion or Foodwatch have certainly learned from the direct and effective activist culture of the NGO Greenpeace in terms of their types of action.
Mighty Earth
In the USA in particular, many environmental NGOs, that were once quite committed to the protection of the ecological foundations of life, have strayed far away from their original goals. Naomi Klein reports in detail about the financial contributions, especially from the fossil fuel industry, that have led to this. Not only have some environmental organizations apparently been paid by corporations and engaged in greenwashing, i.e. the ecological labeling of environmentally harmful behavior, but they have themselves to some extent invested in the fossil industry. So this is about positions, income and available capital. [53]
In contrast to this, the NGO 'Mighty Earth' represents a very effectively working American environmental protection organization, which thematically and comprehensively deals with ecological issues in a committed manner:
"Mighty Earth is a global campaign organization that works to protect the environment. We focus on the big issues: conserving threatened landscapes like tropical rainforests, protecting oceans, and solving climate change." [54]
With its critical reports, Mighty Earth relentlessly exposes ecological grievances caused by international corporations:
· Social and environmental problems in the operation of rubber plantations in southern Cameroon;
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· The analysis and labeling of the corporation 'Cargill' as the "worst company in the world" [55]
· The continuation of deforestation in West Africa for cocoa plantations;
· The environmental coal footprint in steel production;
· The failure of the food industry to address the climate crisis;
· Deforestation, arson attacks and violation of human rights in Argentina and Paraguay for meat production;
· Criticism of biodiesel production. [56]
In this regard, the Mighty Earth team, led by a CEO and a chariperson, often first tries to inform the concerned actor of the result of its research when a critical report has been prepared. At the same time, a deadline is given to stop the harmful behavior. If this is not done, the report is published internationally with all the image consequences for the group concerned - probably fair enough ...
Summary: Professionalized NGOs, such as Greenpeace or Mighty Earth, represent a necessary control body and regulator in order to enable a socio-ecological path in the world community. In particular, their courage and their ethically based level of reflection combined with publicly perceived actions against those who cause socio-ecological damage – be it governments or multinational corporations – are to be evaluated positively. Particularly important is their financial independence from companies of the fossil industry, which have already occupied many environmental protection organizations, especially in the USA [57], and instrumentalized it to an adapted behavior and to a prolongation of ecological extractivism occurring through 'greenwashing'.
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Notes
(Chapter 1.5.1 - 1.5.2.4)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Cf. Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (2006, 33 ff.).
[2] WBGU (2007, 77).
[3] Federal Environment Agency (2008, 4f.).
[4] Jonas (1979/2015, 64).
[5] On the extent of world hunger, see Ziegler (2015), among others, who speaks of a cannibalistic world order in this context.
[6] Cf. Röckström/Steffen/Noone (2009, 473).
[7] The German-language translation of the factors based on Rockström/Steffen/Noone et al. (2009, 472), in V. Weizsäcker/Wijkman (2017, 44f.).
[8] = Air pollution via e.g. CO2 or SO2 emissions.
[9] Röckström/Steffen/Noone (2009, 474).
[10] IPCC (2019, 4).
[11] Cf. Fischermann (2019).
[12] Fischermann (2019).
[13] The MERCOSUR agreement has already been adopted by the EU; however, the necessary decisions at the national level are lacking.
[14]TTIP = Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, JEFTA = Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement.
[15] See Lieb (2009) for further details and evidence.
[16] Lieb (2009).
[17] https://www.zeit.de/news/2021-04/30/kampf-um-wasserressourcen-mehr-als-40-tote, 30.4.2021, 1.5.2021.
[18] https://www.planet-wissen.de/natur/umwelt/wassernot/pwiekonfliktstoffwasser100.html, o.D., 1.5.2021
[19] Cf. https://www.nestle.de/unternehmen/struktur/marken, n.d., 9/23/19.
[20] In: https://www.nestle.de/wasser, n.d., 9/23/19.
[21] In: https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/kino/Dokufilm-uebt-massiv-Kritik-an-Nestle/story/31103319, 17.1.2012, 23.9.2019.
[22] In: https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2013-08/bottled-life-nestle-wasser-film/seite-2, 12.9.13, 23.9.19.
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[23] Weihser (2013).
[24] Cf. in more detail Klein (2019, 61ff.) and Rahmstorf (2016).
[25] Vgl. hierzu https://skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm, o.D., 24.10.19.
[26] Quote taken from Scientists for Future fact collection: https://skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm, author Howard Lee; n.d., 1 Nov. 2019.
[27] IPCC (2019, 7).
[28] In my opinion, this does not only apply to countries or regions that are already struggling with poverty. Even in rich countries, natural disasters can lead to an increase in crime and violence, e.g. the flooding of New Orleans in 2005 in connection with massive looting of stores and houses:"Flooded New Orleans threatens to descend into anarchy, with gunfire at a military helicopter and arson delaying the evacuation of the Superdome on Thursday. Mayor Ray Nagin, faced with increasingly unrestrained looting, pulled police officers from the rescue mission and ordered them to keep order instead. Another 10,000 National Guard troops have been detached to the disaster area." (https://www.stern.de/panorama/weltgeschehen/nach--katrina--new-orleans-versinkt-in-wasser-und-anarchie-3290996.html, 1/9/2005-1/19/2019). [29] Mobjork/van Baalen (2016, 2).
[30] Klein (2019, 457).
[31] Cf. Klein (2019, 454ff.).
[32] See NGO 'Food & Water Watch' listing of bank holdings at https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/who's-banking-dakota-access-pipeline, 9/6/2016, 11/18/2019.
[33] Cf. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/donald-trump-der-stille-weltkrieg-gegen-die-indianer/19303758.html, 25 Jan. 2017, 18 Nov. 2019.
[34] Eryn Wise in conversation with Jutta Schilly: https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000078640313/anti-pipeline-aktivistin-als-waeren-wir-aus-dem-krieg-gekommen, 4/26/2018, 11/18/2019.
[35] Cf. https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2017-02/dakota-access-pipeline-oel-north-dakota-proteste-standing-rock-raeumung, Feb. 23, 2017, 18 Nov. 2019.
[36] In: https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2018-09/keystone-xl-usa-indigene-staemme-pipeline-klage-sioux, 11 Sep. 2018, 18 Nov. 2019.
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[37] Eryn Wise in conversation with Jutta Schilly: https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000078640313/anti-pipeline-aktivistin-als-waeren-wir-aus-dem-krieg-gekommen, 4/26/2018, 11/18/2019.
[38] In: https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/, n.d., 10/21/19.
[39] https://fridaysforfuture.de/forderungen/, n.d., 10/21/19.
[40] In: https://www.scientists4future.org/about/charta/, 9/2019, 9/23/19.
[41] Lead sentence on XR home page: https://extinctionrebellion.de/, n.d., retrieved Oct. 13, 2019.
[42] In: https://extinctionrebellion.de/wer-wir-sind/, n.d., accessed Oct. 13, 2019.
[43] In: https://extinctionrebellion.de/wer-wir-sind/, n.d., Oct. 13, 2019.
[44] See, e.g., the controversy surrounding the TAZ article by Anke Richter (2019) on XR and the comments published online about it in: https://taz.de/Klimaproteste-als-Befreiung/!5629071/, 12.10.19, 14.10.19 as well as Ditfurth (2019).
(45) The Irish government plans to build a fracking terminal at the mouth of the Shannon River to receive U.S. fracked gas.
[46] Cf. info emails sent by XR on 12 & 13/10/19 and on XR homepage https://rebellion.earth/act-now/events/news/, o.d., 10/16/19.
[47] Melzer (2019, 294).
[48] Vgl. https://www.greenpeace.de/ueber-uns/greenpeace-stellt-sich-vor, o.D., 10/25/19.
[49] In: https://www.greenpeace.de/ueber-uns/greenpeace-stellt-sich-vor, n.d., 10/25/19.
[50] Cf. Greenpeace (2015).
[51] Cf. Greenpeace (2015).
[52] Cf. for overview of criticism of Greenpeace with differentiated source evidence https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace#cite_note-77, 18 Oct. 2019, 25 Oct. 2019.
[53] Cf. Klein (2019).
[54] http://www.mightyearth.org/, n.d., 10/23/19.
[55] Cf. chapter 1.1.1 in this book with the report on the multinational enterprise Cargill.
[56] See detailed reports at http://www.mightyearth.org/reports/, n.d., 10/23/19.
[57] Cf. the examples of corrupt environmental NGOs given by Naomi Klein (Klein 2019, 233ff.).
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"Be a part of the solution - not part of the pollution" -
The Fridays for Future protests have already made a big difference. Who is allying with the children and young people?
1.5.2.5 The Last Generation
Criminalization of protest. In view of the raids carried out and the accusation of forming a criminal organization against The Last Generation, the question arises as to whether the state is not delegitimizing itself with its measures.
The Last Generation is an environmental organization in Germany and Austria that, due to the ongoing climate destruction and other environmental pollution, was no longer willing to use traditional forms of protest, such as demonstrations and rallies, but developed more unpleasant forms of protest for society. They believe that they are the last generation that can still do something about the climate catastrophe that is already occurring and other forms of environmental destruction. They became particularly well known for hindering local transport by sitting down on the roads and sticking their hands to the road surface. If drivers didn't want to run them over, they had to stop their vehicles. This caused traffic jams, long waiting times and sometimes angry reactions from drivers, including violence from those held up.
It took the police a long time to remove the palms of their hands from the asphalt and carry away the Latter Generation protesters until the sit-in blockade was over and the traffic jams dissipated.
Paintings in art galleries were symbolically defaced with paint attacks on the glass windows. A hunger strike was broken off without success.
Raids against the Last Generation
While in the beginning it was only a few younger people for whom the Fridays for Future protests were no longer enough, more and more protesters joined this movement, and offices and financial support systems emerged.
While only isolated regulatory and criminal law measures have been imposed on active members of the Last Generation so far, the Bavarian state government and the subordinate law enforcement authorities of the public prosecutor's office, as well as in Brandenburg and Thuringia, are now considering pressing charges against members of the Last Generation with the accusation of forming a criminal organization. [ 1] In this context, at the end of May 2023, searches and seizures of bank accounts, blocking of the homepage, confiscation of computers and data in seven federal states, which in turn triggered protest actions, such as protest marches by supporters, in several cities, were carried out under the direction of the Bavarian public prosecutor's office. At the end of May 2023, a protest march by around 400 supporters of the Last Generation took place in Berlin. The protest was peaceful throughout and letters were handed over to the Chancellery. Two older participants in the rally carried a poster with the inscription “Our children are not criminals”. [2] In this context, it should also be mentioned that the Left Party in Bavaria has filed criminal charges against members of the Bavarian state government and the Bavarian public prosecutor's office. They claim that the website of the Last Generation has been blocked with the accusation of forming a criminal organization. [3]
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In response to an appeal for donations following the raids, 6,000 people spontaneously participated in the campaign and donated €300,000 to the Last Generation organization within two days. [4]
In contrast, 58 percent of the German population consider the raid on the Last Generation to be correct, according to a survey, while 37 percent found the action to be excessive. [5]
Carl-Christian Porsch, an activist with Last Generation, criticized the raids on Last Generation members as follows:
“Police officers were standing in her apartment with guns in the morning. I find that very disproportionate. I don't understand why we are being criminalized. We are only standing up for the planet. Others who are burning our future are getting off scot-free.” [6]
On the question of criminal proceedings against climate protests
In my opinion, the accusation of a criminal or even terrorist organization represents an escalation of the conflict that is highly problematic. Predominantly younger people, whose future is obviously threatened, are trying to draw attention to the climate catastrophe with still peaceful means and the negation of violence. They are possibly being classified as terrorists and persecuted by those who, guided by their own interests, are not taking the necessary measures against it. Isn't it rather the terrorism of the environmental destruction of the generations that are currently in power and acting in a generation-selfish way? Shouldn't fossil fuel companies, environmentally destructive states and institutions, war weapons producing companies and arms supplying companies that are leading to hegemonic wars be brought to justice? Isn't this a reversal of the circumstances – the victims are being persecuted, while the real perpetrators are presenting themselves as moral in talk shows when they abuse constitutional structures for the destruction of the biosphere.
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Furthermore, it is certainly not far-fetched to consider the call for constitutional rigor against the Last Generation, especially from the Bavarian state government and in particular from Bavarian Prime Minister Söder, in the context of the state elections taking place on October 8, 2023. It would be another constitutional scandal if governing politicians were to seek to win votes with demands that have more of a populist connotation at the expense of appropriately classifying actions by young people that are illegal but also geared towards a higher, perfectly justifiable goal.
It is certainly debatable whether supporters for the ecological cause can be won through massive traffic disruptions and the associated burdens for road users. But isn't the state overstepping the mark when it equates administrative and criminal offenses, such as the peaceful blocking of a road committed in the interest of future generations as a form of political protest, with the activities of a criminal organization? Sociologist and right-wing extremism researcher Matthias Quent notes that the members of the Last Generation are “conspicuously peaceful” and would not even defend themselves if they were physically attacked and beaten by angry motorists.
Furthermore, the traffic blockades are not so far removed from the strike measures of individual railway unions or pilots - without wanting to equate them. On the one hand, it is about the legally guaranteed right to strike. On the other hand, traffic blockades are used here with the deliberate coercion of passengers, among other things, to increase the likelihood of their own material remuneration, while the Last Generation is not blocking traffic for higher wages of its own, but is carrying out its equally peaceful actions in the legitimate interest of its and future generations in preserving the planet.
State governments, such as in Bavaria, are also suspected of wanting to distract from their own neglect of climate protection by using excessive severity against climate protectors. Bavaria is lagging behind in the current construction of wind turbines. In the first quarter of 2023 (as of mid-March), for example, not a single wind turbine has been approved there. In the same period, 20 permits had already been issued in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is half the size of Bavaria. At the same time, Bavaria is increasingly returning to coal and gas, and the state government is calling for the continued operation of nuclear power plants. [7]
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Desired radicalization?
And: If the attempt to classify the Last Generation as a criminal or even terrorist organization and to severely criminalize its members and supporters were to succeed, would not some of the members – thus criminalized – go underground and actually begin to commit acts of environmental terrorism? In this case, the state would have created its own eco-terrorist organization by overreacting under criminal law. In this sense, Quent formulates:
“Social movements often radicalize when they feel isolated and forced underground. Raids of this kind can lead to clandestine actions being carried out in the future. It is quite possible that criminalization within the climate movement can lead to radicalization and that this is also in the interest of its political opponents.” [8]
This could be an attempt by interested parties to set an example that would also have an intimidating effect on climate movements such as Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion. It should be borne in mind that such an effect may already be occurring, considering that in Bavaria, for example, participating in glueing actions can already lead to 30 days of preventive custody in prison before a proper indictment or even a proper trial takes place.
Legal scholar Robin Mayer also considers the state measures and the accusation of a criminal organization to be completely exaggerated and, above all, to contradict constitutional rulings:
“The Federal Constitutional Court has confirmed that blockades are a permissible form of demonstration and behavior protected by the freedom of assembly. This is true even if the blockade is intentional and not just an incidental consequence. It is not for the state to deter people from this protected behavior by repressing it, by evaluating it as an end in itself to commit crimes. The exercise of a fundamental right cannot at the same time constitute a criminal offence. It remains the case that criminal law is completely unsuitable as a response to civil disobedience.” [9]
Here, the state comes under justified suspicion of delegitimizing itself when it reacts in a contradictory and disproportionately harsh manner under the rule of law and accuses the Last Generation of forming a criminal organization and then fetches members out of their beds at night at gunpoint. This overly harsh reaction may be politically opportune and bring in votes. But the political damage is great, without this being necessary in the context of a political order with a democratic claim.
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Perspectives for a solution
Would it not be much more correct – instead of criminalizing civil society climate protests – to respond reasonably to the protests and concerns of the Last Generation and to talk to their members and spokesmen repeatedly and at eye level and to seek common ways out of the climate catastrophe that is occurring? The young people who organize and get involved in civil society there are willing to talk and have specific ecological demands. In an open letter to the German Chancellor, they demand, for example, a – randomly selected – social council in the direct-democratic sense, which would discuss appropriate measures against the climate catastrophe and environmental destruction. They would then end their protest. [10] They also demand more decisive measures to reduce greenhouse gases and to transform transportation, such as a speed limit or a 9-euro train ticket. A few billion less for the purchase of weapons could certainly finance this.
On their homepage, which has since been reactivated, the Last Generation writes:
“The government has written in the coalition agreement: 'We will set up and organize citizens' assemblies on specific issues through the Bundestag.' We take them at their word, because examples from France, Ireland and Belgium show that the format unites people in their efforts and produces constructive approaches.
We call on the federal government to establish a societal council and implement its decisions. We demand that we, the 99 percent, finally be allowed to have a say in preserving our livelihoods. Because it has been shown: wherever citizens are informed and allowed to have a say in their fate, a better, safer, fairer world awaits us.” [11]
Perhaps we should listen to them for once and then, if necessary, correct state, economic and also individual behavior that destroys the biosphere of this planet and the living conditions of future generations. After all, in a representative survey conducted by Infratest dimap in 2022, 82 percent of the German population believed that there was a great or even very great need for action with regard to climate protection. Only 4 percent were of the opinion that the previous climate protection activities did not need to be changed. [12]
The call for the protection of climate activists following the raids on the Last Generation by the UN is also worth considering. Antonio Gutèrres had his spokesperson say that climate protectors must, on the one hand, comply with state laws, but on the other hand, they must also be protected. According to the spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General:
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“Climate activists, led by the moral voice of young people, have continued to pursue their goals even in the darkest days. They must be protected and we need them now more than ever.” [13]
Gesa Lindemann, a professor of sociology, categorizes the activities of Letzten Generation and Ende Gelände as a legitimate attempt by young people to fight for their future against ecological violence that is structurally anchored. She argues that the massive persecution of the Last Generation is an entirely disproportionate state reaction, which stands in opposition to the BVerG ruling denouncing the German government's ecological refusal to act and thus represents a reversal of the roles of perpetrator and victim:
“The actions of Last Generation or Ende Gelände do nothing more than remind German politicians that the Federal Constitutional Court obliges them to confront ecological violence at home and in international politics. These activists are not only fighting for climate protection, but also, in fact, for the protection of the constitution. Only by effectively combating ecological violence can the modern constitutional order of trust in nonviolence be preserved.” [14]
It therefore calls for civil society resistance within the nation state against such reversals of perpetrator and victim and illegitimate state attacks, and the associated attempt to mobilize it internationally against all forms of ecological violence.
Meanwhile (as of 2024), Last Generation has changed its agenda. Due to the increasing criminalization and prosecution resulting from the climate glue actions, the organization wants to draw attention to the climate situation and the insufficient measures taken by politicians in the future through other forms of civil disobedience. On X, Last Generation posted the new agenda: [15]
“Dissent meetings instead of glueing and road blockades;
protests at sites of destruction, direct confrontations with politicians”
At the beginning of 2025, this development went even further: the organization 'Last Generation' now also renamed itself 'New Generation'. Furthermore, in addition to climate and environmental policy, the NGO now also mentioned the safeguarding and further development of democracy as a second focus. They also want to convene randomly assembled citizens' assemblies (a “parliament of the people”), initially on the meadow in front of the German Bundestag. [16]
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Notes Chapter 1.5.2.4:
[1] https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/letzte-generation-umfrage-kriminelle-vereinigung-100.html, May 25, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[2] https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2023-06/klimaschutzbewegung-letzte-generation-demonstriert-in-mehreren-staedten?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F, 1.6.2023, 1.6.2023.
[3] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/letzte-generation-anzeige-razzia-soeder-linke-1.5892616, 31.5.2023, 1.6.2023.
[4] https://www.telepolis.de/features/Letzte-Generation-Mehrheit-findet-Razzien-richtig-9092956.html, May 31, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[5] https://www.telepolis.de/features/Letzte-Generation-Mehrheit-findet-Razzien-richtig-9092956.html, May 31, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[6] From an interview in the Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA), June 3, 2023, p. 7.
[7] Cf. https://www.erneuerbareenergien.de/technologie/onshore-wind/2023-noch-keine-einzige-genehmigung-fuer-neue-windturbine-bayern, March 17, 2023, June 3, 2023.
[8] https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/letzte-generation-razzia-radikalisierung-soziologe-quent-100.html, May 24, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[9] https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/letzte-generation-die-friedlichen-kriminellen, undated, 1.6.2023.
[10] https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/klimaschutzgruppe-letzte-generation-demonstrationen-klima-100.html, May 31, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[11] https://letztegeneration.org/erklaerung/, undated, June 5, 2023.
[12] https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1252503/umfrage/umfrage-zum-handlungsbedarf-im-klimaschutz/, 5.5.2023, 1.6.2023.
[13] https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-05/razzia-klimaschuetzer-un-schutz-antonio-guterres#:~:text=Die%20Welt%20brauche%20Klimasch%C3%BCtzer%20mehr,Er%20forderte%20friedlichen%20Protest, May 26, 2023, June 1, 2023.
[14] Gesa Lindemann: Ecological violence has long been claiming its victims. In: https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2022-11/klimawandel-oekologische-gewalt-aktivismus-klimaschutz, November 11, 2022, p.8.
[15] https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/letzte-generation-klimakleber-wollen-nicht-mehr-kleben-a-2bd07ac8-52a6-4f00-abca-207a5c63d530, 29.1.2024, 2.4.2024.
[16] Cf. on this: TAZ, https://taz.de/Letzte-Generation-wechselt-Namen/!6072432/, 27.2.2025, 28.2.2025.
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1.6 Cultural Crises
1.6.1 Culture and art in Capitalism
The concept of culture
Etymologically, the term 'culture' can be derived from Latin (colere = to cultivate). The 'Cultura' derived from this refers to the maintenanceof an agricultural area and livestock. Ultimately, this term therefore refers to that what distinguishes humans from animals in their maintenance of life and social interaction with nature. Culture refers to the human beings becoming a part of society, to production and reproduction. Even today, one speaks of the cultivation of a natural area meaning, for example, the removal of stones and the tearing out of roots so that agriculture becomes possible there. It was not until the 17th century that the concept of culture changed. 'Cultura animi' then also meant "education for social life, knowledge of the liberal arts, and a decent life." [1]
Already this change of meaning shows the ambiguity of the concept of culture, which then leads to a distinction between a narrow and a broad concept of culture.
Culture in a broader sense refers not only to the classical segment, such as theater, music and fine arts, but includes all social achievements that past, present and future generations produce. In addition to art, this includes language, all sciences, pedagogy and didactics, religions, professional skills and abilities in various occupational fields, technological development, the ways of conflict resolution, the use of natural resources, the fair distribution of social wealth, but also digital communication and use of artificial intelligence (AI).
What nature produces on its own is not to be understood as culture. Culture arises only through human access to nature in an attempt to survive better and better (extended understanding of culture) and to shape it artistically (narrow understanding of culture).
Human cultural access to nature has long since reached its limit. Two tendencies in particular lead to humans interaction with nature, which destroys the prerequisites for human life on earth. On the one hand, it is the greedy extractive access of humans to natural resources and, on the other hand, the simultaneous multiplication of the human species. The combination of largely unrestrained capitalist valorization of nature and growing population pressure overwhelms the resilience of the planet and is endangering or already destroying the future opportunities of the next generations.
Therefore, the central question is how to achieve a cultural reversal in production and reproduction that protects future generations from the extrahistic culture of the present generations.
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Based on a critical analysis, this book attempts to provide numerous answers to the question of a new preventive and healing culture of protecting future generations from the generational egoism of presently living people.
We are in a serious cultural crisis, which, due to the characteristics of a private economic system that values nature in money in order to exploit it, is increasingly moving towards a global situation that can no longer be controlled in terms of life as we know it.
At the same time, the way in which conflicts are carried out in a cultural crisis and economic and political interests are increasingly being enforced with the help of military solutions, which further intensifies the existing ecological crisis and the unequal distribution of social wealth.
This are the central aspects of the cultural crisis of humanity, a crises that must be solved through cooperation between peoples and through civil society commitment of billions of people. The role of the United Nations in connection with social movements and organizations is dealt with in detail in chapter 5 of this book.
In the following, some aspects of the narrower cultural understanding will be pointed out:
Social preconditions of culture as art
Culture in a narrower sense is subject to pressure to adapt to average public taste in a society in which cultural achievements are subject to a profitability requirement. If cultural performances in the classical cultural segment of theater and film, concerts, poetry and writing, music, dance and movement culture as well as visual arts can only secure the livelihood for the artists when their performance becomes a commodity and it is financially exploitable, this kind of culture has its systemic limits. In capitalism art is only recognized when it can achieve the highest possible price as a commodity. Art also becomes an investment and speculative object on the art market. Paintings that reach prices of over 100 million euros or dollars are an expression of this cultural rottenness towards cultural decay.
In 1944, Horkheimer/Adorno developed a radical critique of the culture and entertainment industry, some elements of which are still relevant today. They address the cultural offer and the connection between work and leisure, between production and psychologicalreproduction. Culture in late capitalism had the function to promote withstanding the alienation of work processes in order to enable exposing oneself again the next day - distracted and recovered – to work structures characterized by exploitation.
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Culture in the sense of a narrow concept is submitted to the character of a commodity and to the compulsion to exploit qualifications and competencies in a capitalist manner.
The 'free artist' in this sense does not exist, since all those who want to make a living from art must find customers and successfully sell their qualifications. In this respect, cultural competence is subject to the structures and constraints that now apply in a largely neoliberalized society. Thus, the term 'free art' is an ideological construction for capitalist conditions.
Culture is also subject to a partly obvious, partly subtle uniformization - according to Horkheimer Adorno (1944/ 1996, 148):
„Because of his ubiquity [2], the film star with whom one is meant to fall in love is from the outset a copy of himself. Every tenor voice comes to sound like a Caruso record, and the “natural” faces of Texas girls are like the successful models by whom Hollywood has typecast them. The mechanical reproduction of beauty, which reactionary cultural fanaticism wholeheartedly serves in its methodical idolisation of individuality, leaves no room for that unconscious idolatry [3] which was once essential to beauty.“
As plausible as some of Horkheimer/Adorno's statements still seem today, others are very stereotyped. The characteristics and variability of art and culture depend on the very different political constitution of societies - even if all societies were subject to the comparable (capitalist) economic system.
The freer and more democratic a society is, the greater is the scope for content for the performing arts. Innovative and society-changing impulses set by artists such as actors, singers, painters, dancers or poets can unfold especially in historical phases in which the systemic grip on culture loosens or the impact is weakened. This is especially the case in times of structural upheavals in a social system, which can then be supported by cultural innovations. Sometimes the cultural awakening also runs ahead of the upheavals in the economy and politics and thus offers an important contribution to social change.
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The aesthetic approach of the Düsseldorf artist Joseph Beuys, who emphasized and realized the revolutionary and reality-changing power of art, can be seen as an example of this. He left his mark on the term 'social sculpture' in art and tried to implement or view social transformation as art through his projects. His Kassel space-time sculpture '7000 Eichen - Stadtverwaldung statt Stadtverwaltung' (7000 oaks - city forestation instead of city administration) is an ideal example of this approach. [4] His team and he changed the cityscape and also its ecology by planting 7000 trees paired with a basalt block in the city of Kassel on the occasion of the documenta exhibition 1982. But also the public remelting of a gold cast copy of the crown worn by Czar Ivan the Terrible into a peace hare was part of these aesthetic actions that were aimed to intervene in social and political life. He sold his works of art expensively, exploiting the art market to finance further projects and social sculptures.
Thus, future social changes often appear years or even decades in advance in artistic performances or in literature that critically examine social conditions and anticipates social developments. For instance, the 'Organ of critical arts' writes on its website:
"We understand art as a plow for cultivating the socio-political field in the sense of a civil, autonomous society, against reactionary tendencies such as racism, militarism, sexism, dogmas and fascism and all their inhumane forms of expressions!" [5]
Authoritarian systems have recognized the power of culture to shape and change society and are trying to ban critical approaches to art and to establish and subsidize ideological art that serves the stabilization of the authoritarian regime. This means the decline of the cultural substance of art. Art critical of the system is then persecuted as 'degenerate' or 'bad'. Artists are imprisoned, tortured and sometimes murdered. This was the case in the Nazi 'Third Empire', as well as in Stalinism, and in Chile, when the military carried out the coup with CIA support. After his arrest by the fascist Chilean military, the singer and poet Viktor Jara had his fingernails torn out by his torturers, his fingers were broken and he was forced to play the guitar shortly before his subsequent murder.
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Culture and art in times of pandemic crisis
Here it will be discussed how society has treated art and culture during the Corona pandemic.
Certainly, sensible restrictions for live events by artists result from the viral danger of the pandemic. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that culture in the narrower sense - art - does not seem to be relevant to the system. State support for artists was low and extremely slow, wherever it is granted at all, in the course of cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. Numerous art related livelihoods and activities have been disproportionately restricted or even destroyed.
In times of pandemic crisis, art, as acting, musical performance, cabaret or the display of visual art, seemed to be dispensable if it requires presence. It was blocked across the board in the course of pandemic precautionary measures, without looking for and allowing alternative live performances, such as outdoor concerts in compliance with hygiene rules. Artists were furthermore declared to be a rather superfluous and marginalized group, dependent on handouts from society, e.g. family allowances.
Here, the pandemic also highlighted the social interaction with art, as in other areas, where there were deficiencies in the list of priorities of the society. While automobile production, for example, could continue undisturbed, art related events requiring physical presence of the audience - including outdoor activities - were rigorously banned.
The so-called 'social media'
Digital media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and online magazines such as 'Telepolis', 'Rubikon', NachDenkseiten' or 'Der Freitag', offer an insight into the level of cultural exchange existing in society. On the one hand, it is now possible to enter into communication on central issues of cultural development, both internally and internationally, for example to exchange ideas and discuss possibilities for social realignment. This cultural and political potential of digital media should not be underestimated. On the other hand, digital media also offer access to communication for people who lie, discriminate, manipulate, bully and threaten.
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In particular, the possibility of anonymity reveals the true face and, from an ethical point of view, the still underdeveloped psychological and social condition of part of humanity. If certain groups of people can express themselves publicly without having to expect to be identified, they lose all respect, all esteem for the communication partner and for society.
The Internet thus has negative and positive effects at the same time. Appropriate rules and sanctions must ensure that communication is humane and ethically acceptable in order for the positive sides to dominate. This is a difficult balancing act between freedom of the press and the media and necessary regulation.
But when the Internet is used by state persecutors in weak democracies or autocracies and dictatorships to oppress opposition forces, this tool becomes part of a repressive system. This is revealed when people who, for example on Facebook, liken or comment positively a critical remark referring to the authoritarian regime in Turkey, are arrested already at the airport during their next visit to their Turkish homeland, imprisoned without a due process of law and exposed to suspicion of terrorism. So-called IMSI catchers also ensure that the police in such states can identify participants in (legitimate and absolutely peaceful) demonstrations and filter out their data. The arrest then takes place the next day.
The installation of vulnerabilities in software and the possibility of targeted hacker attacks also serve to suppress a cultural development in repressive societies that would like to achieve more democracy and more freedom. In these cases, digital media reinforce the cultural crisis of the society and is used by the police state as an oppressive tool.
The most negative example is provided by the People's Republic of China, that tries to spy on its 1.4 billion-strong population via a comprehensive digitally anchored 'social-credit-system'. Millions of digital cameras equipped with facial recognition and artificial intelligence identify people, rate them, and cause positive and negative sanctions on human behavior. This leads to a culture of fearfulness and conformist behavior.
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The generation of fear via movies and video games
The culture of a modern society includes the quality of audiovisual media and the social interaction with it. A society with a peace-oriented culture will want to cope without films and video games that glorify violence. However, the cultural crisis in society is currently reflected in exactly the opposite trend: films, 'streamed' series and video games are becoming increasingly violent. The killing and torturing of people is shown in ever more detailed and extensive manners, violent conflict resolution - even by heroic figures portrayed as positive - is presented as a legitimate and even glorifiable way of advocating social interests. The most brutal scenes are provided with appropriately threatening music that reaches the human brain directly without any possibility to reject it. Violent means to destroy human beings in combination with threatening music, sometimes also sub-consciously applied, on the one hand make especially young people insensitive to the use of violence, on the other hand they increase the fear potential in humans. Both - the insensitivity and the latent fear - lead to an inclination amongst people to violent conflict solutions. The inhibition threshold to violence becomes lower, and fear or lack of sensitivity can lead to the use of violent means.
Especially the heroic war films reduce peacefulness among peoples, also in their modern versions, in which the actors, in their commitment to supposedly better social values and systems, disregard international law in wars against 'villains and rogue states' and also accept civilian collateral damage for the good cause. Villains are often characterized by people with Russian, Eastern European or Arabic accents. Such films are based on the image of a better (Western) human being and a negative (un)human being from another culture. The viewers are trained to embrace enemy images, which are the psychological prerequisite for waging war against other nations and cultural groups. [6]
Furthermore, the consequences of young people participating in virtual reality games and not living a larger part of their time under the conditions and limitations of real action sequences are unforeseeable. Spending time in a virtual reality generates more intense impressions and feelings than is the case with usual movies and video games. What does this do to a person that regularly kills and rapes in virtual reality? Is normative restraint still at all possible in real life when virtual reality enables the experience of unbounded behavior? [7]
What influence do films glorifying violence and spending time in violent virtual realities have on young people who turn up shooting wildly as assassins in schools and stores, murdering or seriously injuring people?
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1.6.2 The cultural problem of churches and religions
According to historically mediated construction, religions are elaborated cultural ways of trying to percieve and interprete the world in an attempt to create a sense of security in dealing with the dangers of life.
What cultural contribution can religions currently make to solving crises, such as the ecological crisis, the crisis of democracies or the crisis of conflict culture secured by international law, exacerbated by the neoliberalization of capitalist system structures?
In the course of cultural crises, which are associated with the loss of traditional identifications and with considerable identity insecurity, many people tend to submit to political and religious ideologies that simplify social conditions. This takes place through political extremism, but also through religious movements that offer a social gathering place, a spiritual logic of identification and subordination to a religious authority.
However, a distinction must be made here between ethics, philosophy and religion.
Religions are characterized by the fact that they are fixed on a one god or several gods with whom the follower of a religion is in direct conversation or who is/are worshipped by him. Religious practices are offered in a ritualized manner in an institutional context that usually makes itself independent and exploits the inner control of people's thoughts and feelings for the benefit of the religious institution in terms of accumulation of social power and wealth.
Religions in connection with political and economic power have hindered the spread of enlightened knowledge and thinking in all regions of the world. Religious devotion to a supernatural power, whose representatives on earth, be it in the history of mankind popes, imams, tennos, emperors or kings, who declare the entry into war as a 'sacred duty', can hardly be reached by rational argumentation. Wars of all kind were blessed and legitimized by the respective representatives of the religions. Even the same God was prayed to for protection on both sides of the warring opponents. People marched to their deaths in the name of the same God or Allah, dropped bombs on civilian populations, used poison gas and mines, blew themselves up or killed in symmetrical and asymmetrical warfare.
The characterization of the various directions of Christianity, Islam, Shintoism, Judaism or Hinduism as religions is possible without difficulty, since God, gods or the divine are at the center of the faith. The idea of enlightenment, which strives for the self-confident and mature human being who can think and act independently without the guidance of another transcendent authority, stands against the religious presumption that man is unfree and fundamentally in sin, subject to a god or gods, and obligated to obey ecclesiastical institutions.
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The 14th Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, born Lhamo Dhondrub, relentlessly criticizes the role of religions historically and globally:
"For millennia, violence has been used and justified in the name of religions. Religions were and are often intolerant. In order to push through political or economic interests, religion is often misused or instrumentalized - even by religious leaders. That's why I say that in the 21st century we need a new ethics beyond all religions." [8]
Jiddu Krishnamurti, originally established as a religious leader and world savior by the Theosophical Society, consciously distanced himself from all religions, religious hierarchies and religious leaders in his third decade of life. Religious leaders and institutions were obstacles on the way to self-knowledge. Only an unprejudiced view leads to inner development, which cannot be separated from the outer - so Krishnamurti (1972/1995, 52):
„To go inward very deeply, the outer must also be understood. The more you understand the outer - not merely the fact of the distance between here and the moon, technological knowledge, but the outward movements of society, of nations, the wars, the hate that there is - when you understand the outer then you can go very deeply inwardly and that inward depth has no limit. You do not say, `I have reached the end, this is enlightenment.' Enlightenment cannot be given by another; enlightenment comes when there is the understanding of confusion; and to understand confusion one must look at it.“
The traditional religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, Judaism, Shintoism, as well as Protestantism, have already been adequately analyzed and critically evaluated in terms of their anti-Enlightenment content and their claims to power and ideologies.[9]
On the role and crisis of religious institutions
The monotheistic grip on reality has promoted the development of powerful social institutions in almost all cultures. This led to a competition for the sovereignty of cultural interpretation between the various churches and religious cultures, which was rather a hindrance to world peace. Examples of religiously based violent cultural conflicts in the past that continue into the present: Christian Crusades and slaughter and subjugation of Muslim populations, the persecution, torture and murder of women with healing powers (“burning of witches”) by inquisitorial church representatives, brutally waged Muslim wars of conquest, the religiously connoted 30 Years War, the murderous confrontation between Hindus and Muslims in India that led to the creation of two separate states, the misanthropic system of IS, terrorist Islamist attacks, the annihilation of the Muslim Rohingyas by Buddhist rulers in Myanmar ...
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In the past, also Christian churches have generally given their blessing to wars in their amalgamation of warring states and national-church organization - from church leaders to military chaplains.
The low point was the Pope's non-intervention agreement with Hitler, followed by the Catholic Church's escape assistenz for leading Nazis after World War II ('rat line'). [10]
But one must be careful not to subject all church groups and initiatives to this ruthless criticism. One would not do justice to many committed church members who work for social change - often against the resistance of their churches.
The originally Catholic, now ecumenically oriented movement 'Pax Christi', for example, occupies a certain exceptional position here. Although it is still committed to the church and a monotheistic image of God, it nevertheless, despite these preconditions, after World War 2 found its way to peacemaking activities and acriticismof the social foundations of war. In 2017, however, 'Pax Christi' was denied eligibility for funding by the Association of Dioceses of Germany, which means that the subsidy from church tax funds are no longer applying. [11] It is also questionable whether many of the people who are undoubtedly committed to peace policy in 'Pax Christi' could not work more effectively in other contexts of the peace movement - and without the conflicts with the church - and would be more appreciated there.
Also the peace policy initiative of the Protestant church 'Rethinking Security' has another exceptional position. Here, security is not equated with rearmament and military engagement. The focus is on a UN-coordinated new security order, through which wars should be prevented as far as possible and peace should be secured or established with the help of political diplomacy, civil society engagement and world police operations. [12]
Despite these positive approaches originating from church movements, the misuse of (primarily male) power and the sexual assaults as well as the cover-ups in the church context must above all be considered. This concerns, for example, both Christian churches worldwide. But it can also be found, for example, among the predominantly Buddhist soldiers in Myanmar who use rape of female Rohingyas as a weapon, or in the case of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq who that abusing the name of Allah killed or enslaved people.
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It is however, completely wrong and morally unjustified to place the majority of Muslims under a general suspicion of terrorism. Behind this is the attempt by nationalist and racist political groups to trigger people against another population group in the sense of group-related misanthropy [13] in order to win them over for their own right-wing populist or even right-wing extremist goals. However, the Islamist calls by various groups and organizations in the present and past for 'holy war' and the associated striving for hegemony are certainly not an expression of peaceableness and tolerance, but an attempt to recruit activists for a warlike conflict the war motivation of which can be steered in the desired direction via religious domination to the point of self-sacrifice. Behind this - in addition to cultural prejudices - are ultimately political power interests and economic interests in the context of conflicts in the struggle for sources of raw materials, sales markets and population groups to be taxed or exploited. Devotion to a religion is exploited on the basis of ruthless calculation by profiting groups and individuals.
The cultural significance of philosophies for a social reorganization
Philosophies are cognitive systems, cultural achievements that relate to the analysis and interpretation of the world and thereby focus on the question of the meaning of life. In order to distinguish between philosophies and religions, as said, the existence and the use of a concept of God should be considered. For religions it is essential that religious people see themselves in a man and god relationship. Humans worship a god or gods with the aim of becoming immortal, at least as a soul. A superior almighty divinity and the promise of a paradise or eternal life in culturally different forms - from reincarnation to communion with God after death represents the essence of every religion.
Philosophies go beyond this narrow cultural construction of transcendence, which was ultimately born out of insecurity in regard to worldly dangers, incomprehension of natural phenomena, and fear of one's own death. In contrast the Greek philosophy of Socrates, of his disciple Plato and of his disciple Aristotle offers more profound reflections on the perception and interpretation of reality, allowing multiple interpretations of the meaning of life.
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Plato's famous allegory of the cave alone, visualized thousands of years before our philosophical culture, provides us with the central foundations of the constructivist philosophy of today. In an ingeniously conceived example, Plato makes clear how people put on cultural chains in their perception of the world, which give them security and with which they ultimately identify themselves. They have learned that their narrowed and tailored perception of the world is the real world. They feel comfortable and safe in this cave, chained and motionless they are looking at the shadows of the figures passing by behind them illuminated by a fire on the opposite wall. They mistake the passing shadows for reality itself. The situation then becomes dangerous for those who want to free themselves from the chains in order to step out of the cave of cultural darkness and to communicate their new experiences and knowledge to the culturally chained so that they can free them from their inner chains.
Ancient philosophy was essential for thinking in the western cultural area, especially for the cultural achievement of the Enlightenment. It is a source of knowledge that should again be in the focus of school education, since it offers opportunities for cultural self-reflexivity and the shaping of a reflective identity.
In the course of a social realignment, it would therefore be desirable if the traditional religions were replaced in favor of philosophical self-reflexivity, since only here can a cultural empowerment be seen that allows people to become independent of superior powers that are easily misused by institutions in the society. This independence and autonomy from inner chains and submission to divine authority is the prerequisite for the cultural liberation of humanity, which can lead to a fundamental social reorganization.
In addition to the reference to the achievements of the Greek ancient philosophy, two philosophies from the Far Eastern cultural area should be mentioned and from which also the Western philosophy can learn: Daoism (namely Daoism in its highly cultural form as in Laodse (Lao Tzu), Dschuangdse (Chuang Tzu) or Liädse (Liezi) and the Zen Buddhist form of Buddhism - not to be confused with the main currents of religious Buddhism. Concerning Daoism and Zen Buddhism one can no longer speak of religious currents, since their foundation is predominantly philosophical, and in their philosophical heyday in the 7th/6th century B.C.E. they were created to get along without an image of God, a god or several gods and a promise of an afterlife. [14] At the center of their spiritual intention is the maturation of the human being to mindfulness, awareness and peacefulness - an educational process, which in turn should not only be understood individualistically, but also lead back into the human community. [15]
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Therefore, at least these two traditional and philosophical world views in their pure form are significant for a culture of conscious peacefulness, which means a cultural reorientation in the West, and in Asia a cultural return to its own philosophical heritage - without immediately submitting again to a spiritual superfather and his worldly representative and surrendering to correspondingly repressive social structures.
Substitutes for religion in monetarily oriented spiritual movements
Now it is instructive to look at various social movements or groups that pretend to serve world peace, have a distinctive philosophy, their own practices of consciousness and publicly accessible ethics.
Here, spiritual movements should be mentioned that have roots in ancient religious systems but are either organizational start-ups and/or attempts to respond to newer social developments. Even if, for example, the Self-Realization Fellowship according to Paramahansa Yogananda is to be evaluated differently than, say the Scientologists, they do have some things in common.
What organizations such as Scientology, the Self-Realization Fellowship or the Baghwan (Osho) movement have in common is that they were conceptually developed and organizationally founded by a spiritual-religious leader who is perceived as charismatic.
In this context, they are hierarchically structured and not democratically organized. As a result, these movements or organizations, at the core of their thinking, come into conflict with the Enlightenment requirement to develop one's own maturity in the sense of inner independence and autonomy of thought. Their followers surrender to spiritual leaders and fall into an inner dependence on them, which in turn blocks free perception and thinking. Therefore, they cannot be expected to make a decisive contribution to social transformation, which is tied to maturity, ability to criticize and capacity for democracy.
In addition, it is often not sufficiently clear in such organizations, as different as they are in terms of individual aspects, to what extent there is a connection between spiritually determined aims and economic motives and where the priorities are actually set. These organizations demand a considerable economic contribution from their members and in some cases they have a large share capital with which they participate in the capitalist economy.
Here parallels become apparent with the traditional churches, which in the past and at present have repeatedly discovered ingenious ways to provide themselves with capital from people, from indulgences trading to the Catholic Church's involvement in the arms industry and, at least indirectly, in the arms exports associated with it. [16]
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In summary, therefore: Although traditional religions and religious organizations as well as the above mentioned spiritual movements and organizations like to claim that they contribute to the peacefulness of their members and thus to world peace, this claim must be critically questioned. In the old religions, their historical role, hierarchical organization and almighty image of God stand in the way of enlightened peacefulness and democratic commitment. In the newer movements mentioned, it is likewise the hierarchical forms of organization, often the dependence on a spiritual leader and the existence of business practices that must be questioned.
This shows an increasing influence of church-orthodox circles on the political 'elites' ruling in the various states. The rise in power of Christian national-chauvinist movements and institutions can be seen in many countries, e.g. the Evangelical churches and many of their members in the USA, who unscrupulously support the right-wing populist ex-president and presidential candidate Donald Trump, or the Russian Orthodox Church, which is calling for a 'holy war' in Ukraine and victory over the West, which has "fallen into Satanism", at its 'World Council of the Russian People' in 2024 (Focus 2024). Orthodox Christians are thus joining the ranks of warmongering Orthodox religious representatives, which already include Orthodox Muslims and Orthodox followers of the Jewish faith.
Universalist ethics instead of religions
If however, religious motives are not in place, what then replaces possible identifications? In this context, the philosopher Friedrich Voßkühler critically asks the question:
"What then, if the 'community-founding' love of God is not accepted, if his power of redemption is no longer valid? What if, as a result, the 'courage' to 'transcend to the needs of others' is lacking? Are love and trust then not enough to save human relations from 'war' and from destroying the future of the earth and our descendants?" [17]
It is difficult for man to endure that the great creation of meaning was not there at the beginning of all being, but that in the search "for the divine eye" the world stared at man " from an empty bottomless socket" (Jean Paul). [18]
A New ethics of a responsible realignment should have such psychological and philosophical attractiveness and charisma that it is suitable for identification based on a free decision - and this after thorough and critical examination. This ethics aiming at a peaceful, ecological, democratic and socially just new order must be as strong and impressive as a religion, but without an image of God, religious leadership, spiritual programming, economic exploitation and inner and outer subjugation.
The fascination of this universal ethics must be acquired through motivation and identification with regard to a socio-political commitment that is oriented towards a meaningful and responsible future in a global context, while at the same time linking present behavior with a positive vision of a human future. Such an ethic gives people who are committed in their minds the strength to independently and networking with one another engage in civil resistance against the destruction of our planet, against increasing social injustice, against the dismantling of democratic structures, and against war mongering powers.
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In light of the destructive mentality of the current human civilization, U.S. journalist and author Roy Scranton (2015, 19) calls for the civilization, not the individuals, of predatory capitalism to learn to die so that humans are liberated to embrace a new attitude toward life. This would require a new philosophically based humanism:
"In order for us to adapt to this strange new world, we're going to need more than scientific reports and military policy. We're going to need new ideas. We're going to need new myths and new stories, a new conceptual understanding of reality, and a new relationship to the deep polyglot traditions of human culture that carbon-based capitalism has vitiated through commodification and assimilation. Over and against capitalism, we will need a new way of thinking our collective existence. We need a new vision of who 'we' are. We need a new humanism - a newly philosophical humanism, undergired by renewed attention to the humanities."
This means a philosophically based ethics, behind which there is a positive and radical vision of human development in an ecological and social context. It is about overcoming the 'Subdue the earth!' in favor of a peaceful, just, democratic and ecological world order.
Monotheistic religions must indeed be endured in the sense of religious tolerance and the necessary freedom of religion, if they do not become aggressive and hostile to people. However, they usually stand in the way of the necessary social transformation and represent past pre-democratic epochs and times of exploitation of nature. Historically, but also from a current perspective, orthodox interpretations of religions are associated with the risk of religious racism, which leads to the devaluation, exclusion, and sometimes even annihilation of people with a different or non-religious or secular orientation.
However, the reflective examination of ancient philosophy, the philosophical achievement of the Enlightenment, e.g. Immanuel Kant up to today's representatives of the critical theory, as well as experiences with thoroughly spiritual transformation practices rooted in traditional cultures, such as Daoism or Zen Buddhism, can be helpful on the civilizing path to overcome the disastrous cultural mentality characterized by egocentrism, greed and desire. Meditating in this case also means being observant in regard to narrowly drawn boundaries of the ego. Enlightenment, secularism and meditation could in this sense complement each other in a meaningful and ethically justifiable manner. [19]
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1.6.3 Cultural upheavals
Growing up in a certain cultural space can be accompanied by the development of cultural identifications and an emergence of values that lead to a rejection of cultural innovations.
Equally, however, this can turn into its opposite if the traditional culture and the values it represents can no longer offer answers to the questions posed by social development.
Cultural perspectives and practices can entail a potential for structural conservatism, for reactionary actions, but also for structural change. Dominant religious cultures, for example, once established, usually aim at structural preservation, while cultures of change, such as in the context of the social upheaval of 1968/69 in the Western industrialized countries or in the democratic milieus of the 'Arab Spring', carried strong tendencies toward structural change. Many cultural achievements with an art connection, and which can be considered socio-critical, often have a tendency to change if they have a creative core, which is defined by the generation and development of new and original ideas. If creativity is combined with innovation, social change occurs when this connection opens up identifications, value systems that create meaning, and also existential advantages and perspectives. However, cultural upheavals that involve, for example, a transformation from material to post-material values or from religiously determined to secular values only become effective if they can reach or engage the social mainstream or significant parts of openly available opinion-leading, often also ruling circles.
The concepts of culture and society should not be seen as something rigid and fixed, but rather as being in constant motion. Cultural transfers - as intra- and intercultural transfers - ensure the liquefaction of solidified social structures and, of course, in their interaction, represent a threat to structurally conservative social forces, which rather insist on the existence of a native leading culture and want to 'protect' it from 'foreign cultural' influences.
Cultural transfers take place at all historical times, but cyclicals and epochs can be distinguished. Only through such transfers can history become European (or even global). Parts or accumulations of these transfers can be understood as a transcultural history of Europe and, more in the sense of a conclusion, as Europeanization. The units of transfer can be concretely defined as Kultureme and Struktureme. In many cases, a wide variety of cultural references are available, making concrete transfers easier and more efficient. Through cultural transfers, new coherences continuously emerge, which in certain cases connect wide-ranging – forming macrocoherences or clusters of coherences, as they are found in the context of the processes called Europeanization. But these coherences can just as well remain locally limited without leading to further "infections" (contagions). Cultural transfer research makes the moments of the rigid, the linearly limited, the strictly systemic permeable and the hybrid and the composite of any cultural phenomenon visible. (Schmale 2012)
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The task of a cultural transfer, for example via schools, is not only an existential task for a society, but also has a fundamental importance for the orientation of the individual in a society - Fend (2008) again describes this impressively with reference to the aspect of enculturation:
"The main task of the school is to ensure that adolescents do not remain strangers in their culture, that they are 'at home' in it.
The piled-up treasure of knowledge detained in a system of symbols, and of skills and cultural products is dependent on resubjectification, on decoding and being enlivened in the new generation. Anyone who has ever stood in an Arabic library not managing decoding has experienced the power of the task of acquiring the code to decrypt the symbolic structures of a culture that have emerged over centuries."
(Fend 2008, 48)
However, the resubjectivization of culture is only one perspective on the necessary transfer of central cultural systems (Kultureme) in a society or social hemisphere, such as the "West," the "Far East," or the "Arab region": Systems that want to survive in the longer term must have a certain degree of structural conservatism as well as be capable of innovation. This is a matter of reaching the right balance between systemic strength and flexibility. If, for example, democracies want to survive under the conditions of rapidly advancing globalization and the distortions of a constantly changing economization of social conditions, they must change permanently (and also defensibly) without losing their core values based on Enlightenment. This requires structural safeguards, especially orientation toward human rights and constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, as well as the ability of citizens living in democracy to innovate, often triggered by a combination of life-history experiences and institutionalized educational processes.
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Summary of considerations. In a broader sense, culture is to be understood as the totality of social achievements that are essential for human development. In a narrower sense, culture is to be understood primarily as art. Culture in the narrower sense forms a cultural space in which future developments and problem solutions can be anticipated and aesthetically presented. Critical art tries to intervene in social development in order to bring about change. In the same way, on the other hand, art can be misused as state propaganda.
With regard to the culture of communication digital media should be viewed ambivalently. It can serve the totalitarian surveillance of people. It can however also enable communication, consultation and political activism across regional and national borders.
Film and television show phenomena of a cultural crisis when they stimulate collective fear by increasingly focusing on violent scenes and threatening situations that are presented in ever more detail and forcefully in broadcasts and films. Virtual reality games as entertainment art are to be classified as highly problematic because of the danger of psychological manipulation and disinhibition.
Religiosity and church are esentially to be understood as pre-rational cultural phenomena that people fall back on, especially in times of crisis, in order to be able to process with the confrontation with an overwhelming social reality. Despite some ecclesiastical approaches, such as the church initiatives Pax Christi or 'Rethinking Security', obstacles can be seen in the churches and in the religions on the way to an epoch of an extended Enlightenment, oriented toward emancipation, inner liberation and critical ability, but which is only in the process of emerging in the history of ideas. In this process it would be helpful and beneficial if religions more and more would step aside in favor of a universal ethics of responsibility for humans and nature.
The movement towards a social realignment is based on a social cultural capacity that is characterized by critical analysis, independent judgment and self-confident action in a context of solidarity. This also includes a cultural development in the artistic field that is not hindered by repressive state interventions, but which, especially in democracies, can benefit from the state funding of a wide-ranging creative potential.
It is therefore important, for example, to follow closely the discussion about state controls on a code of conduct for the largest international exhibition of modern art, the Documenta, which takes place in Kassel (Küster 2024).
Nevertheless, the cultural integration of the visual and performing arts into the mechanisms of a capitalist art market cannot be overlooked. Therefore, the fixation on the art market as well as on individual art products recognized by the market must be replaced by a democratization of art, which especially sees the creative potential of the individual human being, understands him/her as an artist, as a creative producer of his/her social and aesthetically shapeable world.
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1.7 Mental crises: Enforcement of instrumental rationality, narcisissm and mass neurosis
Already Marx/Engels draw a clear connection between mental structures, ways of thinking and social relations of domination:
"Is it necessary to have profound insight in order to understand that with the living conditions of people, with their social relations, with their social existence, their ideas, views and concepts, in one word also their consciousness, change?
What does the history of ideas prove otherwise than that intellectual production is transformed with material production? The ruling ideas of a time were always just the ideas of the ruling class." [21]
With the developing industrial society - and this is even more true in the digital society - a type of human being is created, which is characterized by a shaped perception of the world, which Horkheimer (1947/1986) characterizes as instrumental reason. The elimination of empathic feelings and the narrowing of thinking oriented to instrumental efficiency means to consider the natural and social world only in regard to how far it is useful for the realization of egoistic interests. Here the yardstick is the effective use of means in order to achieve a purpose, e.g. an appropriate return. All considerations and means used are subordinated to this purpose. Disturbing thoughts and feelings are suppressed, partly pushed into the subconscious.
The application of the rational choice theory in economics shows ideal-typically how this instrumental reason has to function. Possibilities for action are selected and rationally weighed according to the extent to which they offer the optimal possibilities for maximizing utility without the personal costs exceeding the benefits. This is based on the human image, the 'homo oeconomicus', who acts in a self-interested, self-centered manner and suppresses emotionality. Personal benefit is maximized, costs are passed on to others as far as possible. The interpretation of situations and the selective perception of a situation are thus based on which perception offers the greatest benefit. [22] The focus of the 'homo economicus', who acts rationally and decisively in this sense, is personal economic success. He - who can as well be a woman - tries to control social situations in such a way that his own assertion of interests and satisfaction of needs are not endangered. He is primarily competition-oriented, but is also able to cooperate with others if this serves his personal benefit maximization. He can even be empathetic if this serves his interests. At most, he is concerned about social problems only if they jeopardize his return on investment. He is the globalization profiteer whose imperial way of life is ruining the planet. The 'homo oeconomicus' is the prototype of the capitalist socialized human being.
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Marx/Engels already described that in the 19th century the capitalistic system would brutally tear apart all previous relations and ties and produce a certain type of human being. The class that benefits from capitalism primarily economically and politically, the class of capital owners, would dominate people's thinking and:
"…and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, callous 'cash payment'. (…) It has resolved personal worth into exchange value. (...) In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation." [23]
Instrumental thinking has - according to Horkheimer – in the background a subjective concept of reason, i.e. how the single individual can act in an optimized way within the framework of means-end thinking. On the other hand, according to his conceptual distinction, objective concepts of reason are directed towards aims of a culture that are considered valuable. Here the individual behavior is - in contrast to technical-instrumental thinking - oriented towards a way of thinking that understands these goals, considers them critically and, in case of positive acceptance, makes them the guideline for one's own actions. The developed and matured human behaviour is therefore not exclusively reflected in a technical-instrumental understanding of reason, but is above all discerned in a reason that is directed towards the critical and independent considering of the aims of living together and is oriented towards responsibility for thesuperordinate entity.
Max Horkheimer draws the connection between technical development and dehumanization, which has now gained yet another new variant through digitalization and the human-tech hybridity:
“Advance in technical facilities for enlightenment is accompanied by a process of dehumanization. Thus progress threatens to nullify the very goal it is supposed to realize – the idea of humans.” [24]
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Of course, this cannot be a plea against technical progress in general, namely not when it serves the human beings or the human-environment relationship. It is, however, a matter of preventing the human being (and his environment) from being overwhelmedby the human technology he employs, and of criticizing a reason that is not based on critical and theory-guided thinking but rather a submission to a rigorous means-end thinking - according to Horkheimer:
„When the idea of reason was conceived, it was intended to achieve more than the mere regulation of the relation between means and ends: it was regarded as the instrument for understanding the ends, for determining them.“ [25]
Accordingly, an objective reason in the sense meant by Horkheimer is a reason that is purposefully connected to certain values, such as justice, tolerance, and happiness.
Herbert Marcuse refers in this sense to the connection between social structure and individuality. Society is becoming more and more one-dimensional and forms the structures of needs of the individual accordingly. Critical thinking and liberated as well as liberation serving actions are replaced by a psychological subjection to the needs of the society. Such needs are primarily consumption and status needs, the pervasiveness of which would replace brutal subjugation in the sense of subtle social control:
"The people recognise themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment. The very mechanism which ties the individual to his society has changed, and social control is anchored in the new needs which it has produced. (…)
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No wonder then that, in the most advanced areas of this civilization, the social controls have been introjected to the point where even individual protest is affected at its roots. The intellectual and emotional refusal “to go along” appears neurotic and impotent. This is the socio-psychological aspect of the political event that marks the contemporary period: the passing of the historical forces which, at the preceding stage of industrial society, seemed to represent the possibility of new forms of existence.” [26]
If instrumental thinking is combined with authoritarian personality structures, a type of personality emerges which by Theodor W. Adorno et al. is described as the authoritarian personality that bows from the waist up and kicks from the waist down, discriminates against minorities, devalues entire groups of people. [27] This personality type fits in a functional manner into hierarchical structures and is the product of oppression and subjugation in socialization processes in the society as well as corresponding hierarchical structures in politics and economy. Social structures are transformed into character structures and are related to personality processes to be considered psychoanalytically:
"In order to achieve the 'internalization' of social coercion, which always demands more from the individual than it gives in return, the attitude toward authority and its psychological dominance, the superego, assumes an irrational path. The individual can accomplish his own social adaptation only if he finds pleasure in obedience and subordination; the sadomasochistic urge structure is therefore both a condition and a result of social adaptation." [28]
The psychological situation in structures of dominance
The identification with alienation may well also apply to formally democratic societies which for a facade creating purpose declare democracy to be a constitutional principle, but which in reality, e.g., in family structures, companies, schools, or in the party system, represent only covered up authoritarian societies.
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Dieter Duhm shows in his 1972 published 'left bestseller' ('Angst im Kapitalismus'/‘Fear in Capitalism‘) how real fear, which arises from physical violence e.g. in the parental home, transforms into neurotic fear in the course of human socialization. Neuroses are the "conserved real anxiety" (Duhm 1972, 35), in which one's own needs are repressed into the subconscious and neurotically retained there. This, he argues, is a psychological adaptation process, so that humans function by themselves in hierarchical structures and usually can refrain from the use of open violence.
Duhm analyzes almost 50 years later that especially in Corona times the fear dose is increased once again and the global fear potential is increased. And: Corona aggravates the psychological problems of fear, depression and isolation, increases the already existing psychological pressure: "Corona is the condensation of a latent field of fear through which all of humanity is moving today." [29]
Psychologist and cognitive scientist Rainer Mausfeld (2019a) also makes clear that the buildup of latent fear is an effective instrument of power for the rulers at any given time:
"Power and fear belong closely together in the political world of society. Power means the ability to assert one's interests against others and to submit others to one's own will. Power therefore has many advantages for those who have it and many disadvantages for those who are subject to it. In those subject to it power often triggers feelings of being overwhelmed by power and of being powerless to cope with it. Thus, power generates fear. Since fear itself in turn exerts power over the ones in fear, those who know how to create fear have a very effective method of stabilizing and expanding their power in this way."
According to the U.S. psychologist and therapist Arthur Janov (1971/2016), neuroses develop in the phase of life in which a child recognizes that it cannot assert its needs, e.g. of a sexual nature, in society or is negatively sanctioned for this. As a result, the child develops a fear of its own needs, in this case suppressing its needs in favor of a psychological deformation and an adaptive behavior that can be characterized as neurotic. Unfulfilled childhood needs, such as the need for human warmth, the prohibition to touch oneself sexually, or the prohibition to scream when frustrated, are associated with pain and become physically stored as tension. These needs are perceived as threatening, repressed and disruptive. This leads to a split of the personality into an adapted part and a part that has been pushed into the subconscious for fear of its painfulness. If a child suddenly realizes through a key event that it has to adapt to the expectations of its parents or does not receive warmth and recognition from them, then there is a risk of entering into a neurosis as the final point of a previous development. When a child encounters irritable and aggressive parents who force a certain behavior by threat of punishment, a child develops a latent fear of meeting his or her own needs. The child erects an inner barrier against him or herself out of fear for the reawakening of the own needs. In the future, everything that is experienced as threatening, including social changes, is fearfully rejected and repressed in favor of an adapted normality. This learned behavioral pattern then extends into adulthood, creating a obsessive, anxious personality and can also be the cause of physical illnesses. [30]
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With fearful people, it is difficult to build a real democracy in the sense of a society that is free of fear and willing to change. However - according to Mausfeld - a "capitalist democracy" can certainly work under the conditions of a subtly internalized fearfulness of its citizens. Capitalism and democracy would find themselves in a fundamental contradiction and would only function through the neurotic fear of its citizens, who would not dare to raise the question of property, i.e. the question of the abolition of private control over the means of production.[31]
Of course, this also immediately raises the question of whether this is indeed a psychological phenomenon specific only to capitalism. In the real socialist countries, a combination of real anxiety fear as well as neurotic anxiety was also used. The real fear of being arrested, imprisoned, violently interrogated, killed, developed into a latent neurotic anxiety/fear, into a psychological orientation and also there in the direction of a system adaptation.
Fear is a suitable means of securing power for all hierarchical forms of governance, as long as there is no real democracy, i.e. a significant participation in all socially important issues for the majority of society.
With fearful people who themselves strive to build up official authority and to induce fear in the social institutions, it is problematic to build up and further develop a genuine democracy. Moreover, with authoritarian socialized and neurotic personalitiesit is difficult to build a peaceful society and to maintain peace in the world.
In this respect, especially the militarily drilled and nationally entlisted young people in the armies of the world represent a highly problematic potential of authoritarian disciplined personalities and of instrumental reason, who, without expressing any doubts, are used to obey and to carry out orders concerning death or life.
The increase of instrumental and authoritarian socialized people should be seen as a psychological crisis phenomenon. Adorno's analyses of the sexually frustrated authoritarian personality, whose frustration and accumulated urges are reflected in violent eruptions, must also be taken into account.
More recent works by the psychoanalyst Hans-Joachim Maaz on the narcissistic personality and its excessive desire for recognition also make it clear that, in the case of narcissistically disturbed personalities due to deficient experiences in early childhood, – particularly among responsible politicians – there is an attempt to compensate for their actual insecurity with a striving for power and belligerent behavior, even to the point of “belligerence”. Adults with an aggressive emotional blockage, which can be used functionally in the context of preparing for and waging war, would show unresolved conflicts in childhood combined with a corresponding “belligerence disorder” – according to Maaz (2024, 141):
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“The underlying cause is always the psychosocial alienation of early traumatization due to the maternal and paternal relationship disorders described. The associated emotional congestion, when anger, rage and hatred resulting from the threat, rejection, devaluation and insult suffered in the traumatizing or deficient early care cannot or may not be expressed, means a permanent energetic stress and pressure potential that wants to be discharged and seeks social ways of discharge.”
These are certainly important psychoanalytical explanations of aggressive behavior, which, however, need to be expanded to include an even more complex view of the development of belligerence and bellicism. Among other things, it is important to address economic and political interests that lead to a climate of aggressiveness fueled by the media, with associated constructions of enemy images in a society.
Wilhelm Reich: "a highly problematic potential of authoritarian disciplined personalities".
In his speech to the 'little man' in 1948, the Austrian physician, psychoanalyst and sociologist Wilhelm Reich characterized the 'little man' as an authoritarian socialized sick person who will continue to do terrible things until he succeeds to in recognizing and developing himself:
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"You had just come back from overseas, you were a little drunk, and I heard you describe the the Japanese as ‘ugly apes’. And then you said with that certain facial expression… ‘You know what ought to be done with those Japs out on the West Coast’ Every one of them ought to be strung up, not quickly, but slowly, very slowly, another turn of the rope every five minutes, very slowly, this way… Have you ever held a newborn Japanese baby in your arms, Little Patriot? No? For centuries to come, you will string up Japanese spies, American fliers, Russian peasant women, German officers, English anarchists and Greek Communists; you will shoot them, put them on the electric chair or into gas chambers; but nothing of all that will change the constipation of your guts or your mind, your incapacity for love, your rheumatism or your mental illness. No shooting or hanging will pull you out of your morass. Take a look at yourself, Little Man. It is your only hope." [32]
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Narcissism is a mental illness that has only become more common in recent decades. Narcissism is a form of exaggerated and extreme self-love. Of course, a mentally healthy personality should accept itself and be committed to itself. However, there is a limit to unconditional self-acceptance. If this is exceeded, only one's own needs and interests count in an egocentric way. This is associated with the inability to love, to turn to a partner with respectful attachment, to enter into a sustainable relationship over a longer period of time.
Associated with narcissism is the desire for constant affirmation and the constant reflection of the self in the eyes of others. The US DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) lists the following characteristics for narcissistic personality disorder: Omniscient and omnipotent fantasies, sense of entitlement, lack of empathy and envy, easily offended. In order to process insults and regain inner balance, narcissistically disturbed personalities often tend either towards auto-aggressive behavior or aggression towards others (Milch 2009).
According to psychoanalyst Benigna Gerisch, if children do not receive the attention they need from their mother during infancy, this has a traumatic effect on them. They would then run after this attention for the rest of their lives by having to constantly obtain this attention and affirmation as a substitute in the context of secondary narcissism (cf. Hasel 2024).
It becomes dangerous when narcissistic personalities gain power in relationships or in society. Problems and conflicts are not solved responsibly, but primarily out of their own self-centered and affectively influenced needs, without seeing the needs and interests of others. However, narcissistic behavior and disorders on this scale are also an expression of social changes. Whereas in conventional societies the individual has to step back behind society, in post-conventional societies the individualized and marketable personality is the ideal image of social development mediated by socialization processes.
Wilhelm Reich rightly sees the way out in becoming conscious ("look at yourself"). Only when people make themselves the reference point of their own critical thinking, they have the chance to step out of the given normative boundaries and to enter new psychological territory. Structural change and self-work must mutually develop and complement each other.
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Losses, defeats or excessive demands that arise in early childhood or develop in the course of later biography can turn against oneself. Inhibited aggression and unprocessed anger can lead to depression and, among other things, to self-aggression. If people suffer from severe depression due to a combination of deficient and problematic early childhood experiences, biographical defeats and subjectively perceived social hopelessness, then, in addition to a caring and sensitive social environment, only appropriate professional psychotherapeutic care can help to prevent the worst – suicide.
Conclusion: People who psychologically submit to structures oriented towards exploitation, alienation, violence and warmongering through identification processes cannot become the historical subject of a peaceful world and social development. Only people who have learned to discover and develop their human potential can finally become carriers of a social movement aimed at emancipation and peacefulness.
In particular, the neurotic mental structure appears as an obstacle to a real democratization of society, which is more than a pseudo or a facade democracy. Also the instrumental thinking dominating the psyche and the associated habitus of the 'homo oeconomicus', who prioritizesthe egocentric benefit maximization, represent an obstacle to a social reorganization oriented towards solidarity, ecology and the common good. Narcissistic personality disorder is also an obstacle to solidary and responsible behavior. The person who has become depressed, in turn, turns his aggression against himself and falls into a state of listlessness and, in the worst case, self-destruction.
The increasing remilitarization of the world and the return of military discipline and national-chauvinist thinking promoted by the growing national armies and military coalitions are again increasingly shaping the youth of the world. This is - apart from the convinced and the volunteers – related above all, either to state repression, to psychological manipulation or to a lack of prospects in society. Where young people in wealthy societies are free to choose, e.g. in Germany, armies have recruitment problems.
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The military needs authoritarian socialized personalities who willingly submit, the military itself also works in this direction. Individuality and critical abilities are not required in the command situation. The soldier deployment in the military chain of command is forced to give up his individuality and become a cog in the military machine. Soldiers must submit to be degraded to an instrument in the chain of command. They must be prepared to kill, but also to take the risk of being shot, burned or blown up. The price they have to pay for their military existence is high. The consequences of their behavior for others are also deadly.
1.8 The crisis of masculinity
Since Vinnai's book "Das Elend der Männlichkeit" ("The Misery of Masculinity") (1977) as well as the book "Jungen - Kleine Helden in Not - Jungen auf der Suche nach ihrer Männlichkeit." ("Boys - Small Heroes in Need - Boys in search of their masculinity.") (Schnack/Neutzling 1990), Theweleit's two-volume work on Male Fantasies (1977/ 1978) as well as comparable international publications, it has become clear, at least in the middle classes of Western countries, that patriarchal conditions are not only unjust but also dangerous for world peace.
Patriarchal structures are characterized by the influence of authoritarian personalities, adjustment upwards and oppression downwards, masculine aggressiveness, dominance behavior, muscularity, rigidity in thought and feeling, obsessive character structures, and masculine megalomania. This, of course, can apply to both men and women, but for the most part it was the male human beings who led millions of young people to their deaths. For clever women the inhibition threshold was on the average substantially higher to send young men to war since it was the women in former times as a rule, who primarily changed the diapers, fed the children, held them by the hand during their first steps, taught them arithmetic, writing and reading as well as accompanied them into puberty. Since men are now increasingly taking on these tasks in the course of equal rights, it is to be hoped that this inhibiting effect will also occur here. On the other hand, women who have climbed their way up under patriarchal conditions and have been socialized accordingly are often also characterized by male-aggressive dominance behavior. Women who have been socialized accordingly can behave in the same patriarchal, dominant and aggressive way as men do. They then simply adopt the negative aspects of the traditional male role because they have experienced that this has positive connotations in a male-dominated hierarchy.
Also, there are still women in various parts of the world who raise their children to 'serve the fatherland' and in terms of military socialization. Therefore, Wilhelm Reich does not spare the 'little woman' who brings up the 'little man', keeps him away from his needs, makes him psychologically small, so that he becomes useful for society, applicable and dangerous for the world around us – thus addressed to the 'little woman':
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"You had the happiness of humanity in your hands, and you have gambled it away. You have borne Presidents, and have endowed them with pettiness… You had the world in your hands, and at the end you dropped your atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; your son, I mean, dropped them… For you did not have the humanity to warn the men, women and children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You did not manage the greatness to be human. For this reason, you will silently disappear like a stone in the sea. It does not matter what you now think or say, you Little Woman who produced idiotic generals. Five hundred years from now, one will laugh and marvel at you. That one does not do so already is part and parcel of the misery of the world."[35]
In Western countries remnants of patriarchal structures are still present and they must be taken seriously. In some cases they are getting stronger again due to the identity problems especially of uneducated people who do not understand the complex processes of globalization and international relations. Male insecurity and pressure lead to a reduction in the complexity of mental structures and to a relapse into a male role that has long been outdated - authoritarian, incapable of communication and violent, sometimes even right-wing extremist. Images of masculinity of a militant manliness are desired and strengthened in the military, even if one would wish for a little more intelligence here.
In armed conflicts, especially in Africa and Asia, girls and women often become victims of male sexual violence. Targeted mass rapes then become a military means of humiliating and demotivating, the counterpart often in asymmetrical conflicts.
"Memory revives/brings back pain and humiliation: How soldiers rounded up women and girls in order to rape them. How mothers had their clothes ripped off in front of their children and could not protect their daughters from the violence. These and other atrocities were described by Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar's army to Bangladesh.
The brutal act was ordered, organized, and perpetrated by the military, according to the U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten. Border police officers and militias were also involved in crimes such as gang rape and sexual slavery, she said. For this Tuesday, the German government has put the protection of women in conflict on the agenda of the UN Security Council, which Germany currently chairs." [35]
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Patriarchal structures are also still evident in numerous cultures and religions, where massive oppression of women and girls takes place, including gender mutilation, permitted corporal punishment by men and the so-called 'honor killing' of women in traditional Muslim families.
In a critical examination of patriarchy, some women's movements then demand female supremacy, citing supposed historical forms of matriarchy. Heide Göttner-Abendroth, on the other hand, makes it clear that historical and present-day matriarchies were or are characterized by other principles, such as decision-making by consensus and an equal division of labor. Göttner-Abendroth (2021, 11) therefore objects that matriarchal societies are not characterized by the elitist privileging of women, but, in contrast to patriarchal structures, must fundamentally be seen as egalitarian societies:
“They are truly gender-egalitarian in terms of the social agency and freedom of both sexes, and they are egalitarian in the interaction of all parts of society. Women, especially mothers, are at the center of these societies. The center does not mean the top, the 'top', as is usual in patriarchy, but it is a center that integrates all parts of society.”
Women resist
Matriarchies in this sense exist in numerous cultures, as Göttner-Abendroth (2021, 2022) shows. The author of two extensive volumes, she demonstrates which matriarchal societies still exist in various geographical areas today, e.g. in northeast India, northern Japan or Indonesia.
In Western countries in particular, however, many women have long since set out to rebel/stand up against male violence and the massive discrimination against women, and to gain social participation in an emancipatory sense. In many areas however- especially where social skills and communication are important – they/women have overtaken above all those men who correspond to the traditional, authoritarian, less flexible and non-communicative image of men.
But even today, women are not allowed to become priests in the Catholic Church, some Orthodox Jews, and certain representatives of an arch-conservative Christianity or Salafist Muslims in principle do not shake hands with women, women in conservative Muslim societies are not allowed to show their faces in public. Resistance to this is brutally repressed; in these institutions and societies, men fight a gender war for social power against their own wives.
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But women are fighting back here too. As part of the church movement Church 2.0, they are setting civic signs of protest against the traditional interpretation of the Catholic religion. They are calling for an end to celibacy and for women to be considered for all church vacancies, including women priests and bishops. The patriarchal image of God is also being challenged within the framework of feminist theology.
Women are also increasingly resisting autocratic or dictatorial regimes. In particular, the resistance of women against the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko was the focus of media attention for months until the male security forces arrested the leaders and other women en masse using brutal force and deprived them of their freedom.
In Finland, for example, there is a group called 'Women for Peace', which opposes the destructive use of social resources for military armament and war. This group of Finnish women demands, among other things, the abolition of the Ministry of Defense in favor of a Ministry for Peace and Sustainable Development. [36]
In the movemets „Fridays for Future“ and „Black Lives Matter“, it is mainly women who are active and who bring their vitality to these movements together with similarly minded men.
Not only in the church but also in politics, in a global context, emancipation is not established in many places, men dominate the political institutions, and women do not hold enough significant political positions. Accordingly, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of UN Women, made the following three demands to prevent male-dominated political systems:
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"First, we have to remove the obstacles that keep women from participating effectively: mobility, finances, access to information, lack of public safety, and coercion, intimidation and violence.
Second, we must recognize that participation is one thing but real voice is another. Are women able to articulate and voice their rights, needs and preferences? How far are political parties internally democratic? Have women in civil society had the opportunity to debate common positions on the constitution, electoral law, safety during campaigns, and other issues?
Third and finally, democratic institutions have to be held accountable to women, and held accountable for meeting commitments to women's rights.
If a democracy neglects women's participation, if it ignores women's voices, if it shirks accountability for women's rights, it is a democracy for only half its citizens." [37]
A secret and sometimes open struggle has broken out, not only between men and women, but also between men, wherever competition for social positions is at stake. Men with higher sensitivity, intellectual critical ability and discursive communicative skills are in conflict with those men who try to assert their social position and their interests (often covertly) in a violent and authoritarian way. These conflicts can be observed in all areas of society, such as the economy or even international politics.
Additionally, it must be considered that the exclusive division of humanity into men and women, combined with the corresponding role constraints, excludes people who do not see themselves as either men or women, i.e. transgender and intersex people. Moreover, in many cultures people who are attracted to the same sex are at risk of stigmatization and prosecution.
Possibilites for a changed role attribution
In a free and tolerant society, there is less emphasis on adhering to gender role discipline and a standarized sexual orientation. The more authoritarian societies are and/or the more compellingly their self-image is based on traditional religions, the more clearly racism can be observed in these societies in regard to sexual deviance or sexual freedom.
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A traditional masculinity in crisis should seize the opportunities offered by the emancipation of the sexes. The reinterpretation of the male role also allows emotional behavior, such as crying in front of another person. Men learn to cook and devote themselves more intensively to raising children without giving up their professional commitment. The new male role allows men to also enjoy dancing or practicing yoga and yet still enjoy playing soccer. The changed male role provides for a partnership relationship with women. Such men have a higher sensitivity for the problems of others and are more empathetic. They are less subject to gender-related role constraints and more free in their gender role interpretation.
A social realignment is based on equal opportunities for men and women, including, of course, equal pay for the same work. It also allows for intermediate recognition of neither male nor feemale gender as well as new gender identities and provides the prerequisite for equitable participation in social life opportunities for people of different gender identities.
Accordingly, Piccone (2017) summarizes research findings on the relationship between gender equality and the quality of democracy:
"Overall, research shows that democracy and gender equality form a mutually reinforcing relationship in which higher levels of liberal democracy are a necessary but not sufficient condition for higher levels of gender equality and physical security of women. In addition, higher levels of gender equality are strongly correlated with a nation's relative state of peace, a healthier domestic security environment, and lower levels of aggression toward other states. Strategies to strengthen democracy and human rights, therefore, should emphasize women's empowerment, accountability for violence against women and girls, and closing the political and economic gender gap. Similarly, efforts aimed at achieving gender equality should emphasize more inclusive societies, including attention to such factors as race, age, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation."
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Of course, the restructuring of gender roles towards emancipation is also of significance for the peacefulness of the male part of humanity: If more and more men change the diapers of their babies, feed them, make them laugh by tickling them, teach them their first words, play with them as children and accompany them responsibly from childhood to adolescence, they will by caring for their children become thoughtful, probably resistant, if national-chauvinistic agitation for war takes place and the children they love, educate and support together with their partner are to go to war.
In the future, the category of sex or gender is likely to play an increasingly minor role if a democratic reorganization with an emancipatory perspective were to occur in the society. In this context, an already meaningful intersectional approach would gain even more importance and the connection of the gender issue and the connection to other social characteristics would play a role for the analytical classification with regard to social opportunities - according to educational researcher Katharina Walgenbach (2012, 81):
"Intersectionality is understood to mean that social categories such as gender, ethnicity, nation, or class cannot be conceptualized in isolation from one another, but must be analyzed in their 'interweavings' or intersections. Additive perspectives are to be overcome by focusing on the simultaneous interaction of social inequalities. Accordingly, it is not only a matter of considering several social categories, but also of analyzing their interactions."
In the course of a social reorganization, it will be even less necessary to specifically ask what gender someone represents, but rather how the being a man or a woman, or something in between or something newly formed, corresponds with other social characteristics, such as social situation, violence, or language.
Societies with a more traditional and authoritarian structure will want to strictly maintain conservative gender roles and defend them with all the power at their disposal against the differently structured LGBTIQ designs. In innovative and free societies, the crisis of masculinity tends to be used constructively, leading to a reinterpretation of gender roles that makes them seem less significant when viewed from an intersectional perspective of different and interrelated features of discrimination.
The approach of a feminist security policy in particular therefore calls for an intersectional and inclusive understanding of peace policy that helps to overcome the wars but also security thinking within patriarchal structures (Lunz 2022).
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Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, who had to leave Russia in April 2022, summarizes the connection between gender and peace politics from a feminist perspective:
"So, despite all the progress of feminism, the fate of the world is still decided by old men who represent the ethnic majority of their countries: in the USA as well as in China and in Russia. We should really opt for more diversity in the future. Or at least prevent men from having a monopoly on decision-making, because that is too dangerous." [38]
The dominance of older men in central political decision-making positions is certainly to be criticized. But even the arrival of women in central positions alone does not ensure more security and peacefulness. Margaret Thatcher (Falklands War), Maria Zakharova (Kiev regime will "soon disappear into space"), Victoria Nuland ("Fuck the EU") and Annalena Baerbock ("We are at war with Russia") show that women are also capable of bellicosity when they adopt male attributes.
Irrespective of this, it has to be demanded as a matter of course that no one may be discriminated against because of his or her gender. Men and women are to participate equally in decision-making positions, are to be educated equally, are to receive equal pay for the same work, and must be equally protected by the law and executive bodies. People who locate themselves between the sexes or queer must not be at an existential disadvantage. A society is as free as it extends freedom to sexual minorities.
Notes
(Chapters 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8)
[1] Kluge (1989, 492).
[2] Independence from a location.
[3] Image worship.
[4] Cf. in more detail https://www.7000eichen.de/index.php?id=2, o.D., 12.5.2021
[5] http://www.kritische-kunst.org/, o.D., 12.5.2021
[6] Cf. in more detail on the enemy image topic chapter 1.4.1.5
[7] Cf. in more detail chapter 2.4.
[8] Dalai Lama (2015, 9).
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[9] Cf. among others on the critique of Christianity and the Christian churches from different perspectives, e.g. Weber (1904/2006), Moser (1980), Flasch ( 2013), Drewermann (1990).
[10] Cf. the analysis of church support for the flight of Nazi criminals 'Exodus of the mass murderers' in: https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/rattenlinie-nazis-und-kriegsverbrecher-auf-der-flucht-a-1032156.html, 9.8.2017, 11.5.2021
[11] Cf. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Christi, 1.11.2019, 20.11.2019.[12] Cf. in more detail https://www.sicherheitneudenken.de/, n.d., 12.5.2021.
[13] On the syndrome of group-based misanthropy, see, among others, Heitmeyer (2012).
[14] This then changed later in Daoism, which partly transformed in the sense of a philosophical level drop and emphasized 'gods, bells and bells'.[15] Cf. in more detail chapter 3.4.
[16] "Die Zeit" reports on activities of the Catholic Pax Bank in recent years: "According to the report, the bank had invested almost 578,000 euros in shares of the arms company BAE Systems. The company produces missile systems and combat aircraft, among other things." (https://www.zeit.de/online/2009/32/katholisch-pax-bank-wertpapiere, 7/26/2018).
[17] Voßkühler (2017, 42).
[18] Cf. Voßkühler (2017, 45).
19] Cf. in more detail in section 3.4.
[20] This section has, in a somewhat modified manner, been taken from my book 'Cultural Transfer and Educational Innovation' (Moegling 2017, 26f.).
[21] Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 44).
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[22] Cf. Hill (2015, 29ff.).
[23] Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 26).
[24] Horkheimer (1947/1986, 13).
[25] Horkheimer (1947/1986, 21).
[26] Markuse (1964/1980, 29).
[27] Adorno's investigative approach is similar to the theoretical approach of 'group-based misanthropy' in Heitmeyer (2012).
[28] Adorno (1950/1996, 323).
[29] https://verlag-meiga.org/corona-and-the-other-reality/, 11.2.2021, 4.5.2021.
[30] Cf. Janov (1971/ 2016), especially the chapter 'The Primary Theory'.
[31] Cf. Mausfeld (2019 a u. b).
[32] Reich (1948/2013, 104f.).
[33] I am very grateful for the proofreading of this chapter in particular by the international peace activist Ulla Klötzer. Her wise translation and supplementary notes have greatly enriched the chapter.
[34] Reich (1948/2013, 96).
[35] In: https://www.welt-sichten.org/artikel/36048/vergewaltigung-als-kriegswaffe, 23.4.2019, 20.11.2019.
[36] http://www.naisetrauhanpuolesta.org/ministry-for-peace-and-sustainable-development/, 3/ 2021, 28.3.21
[37] https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2011/5/democracy-and-gender-equality, 5.5.2011, 21.4.2020
[38] Schulmann, Ekaterina (2022): Was haben wir übersehen. Interview.
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/was-haben-wir-uebersehen-russische-politologin-ekaterina-schulmann-im-interview, 9.5.2022, 9.5.2022.
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(Complete bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
To what extent is the human being changed by algorithms?
Chapter 2
Impending global scenarios - Disorder as a principle of order
The continued development of the present crisis-like conditions analyzed above and the ensuing negative future scenarios do not have to occur in this form. However, there is a real possibility that they can occur if mankind does not come to a paradigm shift and continues its destructive behavior.
The rapid worldwide spread of the Coronavirus in the spring of 2019 made one thing clear: the world has become a global village due to increasingly efficient transport links and the associated travel activity. A hazard or aberration in one global location can also pose a threat to people who living far apart in a short period of time. At the same time, the handling of the Coronavirus makes it clear how quickly freedoms can be restricted, and how important it is to work together again afterwards to ensure that this does not remain a permanent state.
The philosopher Hans Jonas developed a so-called 'heuristic of fear' and meant by this that possible undesirable developments must be described in all sharpness and threateningness in order to look the potential risks directly in the eye and to decide to recognize one's own responsibility for the planet and the fate of future generations - according to Jonas (1979/2015, 7):
"What can serve as a compass? The foreseen danger itself! In its weather glow from the future, in the appearance of its planetary extent and its human depth, the ethical principles from which the new duties of new power can be derived become discoverable for the very first time."
Of course, this negative vision must be connectable to the developments already analyzed, it must not be taken out of the air. Also, beyond Jonas’ demand for a heuristic of fear, a positive vision of humane development in the sense of a new order should be presented following this. Of course, fear of a catastrophic planetary scenario can motivate global redirection. But the exact direction of a global reorientation and constructive impulses for identity formation can only be conveyed by a positive vision generated from the interplay of socio-theoretical analysis, scientific investigation, ethical maturation and the experiences of alternative political practices as well as a changed approach of working and living together.
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2.1 The military annihilation scenario
If serious disarmament on a global scale does not succeed and military nuclear and hydrogen technology, as well as biological and chemical warfare agents, continue to proliferate, humanity will no longer be safe from an apocalypse. For hundreds of generations, much of planet Earth will be uninhabitable.
Disarmament negotiations on nuclear weapons technologies are currently no longer a serious issue for the existing nuclear powers. On the contrary, all nuclear powers are in the process of modernizing their nuclear weapons and increasing the number of situations in which they can be utilized. If either at present or in the future all nuclear disarmament treaties or nuclear development bans are in effect terminated, the use of nuclear weapons is foreseeable in view of growing geopolitical tensions. No region of the world will be spared from this.
The use of biological and chemical weapons can have incalculable consequences for life on this planet. Once harmful bacteria and viruses are developed and released, it will be difficult to destroy them again or to develop antidotes. The spread of the coronavirus shows the danger of contamination by viruses, even though much more dangerous viruses than the coronavirus are conceivable here.
The events in Syria show how difficult it is to prove the use of chemical weapons in a contested area or to attribute it to a warring party.
Weapons from the 3D printer pose a threat to peace within society and to world peace that can hardly be assessed. In this case, registration and weapons control is no longer possible.
All major powers are currently working intensively on the development of killer robots that, equipped with artificial intelligence, can autonomously decide whether or not to kill people. Even the selection of the groups of people to be killed is left to them. Will humanity be threatened in the future by machines equipped with artificial intelligence? The Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare, as well as other stipulations of the international law of war, will become obsolete in the course of the use of killer robots. Everything that moves and is identified as hostile is shot at.
Why is this being worked on? Is there no limit and ethical guideline at all anymore, which protects humans from technologically steered self-destruction? Have the people in power gone mad?
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Furthermore, the means of hybrid warfare will lead to an escalating dimension of warfare if no countermeasures are taken in time. Unthinkable are the consequences if cyber attacks by hostile groups or by an AI taking on a life of its own lead to the hacking of nuclear technology or trigger nuclear first strikes.
The spread of propaganda and fake news via the Internet, cyber attacks to cripple national infrastructures, targeted intrusions by terrorist groups, and the subsequent use of means of conventional warfare are also likely to be used more often, for example after the war in Ukraine, if international peace resolutions with appropriate sanctions are not reached.
The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia has shown that future wars can only be won with the massive use of drones. Kamikaze drones swoop down on battle tanks. AI-controlled swarms of drones ('loitering weapons') linger in the air for hours and then attack scouted targets in a swarm that can no longer be defended against.
If the UN does not succeed in becoming capable of acting worldwide with regard to the various conflict regions, major powers with hegemonic ambitions will assert themselves in the existing power vacuum and divide the global spheres of influence among themselves again. These are likely to be the United States, China, Russia and possibly Saudi Arabia.
As long as the United Nations has inadequate structures which prevent it from taking effective action against illegal wars, secret armies, human rights violations and staged terror, the destruction of the peace order envisaged by the UN Charter must be expected.
There will increasingly be the formation of 'failed states', more proxy wars of great powers or their alliances. For example, NATO countries have for some time been increasingly weakening the principles and institutions of the UN - according to NATO opponent and controversial Swiss peace researcher Daniele Ganser (2017, 328):
"The historical facts of the last 70 years clearly show that NATO countries have repeatedly attacked other countries and violated the ban on the use of force enshrined in the UN Charter. NATO is not a force for security and stability, but a threat to world peace."
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But - it must be countered - it is not only NATO activities that are problematic. China is trying to strengthen its hegemonic influence in the South China Sea, poses a threat to Taiwan, has long since seized Tibet and destroyed it as an independent state. The Russian Federation is fighting a brutal war of aggression in Ukraine with worldwide consequences. Russia further militarily supported the Syrian dictator, while the U.S. supported the opposition Syrian Armed Forces as well as part of the Kurds. NATO member Turkey is invading Syria and fighting the Kurdish regions in violation of international law. Israel expels Palestinians from their allotted territories, and Palestinians fired rockets at Israel.
The brutal Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 marked the beginning of a murderous war of annihilation in 2024/2025 that will continue to have a negative impact for generations to come.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are waging a proxy war in Yemen with the cooperation of Western states. India and Pakistan are in military conflict regarding the bombing of terrorist camps in Pakistan and the disputed province of Kashmir. In Mali, West Africa, German and French troops are fighting Islamist terror there. The situation in Venezuela will soon show whether there will be U.S.-led military intervention there.
Also, the emergence of a new bloc situation is already foreseeable. Russia, which has been rejected by the West, is increasingly turning to the PRC and concluding economic and military agreements there. In the future, the European NATO states on the one side and Russia/China and allied states on the other will be hostile to each other. The USA in the second Trump administration period is increasingly leaving the joint defense pact against Ukraine. The scandal in the Oval Office at the end of February 2025 is an expression of this. An escalating confrontation and the associated military disruption are then in the interests of the respective military-economic complexes and the aggressive-nationalistic forces present in the respective states.
If the UNO cannot be strengthened and democratized at the same time, then a chaotic state of affairs is foreseeable in the future, where nationalist states, as well as alliances of states, oriented toward regional hegemony permanently wage wars to enforce their interests. Here, the most modern and effective war technology will be used. Above all, the civilian population will suffer. A nuclear conflict is foreseeable - even if the nuclear chain reaction would be triggered by a hacker attack or accidentally.
Apart from this, the globally deployed nuclear power plants pose a latent threat. Not only by the uncertainty of a GAU associated with their operation, but also about the possibility of terrorist attacks or the risk of their operation in war zones, such as in Ukraine.
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Example of the danger of an accidentally triggered Nuclear War
The event at hand occurred during a time of growing political and military tension and could also be relevant to a future military scenario. [1]
In January 1981, Ronald Reagan, then berating the USSR as the "evil empire", took office as U.S. president. While the Soviet Union had built up the SS-20 nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe, the Americans wanted to deploy Pershing II missiles in Western Europe in accordance with the NATO Double Decision (adopted in December 1979). Military escalation was then within the realm of possibility when a South Korean passenger plane was shot down by Soviet air defense on September 1, 1983. All 269 people on the plane were killed.
In this historically tense situation, 44-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, an engineer, goes on duty on the evening of September 25, 1983, at a USSR satellite surveillance facility 100 kilometers south of Moscow. Shortly after midnight, at 0:15 Moscow time, a missile alarm goes off. A launch of a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile in North America toward the USSR is reported by the computerized early warning system. Petrov, knowing that the anticipated attack scenarios assume a hail of missiles from various missile bases, decides to report the warning as a false alarm.
But during his phone call to the General Staff, he sees that the computer indicates four more missile launches. He must now decide again whether to report a real attack. This would trigger an immediate massive nuclear backlash from the USSR, which in turn would send nuclear-tipped missiles towards the United States. Petrov is not quite sure but again decides to tell the General Staff that it is another false alarm and that he wants to find out the causes.
With this, he saved the lives of millions of people. Afterwards, it turns out that his decision was correct and that there was an error in the computer-controlled early warning system. The system had interpreted reflections of sunlight on clouds above a U.S. air force base as missile launches.
It was only after the fall of the USSR that this nuclear risk case became known. Stanislav Petrov later made clear the explosive nature of the situation at the time in his 2006 speech to the United Nations, saying, "The worst thing about that night was that I had massive doubts about whether my decision was right. But fortunately, it was."
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In the future, an accidental nuclear strike is still possible, triggered by either technical or human error. If nuclear arsenals continue to be upgraded in the future, if more states acquire nuclear weapons, then the latent danger of accidentally triggered nuclear war also increases.
Petrov warned until his death in 2017 that a nuclear war would break out and wipe out humanity.
Conclusion: The world is increasingly getting into disorder, respectively economic, political and cultural differences of interest are increasingly settled with violence and military means.
If the UN does not find its true purpose, the international situation of the future will be determined primarily by war, military annihilation of people, environmental destruction and mass exodus.
In particular, the role of an AI taking on a life of its own poses a major threat. The negative military scenario will assume apocalyptic proportions for billions of people if weapons of mass destruction that can no longer be controlled are used. A spiral of violence will emerge that will hardly be controllable.
2.2 The ecological devastation scenario
"People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?!"
Greta Thunberg (2019) at the UN General Assembly.
If it is not possible to keep the warming of the Earth's atmosphere below 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century, or even prevent it from rising by two degrees Celsius or more, serious consequences for life on planet Earth are to be expected. [2]
As early as 2008, the German Federal Environment Agency warned of the impending climate crisis with a nuanced reference to ecological tipping points and feedback effects:
"Tipping points carry the risk of drastic, sometimes abrupt climate changes. As a consequence, adaptation measures might not be taken in time, or might be associated with very high effort and extremely high costs. It is therefore imperative to reduce anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. By continuing to emit greenhouse gases, humans are conducting a global experiment with the air envelope of their planet that they do not know exactly how it will turn out. Tipping points in the climate system may occur as early as this century. This is cause for swift and focused action." [3]
How little has happened since then. The danger of abruptly triggering tipping points, with the complex and dramatic consequences, is now much closer. And: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 6th Assessment Report (IPPC 2021a) summarizes the long-term nature of the environmental damage that has already occurred:
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"Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millenia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level."
Different climate scenarios
Assessments of the extent of, for example, temperature rise in the coming decades as well as by the end of the century, or analyses regarding the expected rise in sea level, diverge between the estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other climate researchers. According to climate scientist David Spratt and emissions trading specialist Ian Dunlop (Spratt/Dunlop 2019, 5) in classifying different research findings:
"In one example, the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report in 2014 projected a sea-level rise of 0.55-0.82 meters by 2100, but said 'levels above the likely range cannot be reliably evaluated.' By way of comparison, the higher of two US Department of Defence scenarios is a two-metre rise by 2100, and the 'extreme' scenario developed by a number of US government agencies is 2.5 metres by 2100.
Another example is the recent IPCC 1.5°C report, which projected that warming would continue at the current rate of ~0.2°C per decade and reach the 1.5°C mark around 2040. However the 1.5°C boundary is likely to be passed in half that time, around 2030, and the 2°C boundary around 2045, due to accelerating anthropogenic emissions, decreased aerosol loading and changing ocean circulation conditions."
If it is possible - according to the IPPC (2021 b, 18) - to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees C by 2040, then this would also be possible by the end of the 21st century if the right decisions relevant to the climate are made. However, if the right climate policy decisions cannot be made, escalating global warming with apocalyptic consequences can be expected - according to IPPC (see table 7):
Table 7: The best course and the very likely range in the most negative climate scenario (IPPC 2021b, 18), in degrees Celsius
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Scenario near term, 2021-2040 mid-term, 2041-2060 long-term, 2081-2100
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best very likely best very likely best very likely
estimate range estimate range estimate range
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SSP5-8.5 1.6 C. 1.3-1.9 C. 2 .4 C. 1.9-3.0 C. 4.4 C. 3.3-5.7 C.
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Determinants of a negative climate scenario
Of course, these differences cannot be decided here. However, in the context of a negative scenario, the more pessimistic assessment should be used. From this, the following developments can then be derived from a holistic perspective that emphasizes thinking in terms of connections and contexts:
One consequence of man-made climate change is the already observable melting of the poles and glaciers, the warming of the oceans, and the incipient flooding of coastal areas, riverbanks, and low-lying regions, especially in the poorer regions of the world, which lack the resources for ecological adaptation measures, such as building dams or changing building standards.
This is how the World Meteorological Organization (2024) alarmingly summarizes this development for 2023/2024:
"Weather hazards continued to trigger displacement in 2023, showing how climate shocks undermine resilience and create new protection risks among the most vulnerable populations."
If this development continues, the low-lying regions of the earth will become largely uninhabitable.
There is no doubt that the melting of the poles and the warming of ocean waters will cause the seawater level to rise.
However, the average possible rise of 2.5 meters by 2100 does not represent the extreme points of the water level. Especially during storm surges, the increase in seawater level can be several times this value and lead to flooding deep into continental areas.
Islands and coastal regions, as well as deeper inland areas, will be flooded, destroying the living conditions there and in turn triggering migration. Not only groups of islands will disappear, but also countries, such as Bangladesh and India, will be flooded in large areas and trigger mass migrations. Here, the rise in seawater levels combined with the monsoon rains, which are already increasingly devastating in this region, will have a particularly dangerous effect. [4]
The shift in climatic conditions towards droughts, wildfires, violent storms and massive rainfall will also lead to a change in life on Earth. Vast regions will become uninhabitable. Future average temperatures of 50-60 degrees are expected in the Persian Gulf, so that human life will no longer be possible here for the average population, or will only be possible in artificially cooled rooms. [5]
Spratt/Dunlop (2019, 6) predict that even if the Paris climate treaties were adhered to, no stable climate development can yet be expected. In particular, climatic feedback effects would make the Earth largely uninhabitable for human civilization by the end of the century:
"With the commitments by nations to the 2015 Paris Agreement, the current path of warming is 3°C or more by 2100. But this figure does not include "long-term" carbon-cycle feedbacks, which are materially relevant now and in the near future due to the unprecedented rate at which human activity is perturbing the climate system. Taking these into account, the Paris path would lead to around 5°C of warming by 2100. Scientists warn that warming of 4°C is incompatible with an organized global community, is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable."
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A negative scenario of such an increasingly heating biosphere must expect increasing forest fires. Large areas of the planet will begin to burn. Rolls of fire driven by massive storm gusts will engulf everything in their path: Trees and bushes, houses, animals and people. Such firestorms will be impossible for humans to control and fight, and will rely on massive rainfall, which we don't know will fall in the very regions that are burning due to climate shifts. The desertification of entire swaths of land is the result of humanitarian, environmental and financial problems on a global scale.
The thawing of the Arctic and Siberian permafrost will lead to a massive increase in global warming through the associated release of carbon dioxide and methane, abruptly intensifying all the processes that interact with it.
If a UN that needs to be strengthened is unable to dissuade unscrupulous governments from
generation-egoistic destroying the rainforest for the purposes of cattle breeding, soybean cultivation, the search for mineral resources or land speculation, then this too will not only destroy the lungs of the earth but also cause a drastic climate shift.
Globally raging wars, consumption of nature and emissions from weapons production and emissions from explosions and fires are worsening the climatic development and at the same time preventing effective measures against the climate dystopia from being taken by the affected regions.
Catastrophic impact on social and political development on a global scale
Mass migration in the sense of mass exodus or migration of peoples will be triggered by the climate shift. In this sense, migration to date can at best be regarded as the tip of the iceberg if billions of people set out to flee in the event of further unhindered global warming. It is not difficult to imagine the conflicts and military confrontations that will result from these upheavals in the struggle for ecologically intact regions. According to the International Peace Institute SIPRI:
"Climate Change poses a new class of security challenges that are confronting societies worldwide. Increased risk of famine, destroyed infrastructure, houses and shelter, and violent conflicts might all be consequences of climate change through gradual changes to ecosystems and extreme weather events." [6]
Global warming will lead to massive crop failures and associated famines. The global agricultural food system will collapse. The struggle for food and survival will lead to massive price increases, looting and military conflict.
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The struggle for drinking water will intensify on the one hand due to increasing droughts and on the other hand due to the prevailing profit-oriented privatization of water sources. Privatized water sources will be guarded by militarily organized security services against raids by groups of thirsty people. In drought areas, people will die of thirst, especially those who no longer have the financial means to buy the scarce and thus more expensive commodity of water.
In other parts of the world, the climate shift will lead to the collision of air masses with extremely different temperatures and to correspondingly devastating storms in the form of tornadoes and hurricanes. Houses, cars, animals and people are whirled through the air and shattered. Skyscrapers collapse, the infrastructure of electricity, internet, water and gas lines is irreparably destroyed. Radioactivity will be released from destroyed nuclear power plants, which will travel around the earth in the atmosphere, rain down and lead to increased cancer rates and deformities in humans and animals.
So far, only a few developments have been mentioned here. Dangers such as temperature change and the resulting redirection of the Gulf Stream, the decrease in the temperature difference between the North Pole and the equator, which leads to a weakening of the jet stream, the release of methane bound in the seabed, insect mortality due to the increased use of pesticides in agriculture, the destruction of clean drinking water due to the overfertilization of fields, as well as plastic pollution of the oceans and the death of all life in increasingly larger marine regions are likely to represent additional negative scenarios that will exacerbate the massive problems mentioned.
The question thus is, when the point will be reached from which there is no return to ecological balance spanning over many generations. Here, scientific assessments certainly differ as to whether this point has already been reached or whether this will only occur after a few generations. For example, the renowned scientists and Club of Rome presidents Weizsäcker/Wijkman (2017, 194) summarize in the current Club of Rome study, especially with regard to the connection between ecological disaster, population growth, and irresponsible military and economic behavior:
"There is great urgency. System collapse is a real danger. Evidence of human impact on the planet is evident. Radioactive residues from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests are found everywhere today. CO2 from fossil fuel combustion has changed the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans: (...) let's not fool ourselves. We are facing enormous challenges due to rapid population growth, overexploitation of resources and the associated pollution, loss of biodiversity, and overall we are experiencing a creeping loss of livelihoods.
The crisis is brought to a head by the ideological belief that the loss of high GDP growth will lead to economic collapse."
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The progression of overpopulation with unchecked growth thinking and consumerism leads to increased ecological exploitation of the Earth system under the conditions of an increasingly overcrowded planet. Hereby decreasing any scruples to use climate-damaging and dangerous resources of the earth, like for example, brown coal, oil or radioactive material. Approaches to organic farming and species-appropriate animal husbandry are being pushed back due to the population pressure from increased factory farming, i.e. the mass torture of animals, as well as the associated nitrate poisoning of soils and groundwater.
Here, however, it is to be expected that it is not population pressure that is primarily responsible for environmental destruction, but in particular the irresponsible consumption of resources by the richer part of the world's population.
Tab. 8: Global income groups/ annual income in purchasing power parity in US dollars | Projected per capita CO2 emissions in 2030 | Factor in relation to the maximum CO2 emissions required for the 1.5-degree target (2.3 tons per capita)
(compiled according to Roettig 2021)
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| Richest 1%/ more than 172,000 | 70 | x 30
| Richest 10%/ 55,000-172,000 | 21 | x 9
| Middle and lower income 40%/ more than 9,800-55,000 | 5 | x 2
| Poorest 50%/ less than 9,800 | 1 | x 0.43
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According to an OXFAM (2021) study calculating into the future, the richest one percent of the world's population will emit 30 times as much CO2 into the environment in 2030 than it is likely to in order to meet the 1.5-degree target. By contrast, the poorest 10% of the world's population will have an extremely small environmental footprint (see Tables 8 and 9).
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Tab. 9: Environmental footprint and global income groups
(compiled according to Roettig 2021)
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Global income groups/ Projected per capita CO2 emissions required for the
annual income in purchasing in 2030 Factor in relation to the 1.5 degree target
power parity in US dollars maximum CO2 emissions (2.3 tons per capita)
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Richest 1%/ 70 x 30
more than 172,000
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Richest 10%/ 21 x 9
55.000-172.000
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Middle and lower incomes, 40%/ 5 x 2
more than 9,800-55,000
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Poorest 50%/ 1 x 0,43
less than 9,800
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This trend can be predicted in the absence of drastic climate protection measures and, in particular, curtailment of the lavish lifestyles of the richer part of the world's population.
The violent competition for the use of resources is increasing, the more people have to be satisfied in their basic needs as well especially as in their luxury needs. Not only the struggle for clean drinking water and food but also the struggle for lithium and comparable raw materials, lead to violent conflicts between different groups of people and regions - according to Hans-Jürgen Burchardt:
"Natural disasters and environmental damage have been at the top of the list of causes of flight in recent years, and many forecasts predict that the number of climate displaced persons will rise sharply. Here, too, it is clear that the industrialized nations, as the main perpetrators of climate change, share responsibility for the fact that people are fleeing. Nevertheless, they continue to try to achieve progress and prosperity at the expense of nature. This is particularly perfidious in North-South relations, where nature is often destroyed in the name of environmental protection. For example, after the nuclear phase-out, the German energy turnaround is also made possible by cheap coal imports from Colombia. There, mining is carried out in highly polluting opencast mines, entire communities are forcibly displaced, and human rights violations are commonplace. Even the much-vaunted green economy, which relies on electric mobility, would not be possible without the lithium reserves in the Andes. On the ground, however, lithium mining robs local residents of their livelihoods." [7]
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The war in Ukraine should also be viewed from an imperialist perspective, in which Russia and the USA are trying to divide up the raw material deposits among themselves. The historic dispute between Trump, Vance and Selenskyj in the Oval Office in February 2025 and the negotiations between the Russian and US governments are an expression of this. The global extraction of raw materials due to national border crossings or imperial agreements or imperial wars will by no means be environmentally friendly and climate-friendly.
Spratt/Dunlop (2019, 9) also describe the societal consequences of a climate shift at the 3-degree level. States and societies will be overwhelmed and come under extreme collective stress:
"Massive nonlinear events in the global environment give rise to massive nonlinear societal events. In this scenario, nations around the world will be overwhelmed by the scale of change and pernicious challenges, such as pandemic disease. The internal cohesion of nations will be under great stress, including in the United States, both as a result of a dramatic rise in migration and changes in agricultural patterns and water availability. The flooding of coastal communities around the world, especially in the Netherlands, the United States, South Asia, and China has the potential to challenge regional and even national identities. Armed conflict between nations over resources, such as the Nile and its tributaries, is likely and nuclear war is possible. The social consequences range from increased religious fervor to outright chaos. In this scenario, climate change provokes a permanent shift in the relationship of humankind to nature."
To summarize: Next to the military threat scenario, the ecological threat scenario is the closest and most tangible, which will be exacerbated via the rapidly developing population growth , coupled with the lack of ecological insight and imperial way of life of the rich classes of society.
What appears particularly threatening here is that the negative consequences of climate change will occur with a time lag in terms of their causation. The factors of these negative developments can also only be changed to the positive again with a time lag. The inertia of climate change means that it is not so much the generations that cause it that feel the consequences, but rather their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. These, in turn, will also no longer experience the drastic positive changes of their possibly changed behavior due to the planetary climate inertia. This fosters a generational egoism that is harmful to the climate and once again emphasizes the need for the current living generations to have a forward-looking responsibility for future generations. This responsibility can be brought into focus by analyzing likely negative scenarios in the absence of radical redirection and reorganization.
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How can politicians and societies still think about increasing budgets earmarked for armaments and the military and for promoting economic growth when such ecological challenges loom in the future? How short-sighted and generationally egotistical must we be if we do not pool all our forces and resources as quickly as possible to avoid the impending ecological collapse?
How strong must the agro-industrial lobbies and interests be that so-called free trade and investment protection agreements are concluded by the EU, such as with the MERCOSUR states or also with Canada (CETA), which - despite protestations to the contrary - represent a de facto carte blanche to damage the biosphere?
And from a peace-ecological perspective: How much time is left to prevent a new world war or permanent war in the context of ecological displacement conflicts and imperial exploitation of raw materials?
Will wars in the context of symmetrical and asymmetrical conflicts become increasingly threatening in relation to the fight against the climate catastrophe that is occurring?
How much power will the global counterforces still have to effectively counter such madness?
It turns out that the holistically conceived context, if it is applied in the context of a negative development, has just as effective a systemic effect in a negative sense, as it does in the case of the interaction of influences towards a positive development. Even in the negative scenario, everything works in conjunction with each other and therefore unfolds a very effective and global development dynamic.
After reading this chapter, perhaps the despair and fears as well as the assumed responsibility in the actions of the 'Last Generation' and future comparable environmental groups will be more understandable - even if one does not want to endorse their forms of action.
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2.3 Failed states and the helplessness of the international community
There is an increasing number of examples of collapsing state systems. ‘Failed states' or 'collapsed states' arise primarily in the peripheries or economically poor countries in the global context. Hussein M. Adam uses the devastating example of Somalia in the early 1990s to describe the characteristics of a failed state:
"The visible collapse of the Somali state has lasted half a decade. In some aspects the country appears to have reverted to its status of the nineteenth century: no internationally recognized polity; no national administration exercising real authority; no formal legal system; no public service; no educational and reliable health system; no police and public security services; no electricity or piped water systems; weak officials serving on a voluntary basis surrounded by disruptive, violent bands of armed youth." [8]
In such collapsed states, the state monopoly on violence breaks down, and violence is exercised decentrally by different groups. The trust of the groups holding a society together in the state's ability to regulate is destroyed due to its longer-term and structurally applied distortions, such as corruption, dictatorship and extreme social differences. This can lead to violent uprisings, regional military revolts, regional rule by warlords or terrorist gangs that oppress and exploit the population. The difference between this and a change of system or a crisis leading to a successor government is particularly the serious destruction of identification with a state system as such and the failure of civil society standards - according to Zartman (1995):
"What distinguishes this scenario from other instances of government change is the inability of civil society to rebound: to fill positions, restore faith, support government, and rally around the successor. The maimed pieces into which the contracting regime has cut society do not come back together under a common identity, working together, sharing resources. The whole cannot be reassembled and instead the components of society oppose the center and fend for themselves on the local level. Organization, participation, security, and allocation fall into the hands of those who will fight for it - warlords and gang leaders, often using the ethnic principle as a source of identity and control in the absence of anything else." [9]
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Certainly, it must also be asked whether the collapse of states is not also a postcolonial reaction to the arbitrary drawing of state borders regardless of tribal areas and cultural affiliations. It is also possible that the system of the Western nation-state is not the globally generalizable and appropriate model for every region and culture. Here, then, the critique of imposed nation-building and the postcolonial critique meet.
In any case, the breakup of states and the emergence of 'failed states' lead to a longer-term state of insecurity and fear for large parts of the population, to mass murder and torture, and to the subjugation and exploitation of large parts of the population of the original state territory. After a longer period of time, this can lead to new and also regional, smaller state formations, but it can also be left for an unforeseeable period to those who succeed in arming themselves, forming hierarchies and terrorizing regions.
The United Nations has not yet found a way to respond adequately to the case of collapsing states. The horrific massacres of the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority in Rwanda, the Islamist-oriented attempts at regional terror in the Arab region, the interference of foreign powers fighting for regional hegemony in Yemen, the unspeakable situation in Afghanistan, and the collaboration of corporations interested in raw materials with rebel groups in Central Africa show the helplessness of the United Nations in dealing with the situation of 'failed states' and 'killing fields'. But robust world police interventions by the United Nations or mandated alliances are necessary to prevent massacres, mass rapes, and uses of torture against civilians, as well as a stay of UN intervention forces until new viable political structures respectful of human rights have formed [10] - according to Michael Walzer:
"An independent UN force, not bound or hindered by the political decisions of individual states, might be the most reliable protector and trustee - if we could be sure that it would protect the right people, in a timely way." [11]
The example of Afghanistan, however, shows in a negative sense what can happen when interventions are conceived primarily in military terms. If, in parallel with military intervention, e.g., by an alliance of states mandated by the UN, appropriate resources are not provided to rebuild a country, human rights problems will only be shifted into the future, conflicts will not be dealt with in civil society, terrorist activities will be nurtured, and the system of the state will collapse once again.
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2.4 Religious fanaticism and terrorism
Terrorist organizations use religious fanaticism to assure total loyalty and self-sacrifice to their organizational members. Increasingly, religious fanaticism is replacing extremist political ideologies because leaders of such organizations can more easily assure their allegiance in this way.
This was the case with the disastrous Christian Crusades, when predatory conquest and geostrategic thinking were cast with Christian motives. This is likewise the case with the Islamist terrorist organizations IS, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda, so that after the terrorist mission and suicide bombing, the reward is promised in paradise. The supposedly divine mission removes any inhibition in killing and justifies any cruelty - after all, it is carried out against devalued and excluded unbelievers or those of a different faith.
This is a terrorist counter-model to the Enlightenment project, which is oriented toward secularization, human rights and humane values. If it was believed for a while that modernization oriented to the Enlightenment would encompass all parts of the world and also eliminate religious traditions, it must now be feared that religiously legitimized dictatorships with a global claim to omnipotence will increase.
If this is coupled with the possession of the atomic bomb, the consequences are incalculable.
Normally, Iran, whose state religion is the Shiite version of Islam, is quite rightly mentioned here. The traditionalist Sunni-oriented and highly armed Saudi Arabia should also be mentioned here. But government activities by the Israeli state can also be observed in this context. Here one must be very careful - especially as a German - when criticizing measures of the Israeli government and look closely and argue in a differentiated manner. In particular, a distinction must be made between the government, the state and the various groups within the Israeli population. Between orthodox Jews, militant settlers in the West Bank and Israeli representatives of the BDS movement [12], there is a big difference to be made in terms of political and cultural assessment.
Israel possesses the atomic bomb in an extremely conflict-ridden and crisis-ridden region full of hatred and religious reservations. A militant Orthodox Jew assassinated Jewish peacemaker, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It would be a very threatening scenario if militant factions of the Jewish Orthodox, whose religious fundamentalism, like the fundamentalism of all corresponding religions, is antithetical to the values of the Enlightenment and human rights, were to gain power in Israel. It would be even more problematic if they were to have a significant share in government power and displace moderate, democratic-minded Israelis in their claim to cultural validity and from positions of sociopolitical relevance.
The radicalization of Christian movements and churches with the goal of a white, patriarchal theocracy could also increase. The so-called 'Theo Bros', consisting of arch-conservative Protestants and Catholics, are spreading from the USA and believe that women should be deprived of the right to vote. The man, as the protector and breadwinner of women and families, should have the sole right to vote. Extremist preachers are increasingly spreading the view that strong male personalities should take over and counteract the feminization of society.
Joel Webbon, pastor in a Texas church and operator of the 'Right Response Ministries' platform, calls for men with backbone and Christian values to take over governments. Brigitte Theißl recognizes a trend in this - according to Theißl (2025) in the Austrian magazine 'der Standard':
“Webbon's publications could be brushed aside as particularly radical outgrowths of Christian nationalism. But the pastor is not an isolated extremist, he is part of an influential network that the US media outlet Mother Jones calls the “Theo Bros”: predominantly young, arch-conservative men who have built up successful online channels, condemn pornography and other sinful temptations and dream of a white Christian theocracy.”
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But the most explosive constellation in terms of world politics is rooted in the spread of orthodox or Salafist influences of political-militant Islam, which, in addition to people of other faiths, make people of other orientations of the Islamic faith, i.e., Muslims as well, the victims of their attacks and mass murders. These extremist influences are already at work worldwide and are clearly directed against the achievements of the Enlightenment, such as the emancipation of the sexes, human rights, the faith-independent rule of law, and democracy. The negative scenario of worldwide development must be based on an increase in the activity of these Islamist extremists, some of whom are clandestine and operate in separate branches and cells in global Islam, and who also seek to suppress or destroy pacifist currents of Islam and those based on charity, such as certain groups of Sufism.
These aggressive Salafist and terrorist-oriented currents and organizations of political Islam strive for a worldwide state of God and the subjugation or annihilation of dissenters or non-believers. Pluralism in the sense of tolerance in life plans, world views and political concepts is alien to them. They place their religious ideology above state legislation. They are morally on a pre-medieval level but possess modern technologies. This is what makes them dangerous.
But the activities of radical Islam on the internet and in social media also contribute to the radicalization of individual Islamists and often mentally disturbed perpetrators who carry out attacks in Western countries in the form of knife attacks and attacks with cars driven into crowds.
This fact must be analyzed soberly and not glossed over or played down. However, the threat should not be exaggerated either, because then right-wing extremist groups would gain momentum worldwide, and states would tighten their security mechanisms in such a way that the democratic freedoms of citizens would be suppressed. Both tendencies can already be observed at present: Armed right-wing extremists attack and murder Muslims, and Islamist terrorists carry out attacks. States are increasingly restricting democratic freedoms so that what they claim to protect - freedom and democracy - are compromised.
In the present negative scenario, however, it can be assumed that right-wing extremist attacks on Muslims or fellow Jews and Islamist attacks on non-Orthodox Muslims and people of other faiths or non-believers will increase in a mutual spiral of violence and shake the foundations of democratic societies. In this context, the right-wing extremist and racially motivated attacks in Norway, the USA, France, Germany and New Zealand, to which Muslims, Jewish citizens and supporters of a multicultural society fell victim, are probably only the beginning of an - albeit avoidable - development.
It is to be hoped that this negative scenario will not come to pass. This can only be achieved through a well-coordinated and consistent criminal prosecution of the perpetrator groups in a worldwide context via the UN and the transnational or regional security authorities. The perpetrators must also be deprived of their recruiting base by preventing social, economic, political and ecological conditions in which religious legitimations for terrorist acts fall on fertile ground. Democratization in a local, regional and global context and tangible evidence of the benefits of this democratization for human coexistence will also play a decisive role here.
The terrorist attack by Hamas in October 2023, which killed over 1,000 people, and the subsequent disproportionate Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip, which killed between 40,000 and 50,000 people by the beginning of 2025, almost half of them children, shows the drama that arises when geopolitical and religious claims become a disastrous ideological mixture.
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Once again, it becomes clear that the phenomenon under consideration, religiously camouflaged terrorism, can only be understood through a multitude of interacting factors, and that only by working through these various levels will it be possible to find an effective solution to this problem.
2.5 Collapse of the world economy, overpopulation and famines
The economic negative scenario to be presented here first assumes the end of free-market competition in favor of a monopolization of central industries in the hands of huge economic groups, which are economically active worldwide and in the course of a fusion of industrial, banking and speculative capital. In this process, every relevant industry is dominated by a few companies or even by a single corporation.
Corporations, such as Walmart, Nestlé, Goldman Sachs, Coke, VW, General Motors, AT&T, Cargill, Apple, Shell, Amazon, Google, Bayer, Unilever, Shell, Tesla and BlackRock, have now finally asserted themselves in this negative scenario and prevent free-market competition in their industries. As a result of the domination of the industries, prices generally rise and the quality of the products falls. The political course for this is set, among other things, by bought politicians in government offices. The corporations' own media departments generate the corresponding awareness among politicians who cannot yet be bought and among the electorate. Huge legal departments of the corporations successfully fend off any lawsuits. The right of class and collective action has been abolished in many states or has not even been installed. Multilateral economic treaties have installed the right of corporations to sue before special courts representing their interests. The corporations' contractually agreed right to sue is used by them worldwide in the event of impairments to their investment and production activities, for example as a result of a state's environmental laws. The world is in the hands of the corporations, and in this negative vision, any democracies that still exist are only formal and disguise the actual conditions. The democratic state becomes a facade.
But even this system is not stable: The economic success of the privately producing bourgeoisie or the capitalist class - according to the Marxist analysis - however also creates massive economic crises at the same time, which occur due to the rapid technical development of the means of production in the relations of production which become too narrow for this. Highly developed capitalism with modernized means of production and concentrated economic power is able to produce more than can be sold in the form of usable goods and services, i.e. affordable for people. This leads to trade and sales crises. Marx/Engels analyzed the economic chain reaction triggering further crises:
"Bourgeois relations have become too narrow to contain the wealth they produce. – And how does the bourgeoisie surmount these crises? On the one hand, through the enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other through the capture of new markets and a more thoroughgoing exploitation of old ones. How exactly? By preparing more comprehensive and devastating crises and diminishing the means for preventing them.” [13]
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World economy as global financial speculation of anonymous actors
Financial speculations with listed securities, mortgage securitizations up to high-dollar risk bets on political and economic developments are already carried out on a gigantic scale. Since profits from the production of goods and the creation of services - exceptions here are the business with drugs, armaments and digital products such as 'war games' - is limited, international finance capital is increasingly turning to financial speculation in a wide variety of forms. Instead of banks investing in real value creation and, for example, providing small or medium-sized businesses with the necessary loans, they tend to speculate with their investors' money and equity capital, as they expect this to result in much higher and faster loans.
Already, the speculative capital that is being moved around the globe digitally is developing many times the volume of capital invested in real value creation.
This trend will intensify in the negative scenario that may occur and will become even more confusing than it already is at present due to the emergence and use of digital currencies or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ether. In this context, digital currencies will increasingly be used for money laundering in relation to drug deals or protection rackets or illegal arms deals due to the use of pseudo names and stolen identities.
In addition, cryptocurrencies reduce the state's influence on monetary policy, for example, making it more difficult to steer the economy.
Financial speculation represents the postmodern variant of the 'rottenness' of late capitalism. Speculative bubbles are regularly created but are not secured by anything. When they burst, the overlapping involvement of the actors causes them to spill over into the real economy, resulting in the destruction of social order. [14]
The negative scenario for the globalized economy, which is further developed here, assumes that the crises triggered by financial speculation will become ever more violent and entail ever-greater dislocations in the real economy. If the world community does not succeed in containing global financial speculation, the economic system of world capitalism will become even less regulable than it already is. Societies will be left to the financial speculation of anonymous powers whose only concern is their own profit.
Capitalism, social inequality and world hunger
Although there is tremendous productivity in highly developed capitalism, the available resources are not enough to feed the growing world population. Human rights activist Jean Ziegler (2015, 50) attributes the fact that, according to World Bank estimates, approximately one billion people currently live on less than $1.25 per day, that is, in extreme poverty, to the hegemonic nature of capitalism, to its cannibalistic character:
"The massacre of millions of people caused by malnutrition and hunger is today, at the beginning of the third millennium, a scandalous expression of the struggle of the rich against the poor, a monstrosity, an absurdity that cannot be justified by anything or legitimized by any policy. It is a crime against humanity repeated countless times.
Today, a child under the age of ten dies every five seconds from hunger or a disease caused by malnutrition. In 2014, more people died from hunger than in all the wars fought that year."
Studies by the NGO Oxfam make it clear that the gap between rich and poor is widening. In a study published in 2018, Oxfam summarizes the data collected [15]:
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"Globally, seven out of ten people live in a country where income inequality has increased. Wealth inequality has worsened dramatically at the global level, as Oxfam has shown: The richest one percent of the world's population owns more wealth than the bottom 99 percent combined. In 2002, the share of total wealth held by the richest one percent was still 43 percent. (...)
For its analyses of global inequality, Oxfam uses the figures of the World Wealth Report of the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse and the annual listing of the world's billionaires by Forbes. These show an unbroken trend of growing global wealth concentration. According to the most recent information, only 42 people had the same wealth as the world's poorest 3.7 billion people in 2017."
OXFAM (2025a) summarizes the acceleration of social inequality with the following figures:
- “In 2024, there were 204 new billionaires worldwide. This corresponds to an average of almost four new billionaires per week. There are 2,769 billionaires worldwide.
- The total wealth of billionaires worldwide increased from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in 2024. This corresponds to around 5.7 billion US dollars per day. Thus, the total wealth of billionaires worldwide grew three times faster in 2024 than in 2023.
- For the richest 10 billionaires, wealth grew by an average of 100 million US dollars per day. Even if they were to lose 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still remain billionaires.
- In Germany, the total number of billionaires rose by nine to 130 in 2024. Germany has the fourth-highest number of billionaires worldwide.
- The total wealth of all German billionaires rose by $26.8 billion to $625.4 billion in 2024. That's $73 million a day.
- Oxfam has calculated that 36 percent of the total wealth of billionaires comes from inheritances. In Germany, the figure is as high as 71 percent.
- While the super-rich are getting richer and richer, the number of people living below the World Bank's extended poverty line of $6.85 a day has remained unchanged since 1990 and now stands at almost 3.6 billion.
- For many families, poverty means hunger. Today, 733 million people worldwide are starving – about 152 million more than in 2019.
- The new Oxfam Inequality Report also shows how super-wealth and social inequality can be traced back to the history of colonialism. The economically strong countries in the Global North continue to set the rules that benefit the super-rich and their corporations. They dominate institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, as well as the financial markets. Between 1970 and 2023, governments in the Global South paid $3.3 trillion in interest to creditors in the Global North.”
Serap Altinisik, who is serving as executive CEO of Oxfam Germany in 2025, puts this into context:
“Every week, four new billionaires are created. At the same time, the number of people suffering from hunger has risen to 733 million in the past five years. The super-rich are getting richer and richer, while there is hardly any progress in the fight against poverty and, for example, Germany is even cutting support for low-income countries. The abyss of inequality continues to widen, with consequences for our democracy. Because wealth goes hand in hand with political power. We see this today at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.” (OXFAM 2025a)
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There is no evidence yet that this unequal wealth distribution will reverse, so it is likely that social inequality in this regard will continue to grow in the future. Even if extreme poverty has declined in recent decades, too many people still live on the brink of starvation, and it is unacceptable that once again social injustice particularly affects women and children in the countries of the poorer South, who - if they have work at all - have to work under worse conditions with inadequate pay than men.
Oxfam sees the cause of social inequality in an economic system that lacks solidarity, in the greed and the desire for enrichment of the small percent of internationally wealthy:
"The structural causes of growing inequality are similar worldwide: our economic system puts the profit interests of a small group above the welfare of the vast majority. This is particularly evident in the fixation on stock profits, tax avoidance, excessive austerity policies and privatization, and the restriction of the rights of civil society and workers. The fixation on short-term profits and dividend payouts has increased sharply in corporate headquarters. In Britain in the 1970s, 10 percent of corporate profits were passed on to shareholders; today the figure is 70 percent. Globally, $1.2 trillion in dividends alone were paid out in 2015." [16]
Moreover, it would be quite possible to feed almost twice the current world population if we did not burn millions of tons of corn and wheat for biofuels, favor the meat industry, engage in land speculation, and turn fields into pastures, as well as destroy food that cannot be sold - according to Jean Ziegler (2015, 52):
"The annual Food Insecurity Report of the Food and Agriculture Organization shows that, with the level of productive forces it has reached, agriculture worldwide could normally feed - by supplying 2200 kilocalories a day for an adult - 12 billion people, almost twice the current world population. Therefore, the massacre of millions of people caused by hunger today is not related to the fact that too little food is produced, but to the access to food. Those who have enough money can eat and live; those who do not have enough money suffer from malnutrition, the diseases that are a consequence of it, and from hunger. A child who dies of hunger today will be murdered."
If this trend is not curbed, the consequences for the future are foreseeable: People in rural areas will be increasingly dispossessed via 'land grabbing', evicted from their properties, and then end up in the slums of the big cities, where they can expect an unsecured existence, mass unemployment, unsanitary conditions and diseases, crime and child prostitution. At the same time, the rich must isolate themselves in areas protected by walls and guards, in enclosed, gated areas that look similar all over the world. Extreme structural heterogeneity as a vision of the future - unalterable? [17]
At the same time, the growing pressure of migration is expected to increase right-wing attitudes and the number of authoritarian governments, which seek to protect locals' privileges above all else and develop group-related hostility towards people fleeing and seeking protection.
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Global population growth and growing ecological footprint
A study by the Club of Rome (v. Weizsäcker/Wijkman et al. 2017) on overpopulation concludes that the Earth is full. The population of the earth will multiply to about 10 billion by 2050 [18], making it difficult for the earth to develop in a way that is oriented toward sustainability. The consequences will be further climatic changes, violent conflicts and flight movements to other regions of the earth.
The proportion of the world's population living in cities is rising steadily. Between 1900 and 2017, the world's population increased fivefold, but at the same time, the urban population increased 18-fold. By 2030, five billion people will live in cities and suburbs. But the ecological footprint of cities is incomparably greater than the environmental impact of people living in rural areas. The Club of Rome estimates that the ecological burden is four times higher. [19]
An OXFAM study makes it clear that rich people in particular have an extremely high ecological footprint:
The OXFAM report (2025b) “ ‘The deadly consequences of the climate crisis’ breaks down the consequences of the emissions of the German super-rich and calculates the massive economic damage, crop failures and additional heat-related deaths. The super-rich are responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases through their luxury consumption and investments, thus escalating the climate crisis.”
Since carbon taxes cannot affect these people due to their wealth, it is to be expected that the ecological footprint of the rich will increase even further in the future.
The struggle for raw materials, drinking water, basic foodstuffs and energy, which is being carried out violently, will intensify drastically if no change is made here. Also, more and more people will try to flee from the impoverished and ecologically devastated areas of the world to regions of the world still spared from this. The counter-reactions, i.e. the measures to defend the indigenous rights, are foreseeable and currently already noticeable in many places.
Refugee camps of people fleeing Venezuela are being attacked by locals in Brazil. In the Mediterranean, European countries are drowning refugees in the sea to deter further refugees. In Libya, refugees are kept in camps under inhumane conditions; some are sold as labor slaves or forced into prostitution. In Australia, refugees are intercepted and taken to islands offshore and far away in the Pacific Ocean, where they are imprisoned under guard. In the U.S., children of Mexican refugee families have been separated from their parents and incarcerated separately. These are just a few examples or the harbingers of conditions where multiplying refugee movements will occur as global crises increase.
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2.6 Cyber wars
It is possible that after the U.S. elections in 2017, for the first time in human history, a president came to power in part because of a cyber attack carried out through social media. The corresponding investigation led to results, which were, however, denied by the government elected through this attack.
The same picture emerged when Great Britain left the European Union. The vote required for the 'Brexit' was also manipulated by targeted false reports in the social networks.
Further interventions in the form of targeted disinformation and election advertising by foreign powers also occurred in later elections, e.g. in Romania in 2024 and in the German federal election in 2025.
Moegling/Bläsius (2024) therefore urgently warn of the danger of manipulating digital media in connection with AI:
"With the help of deepfake techniques and generative AI systems, masses of texts, images and videos can be generated that communicate supposed facts. Such disinformation can be used to manipulate people and destabilize societies. If more and more media content is generated automatically without the possibility of verifying its truthfulness, political action in democratic states will become increasingly difficult. Chaos with social upheaval, riots and possibly civil wars could be the result."
A newer form of bellicose aggressiveness is evident in cyber attacks, the serious consequences of which should not be underestimated and which may be the dominant form of war in the future. Hacking digital networks, traffic monitoring, electricity supply, nuclear technology or water supply, as well as military technology networks, can have serious consequences ranging from power outages in hospitals to the collapse of private and public transport, to manipulated military attacks and missile launches.
Large-scale digital crimes, such as the tapping of user data from social networks or the digital manipulation of elections and votes, such as the 'Brexit', have already occurred and are difficult to prevent.
Combining cyber espionage with conventional military attacks will lend itself to aggressive nations, both to spy on sensitive data from a nation's defense and security sectors and to be able to shut down that nation's infrastructure in the event of a military incursion.
These are not spontaneous hacking attacks by one country, but long-term hacking attacks by skilled hacking groups subsidized by an aggressive state.
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"This is how 'Snake' works.
The Russian cyber espionage group 'Snake' has been active since 2005. According to an analysis by antivirus specialist Kaspersky, it is one of the most complex ongoing cyber espionage campaigns.
Snake targets mainly government agencies (ministries of interior, economy, foreign affairs, intelligence agencies), but also embassies, military institutions, research and educational organizations, and pharmaceutical companies.
In their attacks, the hackers try to infect their victims through so-called watering hole attacks. To do this, the spies first spy on websites that are of potential interest to the victims. Fake emails are then used to redirect the victims to a manipulated web server that looks confusingly similar to the original. The victim's computer is then infected in this way.
Thus, keyloggers can also be installed that record every keystroke and forward them to the attackers." [20]
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An example of the beginning of cyber wars was the attack on the federal government's networks that became public in the spring of 2018, in which sensitive data from the security sector of the Federal Republic of Germany was taken via very complex malware by highly professional attackers. [21]
Cyber attacks are part of hybrid warfare, in which propaganda on the Internet, the targeted use of fake news, and threats in the sense of disinformation campaigns are first combined with destabilizing hacker attacks on the infrastructure of a country or region and then, in the most negative case, with military intervention.
Artificial intelligence and cyber war
These previous notions of cyber war were based on deliberate human intervention in the international system, but do not yet take into account the possibility of software in computer systems taking on a life of its own as artificial intelligence develops. What if the frantic activity in the field of research and installation of artificial intelligence by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Co. leads to its interfering with digital networks and becoming active in terms of military attacks and corresponding defensive reactions? Is this completely out of the question and utter nonsense?
Computer science professor and AI expert Karl H. Bläsius (2024) confirms that the dangerous future trends mentioned here are certainly realistic threats:
"Nuclear weapons can also act as a deterrent against other threats. Military strategies sometimes provide for this, e.g. in revenge for serious cyber attacks. However, such a nuclear deterrent could only be effective against other states. This would be of no use against risks posed by systems such as ChatGPT. Nuclear deterrence is also ineffective against terrorists or other groups that carry out serious cyber attacks with the help of AI (ChatGPT or similar), for example. Nor can such a nuclear deterrent protect against systems such as ChatGPT getting out of control, becoming active themselves and possibly achieving Internet dominance with worldwide chaos. On the contrary: in such situations, there is a high risk that nuclear weapons will be used without such weapons systems still having a deterrent protective effect."
Neurobiologist and physicist Christoph v. d. Malsburg, who otherwise has a rather sober attitude toward artificial intelligence utopias, states:
"I still think you have to take the danger of artificial intelligence very seriously; it's worse for humanity than the atomic bomb." [22]
Even such a process, if it does occur, is likely to happen rather insidiously and barely noticed at first. It becomes especially dangerous when the software used for military control purposes becomes independent and develops its own initiatives in military terms, e.g. falsely documenting the firing of enemy nuclear weapons against its own national territory.
How implausible is this development in such a scenario?
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Information scientist Werner Meixner believes that there is a fundamental contradiction between the globally networked system of 'Big Data' and a successful security concept for networked computers, which becomes an uncontrollable threat to humanity:
"Networking becomes a mortal danger, however, when a building block of the autonomy of warlike attacks acts from the Internet because algorithms command to avert a presumed danger. This may sound like science fiction, but this building block is already being developed. (...) It enables autonomous preemptive cyber warfare and is necessary because response times are too short to allow a human decision-making process to precede it.
Responsible hackers and whistleblowers have shown what we should fear. A rapidly growing cybercrime is emerging. Nuclear plants, energy supplies, water supplies, hospitals, public transportation, government agencies are all at risk of attack and espionage. The livelihood of every individual is in danger of being destroyed.
Because of the already existing risk situation, all critical facilities must be taken off the Internet immediately. Universities must sound the alarm. Politically, it must be asked whether oaths of office are being violated.
The worldwide networking of the "world of things" with central data processing is a dangerous aberration. It means the loss of the sovereignty of all nation-states because the nation-states can no longer guarantee their own security. Inevitably, a centralized surveillance state will emerge because it alone is expected to provide security.
But even the central state cannot provide the hoped-for security and will gradually abolish all the freedoms of its citizens because it is no longer clear who the enemy is in a cyber war. Why should peoples allow the livelihoods of future generations to be gambled with on the roulette tables of research and development?" [23]
2.7 Digital empires and the medial transformation of the Human
As early as the mid-19th century, Marx/Engels saw the permanent need for the owners of factories and service enterprises to further develop the technical, organizational, legal, and political means to survive in regional and global competition:
"The bourgeoisie cannot exist without continually revolutionizing the instruments of production, hence the relations of production, and therefore social relations as a whole. The continual transformation of production, the uninterrupted convulsion of all social conditions, a perpetual uncertainty and motion distinguish the epoch of the bourgeoisie from all earlier ones." [24]
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The extent of future digitalization represents one of these revolutionizations of social relations described by Marx/Engels, the scope of which is probably still underestimated. In the context of a negative scenario, the digitalization of society can make people superfluous as working beings and leave them to the digital control of the rulers. The digital transformation of work processes releases people from work processes, but relies on controlling them digitally so that they do not rebel against this system.
Total digital transparency: Google knows us better.
In the present negative scenario, the digital revolution is a form of social transformation whose driving force is the unrestrained greed in capitalism for ever greater profits at the expense of the human.
Negative scenarios of an overpowering digital age or digital hegemony in the interest of economies and political power relations geared to this in utopian literature have in part already been caught up with or overtaken by social reality. The threat to humanity, i.e. the human core, via the digital coupling and domination of individuals into a human-digital hybrid, a cyborg, is increasingly recognizable. A symbiotic relationship of life consisting of digital watches, smartphones, Alexa and Siri, chip implants under the skin, digitally networked audiovisual systems and human substance leads to the loss of subjectivity. Total digital transparency enables the annihilation of individual freedom margins, any privacy and also the possibility for systematic doubting and practiced maturity and critical faculties. The 'antiquated human being', i.e. a human being who adheres to the goals of the Enlightenment, becomes the counter-image to be pursued of a digital modernization that wants to exclude and destroy enlightened antiquatedness. [25]
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Man is no longer able to keep up with his technical inventions, no longer overlooks the consequences of the digital surveillance of subjects in individual, social and socio-political relations. Günther Anders (1956) focused above all on the nuclear threat and the planetary apocalypse related to it. This threat scenario is now joined by the digital apocalypse, via the merging of the human with the digital.
The German computer scientist and committed representative of scientific ethics, Werner Meixner, warns of a development that has already occurred and will continue to intensify in the future, in times of legally adopted state Trojans, controlling apps, as well as security loopholes already built into smartphones, tablets and other PCs during production, which endanger or destroy the human private sphere:
“Our privacy is at massive risk, and there is every reason to address the causes and originators of the threat. In an article for the news channel CNN, Marc Rotenberg has called the invasions of privacy by the Internet company Google 'one of the greatest violations of the law in history'. Rotenberg was president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an independent nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C., that works to protect basic civil liberties.
And Google chief Eric Schmidt boasts that Google knows us better than we know ourselves (...). One wonders if any further proof is needed that our privacy is at risk. Incidentally, both data theft and government surveillance are largely invisible to those affected.
An upheaval is taking place. Step by step, the Basic Law is being changed or rendered ineffective. The essential social decision-making processes are being taken away from parliament and shifted to undemocratic outside bodies. The maturity of citizens is systematically undermined by no longer openly discussing parliamentary issues (...).
The upheaval we are talking about here is nothing less than an attack on the constitutionally guaranteed foundations of our state.” [26]
Individuals are allowed to finance the costs of this digital domination to a large extent themselves, since the digital age and the corresponding media are made palatable to them via manipulative advertising strategies as well as via computer games, beginning already during childhood.
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The human being between algorithms and values
Seen in this light, the digital age also offers gigantic returns for the digital economy, which is increasingly spreading and at the same time concentrating in huge media corporations that are trying to propagandistically and manipulatively implement the new image of man and the digital understanding of the modern into people's thinking and feeling. Similar to the way religions used to seek manipulative access to people at an early age, even small children are being accustomed to the displays of digital media and are being transformed step by step into a digital-human cyborg. The increasing entering of virtual worlds ('virtual reality') also by children and adolescents with the help of VR glasses mixes the real reality with the virtual world without the certainty that both can still be kept apart or without the knowledge of how they influence each other. The age of digital hybrid humans has been ushered in.
If Facebook's 'metaverse' becomes established, it can be assumed that the virtual world will become so important that the real world will lose more and more of its value. Then social crises and catastrophes in the real world will also lose their threatening nature from the perspective of gambling addicts - after all, escape into virtual worlds is possible, where life can be lived in real time thanks to 5G and blockchain.
In the course of the enforcement of digital access the relationship between artificial intelligence and the specific nature of the human being must be clarified and the extent to which artificial intelligence can still be controlled in the future. It will be decisive when politicians become aware of this problem, whether they support it or are resistant, and whether they develop binding ethical guidelines for the development of artificial intelligence in cooperation with the scientists involved.
The prerequisite for this is that a discourse takes place about what actually constitutes a human being. Is it the ability to love, the ability to understand or the ability to empathize, the ability to be ethically critical? Are these the qualities that distinguish humans from intelligent machines? In the same way, it must be asked what the technologically possible reaches of artificial intelligence are, and what threats to the continued existence of humanity are to be seen in this - according to Ulrich Schnabel (2018, 39):
"Whether all the abilities of Homo sapiens - love, empathy, art, susceptibility to error, flexibility, innovative strength, moral thinking, and confidence - will ultimately be sufficient to keep machines under control in the long run remains to be seen. But if we don't start thinking about differences, we've already lost."
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ChatGPT
The AI information system ChatGPT ("Generative Pre-trained Transformer") is an app that enables access to information resources on the internet when the corresponding questions are asked digitally. ChatGPT can easily be used in schools, universities and training centers. At first glance, this sounds as if it would make it easier to obtain information. All of humanity's knowledge could be available with just a few clicks.
But appearances are deceptive. With a little thought, it becomes clear that this could also lead to a negative vision of human development. If knowledge is constantly and easily available, if pre-formulated answers to most questions can be obtained by anyone without much effort, what does this do to the human being as a learning and receptive individual? The result could be a person who is lazy and incapable of thinking and who relies on their ChatGPT app. The result would be a hermaphrodite who becomes dependent on a digital program that defies critical evaluation. Your own creativity in thinking no longer seems worth the effort. The program already provides everything - but only the knowledge that is available on the Internet and cannot distinguish between correct and incorrect information. Imagine a world of knowledge that only reproduces what is available, is in the hands of the private sector and, of course, is constantly threatened by hackers from authoritarian systems who want to manipulate human knowledge in their direction.
Marie-José Kolly (2023) warns accordingly:
"That's why the content is always wrong. Sometimes obviously, sometimes only subtly. And that's why the guard rails that are supposed to protect the bot from manipulative users can also be manipulated. This means that every response from the bot is a priori unreliable. It cannot be trusted.
Half-truths, untruths and absurdities are now circulating in various corners of the Internet. You can see this on some pages. Sometimes it takes several clicks to check a piece of information. But you can't tell the quality of a chat with a bot. And what bots write sometimes sounds so right that even professionals are dazzled. For example, former Google employee Blake Lemoine thought that Google's language model had a consciousness. Chatbots pretend to be something they are not. No wonder, we believe that someone - something - is thinking behind them.
This mixture - the bot writes more convincingly than many people, but it can't care whether what it writes is true - is extremely dangerous."
Moegling/Bläsius (2024) warn of AI developing independently on the internet, e.g. via ChatGPT. It could only be a matter of time before a superintelligence is formed on the internet that becomes independent and there is a danger that an intelligence superior to humans will interfere in civilian critical infrastructure, especially in military defense or attack systems:
"There have been some surprises in civilian AI applications in recent years, with unexpected capabilities being achieved, most recently with generative AI systems such as ChatGPT. In 2023, the world's leading AI scientists and heads of major AI companies issued urgent warnings about the potential risks of this development. Superintelligence that far exceeds the level of human intelligence is also considered possible in the coming years."
China's 'Social Credit System'
Hundreds of millions of digital video cameras are expected to achieve absolute transparency and control over people in China in the future. Regional test programs are currently underway in China to implement the Chinese 'Social Credit System,' under which China's citizens will be seamlessly monitored and sanctioned.
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The recordings from the video cameras are mixed with digitally ascertainable information, e.g. from digital networks or official records on individual persons, the judicial file situation, financial data as well as school and professional assessments, and together they result in an evaluation according to points, the evaluation criteria of which are to be the same for all Chinese.
In the current pilot test, positive behavior is still sanctioned positively, but this can of course quickly change after full implementation, so that undesirable deviant behavior is generally considered negative and leads to a loss of points with corresponding consequences. However, even in 2023/2024, the system has not yet been fully implemented nationwide – according to Mattheis (2024):
“The social credit system is still under construction. All the elements for total surveillance are in place and are being used, for example in the Xinjiang region inhabited by Uyghurs. It is uncertain whether they will one day be linked to a large centralized system. In any case, the technical requirements are in place.”
All of a sudden, a citizen receives the message that he or she is no longer allowed to travel by train, that treatment of him or her in a hospital is no longer possible, or that no one responds on a dating portal because the score displayed is too low.
A society is thus digitally controlled down to the finest details of social behavior on behalf of the state. This goes far beyond Orwell's or Huxley's Dystopia. [27]
A current variant of such a negative scenario, which may come to pass but need not occur, is the digital health dictatorship. The Corona crisis has shown how quickly people can be influenced and their freedoms massively restricted in the face of health threats (bans on going out and assemblies, abolition of freedom of demonstration, restriction of freedom of the press). There is a danger here that future pandemics will be exploited to basically abolish civil liberties and to control this, among other things, with mandatory digital apps in communication media that must be used.
2.8 Mass crises of meaning, psychological distortions and escapes
In his "Speech to the Little Man," first published in 1948, Wilhelm Reich also analyzed the psychological distortions of people identifying themselves through authoritarian personalities and national greatness, whom he sees as dangerous and sick:
"That is why I am afraid of you, little man, irrepressibly afraid. Because on you depends the further fate of the world of men. I am afraid of you because you flee nothing so much as yourself. You are sick, very sick, little man. It is not your fault, but it is your responsibility to free yourself from your illness. You would have shaken off your real oppressors long ago if you had not tolerated and often directly supported oppression. No police force in the world would be powerful enough to oppress you if you had an ounce of self-respect in practical everyday life." [28]
If democratic claims become more implausible and political systems become more authoritarian and intolerant, then resistance movements against them will also arise. There will be mass protests in the streets, refusals to vote and the election of extremist parties, as well as an increase in terrorist activities. The mainstream of a society, however, will possibly neurotically duck away, adapt or even partly participate in the organization of an authoritarian society. In the negative vision of social development, educational institutions foster authoritarian traits with an extremely limited and neurotic personality profile. Blind obedience, opportunistic behavior, a latent fearfulness and an insufficient awareness of one's own thinking, feeling and acting are then the consequences of such an education. Parallel to this, therefore, massive disturbances of well-being occur on the part of those affected by such sociality - according to health scientist Annelie Keil (1988, 115):
"Oppression can be exerted on the individual in many ways - through poverty, hunger, social injustice, and political violence, or through the family and personal contexts in which violence tends to have a psychological impact. The affected person tries to compensate for the experience of oppression: by dulling the consciousness, by adaptation, by substitute allowances, much less often by revolt and struggle. However, the most frequent difficulty in reacting to the experience of suppression is precisely in the disturbances of well-being: the causes of suppression and thus the causes of the disturbances of well-being are misunderstood. There is confusion about the essence of oppression. To misrecognize this origin is not only to be unhappy without knowing why but something much worse: it is to assume that it is our fault if we are unhappy."
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Furthermore, if Western societies develop seemingly and primarily on a formal level democratically in the sense of an entitlement or façade democracy, with pervasive digital state control, with a simultaneous late-capitalist predatory economy, then the human psyche is also threatened with significant problems over the lack of a positive vision and perspective on life. If goals and possibilities to get out of a life lacking meaning and real happiness are missing, then psychosomatic reactions, like depression and psychosomatic diseases, like migraine, sleep disorders, chronic anxiety or cardiac arrhythmia are threatening. The number of people suffering from depression worldwide has increased by 18% in the last 10 years, according to a study published in 2017 by the World Health Organization (WHO). 322 million people worldwide currently suffer from depression. In this case, depression often combines with a neurotic disorder, especially an anxiety disorder. [29]
“According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), one in ten people worldwide lives with a mental illness - and the trend is rising. In the first year of the pandemic alone, the number of people suffering from a depression or anxiety disorder increased by 25 percent. (...) The most common illnesses include depression, anxiety disorders as well as affective and bipolar disorders. People with mental illnesses also have an average life expectancy that is ten years shorter. According to the WHO, this figure is as high as 20 years globally. “ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, 2023)
Suicides in various forms
Chronic illnesses with a psychosomatic background arise from the suppression of the living in a person, from not living life due to over-adaptation and the thus suppressed possibility to search for and develop a positive meaning of life for oneself. [30] Not lived life and subjectively experienced meaninglessness within corresponding social structures lead not only to the described form of psychosomatic illness but also to life-destroying susceptibility to drugs, such as hallucinative chemical drugs as well as the compulsive and permanent dwelling in virtual realities. It is possible that the future for many people will be a combination of biochemical manipulation and virtual escape as part of a negative development scenario. Billions of gamers, some of them under the influence of drugs, will kill, have sexual experiences, humiliate and elevate themselves in virtual spaces.
The world drug report [31], which refers here not to alcohol and nicotine but to chemical drugs, particularly opiates, shows the following figures and marks the seriousness of the problem:
"About 275 million people worldwide, which is roughly 5.6 per cent of the global population aged 15-64 years, used drugs at least once during 2016. Of those, 31 million suffer from use disorders, meaning that their drug use is harmful to the point where they may need treatment. Initial estimations suggest that, globally, 13.8 million young people aged 15-16 years used cannabis in the past year, equivalent to a rate of 5.6 per cent. Roughly 450,000 people died as a result of drug use in 2015, according to the WHO. Of those deaths, 167,750 were directly associated with drug use disorders (mainly overdoses). The rest were indirectly associated with drug use and included deaths related to HIV and hepatitis C acquired through unsafe injecting practices. Opioids continued to cause the most harm. PWID - some 10.6 million worldwide in 2016 - endure the greatest health risks. More than half of them live with hepatitis C and one in eight live with HIV."
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According to a WHO study published in 2014, 3.3 million people died each year from alcohol addiction.[32] Furthermore, 7 million people die annually worldwide from nicotine use. Over the course of the 21st century, the cumulative number of nicotine deaths could reach one billion people.[33]
Several hundred thousand people are already attempting to take their own lives every year: “According to WHO estimates, more than 700,000 people commit suicide worldwide every year. In Germany alone, more than 9,000 people took their own lives in 2019, three times more people die by suicide than in traffic accidents. “ (German Society for the United Nations, 2023)
Every 40 seconds, a person on earth kills themselves.[34]
Escape by way of drug consumption, as well as gambling, and all the way up to the loss of control and suicide already characterize the psychological instability of a large part of the world's population and the situation will certainly worsen considerably in the case of a negative scenario of social development.
Using crises as an opportunity
If, on the other hand, a psychosomatically experienced life crisis is seen as an opportunity to search for the cause of an illness and is accompanied by an honest search for meaning - possibly also in a therapeutic context - then positive possibilities open up and paths to recovery can be taken.
This makes it all the more important to resist societal structures and the norms and values associated with them, individually and in solidarity with others affected worldwide. Such structures based on excessive pressure to conform lead to neuroses and often force people to over-adapt, to loss of meaning and unlived happiness in life.
For such resistance, a positive vision of social development is necessary in order to know in which direction a collective path to happiness in life is laid out for oneself and for other people.
Liberated and meaningfully ordered social conditions then represent a favorable prerequisite for subjective search for meaning and for the necessary identity experiences for a happily lived life. When the pressure of domination subsides, when meaning in life - oriented to people's own needs - emerges, then neurotic basic attitudes lose their social function. People then no longer have to be kept down and locked up in psychic prisons so that the economic exploitation of existing power relations can be secured. Drug dealers and drugs of all kinds then have a much smaller chance to poison people. Medially staged fear inductions then lose their psychosocial basis in people. Upbringing and education then do not produce fearful and over-adapted children but promote their individual potential on the way to a liberated humanity.
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2.9 External planetary threats to the future
When addressing external threats-that is, threats from outer space-there is, of course, a danger of exaggeration and fiction. One must think carefully about whether to address this, lest one fall under suspicion of unscientific speculation.
Nevertheless, when considering the use of financial resources, realistic external threats must be included that have demonstrably affected planet Earth in the past and have a serious likelihood of playing a role in the future. Humanity can no longer afford - apart from the associated humanitarian and ecological catastrophes - to wage wars of various kinds against each other or to use its resources to build up armies, missile systems and NBC weapon systems as a deterrent. If not in 10, 30 or 50 years, in any case in the centuries to come, mankind will face global threats for which it must be prepared.
The planetary threat of impacting asteroids
First, the Earth has been shown to be repeatedly targeted by asteroids from space with devastating consequences for flora and fauna. It cannot be excluded that in the medium future, e.g. in the next 50 to 500 years, another asteroid will hit the earth. Mankind must prepare for this situation in the interest of its continued existence. Resources of financial means, experts and material must be made available worldwide, in order to be able to deflect an asteroid becoming dangerous to the earth e.g. over an explosion at least. Everything else would be negligent and would override the interest of the following generations on the planet earth generation-egoistically.
Asteroids often fly dangerously close to Earth. In mid-April 2018, for example, a 650-meter-diameter asteroid passed by Earth at 4.6 times the Moon-Earth distance, relatively close. In 2027, NASA predicts that an asteroid ("1990 AN10") will pass by Earth only 380,000 kilometers away, much closer still.
If an asteroid of this magnitude hits the Earth, the consequences are almost unimaginable: tsunamis, atmospheric pressure waves, darkening of the sky, hurricanes, fires and earthquakes.
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The United Nations is making it clear that these are not ideas just for future novels or science fiction movies:
"To bring the issue further into the public eye, the United Nations General Assembly last year proclaimed June 30 World Asteroid Day. The date marks the anniversary of the largest asteroid impact in recent history: on June 30, 1908, a hit in the Tunguska region of Siberia had devastated some 2,000 square kilometers of uninhabited territory. According to researchers' estimates, the asteroid had a diameter of 30 to 40 meters.
Should such a chunk in its trajectory set course for Earth again, there are only two options for the European space agency ESA: deflect it or destroy it. There are many proposals, from solar mirrors to hydrogen bombs. However, most of them are not technically or financially feasible. More realistic, he said, is the use of impact projectiles to deflect orbits.
Kinetic impactors, or simply "bouncers," is what Wünnemann calls the objects that would be actively placed in the path of an asteroid on its way to Earth. The joint ESA and NASA "Aida" mission, which is aimed at asteroid defense, is expected to provide insights into this."[35]
It was quite telling that former and reelected U.S. President Trump saw space exploration only from a military point of view and called for U.S. military dominance in space and had appropriate funding allocated for that purpose. Trump called for a sixth arm of the U.S. military in the form of a space army ('Space Force'):
"When it comes to defending America, it's not enough to just have an American presence in space. There has to be an American dominance in space" [36]
Space exploration, contrary to these militaristic statements, would have to prioritize the purpose of being able to repel asteroids from space. NASA's DART mission, successfully carried out in October 2022, shows that the need for future defense against dangerous asteroids has been recognized here. [37]
Of course, it must also deal with other civilian purposes, such as the influence of solar activity on Earth's digital networks.
Threat from shifting poles
Also of note are the currently observable shifts of the north and south poles and the associated changes in the planetary magnetic field. There may also be a complete reversal of the Earth's polarity in the medium or long term. This has already happened several times in the history of the Earth. This naturally has a considerable impact on digital communications and corresponding infrastructural networks on Earth. Precautions must be taken to prepare for this.
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"For centuries, the Earth's magnetic field was stable, but since 1840 it has been weakening, by one-sixth by now. The magnetic field, which extends far into space, still shields the Earth from radiation from outer space. How much longer?
An animation by the U.S. weather agency NOAA shows what's going on: the magnetic pole, which is located near the geographic North Pole, is shifting from Canada toward Russia at a rate of about one kilometer per week.
Pole migration is symptomatic of the Earth's changing magnetic field. Compass needles still point north, and the magnetic field protects the Earth - but the rapid shift of the pole has researchers asking, "Is a dangerous pole reversal looming?" [38]
Third, further research is needed on the impact of major solar storms on global infrastructure, and appropriate precautionary measures need to be developed for these events. Solar storms have already occurred in our lifetime, some of which led to the grid failure of larger regions, e.g., in Canada in 1989 and in South Africa in 2006.[39]
No more waste of resources
When these external threats are combined with internal global threats, such as the onset of global warming and the increasing danger of war, the conclusion must be reached even more decisively that existing resources must no longer be invested in the arms industry and military technology.
In addition, the Club of Rome calls for a stabilization of the earth's population on a full earth.[40]
More and more research funding needs to be invested, incentive systems and educational strategies developed to prevent the human population from continuing to grow (April 2017: 7.6 billion people, March 2025: 8.3 billion).
The overpopulation of the Earth leads to accelerated resource depletion and accelerates climate catastrophe. It also leads to a widening gap between rich and poor and to corresponding social disasters and also, of course, migration movements and the associated social conflicts.
Also in the health sector, for example with regard to the problem of the threatening ineffectiveness of penicillin or antibiotics or also the possibility of the occurrence of planetary epidemics, which so far can still be confined locally, research must be intensified, suitable medicines developed in global cooperation and prevention strategies planned. The Corona pandemic provides a glimpse of the potential magnitude of a planetary threat from pandemics.
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This list of massive internal planetary threats could certainly be continued (dominance of artificial intelligence, insect extinction, plastic littering of the oceans, drinking water shortages, air pollution, etc.), but it already makes it clear: humanity can no longer afford to destroy its ideas and creativity, its financial resources and its people for violent conflicts of various kinds or for the construction of weapons systems for use against other states or groups.
All surplus resources that are not necessary for global peace, which is to be secured by various types of global police measures on behalf of the United Nations (see chapter 5.6), must finally be used to deal with the imminent dangers to planet Earth and future generations of humanity.
The former Club of Rome presidents von Weizsäcker/ Wijkman (1917, 195) therefore make an energetic and well-argued plea for a radical shift toward planetary reordering and oppose pessimists who believe that nothing can be changed anyway:
"There is a way to a better future. It is the obligation of all of us to try to create this better world. It is possible for humanity to avoid collapse. But for this to happen, there is one thing that is more important than anything else: a new direction, or even a new 'narrative', or more profoundly, a new enlightenment to counteract what has put us on the speeding train. (...)
A new narrative would explain how to realize flourishing lives within ecological limits, how to realize universal well-being that meets all basic needs, and how to achieve sufficient equality necessary to maintain social stability and provide the basis for genuine security."
However, in my view, global power structures and economic interest groups that will try to work against this vision should not be overlooked here. The hegemonically mediated imperial way of life (Brand/ Wissen 2017) that a large part of the earth's population aspires to, which people especially in the global North have already developed, is also a major obstacle. Therefore, the demand for radical change must then also always specify who should be the bearers of this change and how this can be achieved through educational processes, civil society engagement, and regional and global organization in solidarity resistance to the tendencies to plunder the earth and exploit people, especially in the poorer regions of the world.
In this sense, in the next chapters a reorganization in holistic terms, i.e. taking into account the different levels or dimensions of human existence and understanding the interrelationships of these levels and the influencing factors, will be sketched and the first steps on the way to it will be outlined.
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Intermediate reflection
At this point in the book, the critical analysis and also the heuristics of fear envisioned by Jonas now end and give way to a positive vision of social development in a global context. To be sure, the negative scenarios in particular are not always easy to bear. But looking at a possible catastrophic future can bring about a jolt to oppose this possible development.
Within the last 20 years, the resilience of the planet has reached its limit or has demonstrably exceeded it in some areas.
The Doomsday Clock makes this clear: "The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains" and: According to the Doomsday Clock, which was founded and is calculated by Albert Einstein in 1947, among others, in January 2025 we are already 89 seconds before the destruction of the planetary foundations.
But in dwelling on a negative vision and without a positive vision of social development, this rebellion remains stuck in the negative and destructive. A jointly developed and supported positive vision is necessary in order to work with commitment, inner drive and joy on a successful future - together with similarly minded people - in different contexts of social engagement.
In this context, one cannot accuse such a vision of being visionary, just as one cannot accuse a utopia of being utopian. That is precisely its character and its peculiarity. A vision that is not visionary is no good.
Nor can a vision rightly be accused of not being directly linked to current world events and of not dealing with their limitations and restrictions. A positive vision of social development must free itself from this and clarify in ideal-typical terms where the journey is to go - even if it may take several generations.
Only then is it worthwhile to consider what initial steps can be taken in the direction of this unfolded vision, based on the current state of society.
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Notes
(Chapter 2)
[1] Reconstruction of events is based on https://www1.wdr.de/stichtag/stichtag-stanislaw-petrow-verhindert-atomkrieg-100.html, 9/26/19, 10/1/19, and https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/held-des-kalten-krieges-stanislaw-petrow-verhinderte-einen-atomkrieg-15206332.html, 9/19/17, 10/1/19.
[2] Parts of this negative scenario are based on the climate scenario of Spratt/Dunlop (2019)
and the newer world climate reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in case the 1.5 degree target is not reached and climate warming of two degrees or more should occur, cf. http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/klimawandel-ipcc-bericht-zum-1-5-grad-ziel-vorgestellt-a-1231805.html, dated 8.10.2018, 6.4.2019 and IPCC (2018, 2019).
[3] Federal Environment Agency (2008, 22).
[4] See, among others, Germund (2017).
[5] See, among others, Läubli (2015) and Stoller (2015).
[6] Cf. Dellmuth/Gustafsson/Bremberg/Mobjörk (2017, 1).
[7] Burchardt (2017).
[8] Adam (1995,78).
[9] Zartman (1995, 8).
[10] See the arguments in favor of humane interventions in Mills (2002), Walzer (2002), and Ignatieff (2002).
[11] Walzer (2002, 31).
[12] BDS = Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: international movement started by Palestinian activists and even some Israeli opposition activists, which opposes the oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli state and in particular the settlement of the West Bank. Here, the Israeli government is accused of apartheid and colonialism against the Palestinian population. The BDS movement is politically controversial, condemned for example by the German Bundestag as anti-Semitic and brought close to terrorist activities by the government of Israel. However, the movement defends itself against this, rejects the accusation of anti-Semitism and emphasizes its legitimate civil society character (cf. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment
_and_Sanctions, Dec. 1, 2019, Dec. 1, 2019).
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[13] Translation of Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 31) by Carver (2015)
[14] See, for example, Altvater (2006), Wagenknecht (2008), Scherrer/Dürmeier/Overwien (eds.) (2011), and Scherrer (2015).
[15] Oxfam Germany (2018, 4).
[16] Oxfam Germany (2018, 6).
[17] Cf. Ziegler (2015, 53)
[18] Cf. v.Weizsäcker/Wijkman et al. (2017, 68).
[19] Cf. v.Weizsäcker/Wijkman et al. (2017, 73 ff).
[20] Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine, March 2, 2018, p. 18.
[21] Cf. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/hacker-angriff-russische-hackergruppe-snake-wohl-hinter-angriff-15474037.html, 2.3.2018.
[22] Cf. the statement by v. d. Malsberg in: Die Zeit, 28.3.2018, p. 39.
[23] Meixner (2018).
[24] Translation of Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 25 and 27) by Carver (2015).
[25] On the concept of human antiquatedness, see in particular Günther Anders (1956) with the title 'Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen. On the Soul of Man in the Second Industrial Revolution'; and Morat (2006).
[26] Meixner (2018).
[27] On China's Social Credit, see e.g. System Gruber/Kühnreich (2017) and Hennig (2018).
[28] Reich (1948/2013, 22).
[29] Cf. https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/73297/WHO-Millionen-leiden-an-Depressionen, dated 23.2.2017, 27.8.2018.
[30] Cf. in more detail Keil (1988, 112ff.).
[31] In: http://www.unodc.org/wdr2018/en/exsum.html, n.d., 27.8.2018.
[32] In: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/112736/9789240692763_eng.pdf;
jsessionid=D855D8C4D60FA04FF15083420802C288?sequence=1, 2014, 27.8.2018.
[33] In:https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/76041/Rauchen-Millionen-Tote-Milliardenkosten-und-Umweltfolgen, from 30.5.2017, 27.8.2018.
[34] In: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/76041/Rauchen-Millionen-Tote-Milliardenkosten-und-Umweltfolgen, dated 4/9/2014, 8/27/2018.
[35] In: https://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/gut-zu-wissen/artikel/913707/was-wenn-ein-asteroid-die-erde-trifft-1, dated 6/23/2017, 8/27/18.
[36] In: https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article177796900/Weltraum-Trump-will-US-Militaer-um-Space-Force-ergaenzen.html, dated 6/18/2018, 8/28/2018.
[37] Cf. Nasa: Dart-Sonde hat Flugbahn von Asteroiden erfolgreich geändert. In: https://www.zeit.de/wissen/2022-10/nasa-dart-sonde-asteroid-erfolgreich-abgelenkt, 11.10.2022, 13.10.2022.
[38] Bojanowski (2018).
[39] Cf. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/weltraumwetter-die-gefahr-durch-sonnenstuerme-fuer-unsere-technik/13955920.html, dated Aug. 1, 2016, Aug. 27, 2018.
[40] v.Weizsäcker /Wijkman et al. (eds.) (2017, 34ff.).
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Being together requires clarity about oneself.
Chapter 3
The basis for a reorganization of international relations also lies in the psychosocial education of the individual
"It is necessary to find a concept that endeavors to operate in a new way all that has passed and to deliberate in a new way what is to come." (...) that helps to see to the end."
Ernst Bloch (1918/2018, 383): Geist der Utopie.
3.1 Inner worlds, sociality and social relations: Those who are not clear in their relationship to themselves also do not have clarity in their relationships to others
Positive peace in the holistic sense
The Norwegian conflict and peace researcher Johan Galtung argued, within the framework of his conception of positive peace, that peace should not be understood merely as the absence of war between societies. Positive peace is more comprehensive and represents an approach that can be described as holistic. This understanding of peace refers to both interstate conflicts and intra-societal disputes. Here, it is important for him to emphasize that conflicts between two opposing parties are usually related to conflicts within these parties and, of course, to psychosocial problems of the people involved in them - according to Galtung (1998, 12):
"Thus peace and violence must be seen in their totality, at all levels of the organization of life (and not human life alone). Interstate violence is important, more important still than that between the sexes and between generations. Not to forget intrapersonal violence, as spiritual (e.g., as repression of the emotions) as well as physical (cancer, for example)."
If the problems that continue to exist, e.g., due to the existence of enemy images, are not dealt with psychologically and pedagogically, at best a ceasefire will last for a certain time after a war before mental patterns again make their way to a renewed outbreak of violence.
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Plea for a universalistic ethics
In this context, Immanuel Kant already referred to the connection between lack of human maturity, cosmopolitan unreasonableness and destructive action on the world stage of political events in his essay "Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Intention," written in 1784:
"Since people in their endeavors do not proceed merely instinctively, like animals, and yet also not, like reasonable cosmopolitans, according to an agreed plan, on the whole: so also no planned history (as, for example, of the bees or the beavers) of them seems possible. One cannot help feeling a certain displeasure when one sees their doings set up on the great world stage; and, with now and then apparent wisdom in the individual, yet finally finds everything on a large scale woven together out of folly, childish vanity, often also out of childish malice and destructiveness: whereby in the end one does not know what concept one is to form of our species so conceited of its merits." [1]
The technologically advanced development of mankind stands in an obvious disproportion to its underdeveloped ethics, the often only weakly developed consciousness in dealing with itself, the immaturity in everyday life context and its dangerousness in the international context. Here, among other things, the fundamental question arises of how future generations can be protected from the immaturity and dangerousness of a large part of the people living at present. It is possible that the following generations will later think just as negatively about the generations living and acting now as the post-war generation of German youths did about their (National Socialist) parents and grandparents in the cultural revolution of 1968.
Religions, too, are generally not helpful in shaping peaceful thinking and feeling - – even if there are church groups that deal with peace issues. On the contrary, religions have served to legitimize violence and 'holy wars' for millennia. Because of their penetration into the psyche of people and the divine claim of being representative of rulers, they are suitable to be used for the economic and political enforcement of interests of the respective rulers. As a consequence of his basic criticism of religion, the Dalai Lama therefore calls for a universalistic ethic for the 21st century, which should take the place of religions:
"I am talking about a secular ethics that is also helpful and useful for over a billion atheists and for an increasing number of agnostics. More essential than religion is our elementary(fundamental) human spirituality. This is an inherent inclination in us humans to love, kindness and affection - regardless of what religion we belong to." [2]
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The urge to change conditions and structures through politics must have psychosocial and ethical prerequisites in the individual. Without this, a more of democracy, which thrives on the interplay between the protection of individual interest and solidary participation and altruism, will not be feasible. Political empowerment usually ends in personal enrichment and concentration of power if humane maturation processes cannot keep pace with political power gain.
Such processes of maturation must be laid out in the context of family and school socialization. The importance of formal and informal education cannot be overstated here. Schools would have to become a field of experience characterized by mutual encouragement and support. Later informal learning processes in life and work contexts would also no longer have to be characterized by competition and pressure to perform. Psychosocial growth, based on constructively resolved conflicts in alternative community forms and cooperation in projects of solidarity-based economies, enables maturation processes which are hardly possible in forms of sociality based on compulsive demarcation and hierarchy. But also the further development in adulthood due to continuing education as well as self-experiences in the context of humanistic therapy methods as well as by taking meditative ways of experience seriously can play an important role here.
How does one want to change the world, international relations, authoritarian structures, the handling of conflicts, the ecological behavior in dealing with our planet as well as the serious disparity of wealth, if the spiritual and emotional development of human beings lags far behind their technical-civilizational possibilities? [3]
Likewise, participation in citizens' initiatives, peace initiatives, political institutions and community experiences of various kinds are both training fields for psychosocial competencies and the application of the same. In particular, people who work for peace should also deal differently with one another in social conflict situations and show how to demand what one wants on a large scale can already be achieved on a small scale.
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Processes of inner civilization
Again Immanuel Kant recognizes far-sightedly the necessity of the inner civilization and moral cultivation of man, since only on this basis can peaceableness and cooperation in the international context develop:
"But as long as states devote all their forces to their vain and violent intentions of expansion, and thus ceaselessly hinder the slow effort of the inner formation of the way of thinking of their citizens, depriving themselves also of all support in this intention, nothing of this kind is to be expected; because to that a long inner working of every common being is required for the education of its citizens. Everything good, however, that is not grafted on a moral-good attitude, is nothing but mere appearance and shimmering misery. In this state the human race will probably remain until it has worked itself out of the chaotic state of its state relations in the way I have said." [4]
Inner civilization means working through one's own ego structures, existing enemy images and the behavior associated with them. This can be done through the individual processing of one's own biographical experiences, through educational processes, through psychotherapies or through mindfulness-based meditations, or through the combination of several of these possibilities of self-awareness. This is because a more altruistic attitude, which is the psychological prerequisite for an individual to behave peacefully in the world, rarely occurs on its own. Furthermore, because of numerous structural obstacles that hinder personal development and the unfolding of maturity, education and support must always be sought that as well endures against structural resistance.
Socialization processes can also be promoted via role models and an altruistically oriented social mainstream, which help to overcome the self-image of the exclusively 'private person' who sees only himself and his own interest in favor of a stronger social orientation. The interest in realizing one's own needs and altruistically motivated ways of acting have to come into a different balance than is currently the case.
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The role of therapy and meditation
In this context, ways of mindful practice that initiate, accompany and secure personal transformations take on a special significance, as they can be made possible in their own way in many yoga styles, e.g. hatha yoga or vinyasa yoga, and also in practicing qigong, tai chi and zazen. [5]
Peacefulness in the heart, love for oneself as the basis for affection for other creatures, and receptivity to personal transformation in a mindfulness-based and world-facing sense are the prerequisites for one's own peacefulness in individual and social behavior. Meditation, seen in this way, works here in a certain sense on a collective self of the world community as an opportunity for a globally lived peacefulness.
In order to prepare and stabilize the transformation of war-mongering and militarized structures on the psychological level, a self-work of the people and efforts in the pedagogical, spiritual-mental and therapeutic fields are necessary at the same time. People can only develop further on the collective level if, parallel and interlinked with this, a self-assurance and the recognition of one's own place in the world happens through meditation and therapy as well as education and training. Global peacefulness is not only dependent on the peacefulness of international organizations, institutions and groups, but is rooted in the peacefulness of the individual, in his knowledge and his inner mood that there are many people who think and feel similarly to him. Then this power can radiate and have an effect in one's own life-worldly social relations as well as in cultural and political commitment.
The death of a destructive civilization
The U.S. journalist and book author Roy Scranton (2015, 27) therefore calls for human civilization, which is characterized by the destruction of nature and wars, to learn to die:
"We cannot escape our fate. Our future will depend on our ability to confront it not with panic, outrage, or denial, but with patiance, reflection and love.
Our choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life we can't sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the present offers without attachment or fear.
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If we want to learn to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die."
Of course the dying of a destructive civilization also means that individuals should let the destructive civilization die within them and open up to a new vision of the humane.
Without the personal transformation of many people uniting worldwide, there will be no lived peace in and with the biosphere.
Nevertheless, it should be reminded once again at this point how the self is integrated into social structures and mechanisms and is to be considered in its interrelation between system, structure and personality – according to Horkheimer (1936/1992, 47):
"The purer bourgeois society comes to rule, the more unrestricted its effects, the more indifferent and hostile people are to each other as individuals, families, economic groups, nations and classes, the more the originally progressive principle of free competition on the basis of intensifying economic and social antagonisms acquires the character of a permanent state of war within and without. All who are drawn into this world form the egoistic, exclusionary, hostile sides of their being in order to maintain themselves in this harsh reality."
Yet we cannot wait for social structures to change, but are forced,because of the threatening situation and out limited life span, to begin immediately to resist, to change structures, to change ourselves, and to live differently. Theodor W. Adorno's point, "There is no right life in the wrong one," was intended to say that a change in the existential conditions of life is necessary for the right way of living. The social whole and how it is structured prevents the right life of the individual. [6] This is certainly consistent thinking, but still too compelling and too negative if taken literally.Perhaps he also wanted to provoke just this realization with this statement. Furthermore, in a newly ordered society, there are also problems and new conflicts developing. [7] Seen the other way round, capitalist societies are usually – with the exception of fascist societies – just not totally administered systems, but contain structures that allow political leeways and islands of alternative life. The numerous worldwide mass protests for peace, against the destructive excesses of the world trade system or against climate destruction and the manifold existence of alternative forms of work and life show that there can also be a 'right life in the wrong' to a certain extent. Also, the self-work and further development of the personality cannot wait for the 'right life', because without this no qualitative change of the social structures and the whole can succeed as well.
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Wilhelm Reich in his speech to the 'little man' (and to the 'little woman') makes it very figuratively clear in himself and in us that this self-work is not about the unattainable, but about the recovery of the living. In his vision of a life well lived, he combines self-perception and world-perception with the hope that this will result in social changes fought for together towards a more peaceful and happy world. Thus his address to the 'great' woman:
"And you are great when you say to your friend:
'I thank my fate that I was granted to live my life free of dirt and greed, to experience the growth of my children, their first babbling, grasping, walking, playing, questioning, laughing and loving; that my I kept my sense of spring and its mild wind, of the murmur of the brook by the house and the singing of the birds in the forest pure and free; that I kept away from the gossip of evil neighbors; that I was happy in the embrace with my spouse and felt the current of the living in my body; that I did not lose the direction of my being in confused times, and that my life had meaning and duration. For I have always listened to myself, and I have always followed the quiet admonishing voice telling me: There is nothing but this: to live life well and happily! Follow your heart, even if it leads away from the path of anxious souls. Do not harden, even if life torments you. And when on quiet evenings, after work, I sit with my beloved or my child on the meadow in front of the house, feeling the breathing of nature, then the song rises in me that I like to hear so much, the song of the many, the song of the future:
... Be embraced, millions ...! Then I pray to this life that it learns to administer its rights, to convert the hard and the fearful who sound the music of the cannons. They do it, after all, only because life escaped them.' " [8]
Notes
(Chapter 3.1)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Kant (1784, 41).
[2] Dalai Lama (2015, 12).
[3] Cf. also Adorno (1971, 126) on this discrepancy.
[4] Kant (1784, 49).
[5] Cf. chapter 3.4.
[6] Adorno (1951/1997, 43) and, interpreting, Roth (2002).
[7] Cf. Seel (2014).
[8] Reich (1948/2013, 123).
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Tamera: Ecologically and philosophically oriented living community in southern Portugal
3.2 Education and the work on the social self: Via empathic community Experiences to the educated self
Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change himself.
Leo Tolstoi
Habermas' [1] theory of communication and the associated discourse ethics represent the basis of communicative community experiences that can be described as peaceable and can also be considered the basis of international relations. On the one hand, communication processes based on equal speaking opportunies and on a discursive culture of deliberation and decision-making presuppose a certain level of education of the actors involved. On the other hand, they also represent communicative experiential situations that can emerge and contribute to the further development of the communication partners.
An empathic civilization
Central to the nature of communicative experiences which are mentioned is the term empathy.[2] Empathy in emotional and cognitive respects towards a communication partner is the psychosocial prerequisite for community experiences that can educate. The U.S. economist and publicist Jeremy Rifkin considers the concept of empathy to be so important that he speaks of "empathic civilization" as the necessary social form of the future, which is characterized by the fact that someone puts himself/herself in the place of another person, seeks to understand him and, on the basis of this impression, examines his own thinking, feeling and acting with an open mind.
Rifkin is convinced - and elaborates on this with numerous examples from the history of mankind - that man is not only egocentric, aggressive and power-driven, but that he also has a natural capacity for empathy:
"What does this tell us about human nature? It is possible that human beings are not inherently evil or intrinsically self-interested and materialistic, but are of a very different nature - an empathic one - and that all over the other drives that we have considered to be primary - aggression, violence, selfish behavior, acquisitiveness - are in fact secondary drives that flow from repression or denial of our most basic instinct?" [3]
However, it must be noted that there is an interaction between socially dominant developments and psychological effects on the people in a society. Social structures, economic developments, pandemics, ecological catastrophes, migration movements and flight or military threats change the way people think and feel. This weakens or strengthens the human capacity for empathic communal experience, depending on the central intentions of a social structure, a person's character, or also dominant tendencies that occur.
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The importance of education
In the same way, the institutions of education are subject to historical andsocial developments. Pre-military education in toughness and the development of enemy images in school are requested in other social formations than this is true for the promotion of social empathy. Just as societies create their own typical schools, social forces that are interested in changing society should change schools.
A vision of a peaceful world community needs people who are promoted and empowered to be peaceful in freedom and who have overcome their enemy images.
The transformation of global structures and the resolution of international conflict situations often have a counterpart on a small scale, in the micro-societal sphere. If change does not succeed there, it will hardly succeed in the macro-societal sphere. If an identity formation oriented towards solidarity, pacification and ecological commitment succeeds through educational processes, an important prerequisite for appropriate action within the subjective possibilities of the individual and the social scope of acting collectives, like political parties, trade unions and other civil society organizations, is given. In other words by using the example of 'sustainable development': Education for sustainable development enables a lifestyle, a peaceful and an ecological social coexistence, which can also exert social influences on the supra-regional level, change attitudes and ways of acting, which can certainly result in a political and economic power to be taken seriously in socio-political disputes. This is certainly a long-term process that requires courage in civil society, creativity and persistent social commitment.
Education in the sense meant cannot be prescribed or ordered in an authoritarian way. It can only be a matter of self-determined educational processes, of self-responsible learning in the balance of freedom and responsibility. The goal lies in liberation from tendencies of subjugation and aggressive destruction - according to Theodor W. Adorno (1971, 126):
"The thesis I would have liked to discuss with you is that barbarization is the most urgent question of all education today. The problem that arises is whether something decisive can be changed about barbarism through education. By barbarism I mean something very simple, namely that in the state of the most highly developed technical civilization people have lagged behind their own civilization in a strangely unformed way - not only that they have in their overwhelming majority not experienced the formation which corresponds to the concept of civilization, Not only have they, in their overwhelming majority, not been formed in a way that corresponds to the concept of civilization, but they are filled with a primitive will to attack, a primitive hatred or, as it is called in educated terms, a destructive instinct, which contributes its share to increasing the danger that this whole civilization, to which it already tends by itself, will blow up. However, I consider it so urgent to change that I would subordinate all other specific educational ideals to it."
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According to Adorno (1971, 137), educational processes must be characterized by a renunciation of authoritarian behavior; the "formation of a rigorous, rigid, and at the same time externalized superego" must be prevented in education. Educational processes must therefore be oriented toward the postulate of maturity and create the possibility of self-determination and critical faculties. [4]
The development of universalism and self-identity
The development of social empathy is a central educational goal.
Rifkin directly relates the concept of empathy to the humane civilizing process when he formulates:
"A heightened empathic sentiment also allows an increasingly individualized population to affiliate with one another in more interdependent, expanded, and integrated social organisms. This is the process that characterizes what we call civilization. Civilization is the detribalization of blood ties and the resocialization of distinct individuals based on associational ties. Empathic extension is the psychological mechanism that makes the conversion and the transition possible. When we say to civilize, we mean to empathize." [5]
Empathy is certainly a central psychosocial ability; if one examines the interaction process more closely, as is the case in symbolic interactionism, four prerequisites can be determined, at least in the sense of sociologist Lothar Krappmann's identity analysis, for high-quality role action in the attempt to develop a balance of social and personal identity in social situations:
· Role distance - the ability to distance oneself from role expectations;
· Ambiguity tolerance - the ability to tolerate other opinions;
· Empathy - the ability to think and feel one's way into another person;
· Identity presentation skills - the ability to show and contribute as an authentic personality in interactions. [6]
The promotion of these four abilities via correspondingly formative social experience and reflection of situations in educational processes increases the likelihood that people will be enabled to achieve a largely self-determined and consciously created balance of personal and social identity in corresponding interactive situations.
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It is a matter of overcoming the dilemma of role constraint, of being like no one else and yet being like everyone else - a structural requirement in social situations for which identity solutions must be found anew again and again in every new interaction situation.
The social self, i.e., a capacity for self-identity that is both principled and open enough to renounce psychic simplifications, is the psychosocial prerequisite for a world society with universalistic values and structures aligned with them. The morally founded inhibition threshold to regress in a national-chauvinistic, authoritarian and racist way must be built up in the personalities via educational processes of the most diverse kind, in order not to succumb to the seduction of simplifications in the face of highly complex social demands in an increasingly interconnected world society.
In this context, it is important in a holistic sense that the educating person learns to see himself as part of a whole and also to take responsibility for the whole in his everyday behavior, as far as this is possible for him.
The human personality that is resistant to the seductions and manipulations of national-chauvinistic thinking, nature-devouring nonsensical consumer needs and aggressive military strategies and that, equipped with a universalistic morality, feels itself to be a democratically oriented and committed citizen of the world, inclined to altruism rather than egocentrism, can only be an all-round educated person. An ethically guided education in its various facets is the key to the further development of the human. This does not mean the knowledge-fixated cramming school, but means an understanding of education, which understands school education as skillful initiation to self-education in responsibility for the whole. Schools and training programs should promote problem-oriented competencies that prepare learners for the present and future of responsible globalization and thus for a life oriented toward sustainability, respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence. [7] The continuation of an imperial way of life (Brand/ Wissen 2017) can no longer be a goal of school education.
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Central role of political and historical education
This includes the central role of sociopolitical education in the schools of the future, which have to be allocated considerably more time. Political and historical education attempt to use the controversy of topics and materials to enable learners to make their own political judgments as well as their own historical narratives. Within the framework of an interplay between teacher-structured and project-oriented teaching phases, the most independent possible analysis of, among other things, violent conflicts and cases of ecological conflict, the assessment of state and supranational political structures as well as peacemaking and ecological possibilities for action in a globalized context and their historical genesis are to be worked out.
In the context of critical political education, even the Chat GPT app can play a constructive role. In this case, it is not a matter of carrying out a convenient and quick information research, but rather the critical examination of the answers received from the app is in the foreground. It is therefore important to sensitize the learners to the use of this app through their own discoveries of untruths, misrepresentations and fake news, or to dispense with it in favor of their own investigations and research.
Democracy is not something that lasts, not something that is secured once and for all, but must be learned anew again and again with regard to its ethically founded goals, its opportunities for participation and its significance for human coexistence, as well as the historical struggle for democracy and the sacrifices made for it in every generation.
High-quality political and historical education on the scale necessary for this is an important basis for learning in democracy for the preservation and further development of democracy, where it should be improved.
Statements that claim that historical catastrophes should finally put to rest can be countered that by dealing with past injustice in schools, people can learn from people regardin disaster prevention. It must not be forgotten how many people have been oppressed, tortured and killed when social structures developed destructively. Almost every nation has a history of invading other nations and oppressing its population to a varying degree. When you start at the existential importance of the social interlocking of democracy and the rule of law can be recognized.
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Schools in democracy must be different
In this context, the structure of the school must not contradict the meta-goal of maturity. If maturity is to be associated with independent and critical thinking and action, schools must also take learners seriously and give them opportunities for co-determination within the framework of school structures as well as the participation concerning the content to be worked on and the methods used.
The possibility in a democratic school to experience democracy in a lifeworldly and practical way through co-determination possibilities and with perceptible consequences represents the necessary supplement to the education taught in political and history lessons. If, in this context, students are willing to participate in the organization and implementation of the Fridays for Future demonstrations, democratic schools should actually find ways to support this commitment. In any case, learners should not suffer any disadvantages as a result.
The creation of controversial public spheres within the school that stimulate critical reflection in the form of student assemblies, exhibitions, expert hearings and self-organized panel discussions also represent important elements of democracy learning.
In many regions and countries, innovative educational concepts and alternative schools are being developed dependent on public financial resources if they do not only aim to be schools for children from wealthier families in the form of private schools. [8] All the more important is the renunciation of armament spirals or the increase of defense budgets, so that the corresponding resources are available for the education sector and for the inclusive promotion of all children in all regions of the world.
Important social experiences can be made in the official social educational institutions, such as day care centers, schools, vocational training centers and universities, but also through nonformal learning experiences in the life contexts, such as in private families, in political initiatives, but also in alternative forms of living and working. The latter will now be the focus of attention.
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Alternative forms of life and society as a germ cell for changed educational processes?
The parcelling of human communities into isolated families or single households is to be countered by the counter-model of communitarian living communities. Communitarian groups, housing cooperatives, ecovillages and neighborhood networks represent solidary forms of human togetherness, which are politically (and also peace-politically) much more capable of action than parceled-out forms of social life.
Living together on a locally delimited living area combined with consensus-oriented participatory forms of communication, with regenerative energy production as well as community facilities for working together, with cultural offerings, opportunities for meditation and with forms of action towards the outside can increasingly become a counterweight to the destructive tendencies of world society, which are increasingly defined by authoritarian violence, exploitation of nature, social inequality and a lack of democracy.
Already existing supra-regional and international networks[9] of communitarian communities and ecovillages are also to be financially supported by the public authorities upon request and application, socially respected and taken into account in the civil society sense.
The network of the 'Global Ecovillage Network' (GEN), united in five transnational alliances[10] and encompassing about 10,000 ecovillages worldwide, shows that this is not just a matter of a few attempts, but that there is already a comprehensive global movement of ecological and solidarity-based ways of life. The self-conception of a community as a GEN ecovillage is defined as follows:
"An ecovillage is an international or urban community that is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability (social, culture, ecology, economy into a whole system design) to regenerate its social and natural environment. Ecovillages are living laboratories pioneering beautiful alternatives and innovative solutions. They are rural or urban settlements with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in their actions towards low-impact, high-quality lifestyles." [11]
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GEN has a consultative status as NGO at the UN-ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) and is partner of the UNITAR-CIFAL [12] initiative. The worldwide network is aware of the need for alliances and partnerships in the 'normal society', so that on the one hand the influence has an impact there and on the other hand social security strategies can become effective. In this context, GEN can develop connections between socio-ecological innovations and rooted indigenous culture:
"Through the sharing of best practices and innovative solutions and the honouring of deep-rooted traditional knowledge and local cultures, GEN builds bridges between policy-makers, academics, entrepreneurs and sustainable community networks across the globe in order to develop strategies for a global transition to resilient communities and cultures." [13]
In this sense, the I.L.A. Collective (2019) also develops in a groundbreaking publication a socio-politically founded conception to overcome the imperial way of life in production and consumption, and points to numerous approaches and concrete projects for a solidary way of life. The necessary social transformation is on the one hand the prerequisite for turning away from the imperial way of life, which puts people in competition against one another in an unsolidary way, makes the good life possible for some people at the expense of the poor, is based on profit thinking and capitalist production and destroys the ecological foundations. The solidary way of life, on the other hand, is characterized by participation and co-determination, by care for fellow human beings, by ecological agriculture, by a healthy lifestyle and corresponding health institutions, by environmentally sound mobility, solidary production and use of the goods produced, a changed energy infrastructure, and by a different design of living space and housing. This already exists as an active factor in the desired social transformation, which should be seen in a context with other, similarly directed civil society and political activities. [14]
This approach is compatible with the concept of the common good economy developed by Christian Felber (2018), among others, which has already been implemented in many international corporate projects. [15] Here, companies make a verifiable commitment to design their production or the creation of services based on ethical principles, such as solidarity or sustainability. This is linked to the demand that these companies be given tax relief and privileged treatment in the context of lending.
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In my opinion, the political communities that already exist worldwide meet the requirements of future problems best, the need for radical socio-political transformation and the demands for a way of life based on solidarity. Political communes can be classified as political in two respects: Through their way of living, deciding and working together, as well as through their political commitment - also in terms of peace policy - to the outside world:
"The political communities want to change social conditions. We already contribute to this to a certain extent through our alternative way of life. The long-term goal is egalitarian (free and equal) structures that make an emancipatory, solidary and ecological life possible. In this way we set a sign against an increasing isolation in a society strongly oriented towards consumption, purchase and exploitation of nature and for a human togetherness and sharing. Individuals in the communities are also active in different political fields, such as anti-fascist work, anti-nuclear policy, BUKO, free media work, international solidarity work, commitment to the preservation of crop work and against genetic engineering." [16]
An encouraging example: the Niederkaufungen commune (Germany)
The commune Niederkaufungen in Hesse near Kassel [17] is one of the oldest and largest communitarian living communities in Germany (since 1986). There live and work 80 people (59 adults and 21 children). It is an ecological and radical democratic community project that has been functioning well for decades and has a high recognition in the municipality of Niederkaufungen.
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About the self-image "The English-language generic term for living communities like ours is 'intentional community.' This means that the people who decide to join the community as communards share the principles, goals, intentions, reflections, values, etc. that the community has given itself and continues to develop with each other. The Niederkaufungen Commune sees itself as a living experiment in an alternative lifestyle. We want to learn to live and work together in a more solidary and ecologically sustainable way without hierarchy." [18]
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The members of the Niederkaufungen commune live on a large farm with main houses and outbuildings in various residential communities, have various social facilities in plenary and discuss their problems, projects and plans in small groups, and they have developed a number of decidedly successful economic projects and collective forms of enterprises. Attempts are made to involve all commune members in decision-making through various communicative strategies and according to a modified consensus principle. There are a number of collective enterprises of the commune that have an impact on the region, such as a day care center, a care initiative, a building project, a farm store, ecological agriculture, a meeting house, and an organic catering service.
The commune of Niederkaufungen sees itself as a decidedly political municipality, committed to non-violence, ecology, development projects and against racism:
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"In addition, on some topics such as Castor transports and the construction of the A 44, political activities more or less community-wide result from themselves. The cooperation in the Action Alliance against the Right, in the ecology and women's movement, the BUKO, the Free Radio Kassel, the Transitiontown groups in Kaufungen and Kassel, the Solidarity Agriculture, as well as in more conventional forms of political work such as designing and distributing leaflets, painting banners, organizing demos, contacts to local politics, etc. are, however, left to the interest and commitment of individuals. For many years we have been donating about 3% of our livelihood to projects in the global south and organizations that support such (Medico International, ASW). [19] [20]
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In particular, through its communitarian way of living and working, the Niederkaufungen commune represents a successful political counter-design to life in nuclear families and working within the dictates of business-organized private economic structures or in the service of the state. These kinds of life collectives possibly hint at the utopia of communitarian ways of life, which are not prescribed but develop in an increasingly networked and very individual and self-determined way. A new culture of life cannot be prescribed, but emerges from within itself and, with social creativity and imagination, develops new social ways of life that may prove superior to conventional forms of living and working in the future.
A serious approach is being taken to the fact that there can certainly be rudiments of a right life even in the wrong one, a right life that can also have a transforming effect on the wrong.
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Another encouraging example: Salecina (Maloja/ Switzerland)
Another positive example is the alternative education and meeting center Salecina in Maloja (southern Switzerland/Upper Engadine). At the beginning of the 1970s, the farm was acquired by the couple Theo Pinkus and Amalie Pinkus-De Sassi among others in order to provide an initial refuge for unjustly persecuted political activists in times of uncertainty regarding the rule of law, e.g., in Italy or Germany. After the persecution of the European left finally did not take place to the extent anticipated, the foundation was transformed into an international meeting and seminar center. There it was possible to go on holiday in a solidary framework, there were numerous political seminars - also with ecological topics - there were various cultural offers, many meetings and political discussions between people of different nations took place.
A graduated pricing model for accommodation, meals and seminar fees also enables people with lower incomes to participate in events.
The foundation is managed and supervised by an international board of trustees ('Salecina Council') in conjunction with various commissions. Four caretakers support the guests in Salecina. The guests take over the different house services together, clean and cook together. As a rule, guests spend the night in shared rooms. In the evening, during the day coordination, these services are discussed, there is often current political information, joint activities are arranged.
In Salecina numerous well-known political personalities discussed questions of a more democratic, peaceful and ecological future. Herbert Marcuse and Max Frisch, for example, were sought-after discussion participants in Salecina.
Salecina tries to be a part of the ecological movement in the Upper Engadine and to network with activities there.
The international seminar and meeting center Salecina is a successful example of a different communication culture, as a self-managed meeting and education center part of the alternative economy and shows forms of solidary coexistence for the future. [21]
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Tamera - a socio-ecological settlement project in southern Portugal
The settlement project 'Tamera' [22], located in the south of Portugal and based on solidarity, empathy, closeness to nature and interpersonal love, counting about 200 people, is also an expression of the collective attempt to find other forms of living, loving and working already now. [23]
The communitarian settlement project 'Tamera' is a center for peace research and education, so in its own self-image, but also with regard to the actual peace-political action activity. It is part of the 'Global Ecovillage Network' (GEN), in the framework of which, as described, about 10,000 ecovillagers worldwide have connected with each other.
'Tamera' was conceived by Sabine Lichtenfels and Dieter Duhmin the context of the student movement. He is the author of the widespread work 'Angst im Kapitalismus' (Fear in Capitalism [24]) and some other co-founders in an originally very barren landscape. Through permaculture projects, the karstified landscape was transformed into a water landscape with numerous lakes, riparian biotopes and irrigation systems for ecological self-sufficiency in food. There are various projects, such as the aforementioned ecological agriculture, the permaculture project, projects of solar energy production, an alternative school, research, among other things, on regenerative settlements, a publishing project (publishing house Meiga), a guest center, academies, courses and congresses, among other things, with peace-political content, as well as so-called grace walks to global conflict hotspots and the attempt to ensure international attention and peacemaking mediation there. The literary and also theoretical justification of this communitarian settlement work is presented in detail in the publications of Lichtenfels and Duhm [25] as well as on the Tamera homepage.
The settlement project already had various communitarian precursor projects in 1978 and was then continued on a larger scale in 1995 at the current location in southern Portugal. What is interesting here is the combination of political, philosophical and spiritual worldview, which does not lead to a retreat into private worlds, but with the attempt to connect inner and outer healing, also steps outward and tries to achieve changes on a global scale. Work is being done decidedly on the draft of a new post-capitalist world ('Terra Nova'), which is characterized by a different way of dealing with each other and the surrounding nature:
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"We are working for global system change: From war to peace, from exploitation to cooperation, from fear to trust.
Vision
We work for a future without war - for Terra Nova - by building healing biotopes:
futurological centers, in which the foundations for a future planetary culture of peace will be
are researched and developed in an exemplary way. Tamera supports people all over the world in building renewable, non-violent centers - through:
Research
on the ethical, social, sexual, ecological, technological and economic foundations of such a society
Training
and support of people who want to cooperate in the "Plan of Healing Biotopes
Networking
Building a planetary community that comes together in the spirit of Terra Nova." [26]
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The subject of sexuality is not ignored either, but is reformulated in the sense of an empathic and liberated relationship between lovees. Serious initiatives for a global networking of similarly minded communities and groups are undertaken with commitment. With the Grace Pilgrimages, 'Tamera' also goes into conflict-laden and problematic areas and tries to promote mutual understanding and empathy there - according to Duhm (2011, 129):
"The tears that an Israeli mother cries over her killed son are the same as those of a Palestinian mother. Many tears have already been cried, the pain was too great. Accusations and condemnations no longer serve any purpose, for they only prolong the spiral of violence. The young demonstrators in Cairo or Tripoli were as old as the policemen who shot at them. They could have been friends. The peace workers in the Colombian peace village of San José de Apartadó and the murdering paramilitaries could also be friends if they could leave the constraints of a terrible system."
Thus, 'Tamera' can be considered as one of the most exciting communitarian projects that, due to its duration, scope, different levels, research approach and international outreach, can play a significant role in the search for a human-ecological reorganization in the future.
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Rudolf Bahro's Rescue Logic - a social theoretical shipwreck?
The former GDR dissident and author of the internationally acclaimed work 'The Alternative', Rudolf Bahro, has undergone a rapid political and ideological development after his imprisonment in the GDR prison Bautzen II and his extradition to the Federal Republic. As a founding member of the 'Greens' in the Federal Republic, he initially tried to implement a rather radical ecosocialist policy. Encounters with philosophers, his own meditation practice, as well as a longer stay in the Bhagwan commune in Oregon led him to turn away from a more political-science-based viewpoint directed toward democratic change in social structures. Thus, from a more spiritual perspective, he criticized the Green Party as an exterminist party striving for a technocratic ecodictatorship, resigned, lived in communitarian contexts, and developed a social philosophical approach in which responsibility for the planet would emerge from inner change. In his two books 'Logic of Salvation' (1987) and 'Return' (1991) Bahro analyzes the psychological crisis of humanity as the cause of ecological and military destruction.
In Bahro’s opinion the industrial-capitalist mega-machine can only be stopped if a policy with a spiritual and moral claim is pursued in the sense of ego dismantling:
"A politics of conversion in the metropolises - as I call en bloc the countries of the First World - begins with the willingness of the bourgeois individual to change himself, even, in a certain sense, to give himself up" [27]
Bahro demands a radical restriction in consumption and nature consumption, which is the expression of a different attitude of mind, without which the apocalypse of planet earth cannot be stopped:
"Let's not just withdraw our electoral vote from the Big Machine and its servants. We must stop playing along at all, wherever possible. We must gradually cripple everything that runs in the old direction: Military installations and highways, nuclear power plants and airfields, chemical factories and large hospitals, supermarkets and learning factories.
Let's think about how to feed, warm, clothe, educate and keep ourselves healthy independently of the Big Machine. Let us begin to work on this before they have us fully run through, concreted in, poisoned, suffocated, and sooner rather than later totally atomized." [28]
Bahro creates a concept of communitarian development within the framework in which people should network globally as a new spiritual order. The theme is an inner orientation or a heart formation towards the divine order folded in the cosmos as a prerequisite for an activity in the world. The salvation could only lie in the spiritual change of the human being and would have thereby a priority political relevance:
"Only from there there is a radical and, in the exact sense, fundamentalist response. The bomb, Chernobyl, the misery of the world that grows with the expansion of our civilization are only impulses, but inescapable ones. We must trace the logic of self-eradication to the human heart, because only from there can the logic of salvation take its starting point." [29]
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Up to this point, one could possibly follow Bahro in one or the other position. But the further explanations let recognize where Rudolf Bahro's thinking then drifts and takes problematic features: No new order could save mankind if the spiritual foundations of greed and the associated will to destruction of man were not eliminated. Bahro therefore calls for the foundation of a worldwide network of communes, new monastic communities, the return of the prince of an ecological turn [30] and the return to the divine in man and in the world or to God:
"The ecological crisis, I say, is only the external impulse to cancel the nevertheless inevitable inversion that lies in this herostratic position of the would-be omnipotent I, from which we want to dispose of the world. This recovery of the heart so that it can see God, who is everything, including us, is that second birth that Jesus put on Nicodemus' heart in that night scene of John's Gospel." [31]
Bahro does not refer to a personified God, i.e., a spiritual supreme father, as in the monotheistic religions, but associates with the term 'God' the whole in every part, the universe, which also pulsates in man, if he can still perceive it. He understands by this the great balance in the cosmos as well as the folded-in divine order, which is there by nature and threatens to get lost in man.
It has to be asked critically why he works with the concept of God if he wants to distance himself from the monotheistic religions. Even if he was increasingly interested in Daoism and the Far Eastern paths of experience, it remains incomprehensible why he speaks conceptually of "seeing God" and the "recollection of the divine.
His promotion of authoritarian solutions in a global context and his ambivalent attitude towards National Socialism as well as Soviet-style Stalinism led to his being assigned - against his own self-image, of course - rather in retrospect to the 'new right' or to representatives of "folk-esoteric state doctrines" [32]. The following statement by Bahro suggests this:
"I consider the question of the positive, which was perhaps narrated in the Nazi movement and then perverted more and more thoroughly, to be an enlightening necessity, because otherwise we remain cut off from roots from which something saving could now grow." [33]
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Although it would be worth considering to cover the world with a network of communes and to promote these also with public funds. From Bahro's point of view the question arises whether more drastic measures would not be necessary in order to still be able to stop the military and ecological apocalypse. In this context, Bahro speaks of a "salutary tyranny," a sword to be wielded selflessly, of "a group of people" who overcome the distance "that separates every 'king of finitude,' and every queen too, from the original Great Order (...)" [34]
Bahro distances himself from left-wing intellectualism, from a "religious-political pedagogy burdened by the conceit of 'educators'", from a Western "ideology of emancipation" even from various varieties of democracy and democrats and calls for a "salutary tyranny", "ecodictatorial measures", the "prince of light" [35]. He openly puts the institutions of democracy to disposition - when he formulates:
"I mean, first of all, that no achievement of our civilization may now have the right of veto against vital changes, because exterminism is a disease of the whole organism; democracy and monetary economy are most closely connected; those who now even want to see certain institutions preserved at all costs, as is usually done, and not merely the democratic principle, and have nothing to put forward as justification but the negative experience of the Nazi period, are simply blocking any fundamental institutional change, and as a rule want to do so." [36]
Bahro sketches a utopia of a rescue society, in which a House of Lords ("House of Divinity") as well as an Ecological Council composed of wise men would have to seek the way out of the apocalypse. Here he does not exclude authoritarian state solutions, corresponding constitutional changes and despotic exercise of power in order to implement the "great order". [37] Here he is in close proximity to Heidegger, who only too gladly wanted to be the philosophical advisor of Adolf Hitler and fully supported the leadership. [38]
The left, which is critical of such solutions, discredits Bahro as pubescent:
"The mentality of the Western left, which on principle persists in a negative relation to authority, in an adolescent saying no to the father until one's hair has turned white, does not now stand up to criticism by the facts." [39]
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By using these formulations Bahro demonstrates that he lacks, for example, an intellectual examination and engagement with the works of the 'critical theory' or the 'Frankfurt School', which he possibly biographically skipped or missed due to his GDR life history, which he at best hastily dismisses as an ideology of emancipation, but does not concretely take note of. His political perspectives in the ecological and military doomsday scenario do not go in the direction of a timely democratization, but in an eco-dictatorial direction. With his call for a "measured revolution from above" and a "state above the state," [40] he shows that ideologically he was ultimately unable to break away from authoritarian state models or authoritarian models of Stalinism. Here, however, he does not argue Marxistically, but with a diffuse mix of formulations in spiritual-religious and socio-economic terms.
Although Bahro has some important things to say about the connection between inner experience and outwardly directed behavior as well as civilizational crises, he ultimately strays into quasi-religious formulations and into authoritarian claims of world salvation with a spiritual perspective. This is an expression of a fundamental distrust of democratic processes and of the power of an Enlightenment oriented toward the political and psychosocial demands regarding maturity, critical thinking, and socially emancipated behavior in structures that continue to be democratized.
Communitarian living communities may well be suitable for fostering social empathy and even further - ego-identity - in a different way than is the case in living conditions aiming at individualization and privatization, but also in the communes authoritatively functionalized by Bahro's visions. Finally, it is much more radical to ask about the communal and lifeworld preconditions of social love - a love that knows how to take into account both its own happiness and that of the other.
The development of social love in the triad of I-Thou-We shows a reference to the organization of social life, but contradicts a utopia of technocratic and instrumental personality formation. Thus, the social philosopher Friedrich Voßkühler (2017) examines the essence and the relationships between the triad of I-Thou-We and understands love between people as interpersonal truthfulness, which depends on social preconditions: "To perceive the other in his otherness and to do justice to his otherness, this is what I understand by interpersonal truthfulness." (p. 304) The ideal human community is built on truthful interpersonal relationships. In this context, the realm of necessity designed by Marx must first be reached, in which man no longer allows himself to be dominated by nature, but instead he controls the metabolism with nature communally, so that he comes closer to his own potential development and the actual realm of freedom. (p. 331 ff.)
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Only in the ideal human community in this sense love as interpersonal truthfulness finds its conducive social background. This community cannot be a technical utopia or vision of "technical self-empowerment" (p. 379), which slides into the transhuman. The ideal human community is characterized by responsibility for each other. Only then does love find a social framework that fits it: "Love is the elementary form of the 'ideal human community'. It is elementary fellow humanity." (p. 391) The ideal human community, according to Voßkühler, is certainly not a capitalist society based on private property:
"What, then, is called for? Humanly sovereign abstinence from the crypto-religious promises of capitalism. The abstinence from the seductive forces of false happiness. The courage to want to do without this promised happiness" (p. 482).
In conclusion and to summarize Friedrich Voßkühler: "Love and the struggle for social emancipation belong together." (S. 484)
Psychoanalyst and sociologist Dieter Duhm supports this assessment with his experience gained in various communitarian projects over 40 years. According to Duhm (2015, 67), the growing communitarian movement, which is based on interpersonal love and living in harmony with nature, gives rise to the hope that a planetary networking of such human healing biotopes will occur:
"The new planetary community will spread rapidly once the first working models exist. The construction of healing biotopes, model universities, regional centers, new settlement models with water-retention landscapes, of ecological city districts and futurological desert cities, global forms of communication and networks of a new kind - these are things we are likely to see worldwide as early as the next two to three decades."
In summary can be stated: Education and work on the personal and social self in the sense of promoting social empathy and self-confident identity development depend on community forms that are conceived in solidarity and responsibility. These forms of human socialization offer the prerequisite for the formation of personalities who resist the destruction of ecological order, the militarization of the world, the dismantling of democracy and unjust living conditions. Here then - in the case of the success of a communitarian project - the processes of inner experience triggered in social coexistence prepare for the responsible change of external structures.
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The historical experiences of real socialism, on the other hand, have made it clear that a society oriented towards solidarity, humanity, environmental preservation and distributive justice cannot be achieved via power-hungry, authoritarian socialized and intolerant personalities and their state terror. Over the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' there will be again only an unfree society. Structures of rule, once built up with authoritarian and undemocratic personalities, will not pass by themselves into a liberated social formation, but will try to maintain themselves through the establishment of state-bureaucratic dictatorships.
This means that a commitment oriented toward changing external structures would also have to have an equivalent in terms of inner experience in the sense of education-oriented self-work. Nor can one's own social environment remain exempt from this; the conscious shaping of interpersonal relationships - whether in the form of communal communities or relationships and assistance within good neighborly networks - are part of identity formation and thus also of empathy development.
Allies against structural violence
Structural violence always has an internal view and a subjective component that needs to be addressed – once again Johan Galtung (1998, 12):
"Conflict is not exhausted in what the naked eye recognizes as 'unrest,' as direct violence. There is also the violence frozen in structures and the culture that justifies that violence. Incidentally, the most important task in trying to transform a conflict between parties is not just to find a new architecture for their relations, but at the same time to help the parties transform themselves so that their conflicts do not reproduce themselves forever. Most conflicts between parties have intra-party aspects."
A new order cannot wait for the right world, but must be fought for and experienced now and in the near future in first comprehensible steps, otherwise it will remainonly a mental construction.
All over the world, alternative communities of life are currently forming in different cultural contexts with forms of common good-oriented economy and peaceful forms of communication based on discursive participation and empathy. A reorganization in the global context begins already from the basis and could become the nucleus for a replacement of the social structures based on economic growth, profit orientation, environmental destruction, on sham democracy and autocracy as well as on armament and wars. Such intellectual and practical approaches encourage people to try out new things and to open themselves to new living conditions. Here, in living through conflicts, in working together within the framework of an economy oriented toward the common good and ecology, and in the interpersonal experience of humane love, the future can already begin.
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However, according to Bahro (1991) problematic developments are also possible if communitarian development leads to spiritual autocracies. Therefore, democratic structures and the implementation of an economy oriented to the common good are essential for the communitarian ways of life meant here as germ cells of a global reorganization.
A structural change towards a global reorganization does not happen inevitably and automatically, but means a tough and long-term struggle of the developing alternative communities and networks with those societal inertia forces that expect a political and economic advantage from the existing destructive structures. Therefore, communitarian networks need to find alliance partners in the local, national and international political system with whom to work together on a global reordering. The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) with its networks and partnerships in the social environment and also with the United Nations is on a promising path here.
The time is becoming increasingly scarce due to the occurring climate catastrophe, the increasing armament and the thus growing danger of world war, still existing social impoverishment as well as the growing irreconcilability of cultural differences. All the more important is the worldwide growth of these alternatives of socio-ecological life as germ cells of a new global order.
Notes
(Chapter 3.2)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Cf. Habermas (1981).
[2] See also Moegling (2019a).
[3] Rifkin (2009, 18).
[4] Cf. Moegling's (2017, 32-49) reconstruction of critical theory in the context of educational concern.
[5] Rifkin (2009, 24).
[6] Cf. Krappmann (1971 and 1978).
[7] See, among others, Moegling (2017).
[8] For international examples of educationally innovative schools, see Moegling (2017, 504ff.).
[9] See, e.g., Dice (2014), Kommuja (Network of Political Communities) (2014), and Global Ecovillage Network: https://ecovillage.org/about/about-gen/, n.d., 10/26/19.
[10] GEN's five networking regions are: Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, and Oceania. More details on the individual regional networks at: https://ecovillage.org/regions/, n.d., 10/26/129.
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[11] https://ecovillage.org/about/about-gen/, n.d., 10/26/19.
[12] Vgl. https://unitar.org/about/offices-training-centres-around-world/cifal-global-network, o.D., 24.4.20
[13] https://ecovillage.org/our-work/, n.d., 10/26/19.
[14] Cf. in more detail I.L.A. Collective (2019).
[15] Cf. in more detail chapter 4.1.
[16] Redaktion Kommunebuch (2014, 130); BUKO = Bundeskoordination Internationalismus, http://www.buko.info/wer-wir-sind/, n.d., 25,918.
[17] In: https://www.kommune-niederkaufungen.de/.
[18] In: https://www.kommune-niederkaufungen.de/, n.d., 30.7.2018.
[19] ASW = Aktionsgemeinschaft Solidarische Welt e.V., https://www.aswnet.de/projekte/afrika/projektuebersicht.html?no_cache=1, n.d., 25.9.2018.[20] In: https://www.kommune-niederkaufungen.de/uber-uns/grundsatze/linkes-politikverstandnis/, n.d., 30.7.2018.
[21] Cf. http://www.salecina.ch/salecina/, n.d., 8/28/2018.
[22] Address: Tamera, Healing Biotope 1, Monte do Cerro, 7630-392 Reliquias, Portugal,
[email protected].
[23] While I could make my own experiences and observations in the community projects 'Salecina', 'Kommune Niederkaufungen' as well as with Rudolf Bahro/'Kommune Niederstadtfeld' (see further on), I can only describe 'Tamera' from within its system, through conversations and on the basis of video recordings, book publications as well as conference live-circuits.
[24] Cf. Duhm (1972).
[25] See, e.g., Lichtenfels/Duhm (2015), Lichtenfels (2017), Duhm (2015), Duhm (2011).
[26] Taken 8/23/19 from the home page of Tamera at https://www.tamera.org/de/.
[27] Bahro (1987, 10).
[28] Bahro (1987, 17).
[29] Bahro (1987, 19).
[30] Bahro (1987, 459).
[31] Bahro (1991, 90).
[32] Schölzel (1998, 74).
[33] Bahro (1987, 461).
[34] Bahro (1987, 472).
[35] Bahro (1987, 472ff.).
[36] Bahro (1987, 481).
[37] Bahro (1987, 493).
[38] Ellenberger (2018, 401).
[39] Bahro (1987, 495).
[40] Bahro (1987, 480).
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3.3 Humanistic psychology and therapy methods
"We talk to each other about your life.
People are terribly unhappy, insecure, miserable, unemployed by the millions, in poverty, hunger, suffering, pain, just like yourself; they are no different from you. You may call yourself Hindu or Muslim or Christian or whatever you like, but in your consciousness, inside, you are just like the rest of the world. You may be dark brown, you may be light brown, you may have a different government, but every human being participates in this terrible world.
We made this world - do you understand?
We are the society. If you want society to be different, you have to start, you have to create order in your house, your house, which is yourself."
(Krishnamurti 1992, 59)
When formal and informal educational processes in schools, families, work and life contexts, or among friends do not help, therapeutic procedures can be used to alleviate, perhaps even eliminate, for example, aggressiveness, authoritarian fantasies of submission, sexual fixations and social both internal and external destructiveness, depression and neurotic anxiety.
The importance of corporeality
The procedures of humanistic psychology [1] point to the relevance of the corporeal. Biographical experiences in a society stand out in the corporeal, just as the annual rings of a tree say something about its age. A trained therapist can tell from a person's postures and gait what basic biographical problems he or she is dealing with. For example, a person who has spent a large part of his life in dependence and submission tends to bodily abduction, retraction of the head, shortening of the chest muscles, and confinement of the heart muscle. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has made clear in his work how a social structure habitually incorporates itself into human beings through processes of personalization ("social order made body") (Bourdieu 1987, 740).
Leibanthropology, e.g. Plessner's (1928/1975) distinction between ‚Leib and Körper‘, also provides starting points for considering the bodily positionality of the human being in the world as body (Leib)-being, against which body(Körper)-having, i.e. the availability of the corporeal, is to be examined. ‚Leiblichkeit‘ in German usage denotes something other than the concept of the body. A body-oriented medicine, for example, reifies the corporeality of the human being and considers, for example, the heart or the gall bladder under a scientific-medical perspective. This can sometimes be useful, but it finds its limits where the psychosomatic causes of problems with the heart or gall bladder are concerned. The heart, for example, from a bodily perspective is an expression of the emotional subjectivity of a person, his biographically significant experiences and includes the psychological and life-world-social dimensions.
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Therapies based on the physical
Especially approaches of the bioenergetic therapy, which are based on Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen, use this knowledge with intentions of liberation. Through experiences opened up in postures, breathing, crying, touching and movements, a bodily access to the human being is opened up, so that psychic problems and problems embodied in the human being are freed for reflexive processing.
Gestalt-therapeutic methods based on Fritz Perls, which start with the person's perception and ability to imagine, also include the bodily in the therapy. The person undergoing therapy is brought back to his or her own present experience. Perls calls a person who cannot decide on priorities because of his latent anxiety, who is torn between different social demands, a neurotic:
"The neurotic has lost (or perhaps never developed) the ability to reconcile his behavior with the necessary hierarchy of needs. He literally cannot concentrate. In therapy he must learn to discover and identify with his needs; he must learn to be fully involved in what he is doing at every moment, to persist in a situation until he can close the gestalt and move on to other business." [2]
Questions can be asked of this: How neurotic then is the majority of people, who grind themselves between the various consumer needs, career desires, family expectations and manipulative offers of the media, without recognizing where the real priorities are to be set? Democracy, freedom, protection of nature and peace should be the top priorities for the life of every human being. But where does the energy of man go? Through which mechanisms of fear building and manipulation is man prevented from setting the right priorities?
Threats and split-off needs, such as in sexuality, are often repressed, seemingly erased in perception, but return on the bodily level as perceived illnesses. Neurosis arises via surrendering oneself to social expectations in structures of domination, without being able to find a meaningful balance between accepting and rejecting expectations in the context of priority decisions.
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In particular, Integrative Therapy, developed and disseminated in Europe by Hilarion Petzold, incorporates an even broader range of bodywork into whole person therapy, such as dance therapy, massage, play-back theater, and sitting meditation. Integrative therapy also seeks to relate bodily, social, psychological, and socio-ecological levels and expose the person to his or her subjective question of meaning - according to Petzold (1988, 342):
"Therapeutic work is about the unmasking and elimination of meaninglessness in the individual and the social reality of the human being, it is about the constitution of meaning in the intraorganismic, intrapersonal and interpersonal relations as well as in the relations to the closer and wider social and physical environment. (...) Because of these anthropological premises, every therapy is ultimately body therapy and placed in a social and ecological context, that of the lifeworld."
In particular, the storage of body tensions due to sexual repression is addressed by Alexander Lowen following Wilhelm Reich. Through postures, touches, ways of moving connected with different ways of breathing, sexual needs and feelings are exposed and brought to a therapeutic processing.
An exaggerated aggressiveness can - according to Lowen - be related to repressed sexual needs, when the split-off sexual energies in the body lead to muscular imbalances and are then discharged in interpersonal aggression:
"A neurotic person maintains equilibrium by binding his energy through muscle tension and choking off his sexual arousal. A healthy person does not strangle his sexual sensations and does not block his energy by bulding a muscle armor. Therefore, he can devote all his energy to sexual activity or other creative self-realization." [3]
The living out of a rich and at the same time responsible sexuality is a cultural achievement that takes place with the consent of a partner and is characterized by sensitivity, cordiality and affection. This can unfold between man and woman as well as between same-sex partners. Also the erotic devotion to oneself can be part of this responsibly lived sexuality.
In the case of war, however, the body is suppressed and destroyed in the clash of bodies or by their technical aids. How important it is that people feel at home in their bodies, that they respect and value them. All the greater will be the resistance against warmongering and against the authoritarian attempt of being pressed into military service.
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Foundations of a wholesome interrelationship
The repression of the sexual, the disregard of emotionality, the bodily aggressiveness outwardly and inwardly and the associated lack of development of inter-bodily empathy would have to be dealt with within the framework of holistically designed educational processes - and in extreme cases - in therapies starting with the body. Appreciation and sensitive attention to one's own body are certainly two of several peace-building factors on the personality level.
When chaos has occurred, however, it is too late. Every bodily order is destroyed in case of war, the human being is deprived of his body - according to Gert and Till Bastian (1986, 307):
"Being at home in the world and in one's own body sinks into the chaos of war. Boundaries dissolve, contours evaporate, what is firmly established melts away. Like no other event, war threatens to dissolve the continuity of bodies by burning, tearing, fragmenting, shattering the soldier. This maximum threat to the body is anticipated in an inner continuity decomposition: thinking evaporates, the boundaries of feeling melt. (...) Also in the interior of the warlike man energies are released which have no less destructive effect than bombs and shells on the debris landscape of the battlefield."
In chapter 1.7 the frightening figures from worldwide statistics on drug addicts and deaths, on depression and chronic anxiety, and on suicide attempts and deaths by suicide were named. Social conditions of excessive exercise of power and structural abuse of power as well as often connected with it a failed biographical search for a justifiable and realistic meaning of life were held responsible as a substantial cause of these mass diseases of the human psyche. The feeling of being at the mercy of domineering structures leads to depression and neurosis. Here, therefore, we shall argue that a positive vision of social development can help stabilize the human psyche. When people increasingly identify themselves with what they can work for socially, their lives make sense again. Contact with like-minded people in socio-political commitment in particular is likely to have a healing effect, freeing people from latent fears and creating new life connections. The positive effects are very likely to be: People take fewer drugs, fall ill psychosomatically to a lesser extent, and commit suicide less often. Healing is possible in the shared commitment to a free, peaceful, just and ecologically sustainable world. Conflicts between committed people also occur here. But mature people would have to deal with conflicts differently and be able to emerge strengthened after the joint conflict management.
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In the case of success achieved in solidarity, both influences mutually reinforce each other in a direction that strengthens health: the human maturation process, the joint commitment and the world that can be changed for the better could be the basis of a healing interrelationship - according to the positive vision.
A longer and recurring process
The understanding of peace advocated here, as already mentioned, is therefore based, among other things, on the reflections of the peace and conflict researcher Johan Galtung, who warned against confusing ceasefire and peace. An understanding of positive peace is more than absence of military conflict. Cultural forms of violence may still be present, manifesting themselves in images of the enemy and cultural reservations about entire societies. If such expressions of cultural violence are coupled to forms of structural violence within the context of a society that is obedient to authority and authoritarian, then peace cannot occur, at best a ceasefire for a period of time before war breaks out again. Galtung (2004) describes the path of a comprehensive (positive) peace as a recurrent and longer-term work on social civilization:
"Generally speaking, the direct, concretely visible use of violence may come to a vaunting end, but on the other hand, structural and cultural violence increase in the process. Violence therapy must learn from disease therapy: including prevention - one builds on structural and cultural peace – and include rehabilitation, i.e. one builds anew on structural and cultural peace. And again and again."
Reconciliation instead of a spiral of hatred: the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
An outstanding example of a culture of reconciliation within a social conception of positive peace, which is about more than the absence of intra-societal war, can be seen in the work of the South African 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' supported by Nelson Mandela.
The colored South African population would have had the power to take brutal revenge on the white population after the long years of inhumane apartheid in South Africa. Under the influence of the later Nobel Peace Prize winner and South African President Nelson Mandela, the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' (TRC) was founded after a corresponding parliamentary resolution (1995), whose task was, among other things, to deal with trauma in personal encounters between victims and perpetrators, to promote insight and remorse, to grant amnesty, and to initiate processes of forgiveness despite the terrible experiences under the apartheid regime.
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The TRC was initially established to provide for the public identification and documentation of crimes committed during the apartheid era between 1960 and 1994. It consisted of two chambers. The Human Rights Committee was responsible for victims' petitions and public hearings. The Amnesty Committee facilitated an amnesty following full disclosure of past crimes and a debate with the victims of those crimes.
Traumatic experiences in the course of violent situations suffered can burden a surviving person throughout his or her life if they are not brought to consciousness and consciously processed. Often traumatized people become perpetrators of violence themselves again because of these unprocessed traumatic experiences. [4]
TRC member Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela [5] , a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Cape Town, looks back on the TRC's reconciliation work:
"In the era at the beginning of the 21st century, marked by the pursuit of revenge through nefarious murder and bloody massacres, where cruel wars are waged with weapons of mass destruction and peace treaties between former enemies are abrogated and end in the endless cycle of bloody conflict, where heads of state are not above publicly expressing their desire to target other leaders and 'wipe them out,' I am proud to be a South African. South Africa today serves as a cautionary tale of how political leaders can overcome hate and embody a vision of dialogue, peace and reconciliation." [6]
Through the encounter and communication of perpetrators and victims, it was possible to a great extent that traumas could be overcome, no new hatred was generated and forgiveness on one side, insight and remorse on the other side emerged. In this process, both sides had to learn to perceive themselves as human beings - on the one hand not as inferior blacks and on the other hand not as violent white monsters.
However, it must also be noted that not everyone shared the TRC's intentions and work without contradiction. Some victims of the apartheid regime demanded stricter punishment of the perpetrators; perpetrator circles, in turn, saw the TRC's committees as an act of revenge by the black population against the whites ¬ in other words, exactly the opposite of the TRC's humanitarian intentions. Nevertheless, on the basis of the many experiences of debate and reconciliation, the TRC's activities can be regarded as a historically unique success that has been decisive for the transformation of South African society toward a more democratic structure, which still has to be fought for.
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela wisely sums up the work and intent of the commission:
"Ordinary people are capable, under certain circumstances, of committing far worse crimes than we ever thought possible. Likewise, we are capable of far greater virtue than we would ever suppose. To restore the humanitarian spirit in our society, to open the door to the possibility of transformation, we must be guided by the compassion that unites us as human beings. We can only achieve this goal - to regain our humanity - through ongoing dialogue about our past." [7]
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Notes
(Chapter 3.3)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] In outlining the therapeutic approaches, special attention should be paid to methods that are based on the body. Of course, methods of psychoanalysis or conventional behavioral therapy are also helpful with corresponding indications. The bodily point of reference is to be emphasized, since the body is the anchorage of man in the world, so that also military interventions are connected with the dressage of one's own body and with the destruction of the body of the others.
[2] Perls (1982, 37).
[3] Lowen (1984, 9).
[4] See Gobodo-Madikizela (2006) for a more detailed discussion of the relationship between collective traumas suffered and social pacification.
[5] Member of the TRC from 1996-1998.[
6] Gobodo-Madikizela (2006).
[7] Gobodo-Madikizela (2006).
Every person can become the power source of a change.
3.4 Meditation as experience of self and world
On the present understanding of meditation (1)
There are various significant ways of a holistic processing of biographical experiences and an opening of consciousness for new life perspectives and social developments. In this context, besides institutional educational experiences, life shared in solidarity, therapies and systematic conflict management in the context of social transformation processes, meditation plays a significant role - even (or perhaps because of) this is a path that does not primarily originate from the Western cultural area.
In Zen Buddhist and Daoist tradition, meditation is to be understood as the experience of alertness inwardly and outwardly. It is about a complex and at the same time differentiating attentiveness towards all processes of the living. Here, meditation is not seen as drifting into nirvana and as mystical speculation or even as an experience of deity. Therefore meditation loses its appropriating religious grasp. Meditation, thus understood as an intensive experience of mindfulness, keeps in a holistic sense connection to carefully worked out ways of practice of ancient cultures as well as to methods of humanistic psychology [2], to ecological demands, to peace-political as well as health-scientific approaches. [3]
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Becoming attentive to one's own psychological structures, to one's own corporeality as well as to the environmental conditions within the framework of a meditative path of is a good prerequisite for a political commitment in a regional and supraregional context. Meditative mindfulness is the core of any body-ecological practice. Here an ecological approach to the world comes into harmony with one's own approach to the body. Both approaches are about mindfulness as well as respect.
Precisely in the re-sensitization for the corporeal in the sense of a bodily-ecological understanding, could lie the consciousness key for the respect and careful use of nature in the extracorporeal realm.
Even if Krishnamurti (1992, 131ff.) is right in saying that in the prevailing meditation methods, e.g. to meditate sitting for half an hour every day, the actual goal is not laid out, but it is founded in the everyday becoming attentive to one's own perceptions, thoughts, feelings and actions, some suitable meditation practices shall now be briefly introduced. They can at least help to find oneself and to become attentive, but they are not an end in themselves and can be replaced by comparable ways of practicing.
Attention is a priority decision for the here and now. What I do, I do consciously. This contradicts both the professional demand for 'multitasking' and media productions that want to manipulate and prepare for social purposes.
Various non-religious and philosophically based meditation practices that start from bodily experience can point the way to attention and mindfulness here: [4]
Zazen
Zen Buddhism must not be confused with religious currents of Buddhism, such as Shintoism. Zen Buddhism is a teaching of mindfulness - not a religion characterized by the fictitious presence and worship of God. Zen is associated with the conscious perception of the everyday - according to the Japanese professor of Zen Buddhist philosophy and practicing Zen Buddhist Daisetz T. Suzuki (1984, 50):
"For Zen has no God to worship, has no ceremonial rite to observe, no future in the hereafter to which the dead are consigned, and, finally, Zen has no soul whose salvation must be considered by any other, and whose immortality other people must concern themselves with. Zen is free from all such dogmatic and 'religious' burdens."
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Therefore, Zen Buddhism is connectable to enlightened Western thought. The Zen Buddhist practices - similar to the Daoist practices - are a strict and precisely ordered system of knowledge, which with its experience-oriented methods, such as zazen and kinhin, trains people to be attentive to the present.
There is nothing spectacular in this and there is no exaggerated mysticism:
"Zen seeks to take hold of life where it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious in Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds drifting over the nearby woods: with all this I practice Zen, I live Zen. (...) I don't know why - and it doesn't need any explanation, but when the sun rises, the whole world shouts with joy, and all hearts are filled with bliss. If Zen is at all comprehensible, it must be grasped from here."
(Suzuki 1984, 103)
The main method of practice in Zen Buddhism is very simple - zazen. During zazen, one sits in a precisely constructed posture in calmness and composure. Thoughts that arise are contemplated like passing clouds in the sky and are also let go. At some point it occurs: Thoughtless presence. It is complete attention and complex perception while sitting.
A phase of meditative walking is often inserted between two phases of zazen. Here a space is traversed in slow motion on a fixed path with the hands in front of the heart area (e.g. in a circle or square). Here, deep breaths are taken into the abdomen and the feet are placed and rolled very slowly and attentively.
This mindfulness-based understanding of meditation can also be found in other Zen arts. In Zen archery, after a long period of inner contemplation and concentration on the target, the shot of the arrow takes place without willful firing ("It shoots"). This presence is also found, for example, in the art of flower arranging, the tea ceremony or in calligraphy understood as meditation.
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Zen Buddhism also includes riddles that are difficult or impossible to solve ("Do you hear the clap of one hand?"), so-called 'koans', into which one can immerse oneself and thereby step out of the normal tracks of thought. Conversation with the meditation teacher or Zen master ('sanzen') is also part of Zen practices.
The spiritual state in the awareness and unity of day-consciousness and subconsciousness, in the meditative connection of self and world is called 'Satori' in Zen. The attainment of a higher form of consciousness, characterized by peacefulness and maturity, takes place without a god and without metaphysical experiences that enter via divine guidance. Once again, the essence of Zen is practical practice and can be seen in everyday things,
"because Zen can experience an unfathomably deep thought just by picking up a finger, by a good morning greeting to a friend we meet by chance on the street. In the eyes of Zen teaching, the most hidden is at the same time the most practical and vice versa. The whole teaching system of the Zen school is only the reflection of this basis of experience."
(Suzuki 1984, 45).
Through Zen, a way is given to step out of lack of selfawareness and to leave one's inner prison constructed by the unconscious and cultural constrictions. It is a matter of learning to look into one's own being, to become aware of it and to live it - so again Suzuki (1984, 59):
"If Zen is understood in the deepest, the mind attains perfect peace, and a person lives as he should. What higher do we want?"
Qigong
Qigong was originally described in the earliest texts as Tui-na (推拿), breath exercises, and Dao Yin (导引), or exercise postures. It was also used in Taoism as a way of attempting physical and spiritual immortality. It is a term that describes a very complex and diverse tradition of spiritual, martial and health exercises from China. The word Qi Gong is a modern term that categorize over 1500 different styles of these exercises into a meaningful context.
Qigong is a meditative movement art, which can be assigned to Daoism (Taoism) and NeiJing (内经)/TCM theories, among other things. Qigong promotes the observance of the Yin-Yang principle, the principle of not wanting to force ('Wu-Wei'), through the relationship between breathing and energy in the understanding of 'Qi' and the orientation to the movement quality of slowly flowing water. Like Zen-Budhism, such Daoism is not a religion, but a philosophy that is very close to nature and peace-loving.
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The central Daoist work of Laodse (Laotse, LaoTzu, Laozi or also Laudse), the Daodejing (also Tao te king or Daudejing) - translated 'The Book of Meaning and of Life' (in the translation made by Richard Wilhelm) - was written with its 5000 characters and 81 verses in the 4th century before the Western calendar. Two excerpts from the verses of the Laodse make clear the peaceful background of the work in a time of numerous warlike conflicts between the different empires - so first an excerpt from the verse 31:
"Weapons are ominous devices, all beings hate them.
Therefore, who is with the Dao does not want to know anything about them. (…)
Only when he can't help it, he uses it.
Calm and peace are the highest things for him. (…)“
Cleverly, the issue of war and peace is also addressed in verse 46:
"When the Dao reigns on earth,
this is how you breed the race horses for work at the field.
When the Dao is lost on earth,
so war-steeds are bred on the Anger."
Accordingly, health oriented Qigong is usually peaceful. Slow and flowing movements that, because of their softness, cannot and will not inflict pain on anyone.
Qigong (translation: traditional exercise system for the care of breath and energy, also Chi Kung) is a Chinese exercise tradition, which is differentiated into inner or silent (quiescent) Qigong(内功)and outer (dynamic) Qigong(外功). In silent (quiescent) Qigong, commonly sitting or standing meditation postures are assumed and invisible breath and energy adjustments are made. Through e.g. regular breathing in the small energy circuit, among other things, an inner calm and balance is created. 桩功 is a good example of this form of qigong.
The imagined directing of energy, qi, for example in standing post qigong, is an example of internal qigong.
The external qigong also includes internal processes, but is mainly characterized by visible movements. The Baduanjin (Pa Tuan Chin), the 8-fold elegant movement series, with its eight positions and healing gymnastically justifiable movements is a very well-known example of external qigong.
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There are numerous and very different styles of Qigong and a widely differentiated Qigong movement culture. But all Qigong exercise paths serve the inner calming, the alertness inward and outward, combine breathing and movement with each other and are therefore also part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). [5]
Here, Qigong is based on a relationship of human to nature, which consciously sees oneself as part of nature. The study of the yin-yang principle in nature was the basis of qigong exercises, where, for example, tension (yang) and relaxation (yin) are in balance. It is precisely in this respect that such a body-ecological system of exercises as qigong is of considerable importance for modern man, who often no longer perceives himself to be in harmony with nature. The Hungarian sinologist and expert of Far Eastern meditation practices, Stephan Pálos, referred to the aspect of nature integration in Qigong, which is native to TCM:
"Accordingly, bodily processes are inseparably connected with the elements, forces and processes operating in nature. Behind this conception there is also the realization and experience that man cannot be detached from nature, that he stands in a close dependence with the whole cosmos, since he himself forms a part of this cosmos."
(Pálos 1980, 29)
The separation of man from his surrounding nature, the lack of awareness of his inner and outer nature and of their connection to each other is one of the foundations for the planetary destruction of nature. Those who value their breath will want to pay attention to clean air. Who has learned the alternation of tension and relaxation, will not want to overstrain himself and his environment continuously. These are also the consequences of a holistic approach to perception.
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Taijiquan
Taijiquan (often called Tai Chi in the West) is also to be understood against the background of Daoism and TCM. Taijiquan consists of slow and flowing movements, which - correctly and regularly practiced - have attributable healing gymnastic effects and can be understood as movement meditation. Here, too, in a decelerated quality of movement, it is a matter of being very attentive, centered inwardly and awake outwardly, to experience mindfulness. Taijiquan is divided into Taijiquan solo forms and partner Taijiquan. Taijiquan solo forms consist on the one hand of various 'hand forms' as well as weapon forms, which are also performed in slow motion in fixed sequences of movements. Thus, the Taijiquan sword is also called the 'peaceful sword'. The partner Taijiquan consists on the one hand of fixed movements in pairs, which are performed together in hand-arm contact and partly with steps and turns, like a meditative dance. Very advanced students then also go into free partner Taijiquan with each other, where the point is to point out to the other person in a friendly way that he or she was not attentive, e.g. by a push at the elbow or a gentle tug on the arm got out of balance. It is, as the ancient people on the Pearl River in Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China practiced every morning (and the author was able to experience firsthand), a peaceful togetherness in playful competition and great mindfulness. [6]
The description of the postures and ways of moving are to be seen in a context with the experience of self and world that characterizes these movement systems. It is about peaceful and meditative experience of self and world, even if this is of course threatened by competitive sporting and movement colonial appropriation - also in China.
Above all, however, Tai Chi means pausing and lingering because of the slowing down of the movements. The slowing down of the movement opens the possibility to become attentive to oneself. It is a counter-world to the acceleration culture and to rushing around in pressure-filled working conditions.
With reference to the ecological understanding [7] possibility of the 'Five Transformational Phases' contained in Qigong and Taijiquan, the Osnabrück Taiji and Zen teacher Klemens J. P. Speer (2019) formulates regarding a spiritual-social engagement against the climate crisis:
"This is where the spiritual martial art of Taiji would be called upon. Since Taiji has spread worldwide, it could also act and advocate worldwide (a 'new boxing uprising, this time worldwide'), as of course could many other national and global organizations. Couldn't Taiji practitioners actually, with their knowledge of the phases of transformation, provide a helpful understanding easily understood by all people towards a global socio-ecological-economic balance?"
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Yoga
Yoga (translation option: uniting) consists of very diverse traditions, from, for example, Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Raja Yoga, Integral Yoga to Kundalini Yoga. Yoga does not necessarily have to be connected with the Hindu religion, but can be a body-oriented way of experiencing oneself and the world, which can lead to inner peace and psychosomatic balance with the help of stretching positions (asanas), fluid changes of position, breathing exercises (pranayama), concentration exercises and also mantra chanting. [8]
Yoga is embedded in the traditional, philosophically based culture of Ayurveda (Sanskrit: knowledge of life) and has a firm place here in the Ayurvedic art of healing.
Here, the approx. 2000 old sutras of Patanjali, consisting of 195 verses, are an important philosophical background - to be transferred to today's conditions, of course - without re-integrating the practitioners into a religion and committing them to an image of God.
The 'Salutation to the Sun' (Surya Namaskar)[9] and the so-called 'Rishikesh series' [10]are very famous combinations of asanas that involve intense concentration and breathing exercises, while stretching, strengthening and activating the cardiovascular system. All movement sequences, postures and positions of yoga are performed in mindfulness and sensitivity to one's own body, experienced in a basic meditative posture.
Certainly there are other meditative practice paths that are similarly structured and can have comparable effects, such as Kum Nye, Polarity, Acupressure, or Tantric Shiatsu ('Tantsu').
All of these philosophically and ethically based practices are about being grounded, mindful, and calm in order to meet others peacefully and with human maturity - psychosocial prerequisites that are likely to be conducive to peaceful and non-violent coexistence.
What is also sympathetic about these paths of practice is that they are not based on inner isolation in the sense of 'false inwardness', but rather, after a sufficient phase of meditative self-awareness, call upon the practitioner to get involved in social life again. The story of the Zen monk who rides the buffalo, plays the flute and turns to the people in the marketplace is a good illustration of this attitude of mind.
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The former co-founder of the taz, television journalist and yoga teacher, Gudrun Kromrey, concretizes the socio-political reference of yoga from her point of view in the interview:
"Ahimsa, the first rule of Patanjali, means non-harming or compassion. Harming people, animals and all living things is excluded here. Social Darwinism, factory farming and unecological behavior do not correspond to the yogic idea that we are not detached individuals, but are connected with everything that surrounds us. Exactly the opposite is what the capitalist system has always told us. Phrases like 'subdue the world,' 'Every man is the architect of his own fortune,' or 'Survival of the Fittest' lead us directly into the mindless hamster wheel, into the hell of hopeless dependencies, and into further ecological destruction." [11]
These Far Eastern methods receive their possible connectivity to the achievements of the European Enlightenment through the renunciation of the subjugation and worship of a god.[12] The spiritual maturation path to peaceableness and sociality takes place through the psychosocial performance of the individual, often also in common exercise with spiritually similarly tuned persons. Teachers on this path do not build themselves up as authoritarian masters under the conditions of a society with democratic self-demands, but are experienced companions who can guide and advise in partnership and increasingly let go when a person begins to develop further.
Especially in the meditative practices, body-oriented ways of experience, which were developed for the most part already 2000 to 3000 years ago in the Far Eastern cultural area (China, India, Japan), an important cultural transfer from the East to the West can be seen. Here it is necessary to learn from the achievements of another culture with regard to a peaceful way, which starts at the physical. Meditation paths are opened, which are to be met respectfully, and which can show the great gain when cultures meet and exchange with each other in peace.
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Meditative movement practices could also be a part of the cultural life practice of communitarian living communities. Here, the separation into leisure and work would have to be abolished and the practice of meditation would have to be seen as an existentially relevant contribution to the community of life. Here the alternative forms of living and working fit to the consciousness and body-ecological intention of these movement practices as part of an alternative culture of movement [13] in the context of communitarian, democratic and solidary life communities.
" 'Yogas chitta vritti nirodha' ", says Patanjali, yoga leads to the coming to rest of thoughts in the mind. And then, and only then, are we able to look at the world with an unbiased, unmanipulated view and to look at ourselves. Only then can we make decisions that are good and prosperous for us and others. With breathing exercises and meditations we reach places in our consciousness where fear is not yet present. So we go in front of the fear. Here we can dissolve thought patterns that limit us and are harmful to us. This is the place where gender or social role patterns do not yet exist. Here lies the true knowledge of ourselves and the role we should and want to play in this world. If one recognizes this, then one can deal with acquired and social constraints much more confidently or even free oneself from them completely. Fear is the fuel of our social and economic system. Those who are afraid do not make demands. So let's imagine what a society might look like in which individuals act free of fear, serene and calm, and walk through life upright and stable with poise - physically and intellectually." [14]
Wilfried Belschner, a professor of psychology and course instructor for 'body-based consciousness-raising', points out, however, that spiritual cultivation through meditation will also encounter social resistance when an increasing number of people exert a system-changing influence through their changed lives - according to Belschner (2025, 16):
The opponents of consciousness cultivation “will use their diverse personal, economic and media resources with all available power in a mercilessly ruthless manner to stigmatize people who practice such methods of consciousness cultivation and to cause them to ‘voluntarily’ abandon their liberation project if they fear that the existing order of their advantages could be called into question.”
Finally, back to the Daodejing
My proofreader and Taijiquan/ Qigong practitioner Sharon Rose rightly comments here:
"It would be wonderful for our world to come together to create and live in such harmonious society. Can we accomplish this through meditative practices alone? I think these practices are good vehicles to get us to a place of peace and freedom within ourselves. However, the spiritual benefits from these meditative practices can only be fully realized if the driving principles/philosophies behind them are fully understood and absorbed. The unification of mind and body will enlighten and empower us as individual, as well as a society as a collective when such individuals come together as a whole."
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Finally, the wisdom of the Daoist teachings is once again made clear in two excerpts from the Daodejing with references to the topic of peace and responsible policy-making - first from verse 13:
"He who in his person honors the world,
you can probably entrust the world to him.
Who in his person loves the world,
I guess you can hand the world over to him."
The message of the Daodejing is also quite political in other places of the work and connected with a positive vision, when it is formulated in the 54th verse:
"Whoever shapes his person, his life becomes true.
Whoever creates his family, his life becomes complete.
Whoever shapes his community, his life will grow.
Whoever shapes his land, his life becomes rich.
He who shapes the world, his life becomes wide." [15]
How farsighted these sentences are formulated! They virtually challenge to a socio-political commitment and establish the connection to the quality of one's own life. The 81 verses of the Daodejing, along with the sutras of Patanjali and the classical Zen texts, are a very suitable philosophical basis for practicing the meditative paths of self-experience that begin with one's own body.
And lastly, in wise summary, Sharon Rose:
"My understanding is that what these three ancient philosophies have in common is the emphasis on individual cultivation, responsibility and respect for laws of nature. Ultimately, living in harmony with nature to seek and obtain balance is the premise for health and happiness. Meditations and martial arts practice are physical expressions of such philosophy in action. They are good vehicles to help one learn and cultivate self-awareness and therefore, find self-enlightenment. When every individual achieves health and harmony within oneself, the society will become so as a whole. That's the Dao of nature."
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Notes
(Chapter 3.4)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Many thanks to Sharon Rose for English-language proofreading this chapter, for adding the Chinese characters and also for suggesting supplementary content considerations.
[2] Cf. e.g. on the relationship between Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis Fromm/Suzuki/de Martino (1971).
[3] See also Moegling (2019b).
[4] Only those meditation practices from Asia are presented here with which the author has firstly several years of personal experience and secondly which are based on the approach of mindfulness education meant here.
[5] See in more detail, e.g., Zöller (1986) and Pálos (1980).
[6] Cf. on the cultural meanings, the subjective constructions as well as the movement quality of Taijiquan among others Scientific Advisory Board of the DDQT (2009) and Landmann (2005) as well as for the different exercise methods of the most widespread style worldwide, the Yang style, Yang (1991) and Song (1991).
[7] Sharon Rose adds: "Concurrently, the natural law by the Confucian School of Philosophy emphasizes the idea that the individual had responsibility for self cultivation or development as very important for the wellbeing of one's own life and therefore a society as a whole."
[8] See, among others, Yesudian/Haich (1990) and Lysebeth (1982).
[9] Cf. Lysebeth (1982, 273ff.).
[10] Cf. Lysebeth (1982, 103ff.).
[11] Kromrey (2019).
[12] Of course, religions also try to incorporate these practices into their system, but this is not necessary from the practice material and is quite avoidable.
[13] Cf. on the understanding and principles of an alternative movement culture Moegling (1988).
[14] Kromrey (2019).
[15] Both verse excerpts come from the Daodejing by Laudse again in the translation by Richard Wilhelm (1982). Sharon Rose added to the 54th verse: "This verse is about governing by the principle of relative balance (平衡法) so that harm could be avoided for individuals, families, communities, countries and the world. It is about the importance of this natural law (dao) and how it could benefit all if followed. "
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Education is the decisive measure for social change
3.5 Democracy Education on the way to a new type of politician
"Be yourself the change
you wish for the world"
Mahatma Gandhi
Peculiar men are in power
Around the world, we are witnessing the rise of political leaders and the assertion of a psychological pattern that Adorno aptly described as the authoritarian personality. Here, authoritarian personalities in politics try to enforce unconditional obedience to their will and decisions, arrogate to themselves a monopoly on the establishment of truth, behave aggressively and repressively, declare all opponents to be enemies and offer populist world views in which dissenting social currents and minorities are discriminated against and excluded. Such politicians are also extremely dangerous in foreign policy, where they tend to fantasize about great power and, especially in times of crisis, seek to win approval at home by entering into military conflicts.
Politicians such as Trump, Putin, Erdogan or Bolsonaro can each be analyzed individually. However, for different motives, they are all despisers of Enlightenment-oriented values. They substitute national-chauvinist assertion of interests for multilateral agreements reached diplomatically, which can be regarded as an expression of international compromise. They are strangers to persistent multilateral negotiations that take different interests into account, and they tend to use violence against militarily weaker states. They bear no responsibility for the world community, but only want to push through the advantages for the owning class (including themselves) and the geostrategic interests of their country (and thus their own interests).
For example, Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman (2018) writes in the New York Times about the questionable personality of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was re-elected at the end of 2024, in the context of a Republican Party that is giving up on itself:
"Day in and day out, he proves to us that he has no shame. We've never had a president with no shame - and it's become a huge source of power for him and trouble for us.
And what makes Trump even more powerful and problematic is that this president with no shame is combined with a party with no spine and a major network with no integrity - save for a few real journalists at Fox News like the outstanding Chris Wallace.
When a president with no shame is backed by a party with no spine and a network with no integrity, you have two big problems."
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Russian President Vladimir Putin also has no qualms about asserting supposed Russian interests internationally and twisting the facts in the process (see, for example, in 2014 the Crimea occupation and in 2022 the invasion to Ukraine). Even if two decades ago he was willing to move closer to the West and promised democratic reforms, this has long been a thing of the past. The 'Putin system' serves Putina's power preservation, brutally suppresses the political opposition, supports dictatorships and leads to excessive personal enrichment. (1) The 'Putin system' is a constant threat to global peace.
The Turkish president Recep Erdogan, who also enriches himself and his family, in turn destroys parts of the democratic opposition in Turkey with the argument of alleged contacts to the Gülen movement, which he equates with a terrorist organization. All of a sudden, it is possible to dismiss more than a hundred thousand administrative officials, police officers, judges, teachers or professors who are critical of him and to destroy their professional existence by claiming that they are close to the Gülen movement and are therefore terrorists. Moreover, with this fictitious construction, tens of thousands of political figures in Turkey are imprisoned under inhumane conditions with the same argument and locked up for years without trials or indictment.
The dictatorship-glorifying and misogynistic Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro advocates the economic exploitation of the Brazilian rainforest, which leads to deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture. He doubts the ecological function of the rainforest for the global climate. He also negates the rights of the indigenous peoples living in the rainforest and criticizes the Brazilian military for failing to finish off the indigenous peoples in time. Such statements can be seen as a motivating background for the murder that then actually occurs. (2)
All four presidents construct their own world and punish people who have a different world view in an unbearable way. They are hostile to the free press, science, independent education and the critical digital public media, discriminate against them ("fake news") or try to ban them (Russia) or imprison their representatives (Turkey).
They are also united in their desire to make their country great at the expense of other states and regions (e.g., "Make America great again," "Ame-rica! first").
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is notorious for his bloody war on drugs and who called on police officers during the Corona crisis to shoot people who "make trouble," represents another variant of authoritarian and inhuman politicians: "Instead of making trouble, you will be sent to your graves by me.“ (3)
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In the European Union, on the other hand, there is also a prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who suspended basic democratic rights over the Coro-na! crisis in favor of his own power and made the restoration of these rights dependent on his person and his party Fidesz. In this way, he exploited the Corona crisis to continue the weakening of Hungarian democracy under his government. (4)
Belarusian President Aljaksandr Lukashenko orders 'security forces' to brutally beat demonstrators demanding transparent and neutrally supervised elections. Thousands of opposing forces are arrested for their (peaceful) protests. There are deaths and injuries. Oppositional politicians flee abroad. It is also a gender war: Women in particular oppose the Belarusian autocrat and his system of corruption and self-enrichment.
The series of such male, peculiar presidents could certainly be continued. ...
A democracy needs democrats
In contrast to this is the universalistic development of moral designed by Linklater (5), which produces people who are sensitive to differences, interested in social justice and discourse ethically oriented towards the inclusion of people.
This rather refers to politicians, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Nel-son! Mandela, who renounced the cultivation of enemy images and revenge against the stooges of the apartheid government and initiated and institutionally secured the procedures of reconciliation. German politician Elisabeth Selbert, in turn, stands for courageous advocacy of women's rights and the inclusion of equal rights in the constitution. The Danish EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is known for her commitment against economic concentration and abuse of power.
These are just a few positive examples of an ethically guided political capability that has received a high degree of social recognition and is an essential prerequisite for the success of democracy.
However, even internationally honored politicians can deviate from a peaceful path when they come under pressure. One example of this is Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed, who also received the Nobel Peace Prize (2019) for, among other things, strengthening the internal peace of his conflict-ridden country, which is torn into regional ethnic groups, and for peace negotiations with the neighboring state of Eritrea. He stood for a new beginning in Ethiopia by, among other things, releasing thousands of imprisoned dissidents and journalists from jails and corrupt officials from service. But then he failed to prevent a bloody conflict with the province of Tigray, into which many civilians fell victim. Mass executions and systematic rapes took place, especially because Abiy allowed Eritrean militias to participate.
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The role of education in political socialization
Even educated people are not protected from the abuse of power when they fear for their political position. Nevertheless, an ethically guided education can produce people who are more likely to survive or resolve political crises without falling back into patterns of behavior that are hostile to humanity or contrary to international law.
Educational processes can be the appropriate way to encourage moral development oriented towards empathy and responsibility and corresponding ethically justified behavior. In particular, interdisciplinary political and historical education in schools should be promoted to a much greater extent than has been the case internationally to date. Especially political-historical education enables a critical analysis and evaluation of encroaching power structures and power relations. It enables the examination of political, economic and ecological conflicts in relation to the systemic whole. In particular, the analysis of different interests and the search for just solutions are possible on the basis of exemplary cases of conflict. This can support a way of thinking that is not oriented towards national-chauvinistic enforcement of interests but towards international cooperation and empathetic compromise.
The concept of civic education, which goes beyond political education, also provides students with opportunities to experience democratic processes within and beyond their school communities: Participation in the internal will-forming and decision-making processes of schools, collaboration in committees, the student-oriented organization of hearings and panel discussions, participation and involvement in local, regional and international educational events, medial intervention in public discourse or even participation in children's and youth parliaments are all components of civic education. Thus, education becomes an essential factor in the context of political socialization, which by all means may have an impact on current and later actions.
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On the concept of civic education
Schools must prepare students for democracy in a democracy, since democracy must first be learned and children are by no means born as little democrats. Civic education refers to the goals and content of teaching, to the way of teaching, to the common manners as well as to the school life and the contact to the surrounding political community. In school, students should not only learn about democracy, but should also be prepared for democracy through democratic experiences. Wolfgang Edelstein, the former di-rector! at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, aptly summarizes this concern of educational policy:
"In summary, contexts of democracy-promoting learning and living in schools can be determined as the areas of school experience that provide information about democracy, competencies for democracy, and experience through democracy. Therefore, the structures of learning and life in school should be designed as opportunity structures for the experience of democratic conditions. Those who grow up in a democratic learning and living environment will usually acquire a democratic habitus. The school should represent a manageable space of experience, which offers the opportunity to practice on a small scale - by all means as a serious case - what should later determine the practice of civil society on a large scale." (6)
The type of "democratic school" that exists within the framework of a school association in Israel is exemplary for learning that emerges from the democratic community of teachers and students. (7) In the school network of the Israeli 'Democratic Schools', the learners largely decide for themselves what they want to learn and with whom. They independently consult teachers when it seems necessary. They work responsibly in the school committees, elect the school management and are involved in the hiring of new teaching staff. They also play an important role in the school's internal arbitration tribunals.
The school movement of the Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER), which originated in India, also facilitates educational experiences in an exemplary manner, which pleasantly contrast with a neoliberally oriented understanding of education in the sense of competitive individualization. The RIVER schools, which are increasingly spreading around the world, are rooted in the regional culture of their students and, following on from this, systematically open up the view of new learning worlds through the principle of largely independent 'learning with learning guides'. (8) Sustainability, solidarity, cultural tolerance and respect for one's own cultural traditions are central values here that guide this approach of school reform.
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Those who fear such schools and educational processes and those who urgently need them.
Such a conception of education entails learning in school that is not characterized by subjugation and conformity, but by trust, responsibility, and a freedom of teaching that is determined in particular by project learning, interdisciplinary learning, connection of cognitive and bodily-sensory experience, and discovering and inquiring learning. (9)
Such learning has a high degree of self-efficacy and involves the learner as a whole person, as a thinking, feeling and sensually experiencing personality.
Democratic participation and transparency of decision-making structures and processes are necessary principles of democratic schools and will have to be found on the level of school organization as well as on the level of teaching. If such learning processes are opened up in a qualified manner to the necessary extent and with the necessary use of financial resources, it is more likely that young people will be fostered as democratic personalities and that sufficient civic and democratic resistance to autocrats like Trump, Putin or Erdogan & co. will be able to unfold preventively in the future, i.e. that such authoritarian, ignorant, repressive and unjust leaders will find it increasingly difficult to usurp political rule. Accordingly, they will try to prevent schools and educational programs that are characterized by the principles of democratic education.
From a holistic point of view, an ethically guided education, which is to be circumscribed by the values like democracy, tolerance, critical faculties, empathy, solidarity and responsibility, is an influential factor that should not be underestimated. Dictators and autocrats have long understood this; democratically oriented politicians should finally understand this as well and support corresponding changes in their educational system much more decisively. In an ethically guided, high-quality education for all, independent of social class, in the sense outlined here, lies a great opportunity for the future of societies, which must finally be seized with greater socio-political commitment.
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Notes
(Chapter 3.5)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] For more detailed information on the assets of Putin, a billionaire and former intelligence agent, see, among others, https://www.vermoegenmagazin.de/wladimir-putin-vermoegen/, Jan. 5, 2020, April 25, 2020.
[2] In: https://www.zeit.de/2019/33/abholzung-amazonas-regenwald-brasilien-spekulation-jair-bolsonaro, 10 Aug. 2019, 11 Oct. 19.
[3] Cf. https://kurier.at/politik/ausland/ausgangssperre-wegen-coronavirus-auf-den-philippinen-rodrigo-duterte-will-stoerenfriede-erschiessen/400800992, 4/2/2020, 4/25/2020.
[4] Vgl. https://www.dw.com/de/corona-krise-orb%C3%A1ns-erm%C3%A4chtigungsgesetz-spaltet-europa/a-52997872, 2.4.2020, 25.4.2020.
[5] Cf. Linklater (2007a and b).
[6] Edelstein (2015, 21).
[7] Cf. Simon/Hershkovich (2016) and Hershkovich/Simon (2016).
[8] Cf. Müller/Lichtinger/Girg (2015).
[9] On the inquiry-based learning approach, see Reitinger (2013 and 2018) and Moegling (2017, 208ff.), among others.
How can planetary realignment be achieved?
Chapter 4
Socioeconomic, institutional and socioecological foundations of sustainable development and effective peace policy
4.1 Taming the Tiger: transforming the global economy for sustainability and peacebuilding
“You have to act as if it were possible
to radically transform the world.
And you have to do it all the time.
‘Radical’ simply means
grasping things at the root.”
Angela Davis
Capitalism no longer has a future. The core of capitalism is private ownership of companies and the recurring attempt to siphon off surplus value from the results of commodity production and marketing at the expense of working people and at the expense of nature. Incalculable financial speculation increases the problem of an economic system based on injustice.
Marx/Engels saw in a communist society, which unfolds via the detour of a socialist development phase, the utopia of a completely developed society.
In place of a divided society, "there is an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". [1]
This is certainly a positive vision. But what will it look like in concrete terms? It certainly cannot be a form of dictatorship of the proletariat envisaged in the Marxist concept of socialism. A dictatorship never provides a social framework "for the free development of all." No freedom can arise by oppression.
But - on the other hand there is the question: How can a democratic and peaceful development be established in a world of inconsideration and violence in power. One basic answer is this: Such a reorganization - as necessary, as it is - can only become real in a peaceful and radical change, because the dangers arising from technical processes of nature cultivation as well as from products destroying nature and civilization in the high tech-society and associated with an uncritical economic growth mindset must stay under control or be overcome. [2]
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What kind of market economy is meant?
The historical development of the so called 'real socialist' states in their different variants has shown that this attempt to 'tame the tiger' was not suitable to enter into a free society in social and ecological responsibility. Nature was extrahistically plundered there, just as in the capitalist states. Moreover, the economy did not function for the benefit of all, but at best for the luxurious provision of a corrupt elite. The centralized planning of economic processes, down to the subtleties of allocation, accumulation, production and consumption has paralyzed productive freedom in decision-making scopes for people, which are necessary for a functioning economic system. Human needs can only be directed, planned and satisfied by central decisions to a limited extent. Nor is the motivational potential of a market economy embedded in a socio-ecological framework exploited, where individuals or individual communities can produce and sell in a self-effective way in decentralized markets (and now digitally). Here, they receive motivating feedback on the success of their economic performance.
The question therefore arises as to how new societies can emerge at the local, regional and global levels that can, on the one hand, enable the positive shares of (responsible) market mechanisms and, at the same time, prevent large-scale economic and financial concentrations and thus the corresponding concentration of political power.
On the one hand, it must not be the case that the quite constructive drives of people to produce, advertise, trade and sell in their local and regional contexts are suppressed – the error of Soviet-style real socialism. On the other hand, the market power of monopolies or monopoly-like structures must be prevented, which destroy precisely the decentralized structures of competition and markets - the systemic error of Western, capitalist-style forms of society.
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Kinds of solidarity-based economy in a non-fossil society
Political scientist Elmar Altvater already comes very close to the approach advocated here when he sees the new elements of order in a non-fossil society coupled with new modes of production based on solidarity and ecology, decentralized appropriation processes and changed patterns of consumption - a development that will take time:
"This can only be done in the long term, and if the transition succeeds, it will be to a shore that no longer says 'capitalism' but something else. We don't have an easy name for it after the failure of 20th century socialism. Socialism of the 21st century? Perhaps it makes more sense to call it a solar (because sustainable) and solidarity (because building on resources) society.
So there are convincing alternatives. The continuation of capitalism as we know it ends in disaster. An 'empire of barbarism' threatens, if it has not already emerged. A regime of renewable resources with the appropriate social forms and an economy based on solidarity is the end of capitalism as we know it. New social forms can be developed. History is not at an end, it is open and continues."
(Altvater 2006, 21)
Instead of a capitalist society based on social division and economic advantage-taking, a society must be developed step by step in all regions of the world, starting with the actual state of society, in which the economy is there for society and not vice versa. Altvater's designation of such a society as a solar-solidary form of society already matches this well.
Approach towards a sustainable mode of production
This naturally also includes orienting industrial and agricultural production to the idea of sustainability. This could be achieved through a more effective system of internationally issued environmental certificates, ecologically oriented taxation and a corresponding pricing policy. Timely limits must also be set above which it is no longer permissible to extract oil and coal from the earth for burning to generate energy.
In addition to more effective emissions certificate trading, there is another international economic strategy to deal with states that try to evade obligations arising from the climate crisis.
The U.S. American winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, William Nordhaus, first objects to the idea that international climate conventions are fundamentally ineffective - saying Nordhaus (2020):
"In light of the failure of past agreements, it is easy to conclude that international cooperation on climate change is doomed to fail. This is the wrong conclusion. Past climate treaties have failed because of poor architecture. The key to an effective climate treaty is to change the architecture, from a voluntary agreement to one with strong incentives to participate."
The core of such a binding architecture of a climate treaty is the formation of intergovernmental cooperation partners ('climate clubs') that agree on common standards and rules as well as on prices for CO2 emissions. If other countries outside this 'climate club' do not adhere to its climate-friendly standards and rules, they must pay an effective tax surcharge for their export products. In this case, it is no longer worthwhile for these countries, as 'free riding nations', to produce in an environmentally damaging manner. The agreement of the club states on common ecological protective duties would thus have a considerable systemic leverage effect related to the fight against the climate crisis. According to Nordhaus (2020), this is one of several effective ways to reach a binding treaty architecture:
"There are many steps necessary to slow global warming effectively. One central part of a productive strategy is to ensure that actions are global and not just national or local. The best hope for effective coordination is a Climate Club-a coalition of nations that commit to strong steps to reduce emissions and mechanisms to penalize countries that do not participate. Although this is a radical proposal that breaks with the approach of past climate negotiations, no other blueprint on the public agenda holds the promise of strong and coordinated international action."
Of course, countries subject to punitive tariffs can respond with counter tariffs. But if several larger countries and also transnational associations, such as the European Union, come to these joint agreements, then it would be difficult for a single state to stand up to such an economic power.It might also be necessary to consider compensation payments to poorer countries for a transitional period, so that this is also done in a climate-just manner (cf. also Schieritz 2021).
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Strengthen common good economies
Communitarian forms of solidarity economy represent the most radical form of system transformation at the local level. Here, people live and work communally without separating these levels from each other. The people living and working here generate value in which they share equally. Often they are also committed to the idea of communitarian democracy and ecological sustainability in their actions. The movement of communitarian forms of solidarity-based economy is increasingly beginning to network internationally. [3]
The approach of the common good economy, which was significantly developed by Christian Felber, can offer an alternative in this context and it is to be wished a further spread. In short, it is about producing or providing services in such a way that positive performance is achieved in the areas of ecological sustainability, social justice, human dignity, solidarity and democratic co-determination/transparency. Public benefit-oriented companies should then also receive tax advantages. The banking system should also grant advantages in lending to public welfare-oriented enterprises, or special banks should be established for certified public welfare-oriented enterprises or corresponding business start-ups. This promises a peaceful and gradual transformation of capitalism from an economic exploitation society to a globally spreading form of society that does not serve the profit rate of a few rich people but the common good of all people - according to Felber in the context of the concept of the common good economy (2018, 8):
"The economy must become more humane, more social, more distributive, more sustainable, more democratic - more ethical all around: more public good oriented."
The world economy and the peace issue must be seen in a context. If the social gap continues to widen worldwide due to the activities of multinational corporations and speculating hedge funds that are contrary to the common good, as well as a neoliberal-oriented economic policy that supports this, there can be no peace in the various regions. The enormous social differences resulting from the different positions in the production and service process are extremely unjust on this scale, lead to social tensions, promote poverty-induced criminality, lead to mass migration and, especially in the poorer regions of the world, provide a conducive basis for terrorism.
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Human Development Index (HDI) instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The gross domestic product and also the gross world product are no longer independent economic yardsticks, since an unreflected economic growth becomes the reference point of the economic performance. Even environmental destruction, e.g. the accident of an oil tanker, enters positively into the balance via attempts to eliminate it, which have to be priced. External effects, such as the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, on the other hand, are not taken into account. Moreover, with increasing social inequality, the gross domestic product or gross world product can grow and at the same time the majority of the population can become increasingly worse off.
Joseph Stiglitz therefore proposes using the HDI (Human Development Index) of the United Nations Development Programme as an economic measure in place of gross domestic product because, unlike GDP, it also takes health, education and income distribution into account:
"The goal of economic production is to increase the well-being of the members of a society, however this is defined. Not one measure alone can capture the complexity of what goes on in a modern society, but GDP as a measure fails in a very crucial way. We need measures that capture individual welfare levels (measures of median income are much more meaningful than measures of average income), metrics of sustainability (that capture, for example, resource depletion and environmental degradation, as well as increases in debt), and on the state of health and education."
(Stiglitz 2010, 356)
This means breaking away from growth thinking that serves one-sided interests and moving toward an understanding of global economic development that declares responsibility for the biosphere and the well-being of those who live in it to be a priority goal.
It will even be necessary to aim for zero growth and even negative growth, if at the same time value is placed on satisfying the basic needs of all people, reducing resource consumption and avoiding the production of pointless and unnecessary products.
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Characteristics of a post-growth economy
In this context, essential elements of the post-growth economy envisaged by sustainability researcher Nico Paech (2018), among others, must be taken into account, such as the dismantling of a large proportion of ecologically damaging and nonsensical industrial production facilities, the regionalization of production and consumption with a simultaneous shortening of transport routes, a local subsistence economy for self-sufficiency in communal form, energy saving and decentralization of energy supply, a significant reduction in wage labor time due to digitalized production with a simultaneous increase in the working time contributed to the self-sufficiency economy, as well as the liberation from the need to produce environmentally harmful and nonsensical products.These include a communal form of local subsistence economy, energy conservation and decentralization of the energy supply, a significant reduction in wage labor time due to digitalized production with a simultaneous increase in the working time contributed to the self-sufficiency economy, and the liberation from unnecessary consumption ballast through a partial renunciation of consumption. [4]
If one takes a closer look, in the context of a post-growth economy, some areas would have to continue to grow, others would have to be significantly reduced, but overall a reversal of the growth trend would have to be achieved - according to sociologist Silke van Dyk (2017):
"Social services and care activities should continue to grow, here we have not too much, but too little. In fossil energy production, it is particularly important that we shrink. The question is, where can we succeed in getting out of the growth constraints of capitalism? It is a system that, in order to remain stable, is designed for permanent increase. Here lies the problem: All economic activity involves material and energy transformations - this cannot function indefinitely in a world with limited resources. And the efficiency promises of green capitalism are completely illusory."
Since economic structures have long since become neoliberally globalized, economic imbalances must also be addressed at the global level: Market economy and trade must be possible, but they must function according to strict rules and a socially responsible and ecologically sound regulatory framework. Financial speculation, such as betting on the development of interest rates or share prices, will be prohibited. Moreover, financial speculation must be subject to effective financial transaction taxes so that the financial resources of banks and funds flow back into the real economy.
The agents, institutions, groups and initiatives, who aim at this radical change have the responsibility to stick to nonviolent means of change in order to make sure, that their aims of a sustainable and just future-society is not endangered by violent actions and developments, which can lead to a loss of control and social barbarism..
The agents will then have the most real chance of success, when scientists and wage-earners as well as people, who depend on public welfare join in, since they experience the necessitiy of change the most.
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The Role of the United Nations in the Course of Economic Reorganization
Large economic concentrations and interdependencies must be disentangled and tamed under the direction of the appropriate UN specialized agencies. International corporations must be expropriated transnationally and nationalized, i.e. placed under the supervision and management of the relevant specialized UN agencies, if they violate the principles of the UN, e.g. production and distribution based on sustainability criteria or the ban on arms exports to areas of tension.
The rights of employees in companies must also be enforced worldwide. These include freedom of trade union activity and the establishment of works councils - achievements that exist only in some regions of the world, and even there only in part.
At most, tax corridors should be established worldwide through the coordination of the United Nations Economic and Financial Council, the variance of which is oriented to the neediness of the respective region and has a defined range of variation. This will close global tax loopholes and tax profits and salaries more fairly. This also includes a minimum tax of e.g. 20% or 25% for multinational corporations to avoid tax dumping by states and indirect tax evasion by corporations.
National tariffs are to be approved only upon application to the Economic and Social Council of the UN or its special organizations designated for this purpose in the event that a country has to compensate for an economic development disadvantage and its production is to be favored by means of protective tariffs. Punitive tariffs imposed unilaterally by a country are to be prohibited; they can only be imposed by the world police through democratic decisions of the United Nations in the event of a country's continued violation of the rules.
Currency speculation, which can drag entire regions into a social downward spiral, becomes impossible by introducing - in the longer term - a world currency issued and controlled by the United Nations. Cryptocurrencies are to be banned by the United Nations because they are non-transparent and speculative.
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The economic and political hegemonic intentions of individual actors within the framework of post-colonial structures must be countered by a concept of inclusive multilateralism that takes the interests of the countries and institutions of the Global South into account more comprehensively and respectfully than before - according to Plagemann/Maihack (2023, 225):
"In the long term, reliable multilateral processes, as desired not only by us but also by the majority of societies in the Global South, are more important than individual, even particularly valued bilateral relationships. Because this is the only way to break the power of the few over the many."
This also includes better representation of the interests of economists and politicians from the Global South and more favorable financing conditions in multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Of course, this also includes improved representation in the UN Security Council, as long as it still exists with the existing rights.
In the global context - i.e. not only for initiatives in the Global North - neoliberal globalization must be contrasted with a concept of sustainable development oriented towards the common good, which ensures security of supply for all with the common goods of water, air, soil and food - according to Peter/Moegling (2005, 27):
"While the neoliberalization process expropriates, the sustainable development process appropriates. Thus, the political demand of sustainability is still: socialization and democratization of those key areas and public goods that are the basis for peoples' lives: primary resources such as water, soil, air, food and secondary resources such as health services and education. Education in particular has a central role to play here: processes of sustainability depend on a high educational potential of its bearers."
Already existing forms of a solidarity-based economy [5] and of the broadening and networking of this movement could become the nuclei of a new society, linking up with trade union organizations, with NGOs pushing for democratization, with environmental initiatives as well as with the international peace movement. A new society does not come along as if by chance, but is already building itself within the old society. When people's discontent will increase in the wake of economic and financial crises, brutal capitalist exploitation and unjust distribution of wealth on a global scale, initiatives of solidarity-based and ecological economy and the reappropriation of land, production and value creation will enter a favorable time for them everywhere, in all regions and places of the world.
This will also increase the social pressure on the institutions of politics - also via changed election results - to assert themselves against the resistance of the hedge funds, the international corporations, the big banks as well as the super-rich and to open up to alternative policy concepts.
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Transformation of the defense industries
Central to the economic foundations of peace will be arms conversion, i.e. the transformation of most national arms production into peace production. Weapons and technical security systems are to be produced only for world police institutions and measures under the control of the UN. Nuclear armament experiences its end; all nuclear weapons are banned, dismantled and disposed of.
This includes the step-by-step withdrawal of the financial basis for a privately organized arms industry that is getting out of hand. This is being done in the course of demilitarizing the individual nations and regions by removing the public buyers, the nation states. The UN-controlled sectors of the international arms industry, which will continue to be required for the necessary equipment of the UN police organs and the UN military, will only need a fraction of the previous nation-state financing in terms of the necessary financing costs. This will create an enormous peace dividend that will make it possible to finance investment programs for public welfare-oriented, economic projects and for social and ecological objectives.
But banks must also be persuaded and possibly forced - even if only by mass pressure from customers - to withdraw from financing military armaments projects. For example, Norwegian and Dutch pension funds have already withdrawn from financing nuclear technology used for military purposes. In the USA and Germany, for example - according to ICAN - a large number of banks are still financing nuclear armament projects. [6]
Overcoming arms export regulations by the arms companies
International and national commitments against arms exports to areas of tension are currently being violated all over the world. States of the European Union, and Germany in particular, are no exception - on the contrary: they are leading arms exporters and demonstrably do not shy away from supplying arms to areas of tension.
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A Greenpeace study on German arms export policy, for example, sums up the unconstitutionality of such government behavior for Germany:
"Despite the principle of the peace commandment in in Article 26, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law, Germany exports war weapons and armaments to controversial third countries. Arms exports to third countries from Germany have become the norm - in the past ten years, up to 60 percent of German war weapons and armaments have repeatedly gone to third countries."[7]
In addition, various strategies are used by the arms industry to circumvent existing export restrictions:
- Lobbying, formal application for arms exports and attempts to obtain approval from the Federal Ministry of Economics or the Federal Security Council;
In the event of failure in the official approval process:
- Outsourcing of production to countries that have relaxed export regulations;
- Circumvention of export requirements by means of delivery to other EU countries, NATO countries or countries with NATO membership,
- then deliver to the area of tension;
- Establishing arms factories directly in the area of tension as joint ventures to circumvent arms export restrictions;
- Delivery of individual parts that are assembled to completed weapons, ready to use in the target countries,
- Delivery of dual-use goods to areas of tension, e.g. delivery of military trucks on which mounts with machine guns are then mounted for counterinsurgency purposes, or of speedboats which are then equipped with machine guns on site to enforce port embargoes.
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The Greenpeace study once again confirms in summary the internationalization strategy of the armaments industry using the example of the international armaments group Rheinmetall with a view to the significance of the production and supply of ammunition:
"However, ammunition plays a role not only in the functionality of small arms and light weapons, but also as a broad spectrum for land, naval and air forces, for example, in the form of ammunition for tanks, howitzers, artillery pieces or as naval guns. The topic of ammunition production in particular reveals another pattern of German arms export policy, namely the acceptance of a trend toward the internationalization of German arms companies. Joint ventures such as that of Rheinmetall in South Africa, which established a new site with the acquisition of Denel, are also aimed at supplying ammunition to the conflict- and tension-prone countries of the MENA region, Latin America and South (East) Asia." [8]
Demands to control arms exports
Resulting from the analysis of arms exports made here, the following must be demanded if one really wants to adhere to the normative demands of international and national regulations on arms exports:
1. An end to all arms exports to areas of tension: To this end, the UN's Àrms Trade Treaty' (ATT), the 'Joint Decision of the Council of the EU' and national regulations must be supplemented with binding control mechanisms and sensitive sanction options. Restrictions and exceptions that allow arms exports to areas of tension must be removed. The expert-groups monitoring this process must be controlled by parliamentary commissions, who have to give reports about their work and results to the entire UN-General Assembly.
2. At the European level, a special representative with sufficient human and financial resources should be appointed to closely monitor and control arms exports from the EU and to have veto power over arms exports, technology exports and joint ventures to areas of tension.
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3. For the Federal Republic of Germany, a strict arms control law is to be demanded, which stringently combines the current different and in part confusing legal regulations and develops them into a transparent and binding law.
4. the possibility of post-shipment controls with the right of verification for the exporting country should be established as a European standard.
5. the legal and contractual basis must be created for the withdrawal of licenses for arms exports that have already been granted if the situation in the recipient country changes for the worse.
6. No bank loans or government Hermes guarantees may be granted for arms exports to areas of tension.
At the UN level, the control function must be strengthened if national and regional controls fail. In this context, economic sanctions and other measures against states should also be envisaged, if arms are transported from them to regions of tension.
To achieve this, however, a democratization of the United Nations is necessary, which would have to be linked, among other aspects, to a reform of the UN Security Council and the establishment of a democratically elected UN Parliament. Otherwise, controls and sanctions would be blocked by those states that are themselves the largest global arms exporters.
It is essential to increase civil society pressure in the various nation-states by bringing court-proof actions, supported by initiatives and NGOs such as Greenpeace or Transparency International, against arms exports to areas of tension, referring to the ATT, to the Common European Position or to national constitutions such as the German Basic Law. The German Basic Law Article 26 (1) and (2), for example, states - in addition to the licensing requirement for arms exports - that "acts which are likely and are undertaken with the intention of disturbing the peaceful coexistence of peoples (...) are to be made punishable" (Article 26 (1)). And: German Basic Law Article 20 (4): "Against anyone who undertakes to eliminate this order, all Germans have the right to resist if no other remedy is possible."
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Such a court action can be directed against specific arms companies and arms dealers as well as against government officials authorizing arms exports to areas of tension. In addition to the publicity such a lawsuit would receive in the media, the very fact of conducting such a lawsuit and the necessity of the responsible actors' own involvement could also have a deterrent effect on them.
Ban arms exports in general?
Furthermore it must be asked whether arms exports should not be banned as a matter of principle. This would dry up existing and future military conflicts and give greater weight to the peace-building activities of the United Nations.
In this context, one immediately hears the argument: If we stop arms exports, other states and arms companies will immediately step in.
However, the same argument could also be used to allow drug cultivation or the chemical production of synthetic drugs and drug trafficking in Germany. Here, too, we are dealing with an economy of death. Both economies - drug trafficking and arms dealing - are particularly profitable.
Then it is often argued:For example, a country like Germany only has a share of 6% of the world's arms exports and therefore a renunciation of arms exports would be insignificant.
One could argue against this: If Germany could send out a signal, this would have an impact with a spillover effect and German demands for a stop to arms exports would be credible.
It is also repeatedly argued that jobs would be destroyed by damaging the arms industry.
Here, it must first be emphasized once again that not everything that can be produced should be produced, especially if it is socially and also ecologically harmful. In addition, there are a number of possibilities for arms conversion that have already been conceptually developed and with which the arms industry, also in cooperation with the trade unions, should at last seriously concern itself. It is a matter of converting production to socially useful and socio-ecologically responsible goods.
The conversion of arms production to civilian, peaceful goods on the one hand and the redirection of state funds into the promotion of helping and supporting professions, e.g. in the care sector or for the elimination of military-related ecological damage [9], are good examples of a conversion of a war industry into a peace industry as well as the sensible use of public resources.
In addition, more jobs will be created here than are maintained in the defense industry.
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European solutions
A first intermediate step and a strategic demand could be to export arms only to the EU and no longer from the EU to the outside world. This would also largely eliminate the question of arms exports to areas of tension.
As long as international disarmament cannot be initiated, national disarmament could take place at the European level at least, in a clear departure from the cost-increasing requirements of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), by bundling defense efforts at the EU level and thus planning a significantly reduced use of resources. This would mean a deliberate departure from NATO's 2% GDP aim. In this context, a significantly changed 'European Defensive Agency' (EDA) could play a leading role.
The (EDA) is an intergovernmental agency subordinate to the Council of the European Union. It could be expanded within the framework of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) with the declared goal of reducing European defense costs - as opposed to the hitherto largely isolated and very expensive nation-state technology development. In parallel, the CSDP would have to be further developed in order to achieve a common defense policy at the expense of national armament and defense readiness. This should result in a European peace dividend coupled with a change and an intensification of EU foreign policy based on diplomacy, which is based on the reduction of enemy images, e.g. toward Russia and China. However, it must be ensured through resolved resolutions, e.g. of the EU Parliament, that CSDP is not used for further rearmament, but is defined in terms of an improved *peace-orientated policy in order to establish an international system of settling conflicts on the base of mutual negotiations and agreements.*In regard of the European Union this would mean a politically intended departure from the PESCO proposals for a medium-term increase in defense spending of 20% for all participating EU states.[10] It would mean to establish an international peace-order, which respects the security interests of all states, no matter how mighty they are.
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Finally, on the question of a change of direction in armaments policy, US President Dwight Eisenhower, who at the time was trying to end the Korean War, should have his say in a speech on 16 April 1953:
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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signi-fies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, tho-se who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed mo-re than 8,000 people. (...) This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." [11]
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Therefore it is necessary for the current political debate in the framework of a social system with democratic self-claims for the upcoming elections to check whether parties are resolutely against arms exports to areas of tension and credibly represent a consistent peace policy. Democratic parties that are fundamentally in favor of the abolition of all arms exports from the EU and also of reducing national arms spending would then be particularly supported by voters interested in war prevention and peacekeeping.
However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shows that there should be an exception for arms exports to areas of tension: If a state is attacked by another state and has to defend itself against the aggressor, this is an emergency situation that also permits arms deliveries in the sense of the UN Charter. If all diplomatic and negotiation-based steps fail, the resistance struggle of the attacked state is to be supported with arms deliveries with a sense of proportion. It would be better, however, if a functioning UN could intervene here as a world police force. In any case, neither the UN nor transnational organizations such as the EU should stand idly by while another state is destroyed and a population slaughtered by a military aggressor. In this case, the world community must also provide military assistance to this state - knowing full well that there is a danger of military escalation in this. Therefore, the military strengthening of the attacked state must always be intensively and effectively accompanied by credible offers of negotiations which, in the event of a peace agreement, provide for the withdrawal of sanctions and arms deliveries as well as arrangements for reparations payments and measures of international jurisdiction for the prosecution of war crimes.
On the other hand, how questionable it is on the part of right-wing populist politicians worldwide to get excited about the number of refugees in their own country, but to advocate arms exports to areas of tension with the argument that jobs in the arms industry are to be preserved. This contributes to the fact that more and more people have to flee from the areas of tension - especially to the regions of the rich north, from which the weapons destabilizing their homeland originate.
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Mayors for Peace
An interesting peace initiative calling for an end to the nuclear economy and the production, stockpiling and deployment of nuclear weapons was launched in 1982, when the then mayor of Hiroshima called on the world's mayors and cities to transcend nation-state boundaries, join together and put pressure on the nuclear weapons industry and on states with nuclear weapons. From this call and various cooperative projects and conferences of mayors on an international scale, the NGO 'Mayors for Peace' emerged in 2001. It describes its broad mission as follows:
"The purposes of the 'Mayors for Peace' are to contribute to the attainment of lasting world peace by arousing concern among citizens of the world for the total abolition of nuclear weapons through close solidarity among member cities as well as by striving to solve vital problems for the human race such as starvation and poverty, the plight of refugees, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation." [12]
By August 2023, 8,200 mayors from 166 nations had joined Mayors for Peace. This is an important signal for peace policy from elected and legitimized personalities from cities in different regions of the world. It is also an expression of the discussions in a city and in the municipal bodies. It is necessary to develop this movement and from this decentralized level, in connection with the central actions of the entire NGO, to increase the pressure on the nuclear industry and the governments of the nuclear states. Accordingly, it is also the task of the peace-politically committed part of the city population to carry out educational and persuasive work in their municipal context, *to cooperate with local initiatives for peace and for the protection of the environment,* to hold discussions with their city officials and the responsible committees, and to initiate resolutions to join the 'Mayors for Peace' and to integrate their city into an international urban peace movement.
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Goals of the international NGO 'Mayors for Peace':
1. "Immediately de-alert all nuclear weapons. Even today, thousands of nuclear weapons around the world stand ready to launch on warning. This level of alert is madness, and stepping down is the quickest, easiest way to prevent an accidental nuclear holocaust.
2 Immediately start substantive negotiations towards a universal nuclear weapons convention After repeated promises at NPT Review Conferences and other occasions by the nuclear-weapon states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, we call on national governments to start substantive negotiations now to achieve a nuclear weapons convention.
3 Conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention We call on national governments and other institutions to work toward the conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention that comprehensively prohibits the development, production, testing, stockpiling, or use of nuclear weapons and provides for their elimination.
4 Physical destruction of all nuclear weapons by 2020 The weapons can be destroyed. Fissile materials can be rendered unusable. Strict international control is technically feasible. A nuclear-weapon-free world is possible. [13]
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Furthermore, the disarmament of private organizations and of individuals who possess small arms must also be carried out step by step through national and international legislation.
The disarmament of private individuals must also take place step by step. In this context, the regulations for the acquisition of weapons must first be tightened in international coordination. Ultimately, after a transitional phase, all privately owned weapons must be handed over and destroyed or recycled as raw materials for peace products. The printing of weapons via 3D printers must be made a strict punishable offense. The development of killer robots with artificial intelligence must be banned worldwide. Universities must not accept arms contracts (binding civil clauses). Private military companies that hire out mercenaries must be closed down. Scientists and entrepreneurs who invent chemical and biological weapons must be charged and convicted. The protection of people has priority over the profit interests of the weapons industry.
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Summary: The counter-model of a neoliberal predatory capitalism has been developed within the framework of the present chapter, which is oriented towards the ethical principles of solidarity, ecological sustainability as well as democracy and justice. The economy must serve people and not the other way around. It must be compatible with planetary resource limits and oriented toward ecological sustainability. A socio-ecological market economy under the primacy of such an understanding of the common good represents a significant systemic change. If such a socio-ecologically oriented and solidarity-based marketeconomy on the economic level is combined with a further developed democracy on the political level, a gradual and peaceful transformation of capitalism on the system level is at hand. These rather local, national or regional processes are accompanied and controlled by a change of the global economic structures, the establishment of tax corridors, an unbundling and restricting of the large corporations as the first step to the socialisation of the core industry under democratic control as well as the containment of financial speculation on the part of the corresponding institutions of a strengthened and democratized UN.
The arms industry is strictly controlled and, within the framework of the vision of [14] a comprehensive reform of the UN presented here, works exclusively and on a much smaller scale of production for the world policing function of the United Nations. This will free up a trillion-dollar annual peace dividend that can be used to build a world economy based on solidarity, for social measures and for the fight against the economically induced climate crisis.
The orderly systemic change envisaged here differs significantly from the ideas of a "Great Reset" as proposed by the 'World Economic Forum' (WEF) in 2020. The Covid 19 crisis would have to be used for a major upheaval, which leads to a change of direction in ecological, economic and political terms by replacing shareholder value in corporate culture with stakeholder value, so that more far-reaching interests could be taken into account. [15] The "Great Reset" is therefore more of a makeshift repair of capitalism without attacking its basic principles. WEF head Klaus Schwab himself puts the system-changing approach of the "Great Reset" into perspective, emphasizing in an interview:
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"No, capitalism is not the problem. I am convinced that the entrepreneurial power of each individual is the driving force for real progress - and not the state. ... I am not arguing for a change in the system. I'm arguing for system improvement."
Thus, neither the questions of limiting private property and breaking up multinational corporations, nor the destructive character of the capitalist profit motive, nor the question of a decidedly fairer distribution of social wealth are raised here. But it is precisely the solution of these questions, which are decisive for the solution of global problems, such as the destruction of the natural environment, the erosion of democratic systems, the loss of livelihood for many people and the flight from their native regions, as well as for the destruction of world regions by military and war.
The basic structural problem inherent in the capitalistic economy and society is the combination of private property, extraction of the surplus value, competition and egoism in the fight for advantages at the expense of business rivals. This is a structural obstacle on the path to cooperation, solidarity, distributive justice and ecological behavior, which is the very base of a solar-solidary society (Altvater) and for finding a way to overcome the future threats.
4.2 Democratic Renewal of Societies, Institutions and ways of life
Many People in richer Western societies living in representative democracies enjoy a degree of freedom of expression and organization that is unprecedented in past societies. The most of the western democracies also score above average in a comparison of current political systems. The success of settling social conflicts in the political system, combined with an extractivist economic system that makes use of resources such as mineral resources and cheap labor in the rest of the world, has led to a relatively large scope of behavior for their citizens as long as they have gained an economic standard above poverty.
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But how will ruling and profiting elites react when the economic system enters a long-term crisis and people begin to protest more effectively against the capitalist constitution of the economy and try to impose forms of solidarity-based economics? Will democratic institutions and opportunities for democratic participation then be preserved? It remains to be seen into which future structures the institutions of the past and present will then evolve.
It is precisely the imperial way of life of Western societies at the expense of the poor societies of the global South that has provided many of its citizens with considerable political freedoms, as only a few people and social groups in Western societies have questioned the system as a result. Nevertheless, structural problems can be found in the political system of a predominantly representative democracy and a stuck democratization of the economic sphere.
According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), in 1996, 49% of companies in Germany still had a works council. By 2024, only 7% of companies in Germany had a works council. Only just under one in three employees in a private company will still be represented by a works council. (Klauth, 2025). In addition to an outdated and bureaucratic Works Constitution Act, the intimidation of employees who want to set up works councils is mentioned, among other things. Precarious and temporary employees also find it more difficult to get involved in co-determination at work.
Brand/ Wissen (2017, 185) therefore point out that in the course of an elimination of the imperial way of life, democratization must also be advanced:
"Lifting the restrictions of a liberal, increasingly authoritarian democracy in favor of a comprehensive societal democracy is a central component of the struggles for a solidary way of life. This includes defensive struggles against the social and political shift to the right as well as the repression of imperial practices and the institutional safeguarding of the new. Its starting point is the insight that the social and ecological dislocations with which we are confronted today and which cause endless suffering have their causes in global social conditions - and not (...) in endogenous processes of the global South."
Democracy is to be thought of more comprehensively than is often done in everyday political discourse. Democracy is to be thought of as a form of rule, a form of society, and a form of life (Himmelmann 2016). This means that societies at all levels are to be shaped democratically: In the economy, in administration, in the media, in clubs and associations, and in schools and families. And of course: at the level of representing citizens' interests.
This is an enormous task that requires structural reforms, but also further awareness-raising. Certainly, schools will also have to make enormous efforts in the sense of democracy education with regard to their forms of democratic participation and their teaching content and methods.
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Media expansion of democratic public spheres
An opportunity should therefore be seen here in the further development of a deliberative democracy (Habermas 1992). A constitutive element of this is a democratic public sphere through which different reasons, assessments and opinions can be exchanged, accessible to all and with equal opportunities to speak, before a political decision is made.
The independence of the media is constitutive for this, an independence that is by no means realized due to the largely private ownership of the media, such as newspapers, a large part of the television stations and the digital media.
What should be demanded here are socialized solutions for media ownership, such as cooperatively organized forms of disposal and ownership relationships oriented toward the economy of the common good. Certainly, public television stations must be preserved, but they must be further democratized in the sense of citizen participation.
Only when the link between private-sector media power and a correspondingly interest-driven control of political attitudes and judgments is broken can a deliberative democracy continue to develop. Already existing examples of a socialization and democratization of media can be seen in the Swiss online magazine 'Republik' and the German magazine 'Die Tageszeitung' (taz).
Digital media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, must also be freed from the algorithms used by the private sector, which only enable communication with a high public impact if this is also paid for accordingly. Otherwise, only a small, limited portion of one's contacts will receive the posted information, which is actually intended for a larger public.
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Balancing direct democratic and representative structures
When speaking of 'Western democracies' in terms of their legitimacy of democracy and their constitutional reality, it is necessary to distinguish between the different political systems of Western democracies. For example, the political systems of the USA, Switzerland, Germany or France differ considerably from each other. Both the constitutional constructions and the relationship between constitutional claims and constitutional reality are very different in the states mentioned.
It is important to learn from political systems that have a balance of representative and direct democratic elements of the political system. Germany, for example, has clear deficits with regard to direct-democratic structures at the federal level. Switzerland, on the other hand, is an example of a combination of representative-democratic and direct-democratic procedures from which it is necessary to learn in a critical review of this model.
In this context, a reorganization of the democratic system requires a precise analysis of which problems and conflicts are suitable for direct-democratic decision-making. The question of reintroducing the death penalty or abolishing rule-of-law structures should not be put to a vote in either the representative or the direct-democratic system. However, there are certainly issues that can be decided directly democratically at the nation-state level, such as the question of whether a state should join a multinational economic alliance like CETA or MERCOSUR. Precisely then, however, it will also be important to have a deliberative public sphere whose media communication is not primarily influenced by private-sector interests and companies such as Cambridge Analytica. Such a decision must be preceded by a carefully worked-out process of information, discussion and decision-making.
On the one hand, such an approach will make it possible to contribute to a specific problem solution. On the other hand, participation in several direct-democratic procedures structured in this way will develop democratic competence in the population in the sense of building up understood knowledge and competence in analysis, judgment and action.
Direct forms of democracy could also be used much more creatively. In addition to citizens' petitions and referendums, experiments could also be carried out with citizens' tribunals, self-government elements in residential blocks (citizens' councils), with expanded citizen participation in public television and radio stations, and institutionalized participation of NGOs in certain parliamentary decisions.
These considerations and proposals referred primarily to national societies. How democratic reorganization could be carried out at the multilateral level is described in more detail in Chapter 5, using the reorganization of the United Nations as an example.
Introduction or revival of co-determination at the workplace
On the one hand, in many states of the global South there has never been any significant co-determination at the workplace. Here, of course, the first step would be to demand that the legal basis for co-determination at the workplace be created. The situation was different in the richer states that could afford co-determination at the workplace. The widespread suppression of co-determination, for example in Germany either through the active obstruction of works council elections by the company management or through other, legally less secure employee models, would have to be reversed in the context of a further development of social democratization. It is to be demanded that any obstruction of works council initiatives or elections is subject to more severe penalties. Protection against dismissal for election initiators is also to be demanded.
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The most democratic form of co-determination is certainly to be seen in solidary collectives, where at least in smaller companies the company belongs to the employees, who jointly discuss and vote on the central decisions. Such an approach to workplace democratization is also rooted in the Economy for the Common Good.
Democracy must not bypass companies. Otherwise, the systemic contradiction between the economic basis and the political superstructure, between capitalism and democracy, will persist.
4.3 Social justice from an international perspective
Chapter 2.5 described in detail the current social inequality and the looming scenario of a world in which fewer and fewer rich people try to exclude ever larger parts of the world's population from social wealth.
Sociologist Stephan Lessenich (2018) summarizes the problem again using the Oxfam Poverty Wealth Studies – and in 2025, things don't look any different:
"Every year, the Oxfam report on poverty and wealth reveals something shocking: Life chances in this world are unequally distributed to an almost unbelievable degree.
But you can also say that Oxfam reveals the well-known every year: Global capitalism knows a few winners who are able to enrich themselves in an almost obscene way. And it creates many losers who live in inhumane conditions and have to work under unspeakable conditions.
The fact that both winning and losing are interrelated in global capitalism cannot be made clear often enough: The incomes and fortunes of the rich and super-rich of this world are drawn from the labor and poverty of large majorities of the population around the globe. This is what is actually scandalous about the conditions that Oxfam documents at the beginning of each year: Some enrich themselves at the expense of others.
This principle applies in every single country in the world - and it also applies on a global scale. In virtually every country in the world, social inequality is growing, and the rich and super-rich are able to concentrate more and more income and wealth among themselves. But even on a global scale, inequality remains extreme: If the entire world were a single country, its income inequality would be on par with that of South Africa, one of the most unequal countries of all."
It is necessary to ask with which structures and systemic processes this global and also in individual nation states existing unequal distribution of wealth is connected.
Of course, capitalism – and especiallythe neoliberal interpretation of world capitalism – has once again exacerbated the poverty situation. Tolerated tax havens for the rich, through which public property is stolen from the majority of the population, the connection between abuse of power, corruption and personal enrichment, unchecked financial speculation, the externalization of ecological costs and a worldwide observable dismantling of democratically controlled welfare state achievements are, especially in their interconnectedness, the cause of the ever-widening social gap.
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A global redistribution via modified taxation systems
Measures to create social justice for a new order on a global scale must start here. A democratically controlled world government of the future would have to work on this in cooperation with powerful social and civil society movements in all parts of the world and effectively initiate opposing tendencies. This must involve drastic redistribution in local, regional and global contexts, initially through changed taxation systems and their strict control. Different tax corridors must be set up for different regions in order to gradually equalize the poverty gap. Speculation taxes should be levied in such a way that speculation on the financial markets is no longer profitable. Tax havens in which corporations and super-rich individuals no longer have to pay any or almost any taxes will be closed. An effective global CO2 tax on every ton of emitted CO2 can be used to initiate a global socio-ecological turnaround.
A globally valid minimum taxation, in particular of multinational corporations, must finally be implemented worldwide and without exceptions.
In view of the above-average income growth, OXFAM (2025c) calls for an additional wealth tax for billionaires and multi-millionaires:
“Introduction of a minimum tax (billionaire tax) of 2 percent on the wealth of billionaires and the highly wealthy to offset tax privileges for high levels of investment income.”
Basic social security and a dignified minimum wage for all people
In the debate on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ('SDGs'), there is a particular call for basic social security, especially for the poorer sections of the population in the different regions of the world, in order to provide them with access to basic food, education and medical services, i.e. the fulfillment of the most fundamental human rights - according to the Global Policy Forum et al. (2017):
"Social security systems are essential for sustainable poverty reduction. Although the right to social security is enshrined in international law in the Social Covenant, 73 percent of the world's population still has no access to the most important social security systems. They have no protection against elementary life risks such as illness, poverty in old age or unemployment. Against this background, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has called on member states to introduce at least universal basic social protection that provides access to basic health care and elementary income security. Social security reduces the risks of poverty and contributes to social equality."
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Neoliberalized globalization relied on being able to exploit the labor of workers in the poorer regions of the world ('low-wage countries'). Therefore, in the long run, a minimum wage level has to be introduced worldwide, which has to be adjusted to the purchasing power of the respective currency and which enables a dignified life for all people.
A strict supply chain law must finally be enforced globally, i.e. for all corporations worldwide, which makes the contracting corporations legally responsible for humane standards and appropriate rewards in the upstream production facilities. This should also be supported through the incorporation of socio-political and ecological regulations in bilateral and multilateral treaties.
In addition to the paradigm shift in tax policy, the reduction of the profits of multinational corporations, huge sums in the trillions will be freed up to finance social security, minimum wage levels and regional social equalization, as national armaments budgets will be eliminated or considerably less money will be needed to finance the UN's global forces of order.
A global structural compensation and the repayment of the stolen resources
Through global structural compensation, strict supply chain laws, an acceptable global minimum wage and the global development of central social security systems, the colonization gains of the rich states, including the effects of the unjust global economic 'terms of trade', the organized theft of human beings and the plundering of mineral resources, are paid back to those regions of the world that would not recover without this compensation. These resources flow into the development of the economy there, whereby above all collective enterprises and non-private enterprises in the form of cooperatives or similar legal forms are to be promoted - in particular, if they produce ecologically. With this global structural equalization, major causes of rural exodus and migration will then also cease to exist. It is now possible to stay in one's own homeland and help there to work for a socially just, peaceful and ecologically compatible reorganization.
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4.4 The ecological preconditions of peace
Australian climate and energy experts Spratt/Dunlop (2019, 10) highlight the societal risk if no fundamental attitude change and associated drastic action is taken to save the world's climate:
"This scenario provides a glimpse into a world of 'outright chaos' on a path to the end of human civilisation and modern society as we have known it, in which the challenges to global security are simply overwhelming and political panic becomes the norm.
Yet the world is currently completely unprepared to envisage, and even less deal with, the consequences of catastrophic climate change.
What can be done to avoid such a probable but catastrophic future? It is clear from our preliminary scenario that dramatic action is required this decade if the 'hothouse Earth' scenario is to be avoided. To reduce this risk and protect human civilisation, a massive global mobilisation of resources is needed in the coming decade to build a zero-emissions industrial system and set in train the restoration of a safe climate. This would be akin in scale to the World War II emergency mobilisation."
This should make the extent of the necessary measures clear: The climate catastrophe can only be prevented with a resource effort as it was done in the course of the emergency caused by World War 2.
However, this is not to suggest that previous efforts to contain the climate crisis have been in vain. Although the UN environmental and climate conferences have not achieved the necessary optimum, without them the climate crisis would have been even more severe than it already is. Both the entry into force of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994 and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 have certainly provided effective impetus for a gradual change in energy supply - even if this is far from sufficient.
Future measures, e.g. in energy supply or agriculture, must be strictly checked for their climate -impact in order to reach climate-neutrality. Within a period of 5-10 years, a level of zero additional climate gas emissions must be reached. If this aim fails to a small extent after that, then the emissions must be carefully accounted for and compensated in a controlled manner via technical or biotic measures. These include replacing fossil energy generation with photovoltaic or wind power plants, for example, or creating additional CO2 sinks through forest cultivation, for example. Overall, however, in addition to the climate neutrality of future measures, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that have already occurred must also be undertaken. Compensation alone must not be relied upon, as this will not prevent the emission of climate-damaging gases, e.g. during production. Appropriately high CO2 taxes and improved and effective handling of trading in emissions certificates are sensible measures in this regard.
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Ultimately, largely abandoning fossil fuels is the most effective method of climate protection: in particular, leaving coal and petroleum in the ground, using energy more sparingly, and employing regenerative forms of energy production in a climate-neutral manner.
The goal must be a reduction of net emissions of climate-hostile gases [16], such as CO2, methane or nitrous oxide, towards zero. Climate neutrality means that all man-made greenhouse gas emissions that cannot be neutralized by natural sinks, such as forests or peatlands, must be prevented.
For a climatic change, however, the earth must not be worked on with the same industrial-technological awareness that led to the ecological problems in the first place, as is the case, for example, with geoengineering measures. For example, dimming the sun via SO2 to be injected into the atmosphere to cool the biosphere overlooks the complex and highly sensitive interplay between atmospheric changes and rainfall or plant growth. Ecological disasters would be pre-programmed. [17]
Climate scientist Niklas Höhne (New Climate Institute, 2023) also calls for this in summary:
Governments "must stop trying to adopt false solutions like carbon capture and storage with fossil fuels - this is simply the fossil fuel industry attempting to extend its life, when it needs to face up to the reality of a fossil fuel phase out."
A changed awareness of nature
Humans of our time have the responsibility to take the right measures in order to maintain the vitality of the biosphere on earth. Environmental researcher and former Wuppertal mayor Uwe Schneidewind summarizes the changing role of humans in dealing with nature in the epoche which many scientists call 'Anthropocene':
"Mankind is no longer the sole driver of geological processes. It is helping to shape its own ecological future. The earth is thus placed in the hands of humanity, and this leads to a new dimension of responsibility."
(Schneidewind 2018, 134)
However, this requires a change in consciousness in the mainstream of humanity. Many people no longer consider themselves an integrated part of nature, they are alienated from nature, and they use technology in order to be separate themselves from nature. Such people move too little in nature, do not practice gardening, eat an unhealthy diet, do not provide their body with the biorhythm it needs, consume meat dishes based on animal cruelty, consume alcohol and cigarettes in excess, neglect their body via rampant media consumption, working until burnout.
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It is therefore incumbent upon human beings - especially in the digital age - to respect and treat nature within and around them with care. The environment is rather to be perceived as a co-environment, i.e. to be put into a subjective relation that does not allow a distanced splitting off. Without a change of consciousness in the relationship between man and nature, political measures to restore the ecological balance in the sense of sustainable development will encounter insurmountable obstacles.
This applies to both inner and outer nature and also to the connection between the two.
The change in ecological awareness must be accompanied by a more responsible understanding of nation-state sovereignty and multilateral cooperation, because the ecological crisis does not stop at nation-state borders, according to Stewart M. Patrick (2021):
"The natural world obeys no sovereign boundaries, and neither does the worsening ecological crisis. It is time to take bold steps to overcome the disconnect between an international system divided into 195 independent countries, each operating according to its own imperatives, and a global calamity that cannot be resolved in a piecemeal fashion. It is time to govern the world as if the earth mattered."
Criteria of a sustainability-oriented policy
In this holistic approach, sustainability is more than just a superficial fashionable phrase; it has a great deal of complexity and must be understood in a multidimensional way. Sustainability has ecological, economic, social and cultural dimensions, and a policy based on the principle of sustainability can be defined in more detail using the following criteria:
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Rules of a policy oriented toward sustainability:
(supplemented overview based on Peter/Moegling/Overwien 2011, 84)
Instead of the longstanding understanding of a growth-oriented pursuit of economic and social goals - i.e., a regulation of the capitalist economic process oriented toward efficiency and return - social and ecological sustainability is about a sustainable and livable world in which people can live differently and better. Sustainability means: It must no longer be produced and lived at the expense of the future. Every measure and every way of life must be examined to see what effect it has on the biosphere and on the living possibilities of present and future generations. The understanding of sustainability includes prioritizing the ecological dimension - knowing well that the various dimensions of ecological and social coexistence are interrelated.
If economic stability is to be achieved with substantially reduced resource consumption, both the North and the South must change to comply with the key sustainability rules. These include:
* Use of renewable raw materials only in compliance with the regrowth rate (regenerative rule);
* Economical use of non-renewable raw materials or taking into account their substitutability (economy rule);
* Observance of the assimilation limits of the natural balance and preventive avoidance of damage to the climate and biodiversity (adaptation rule);
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* Extensive avoidance of the dangers and risks of using large-scale technology (precautionary rule);
* Increasing the efficiency in the technological use of natural resources in order to reduce their consumption (efficiency rule);
* Elementary livelihood security for all, including protection against major life risks and access to elementary education.
* Equitable distribution of social resources and social wealth regardless of social situation, gender, culture or geographic location;
* Abandonment of the burning of fossil raw materials in favor of renewable energy production and energy saving;
* Consumption renunciation with regard to products if their production and distribution destroys resources that significantly affect the lives of future generations;
* Ending animal cruelty in the context of industrial factory farming in favor of a global decrease in meat consumption and exclusively species-appropriate animal husbandry;
* Preserving cultural diversification in a global context, especially where it contributes to a tolerant cultural identity and a sustainability-oriented way of life;
* Democratization of political and economic spheres of society in order to place ecological control of central areas of society in the hands of those affected.
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A critical understanding of sustainability goes beyond the fashionable use of this category and is resistant to the deceptive attempts to misuse sustainability for life-threatening technologies ('greenwashing'). An analysis and assessment based on a critical understanding of sustainability uncovers structures of collaboration between bought scientists, lobbyists, dependent politicians and fossil fuel industry. Such an approach to the issue of sustainability also takes a critical look at the relocation of CO-2 emissions and Western waste to the Global South. It is not acceptable for people in the global North to create a clear ecological conscience for themselves by avoiding environmental destruction in their living environment while shifting ecological destruction to the global South.
Cornerstones of a policy of sustainability
Solar power infrastructure, clean water, breathable air, and decelerating population growth.
It is, for example, inacceptable that drinking water - the essence of life, just like clean air to breathe - becomes anobject of speculation and profit maximization. The struggle for water will increasingly determine the future of humanity. This primary source of life must be protected by all legitimate means from private-sector seizure. Internal and inter-societal peace cannot occur without protection and public availability of clean drinking water.
This is just as true for the air we breathe. Especially in larger cities, poorer people breathe the polluted and unhealthy air on arterial roads where rents are lower. This injustice must be eliminated via changed mobility concepts and innovative concepts of a reclamation of urban living space.
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In view of the climatic changes that are already taking place, the energy economy, which is based on the production of electricity from carbon dioxide, must be converted more quickly and more widely to a solar energy economy. Especially the countries of the global south have here an inexhaustible energy source and a natural resource, which they should use faster and more extensively.
Electricity production through photovoltaic systems combined with electricity storage and wall boxes for charging electric cars, heat production through solar thermal systems on roofs, and the expansion of wind energy (on- and offshore) combined with large storage capacities, such as 600 megawatt storage units, as well as efficient use of the energy generated through combined heat and power plants, heat pumps supplied with green electricity, or the use of the heat energy generated during electricity generation as a district heating supply are elements of a solar energy supply infrastructure.
The 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC 2021, 38) sets CO2 residual budgets on a scientific basis:
With a probability of 17%, the 1.5 degree Celsius global warming target can be met if global emissions of 900 gigatons of CO2 are still emitted. Since this is a very low probability, the global residual CO2 budget should be closer to 300 Giga tons of CO2 (83% probability). Only below 300 Giga tons of CO2 will there be a certain probability that the 1.5 degree target can still be achieved by the end of the 21st century. Government policy as well as the climate policy of the United Nations must be oriented to this residual budget. With a view to the necessary climate justice, richer regions of the world must reduce C02 emissions faster than poorer regions, which would have to be given even more time for the transition.
Energy supply via nuclear power plants and nuclear energy is not applicable due to their uncontrollable dangerousness and the unsolvable disposal problem. Also, the effort to keep the hazardous material separate from the biosphere requires an enormous expenditure of energy and use of resources that proponents of nuclear power ignore. Furthermore, the energy generated by nuclear power plants is by far the most expensive energy (Kempfert 2021), which is only competitive at all due to high state subsidies.
In the face of an overcrowded earth, it is also crucial to slow down population growth through education, free distribution of contraceptives - and if this does not help decisively - through restrictions on the number of births, in order to avoid one of the various causes of the increasing migration movements and the associated displacement struggles, and at the same time to conserve the earth's resources. In this regard, one should look at China's attempts to lower the birth rate there. Thus, it is also necessary to learn from China's mistakes, which consisted in a too drastic reduction within the framework of the one-child policy and in the associated, targeted abortions, especially of girls. The limits to the groth of the world-population must be respected by all countries in order to keep the door into the future of mankind on the planet earth open.
Also, at least part of the trillions of dollars freed up by the national renunciation of armaments could be invested in the healing of the biosphere or the perspective counteraction against the threatening climate catastrophe, which has not only ecological but also - as has already been mentioned - peacemaking functions in the medium to long term.
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Ecological transport policy and recovery of the urban habitat
The abolition of the gasoline engine must be enforced with the creation of ecologically compatible mobility solutions on a global scale via positively reinforcing taxation incentives. In this context, e-mobility is critical because of its environmental impact if it does not use solar-generated electricity and is based solely on battery-driven technology, which causes the destruction of large areas of land in the Global South and a lowering of the water table there, for example, in the course of lithium mining. The solution is more likely to be found in e-mobility with other storage technologies, such as primarily hydrogen-based technology combined with lithium-free batteries - even though too much energy is currently required to produce hydrogen. A further prerequisite for this is that the energy required to produce the hydrogen is obtained regeneratively. [18]
Of course, the development of a well-timed and reliable local transport system as well as a safe and extended network of bicycle paths must be preferredin order to replace individual mobility solutions using combustion engines. In regard of individual mobility 'green hydrogen' represents an ecologically justifiable option; but the key solution in this context lays in the expansion of public transportsystems and of the replacement of engine-driven vehicles by bikes.
The ecological added value of a change in mobility behavior can at the same time be used to increase safety and improve the quality of life in the public urban space. Streets would be freed from through traffic and become public living space again. Urban squares would transform their use as parking lots in favor of local markets, re-naturalization and communicative meeting places. A change in mobility behavior would also lead to the recovery of clean air, which, along with the availability of clean water, is a key fundamental right. The impairment of breathing caused by the unbearable smog in the global cities of all world regions and the accompanying respiratory diseases and massive mortality rates point to the necessity of freeing the air from exhaust gases such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide.
This improvement in the quality of life could be supported by various municipal measures:
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- Expansion of local and long-distance public transport;
- Collective parking on the outskirts of the city with simultaneous
connection to trains and buses with short time intervals;
- Premiums for the elimination of internal combustion engines in favor of
ecological mobility solutions;
- Increase in taxes for cars powered by gasoline or diesel;
- Introduction of a renter's ticket with a simultaneous increase in the price
of inner-city parking;
- Expansion of the network of safe and comfortable bicycle paths;
- Reduction of the urban speed limit;
- Targeted deconstruction and renaturation of urban streets and squares;
- Introduction of a city toll for companies with many motor vehicles;
- Promotion of photovoltaic systems on roofs to refuel e-cars and e-bikes
via energy generation on the roofs.
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Of course, an ecologically oriented transport policy also includes the abandonment of domestic flights in favor of the use of long-distance public transport. This also includes the technical conversion of aircraft to electric or hydrogen-powered engines whose primary energy source is solar-generated electricity. These conversion processes in air traffic must be promoted and accelerated by an effective kerosene tax, minimum quotas for solar-generated propulsion energy and stricter emissions trading, which in turn must benefit the technological transformation process.
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Renaturation and reforestation as part of an ecological program
A high taxation of the global transport of goods leads to a strengthening of regional production. This taxation must be increased even further if the products, such as soy or beef, result from the clearing of rainforests. As early as possible, however, the destruction of rainforest stands must be banned worldwide under the auspices of the United Nations. At the same time, the renaturation and reforestation of forests must begin. Of course, it is not enough to offset or reduce CO2 emissions through reforestation. Nevertheless, the worldwide planting of trees can be an important factor of various factors in combating the climate crisis. [19] The increase of forest fires as an accompanying circumstance of the climate catastrophe raises the relevance of renaturation and reforestation.
A Brazilian forester shows that the rainforest does not necessarily have to become the victim of land speculators, gold diggers, cattle ranchers and soy farmers. Such initiatives must be strengthened - even against the resistance of the ruling politicians and the dominant corporations:
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"Brazilian forester Rafael Fernandes is a contented man these days. He can help the threatened rainforest grow a bit bigger again. An hour and a half's drive northwest of the megacity of São Paulo, he runs a forest experiment center jointly operated by the Dutch beer company Heineken and its NGO called SOS Mata Atlântica. They've been here since 2007 on a former coffee plantation, restoring a run-down patch of forest all around and planting new trees. 'Most recently, we counted 206 additional bird species,' Fernandes says proudly, 'and recently a puma was sighted.' Fernandes is by no means alone in the region around São Paulo: The rainforest there, the so-called Atlantic Forest with its at least 8,000 indigenous animal and plant species, is returning after decades of overexploitation by coffee and sugar cane farmers. Data from Brazil's Mapbiomas research institute shows that new rainforest the size of Belgium has been created in the southwest of the country within 16 years."
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Promotion of subsistence farming
A change in the mindset of consumers is also required: they need to prefer local products and to reject products transported intercontinental by sea or air in their purchasing decisions. Home cultivation of agricultural products also finds its subsistence revival in this ecological framework. This seems relatively easy in rural areas, where sufficient land and areas make this possible. But in urban areas, too, there are already numerous approaches in the sense of the economy of the common good of community gardens and cultivated areas, as well as attempts to cultivate vegetable gardens on the flat roofs of houses on a larger scale. Urban gardening', for example in New York, is already taking place there on a larger scale:
"The economic potential for carrots, lettuce or radishes from the roof appears great - some even speak of a new green revolution. According to Fraunhofer researchers, Germany's cities offer 360 million square meters of roof space that could be used to grow fruit and vegetables. (…)
In Ghana's capital Accra, urban farmers supply up to half the food. On the roof of a former warehouse in New York's Brooklyn neighborhood, lettuce, tomatoes, pepper and herbs thrive on 6,000 square meters within sight of Manhattan's skyscrapers - all in organic quality, as the operator of the Navy Yard Farm emphasizes in her self-promotion." [20]
Here, the environmental emissions due to transport costs are eliminated and offer the possibilities of organic farming. If the roof static can not tolerate the heavy soil, hydroponics can also be created.
However, not only the agricultural cultivation of flat roofs but also the communal cultivation and use of fallow land based on principles of agricultural sustainability is increasingly taking place in cities. This involves sowing, cultivating and harvesting communities that cover a large proportion of their nutritional needs on a plant basis and dispense with the use of toxic pesticides and polluting forms of soil fertilization. [21]
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Here, individual and collective ways of sensible ecological behavior on the local level become apparent. Nevertheless, the structural level with regard to the global world trade situation must not be neglected. Therefore, ways must also be sought to revise international free trade and investment protection agreements due to the existing ecological threat situation. If such treaties, such as CETA or the treaty of the EU with the MERCOSUR states, lead to increased rainforest deforestation, then the United Nations must create legal framework conditions that allow for a revision of such treaties that threaten the world climate.
The implementation of a solar economy and solar energy supply as well as a sensible balance of centralized and decentralized energy supply structures preserve jobs and has an ecologically sensible effect if the underlying technology is also produced in an environmentally compatible manner and is also recycled.
In particular, attention must be paid to a significant increase in efficiency in the area of energy production with the same energy-saving measures. [22] Combined heat and power generation is a highly effective instrument of energy-efficiency, it can be applied in decenralized as well as in centralized systems.
Furthermore, a strict circular economy must be implemented globally, which provides for waste avoidance, waste separation and waste recycling in order to stop the littering of the earth and to reduce the extraction of raw materials.
Building blocks of ecological agriculture
The fertilization of fields with manure from factory farming must be regulated in an environmentally compatible manner. Furthermore, weed and pest control with pesticides that are harmful to health must be banned and replaced by nature-friendly measures of biological-ecological agriculture. Record-keeping obligations and precise accounting of the amount of fertilizer applied should be linked to stricter regulations in order to ensure the protection of soil and water.
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In this sense, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sees positive influences of agriculture and forestry oriented to the principle of sustainability on future climate development:
"Sustainable land management, including sustainable forest management, can prevent and reduce land degradation, maintain land productivity, and sometimes reverse the adverse impacts of climate change on land degradation (very high confidence). It can also contribute to mitigation and adaptation (high confidence). Reducing and reversing land degradation, at scales from individual farms to entire watersheds, can provide cost effective, immediate, and long-term benefits to communities and support several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with co-benefits for adaptation (very high confidence) and mitigation (high confidence). Even with implementation of sustainable land management, limits to adaptation can be exceeded in some situations (medium confidence)." [23]
Waste disposal in poorer regions of the world at low prices and environmental standards as well as waste dumping, including waste oil and plastic, in the sea and in the poorer land regions of the world should be subject to severe penalties and outlawed internationally.
Another ecological prerequisite of a just environmental policy is the end of 'land grabbing' and the return of the stolen land to the families and farming collectives displaced from it, which can be a decisive contribution to the dissolution of the slums in the big cities of the global South.
The co-benefits of sustainability
Such measures for industrial, agricultural and forestry nature consumption must be supported by an effective system of environmental certificate trading and tax incentives for ecologically compatible behavior. Here, the certificates must be priced in such a way that they actually become relevant. Individual environmental behavior must also be economically regulated through legislation and financial incentives. This must be effectively initiated internationally by the responsible legislator and in particular under the coordination and control of the United Nations - says Uwe Schneidewind:
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"The political challenge lies in flanking economically sensible active climate protection with laws in such a way that it is also worthwhile for individual companies and industries as well as for individual citizens: only if it is also cheaper for individuals to renovate their homes to make them more energy-efficient, if there are incentives for energy suppliers to rapidly convert their energy production to renewable energies, and if automobile manufacturers have incentives to switch to other forms of propulsion as well as new mobility models, will the corresponding transformation take place." (Schneidewind 2018, 153)
In this context, the 'co-benefits' of sustainability-oriented behavior have an accelerating effect on the desired transformation. If the introduction of ecological technologies is associated with an increase in efficiency, also with a saving of financial resources, an improved competitive position or the improvement of air quality in the inner cities, the probability of sustainability-oriented economic activity in industry and agriculture and corresponding consumer behavior increases. [24]
If the causes of ecological problems, such as unrestrained growth and profit thinking and corresponding structures, ecological stupidity or corruptibility of politics, immoderateness in consumption as well as progressive overpopulation of the earth, which lead to a displacement competition and to mass migration, are clearly reduced or eliminated, this can be the basis of a peace-creating development.
The reduction of the carbon footprint of the individual and of the societies must be supplemented by the ecological handprint of individuals and groups; this would encourage everybody involved to a holistic attitude towards everyday behaviour in our natural and social environment. To experience togetherness and deciciveness as well as empathic solidarity of ecologically engaged people can enforce resilience on all levels of human life.
Scientists are also internationally committed to sustainability and climate justice
The current ecological initiatives such as 'Fridays for Future' or 'Extinction Rebellion' in many regions of the world, which are supported in particular by young people and students, show that the coming generation is becoming increasingly aware of the catastrophes threatening them and future generations. Here, grassroots democratic approaches of a radical and civil society resistance against the destruction of collective chances for the future become clear. A broad and qualified cooperation and mutual support of the groups engaged in avoiding future threats is necessary to stabilize and broaden the influence of these movements on the social process.
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Scientists have signed the climate demands of Scientists for Future. Scientists also support the climate protests of young people ('Alliance of World Scientists') on an even larger global scale. 27,000 scientists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have signed a corresponding declaration with reference to the UN Paris Climate Conference - here is an excerpt from the declaration:
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"The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 commits countries under international law to keep global warming well below 2 C. This is a binding commitment. In addition, all countries have pledged efforts to limit warming to 1.5C. It is now important to rapidly reduce net emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases to zero globally between 2040 and 2050 at the latest. Faster reductions increase the likelihood of achieving 1.5C. The burning of coal should be almost completely phased out as early as 2030, while the burning of oil and natural gas should be reduced at the same time until all fossil fuels have been replaced by climate-neutral energy sources. Taking global climate justice into account, this change would have to take place even much faster in Europe. (…) Only if we act quickly and consistently can we limit global warming, stop the mass extinction of animal and plant species, preserve the natural foundations of life and win a future worth living for present and future generations. This is exactly what the young people of 'Fridays for Future/Climate Strike' want to achieve. They deserve our respect and full support." [25]
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The "Sustainable Development Goals" (SDG)" of the UN
Even though there is certainly some justified criticism of the international approach taken to date with regard to the sustainability issue and the UN's SDGs, they should at least be named here. After all, they mark the spectrum of sustainability projects to be tackled.
By way of introduction, the UN in 2015 first formulates its sensible and far-sighted intentions for a socio-ecological reorganization as follows:
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"The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet. People We are determined to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfill their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment. Planet We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations. Prosperity We are determined to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature. Peace We are determined to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. Partnership We are determined to mobilize the means required to implement this Agenda through a revitalized Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focused in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders and all people. The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realized. If we realize our ambitions across the full extent of the Agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better." (United Nations 2015a)
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Based on this, in 2015 the United Nations formulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a sustainability program geared to the year 2030 under the title "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development":
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Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations) [26] ·
no poverty (1) ·
zero hunger (2) ·
good health and well-being (3) ·
quality education (4) ·
gender equality (5) ·
clean water and sanitation (6) ·
affordable and clean energy (7) ·
decent work and economic growth (8) ·
industry, innovation and infrastructure (9) ·
reduced inequalities (10) ·
sustainable cities and communities (11) ·
responsible consumption and production (12) ·
climate action (13) ·
life below water (14) ·
life on land (15) ·
peace, justice and strong institutions (16) ·
partnerships for the goals (17)
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Of course, the first thing to be criticized is the uncritical use of the concept of economic growth in the eighth objective. Instead of prioritizing the limits to growth, growth thinking is reinforced. The need for sufficiency is lost here. [27]
Furthermore: With so many well-intentioned claims and objectives, some of which were also formulated in a similar way decades ago as part of the Agenda 21 process at the UN Rio Conference, one now wonders why action is not taken more quickly and more effectively. The goals are still not linked to effective sanctions, binding interim evaluations and monitoring instruments, so that they contain much that is right and well-intentioned, but initially remain stuck at the level of preamble-like formulations.
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The UN must take a more offensive approach here, preferring to let a UN meeting expire without results rather than merely formulating claims that are easy to present but do not entail any consequences.
The EU's climate requirements with regard to CO2 emissions are somewhat different, as high sums must indeed be paid by an EU state if it fails to reduce emissions within the specified framework. [28]
Climate policy for peace – peace policy for Climate
Without peace between the peoples the climate and the nature will be tilt. [29]
The damage to the environment violates the mental health of many people. Humanity has never recovered from the traumas resulting from wars. They paralyze perception and the reflection of their experience and its contexts; this limits people's ability to act at a time when it is essential that humanity directs its full potential toward averting threats to the future of mankind. (see chapter 1.4.1.3).
The war in Ukraine, for example, is tying up resources that would have been needed to combat the climate crisis.
Parts of the climate protection movement don't see the connection between climatic development and the effects of military, armament and war, although disarmament would be the greatest contribution to securing the ecological future.
The environmental damage caused by war and military activities contradicts the regulations of the Geneva Convention. Among other things, these ecological crimes are a violation of Article 35 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts - quotation:
"It shall be prohibited to use methods or means of warfare which are intended to cause, or which may reasonably be expected to cause, extensive, prolonged and severe damage to the natural environment."
The fact that the U.S. government has pushed through in climate conferences to exempt the U.S. Army from having to report on its climate damage is a contributing factor in many climate activists failure to see the connection between the military and ecology.
It must therefore be demanded:
1. Climate damage caused by wars and military activities must be included in international climate negotiations.
2. Violations of the ecological regulations of the Geneva Convention are to be punished strictly by the UN jurisdiction. No country may evade this jurisdiction.
3. Military disarmament must be coordinated internationally through the UN - also for ecological reasons - because the climate is massively damaged not only in the case of war but also in everyday military operations.
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In the same way, a consistent climate policy is an important aspect for global peace. Climate catastrophes lead to flight from devastated areas and result in mostly violent displacement conflicts and struggles for resources.
In war, the climate is damaged and, on the other hand, war is provoked by climate destruction. There is a fatal interaction here.
Conclusion: An ecological and sustainability-oriented regional and international policy must be based on the principle of CO2 neutrality via the transformation of the fossil industries - ideally by 2035, at the latest by 2050 - in order to be able to stop the dramatic climate development. It is consequent to build up an energy economy and a transport system based on solar energy supply technology and green hydrogen technology, respectively. The clearing of the rainforest and other climate-relevant forests, the intensive use of pesticides, the poisoning of drinking water, and the plastic pollution of the oceans and large areas of land must be stopped promptly and subjected to strict sanctions and controls. Industrial emissions must be subject to high emissions taxes to prevent the externalization of environmental costs. Environmentally harmful international free trade and investment protection treaties must be revised with the support of the UN. Agriculture must be based on ecological principles and produce high-quality products in an environmentally compatible manner as organic agriculture. This must be fiscally regulated and favored worldwide. Consumption of environmentally harmful products must also become financially burdensome for the consumer. Global trade in environmental certificates must be changed in such a way that non-sustainable behavior by the actors involved becomes expensive and sustainable action is clearly rewarded.
Clean drinking water that is freely accessible to the people and clean air in the large cities are elementary prerequisites of life on this planet. This must be made possible for all people - and not just the wealthy elite.
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Cities must be freed from the flood of motor vehicles whose motive power is based on burning fossil fuels; Battery-powered vehicles that drive and are produced without 'green electricity' must not be praised as zero-emission technology, as this only applies to the moment of active mobility, not to the production and charging of the vehicles.
Cities must once again become ecologically valuable places to live with an improved quality of life. In particular, the slums in the large global metropolises must be deprived of their basis by returning the rural living space to the people who have fled there for collective and solidary provision. In this context, principles of an ecological subsistence economy are to be implemented and promoted.
In already poor regions, the risk of violent conflicts increases when climate catastrophes occur and increase if the political constitution is in a fragile and problematic state. In these regions in particular, the international community must take preventive action to ensure that reliable political structures are established and that a structural balance is achieved in advance with regard to the distribution of resources.
However, the stability of even rich regions of the world is endangered if natural disasters occur and institutions based on the rule of law are no longer able to reach these regions. For this reason, global police forces should be deployed globally and decentrally to ensure the reliability of rule-of-law and institutional structures locally and promptly in the event of ecological devastation.
Damage to the environment and climate by military activities and war shall be severely punished by UN jurisdiction.
However, these measures only have a sustainability-oriented perspective if they are embedded in a more effective ecologically oriented economy and global policy that ensures a decrease in man-made problems in the medium and long term and also the elimination of the ecological justice gap. It can no longer be the case that the richer part of the world acquires its wealth through the externalization of environmental costs, while at the same time the poorer part of the world has to suffer the environmental damage they cause. Thus, OXFAM (2021) rightly demands:
"It is time to use regulation and taxation to end extreme wealth altogether, to protect people and the planet. Such measures alongside wider progressive tax reforms are critical to reduce the wealth of the richest substantially, to shift the behavior of the polluter elite and to generate the revenues needed to fund the wider fight against the climate and inequality crises. The climate crisis has been driven by extreme inequality to this point. But now governments must urgently reach for solutions which address both."
This is a central task for a reform of the United Nations Organization to reorganize regional, national and international civilization structures under a socio-ecological perspective of justice on all levels of social life.
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4.5 Setting limits on digital world domination
Transparency is essential for a democracy in so far as decision-making processes become clear and transparent for citizens in order to enable and to encourage people to take part in participation. Here, the media have an important function in democracy. A free and controversial media public sphere is an indispensable building block of democratic social orders.
But if the degree of transparency that a state, the authorities, provide for its citizens exceeds a certain level, if absolute and a one-sided top-down transparency as a system of control penetrates every corner of life by applying supervising proceedures to control the sphere of privacy of the citicens, then transparency, which is intransparent for the people, leads to total control, it leads to the destruction of individual leeway in life and forces people to conform to predefined norms.
This is a particular problem when a state is eroding democratically and becoming autocratic, as is currently the case in Turkey, for example. There are calls for mutual spying, social networks are searched for statements hostile to the regime, and the instrument of the 'IMSI catcher' is used, for example. Here, the Turkish police siphon off the identification numbers of switched-on cell phones of demonstrators during an opposition demonstration. The next day, the police are at the door and make arrests. One of the illegal spy-programs developed and used by secret services is Pegasus, developed by the Israelan company NSO, oroiginally developed to control Palestinians in the occupied territories. Pegasus transfers smartphones to instruments of systematic supervision of citicens.
The use of IMSI catchers, of WLAN catchers, silent SMS in combination with radio cell interception control measures is used in autocratic states against the political freedom of their citizens.
China's digital control measures with the label 'Social Credit System', which are planned to be implemented nationwide from 2020, will also lead to absolute transparency about almost all activities of China's inhabitants. Through this state control and the creation of absolute transparency, an attempt is being made to create conformist mainstream behavior and to suppress oppositional behavior. The transparent person is already becoming a reality there (cf. chapter 2.7).
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If digital control becomes world-dominating, e.g. with the help of digital empires such as Google or Facebook, and this is also dominated by significant control via digitally anchored artificial intelligence, then this is in this twofold respect clearly opposed to democratic concerns and the enforcement or preservation of human rights.
This also raises the question of the extent to which the further development of artificial intelligence, oriented to ethically based guidelines and criteria of the human essence, should be more tightly controlled and regulated. If, for example, researchers are already thinking about programming the human brain onto a computer hard disk on the grounds that the earth is no longer suitable as a long-term location for human development anyway, and that only the digitization of the human brain can guarantee transport to distant galaxies, then the limit of what is reasonable has certainly been exceeded.
Moegling/Bläsius (2024) therefore call for international control of AI development via the United Nations and, in particular, for critical infrastructure and nuclear weapons systems to be detached from the internet:
"Global agreements to ban autonomous weapons systems and regulate AI are also urgently needed. Dependence on internet services should not increase any further. Instead, important infrastructure systems, such as healthcare and power supply, must function flawlessly even without the internet. It must also be ensured that dangerous weapons systems, such as nuclear missiles, cannot be controlled via the internet."
The question of staying in virtual worlds and what may and may not be allowed in virtual worlds also urgently needs to be broadly discussed and clarified in democratic discourses.
If people increasingly have experience in an artificial reality e.g. via VR - glasses [30], then it must be asked what influence such experiences have on human personalities and their behavior in the primary (real) world. The combination and mixing of primary and secondary (virtual) reality would also have to be investigated first with regard to the consequences for people's health or illness, among other things, before distributing corresponding media and software and trying to make profits here. Immersion, i.e. psychological involvement in the virtual world, is based on the illusion that there is actual interactivity between the user and the events in the virtual world. Destabilizings processes in the course of experience between the real and virtual world do not only have negative impact on the individual by letting unsettling emotions grow, they can in the same direction gain disruptive effects on the entire social architecture based on man-man-relations.
But what happens when the influences of the virtual experience become overwhelming? How does a person change when he spends many hours a day in virtual worlds shooting, stabbing, hacking, dismembering, torturing and tearing people apart? What does it mean when a person experiences violent pornography, rapes and kills in cyberspace? What do such changes in the experience of the individual mean for social groups and for the society, when they become a mass phenomenon?
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People assume the identity of avatars in cyberspace. What happens psychologically to such a person who regularly resides in an avatar? What hallucinations arise when a new level of human experience is present here, where robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality merge? [31]
A positive vision of social development will have to establish binding rules based on the principles of humanism for a reorganization of the world with regard to the use of virtual worlds, and these rules will have to define the framework for the use of virtual worlds. Mankind cannot afford to breed its own monsters on the basis of the profit motive of corporations that want to earn money with virtual war games or violent pornography.
As already mentioned in two chapters, it is also necessary to either remove all vital facilities from the worldwide digital network or to secure them in such a way that no digital attack from outside is possible. Nuclear facilities, further dangerous facilities as well as nuclear weapons technology or traffic control must be isolated and made secure in such a way that no hacker attacks or even algorithms that take on a life of their own can lead to catastrophes.
This problem must be solved worldwide, e.g. under the chairmanship of UNESCO.
Preparing for the working world 4.0
Working World 4.0 envisions the digital control and execution of work processes. Automation, intelligent robots in manufacturing, work substitution by computer algorithms and smart technology in offices. In this context, according to the OECD, the future of work will take place in the next few years without 14% of existing jobs and another 32% will be subject to drastic changes. [32]
| "Among the technologies that have become market-ready in recent years, the mobile, collaborative robot is particularly noteworthy. Instead of being fixed in one place like a classic industrial robot and repeatedly performing the pre-programmed work steps, it can perform different activities in different places and work together with people in the process. Until now, when industrial robots were used, separating protective devices were necessary to safely protect people who were in the robot's work area against injury from the fast-moving robots. Collaborating robots, on the other hand, are equipped with sensors that prevent injuries to the human worker. This makes it possible for humans to work closely with robots. For example, a collaborative robot can be used to lift and position heavy workpieces to make the human's job easier." [33]
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Previous resistance movements were directed in particular against environmental destruction, against warmongering and armament, or against social injustices such as job losses or the unfair distribution of wealth. The protest against job losses will now take on a new dimension due to the accelerating development of future technologies.
The expected leap in technology development is already set and is likely to be a combination of digital technologies and biotechnologies. This technology development is characterized, among other things, by genetic manipulation, artificial intelligence, robotics, integrated networks of humans and algorithms, chip implementation, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, digital acceleration of information flows, digital automation and machine learning. Here, a double problem arises: on the one hand, the core of human beings is being changed by genetic manipulation, invasive chip technologies or integration into neural networks controlled by algorithms. On the other hand, a large number of existing jobs are being eliminated without most of the people affected by this initially having the qualifications to move into the new world of work. The writer Yuval Noah Harari, who as a historian is able to think not only into the past but also far into the future, sees this as a changed problem compared to earlier protest movements:
"It may be that populist revolts in the 21st century will revolt not against an economic elite that exploits people, but against one that simply no longer needs people. It may well be that the people lose this battle. Because it's much harder to fight against meaninglessness than against exploitation." [34]
Harari does not only see disadvantages but he also recognizes considerable advantages in the substitution of traditional jobs by artificial intelligence. More than one million people are killed every year in traffic accidents caused by human error (wrong decisions, drunk driving). AI-controlled self-driving cars would spare human lives. AI doctors could provide medical health care to all areas of the world, including poorer regions, via Internet connections - Harari said:
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"Thanks to learning algorithms and biometric sensors, a poor villager in an underdeveloped country could receive far better medical care via a smartphone than the richest person gets today at the most advanced hospital." [35]
Here, of course, the importance of social contact between doctor and patient would have to be addressed, as well as the extent to which digital therapy and medical care are possible under conditions of poverty. The ethical problems associated with self-driving cars (decision dilemmas) are also omitted here. However, the positive functions of artificial intelligence in particular should not be overlooked, e.g. in the detection of skin cancer or for precision in automated work processes that rely on it.
On the one hand, jobs are lost through machine learning, robotization and AI; on the other hand, the possibility of new jobs also arises. Here, it must be carefully examined, which jobs should actually be eliminated because they are unworthy of human beings and harmful to health, and should be replaced by intelligent machines. On the other hand, not everything that is substitutable should be replaced if satisfactory and high-quality jobs are to be replaced here just because they could yield more profit as a result.
People must also be prepared for the substitutability and change of their jobs to the necessary extent. This should be the starting point for demands for further training and education of affected employees:
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"In recent years, therefore, mobile, collaborative robots and self-learning computer programs in particular, as well as the first applications of 3D printing and virtual reality, have advanced to such an extent that more and more occupational activities have to be classified as potentially replaceable. At the same time, however, job profiles have also changed. Because tasks that can be automated can be performed by robots or computer algorithms, they no longer have to be carried out by humans. They become less important or are no longer relevant for the exercise of the profession. As a rule, this is reflected in the fact that an activity previously declared as a core activity is no longer mentioned in job advertisements or training regulations or is no longer considered central to the exercise of the profession. In 2016, for example, activities such as "making models" or "calculating" are described as core competencies less frequently than in 2013." [36]
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Therefore, the demand must be made that automated work processes that replace a job should be subject to an automation or digital tax that accounts for a serious share of the added value generated by digitalization and automation. The resulting financial volume should be used to finance training and continuing education for employees who have lost their jobs due to the automation trends of Work World 4.0. This is likely to be a central trade union demand for the future, which must be enforced.
The digital transformation of working conditions has been foreseeable for some time and will take some more time. Therefore, there is enough time to think about further models for necessary social policy measures here - in addition to the reduction of working hours. The digital tax, which also includes a robot tax, is a sensible proposal that can be financed and is not at the expense of employees.
The representatives of the employees, the trade unions and the works councils must be significantly involved in all measures of a digital transformation of work in order to prevent corporate profit in the sense of private-sector usable added value from dominating the process. This then also means that high-quality jobs cannot be replaced by digitalized and fully automated production. The quality of life and work of working people must take precedence over a one-sided profit mentality.
It is doubtful whether this is possible under the current systemic conditions. [37]
Only when there is a trend towards an ethically guided systemic realignment in the sense outlined here will it be possible to responsibly control the development of artificial intelligence.
Notes
(chapter 4)
[1] Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 47).
[2] a.o. Bernhard Trautvetter was involved in correcting and advising on chapter 4. His English-language translation suggestions and further thoughts on content were indispensable for the revision of this chapter.
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[3] Cf. chap. 3.2.
[4] See, among others, Paech (2012, 2018) and, among others, the websites https://www.degrowth.info/de/sowie the Growth Turnaround Network at https://wachstumswende.de/, both n.d., Dec. 1, 2019.
[5] Cf. Altvater (2006, 203ff.), Felber (2018), Burkhart/Schmelzer/Treu, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie (2017) and also chap. 3.2 in this book.
[6] See ICAN study at http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/atomwaffen-banken-investieren-milliarden-in-atomwaffen-produzenten-1.3894464,7.3.2018, 3/16/2018.
[7] Greenpeace (Hrsg.), 2020, a.a.O., 30.
[8] Greenpeace, 2020: a.a.O., 31f.
[9] On arms conversion, see Brandt, Götz/Peil, Karl-Heinz, 2010, Militär und sozial-ökologische Transformation. In: http://xn--umwelt-militr-mfb.info/userfiles/downloads/2020/2020-07_BzU32_Militaer-Konversion.pdf, July 2020, 74.
[10] On the dangers of a different and spending-increasing European arms strategy, see Roithner (2020, 197ff. and, critically, Ruf (2020, 82ff.) on the spending increases in the course of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO).
[11] Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1953, The Chance for Peace
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/ike_chance_for_peace.html, Washington, D.C. vom April 16, 1953, 14.7.2021.
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayors_for_Peace, 13.2.2025, 6.3.2025.
[13] Ibid
[14] Cf. on the reform of the UN ch. 5.
[15] Cf. on a conclusion of the "Great Reset" Loos (2020), Schwab (2020) and more detailed Schwab/ Malleret (2020),
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[16] The concept of net emissions aims to ensure that "the Earth's carbon footprint is net, that is, after deductions by natural and artificial sinks, zero." (https://www.myclimate.org/de/informieren/faq/faq-detail/detail/News/was-bedeutet-netto-null-emissionen/, n.d., Nov. 5, 2019.
[17] Cf. Klein (2019).
[18] Cf. in more detail the analysis by Jürgen Stüber in: https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/gruenderszene/article188631963/Brennstoffzelle-Was-bringt-die-Wasserstofftechnologie-fuers-Auto.html, 12.2.2019, 14.3.2019.
[19] Cf. Fischermann (2019) on the example of the Brazilian rainforest.
[20] Gassmann (2015).
[21] In this case, however, attention must be paid to previous soil contamination with polluting substances, and appropriate expert opinions must first be prepared.
[22]Cf. Weizsäcker/Hargroves/Smith (2010).
[23] IPCC (2019, 24).
[24] See Schneidewind (2018, 152 ff.) for more detail.
[25] From: https://www.scientists4future.org/stellungnahme/, n.d., accessed March 15, 2019.[26] Compiled according to UN (2015b).
[27] See Seidl/Zahrnt (2015) for more details.
[28] See, e.g., Report on Payments Due to the EU for Germany in: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/eu-strafen-in-milliardenhoehe-versaeumter-klimaschutz-wird-noch-teurer-fuer-deutschland/24351844.html, May 17, 2019, accessed Oct. 14, 2019.
[29] Many thanks to Bernhard Trautvetter for further thoughts, which he has suggested just for this section "Climate policy for peace - peace policy for Climate".
[30] VR = Virtual Reality
[31] See also the considerations in Metzinger (2016) and Weber (2017).
[32] http://www.oecd.org/berlin/themen/zukunft-der-arbeit/, n.d., Nov. 22, 2019.
[33] Dengler/Matthes (2018, 2).
[34] Harari (2019, 30).
[35] Harari (23019, 48f.).
[36] Dengler/Matthes (2018, 4).
[37] On the system-disrupting power of digital development processes, see, among others, Trautvetter (2018).
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Chapter 5
Realignment of the system of international relations
Even if some of the proposals put forward here seem to resemble the world political objectives of the U.S. Department of State in 1961, strategic considerations of the Council on Foreign Relations, the 'Trilateral Commission' or the Bilderberg Club [1], as well as the 'Great Reset' outlined by Schwab/ Malleret in 2020 [2] in the course of the discussion about a 'New World Order', they have a completely different character. The discussion circles and ideological recruitment commissions originating in the USA and influencing the political discourse are not interested in models of international unification based on motives oriented toward the common good, but are rather interested in creating framework conditions for the dominance of US multinational corporations and the elimination of geopolitical competition. Furthermore, while the aforementioned institutions call for a world government introduced and supported by an elite, the present book comes from a comprehensive international democratization in view of the need to cope with global threats, the result of which is the restructuring of the United Nations, the increase in importance of transnational regionalization, and the disarmament of nations with the simultaneous establishment of world police functions and institutions.
Autocratic and elitist approaches are counterproductive for a consensus, which is to be discussed and reached with each other worldwide and nescessary for the most important measures for peacekeeping and war prevention, a humanly compatible and socio-politically acceptable digitalization, for combating social inequality, a sensible climate policy and saving the biosphere. Since the needed measures can only be taken via the acceptance of the majority of the earth's population, and since human rights, e.g. freedom of expression and freedom to engage in political activity, are also only guaranteed within democratic structures, the global future must lie in an expansion of democracy at the societal, state and transnational levels. At the same time, people's cosmopolitan consciousness is to be strengthened in the sense of responsibility for the whole.
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Only against this ethical and political background the following cornerstones of a new order can be understood. All previous historical attempts, such as the Soviet-socialist type, the attempted global seizure of power by National Socialism, attempts of a religious-church kind or US hegemony, to reach a new world order via elitist, unilateral and dictatorial concepts have led to millions of deaths and unspeakable suffering and have failed and will continue to fail in the future.
A reordering of the world will only emerge and endure through processes of democratization, through the power of civic resistance, through the expansion and safeguarding of democratic structures, and through multilateralism and democratic compromise-seeking at all levels.
Immanuel Kant has already anticipated this connection between the form of the state and the peacefulness of a state in his writing 'Zum ewigen Frieden'. The republican state will be seen as the prerequisite for the peacefulness of the people as well as for peace. Thus Kant (1795/ 2014) in his 'first definitive article on perpetual peace' links a lasting peace with the precondition of a republican constitution and the possibility of the citizens to have a decision on the question of war and peace:
"If (as it cannot be otherwise in this Constitution) the determination of the citizens is required to decide "whether war shall be or not," nothing is more natural than that, since they would have to decide all the tribulations of war upon themselves (as there are: To fence themselves; to pay the costs of the war out of their own property; to pettily repair the devastation it leaves behind; to add to the excess of the evil, finally, to take on themselves a burden of debt that embittered peace itself and could never (because of nearer and nearer new wars) be repaid), they will think very carefully about starting such a bad game: Since, on the other hand, in a constitution where the subject is not a citizen, that is, which is not republican, it is the most unobjectionable thing in the world, because the head is not a fellow citizen of the state, but a state owner, at his banquets, hunts, pleasure palaces, He can therefore conclude it as a kind of pleasure party for insignificant reasons, and for the sake of propriety leave the justification of it indifferently to the diplomatic corps, which is always ready for it."
5.1 Denationalization and strengthening of democratic structures at the regional level
The increased return of national-chauvinist and right-wing populist thought and action points to the need to critically rethink the institution of the nation-state. If, from a historical perspective, nation-states were an important step in overcoming the small states tied to principalities and the associated political and economic restrictions, nation-states in the future should only play a role in the transition to a universalist-oriented political culture on a global scale. Nation-states are based on the separation of the citizens of a nation and those people who do not have this status. The state has the task of securing this exclusion, guarding borders, guaranteeing social differences, and selectively distributing goods and services. As a result of the global networking of communication, services and the global production, allocation and distribution of goods, nation-states are losing much of their significance or are increasingly being networked into transnational alliances with partial relinquishment of their state sovereignty. This can already be observed in a similar way in the EU or APEC cooperation.[3] Transnational regionalization can be a first step toward a democratically controlled world government whose constitution leaves the regions and the states or the governments and their parliaments partial democratic autonomy rights on the basis of this constitution in the course of the principle of subsidiarity which is to be anchored.
Certainly, there is still a long way to go. It will be slowed down again and again by national-chauvinist regression, 'failed states' global regions that are not even capable of transnational cooperation, and military conflicts due to hegemonic aspirations of various kinds.
Only the replacement of national-chauvinistic thinking and the associated national emotions and identifications by a cosmopolitan identity as well as a regional political integration beyond the previous national borders will lead to a new regionalization of the world as the basis of a democratically controlled world community.
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Regionalization as a basic principle of a universalistically organized world can be viewed from two perspectives. Firstly, regions can be understood as transnational regions encompassing larger geographical units, such as Europe, South America, North America, Africa, Oceania, or Southeast Asia.
Existing cooperation structures, such as the European Union, the African Union, APEC or the NAFTA states [4], could be precursors for this. Here, political competencies are bundled supranationally and functions of the nation state are relinquished. This facilitates negotiations on central world political projects on a global scale within the framework of global governance structures.
Secondly, regions should be formed below the national level, whose importance is to be increased, which can also take over partial competencies of the nation-state. These could then be traditional sub-national regions separated by artificially drawn nation-state borders, such as Alsace-Lorraine in today's Franco-German border region, or the Kurdish region, which extends primarily over areas of Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Regional parliaments and governments - both in the transnational and subnational sense - must be elected democratically and operate in accordance with the principle of transparency. Here, the principle of subsidiarity applies in the decision-making chain of world government - transnational governments - nation-state governments -subnational government institutions - local community administrations. Everything that can be regulated at a more regional, local and citizen-oriented level is to be regulated there - naturally on the basis of the world legal prerequisites.
Only the principle of regionalization creates a balance between a world state order and decentralized decision-making structures of varying degrees. [5]
With the diminishing importance of nation-states, the exaggerated identification with the national also disappears, as does the national-chauvinist thinking that is currently spreading again and which, with the double rule of state and church behind it, has always been responsible for activating masses of the population for wars ("fighting for God and fatherland"). Through the balance of power between centralized and decentralized political decision-making institutions with the cooperation of non-governmental organizations within the framework of a global governance architecture, there is multiple control over decision-making processes. This creates a common interest-condition oriented toward cooperation, consultation and dialogue, so that the entry into situations of war and military action to assert regional or national interests probably becomes less likely.
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Voßkühler (2017, 12) thus makes clear the threefold connection between peacefulness, mutual respect, and a meaningful political order:
"But that is not all. For a look at the secular catastrophe of the First World War and then at what, in Hannah Arendt's words, 'simply was not allowed to happen,' the Holocaust, makes one more thing clear. (...) Namely, it becomes clear that the threefold complex of questions just mentioned cannot be addressed without the political dimension. That means: not without the concern for the possibility of a good political order. Basically, Plato is again the godfather here. Interpersonal truthfulness and unconditional respect for the 'other' are guaranteed only if the polity is well ordered."
To sum up: The idea of nation-statehood had its important historical function in the past, but it is now historically devalued in view of the necessary transnational efforts of the world community, which have to be structurally secured, with regard to pressing problems that transcend borders.
The climate catastrophe, which is already in its infancy and approaching, the increasing social injustice, more frequently occurring pandemics and the threatening devastation of large regions of the earth by the latest military technologies are the most urgent problems to be solved globally. However, this requires overcoming the predominance of nation-state structures and nation-state identification, initially in favor of a 'post-national constellation' (Habermas 1998) [6] and cross-regional efforts by the world community under the leadership of the United Nations (which is to be democratized). In this context, subsidiarity is the guiding principle in the assumption of responsibility, so that each problem can be solved where the most effective problem-solving competence is available.
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5.2 Further development of global governance
Global governance is a global political approach to networking the activities of governmental and non-governmental organizations worldwide in order to achieve political synergy effects. The principle of global governance is not about organizing a world government, but rather a world domestic policy between governments, transnational and subnational regions and transnational institutions, with advice from non-governmental organizations, which can function according to rules to be defined. Global governance could represent a functioning multilateral, polycentric and multidimensional policy concept, within the framework of which an attempt is made to implement an ecological, peacemaking, human rights respecting and socially compensatory ethic of responsibility. It is thus a policy concept that transcends the significance of nation-statehood in the sense of a world domestic policy and that would also have to take into account a UN-led and democratically controlled world government. In a sense, the concept of global governance would have to be seen as one of the further corrective elements of a world government - alongside, institutionalized parliamentary decision-making and control bodies and international jurisdiction along others.
"Global governance (...) not only entails a redefinition of state sovereignty, questioning the unconditional validity of sovereignty, but also requires the consolidation and juridification of international relations through international organizations and regimes (institutionalized forms of norm- and rule-guided behavior in delimited subject areas, based on common principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures) and the inclusion of new actors or new forms of cooperation between public and private actors."
Here is the chance that regional and supra-regional governmental organizations, such as the EU or the UN, NGO's, such as Amnesty International, the peace initiative ICAN, Transparency International, the World Future Council, SIPRI, PBI or Greenpeace, are systematically involved in decisions regarding human rights, disarmament or global ecology in a preparatory way via accreditations in the sense of deliberative democracy. So far, this had had its limits due to the still existing power of governmental organizations and the non-acceptance of NGO activities from this direction - according to Peter/Moegling (2005, 24):
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"In this regard, the model of regional Agenda 21 groups shows that it is not enough to have decentralized groups discuss issues on a global mandate. Results of local discussions must be given at least partial power at the local level, regional activities at the regional level, national results at the national level, and results of international discussion at the multinational level.
Otherwise, there is no reason for traditional policymakers to engage with outcomes of discursive groups ('Glad you talked about it.').
Consultation, dialogue and consensus will not work if only one side of the 'partnership' is endowed with power and institutional legitimacy. Therefore, a political process designed in this way requires its own legitimized institutional structures at the respective political level - from the municipality to supranational organizations."
Only in this sense can this be seen as an interesting approach, i.e. if the national and international governmental organizations as well as the various parliamentary assemblies increasingly receive problem-solving information and become acquainted with potentials of new values also through the respectful inclusion of NGOs. However, it should be noted as well that NGOs are also subject to the democratization requirement, are not covert lobby organizations of multinational corporations and are subject to the rules of transparency. [7]
For this, binding ethical guidelines and rules must be developed, which define the prerequisite for the participation of 'non-governmental organizations' in the preparation of democratic decision-making procedures (non-profit, democratic principles, human rights support, transparency ...).
In a first step, the institutionalized influence of NGOs could be ensured by the mandatory involvement of NGOs responsible for the adressed political area in the course of legislative procedures by the parliaments at the various levels, and by making their advisory services public.
Notes
(Chapters 5.1 and 5.2)
[1] Cf. the summarizing documentation by the 'Bilderberg hunter' Daniel Estulin (2011, 122 ff.). This literature reference to the quite correctly reconstructed documentation of the world-political conception of the circles and institutions mentioned does not mean that the consequence of this documentation estimated by Estulin is taken over. He sees in this a secret conspiracy of US big business, in particular of the Rockefeller group, for a world shadow government, and derives from this his plea for the unconditional retention of national structures. Thus, Estulin lacks considerations of how, on a global level, the ecological, peace(-)policy and social challenges arising here can be effectively met. His assessments of the absolute power of a clandestine world government made up of multinationals, politicians and the military are, in my opinion, too broad,(statt Komma „and“) overlook the current multipolarity of global power influences, underestimate the attention of the media and, due to a mixture of facts, assumptions and hunches, tend to be close to conspiracy theories, see also Krauel (2014).
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[2] Cf. Schwab/ Malleret (2020).
[3] APEC=Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
[4] NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement.
[5] Cf. Hrbek/Weyand (1994, 166).
[6] Here, however, we will go beyond the understanding of the concept of the postnational constellation coined by Jürgen Habermas (1998), since Habermas - at least at that time - continued to assume a dominant significance of nation-states or a nation-state constitutional patriotism in the context of transnational structures.
[7] See Brand et al. (2000, 129ff.) for a critique of a possible misuse of the concept of 'global government'.
A consistent democratization of the United Nations is imperative. This concerns all important structures of the UN.
5.3 Strengthening and simultaneous democratization of the United Nations
The future of globalization cannot lie in unilateral approaches or selective bilateral or multilateral strategies of individual states, but, in view of the magnitude of the problems to be tackled globally and the threat of planetary collapse, can only be seen in the reformation of the United Nations - according to Gareis/Varwick (2014, 358):
"Viable answers to the central problems of humanity in the 21st century can at best be given multilaterally, and in the web of multilateral regimes and organizations, the United Nations plays a prominent role despite everything. The often-maligned United Nations is also indispensable in the field of peacekeeping: anyone who does not want the return of the law of the fist in international politics, anyone who does not want worldwide instability because other states will also take the right to act unilaterally, anyone who does not want to risk a worldwide arms race, must campaign for a mechanism in which individual states or groups of states do not fundamentally decide alone on the permissibility of the use of force."
The United Nations will only be able to fulfill its peacemaking function and its task of shaping the world politically, economically and ecologically if it undergoes effective structural reform due to its de facto lack of transparency, unequal distribution of power and lack of democratization. (1) The following reform goals would have to be enforced for this to happen:
Visionary Building Block 1:
Reform of the UN General Assembly
So far, the UN General Assembly cannot be called a world parliament because its members are not elected delegates. They have so far been seconded to the Assembly by their sending nation-states - including autocracies and dictatorships - as diplomatic officials bound by instructions. This represents a clear democratic deficit of the UN. Decisions of the UN General Assembly have so far not been binding on the UN Security Council, only having the character of recommendations.
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In the proposal presented here, the UN General Assembly of all nations becomes the elected supreme decision-making body of the UN. This means that the decisions of the UN General Assembly will no longer have the character of recommendations, but will be binding for all UN bodies, all world regions and the world population. Elections to the UN Parliament take place every six years so that parliamentarians have enough time to deal with global problems within a legislative period. In the UN General Assembly, the democratically elected representatives of the individual nations decide, as long as there are still nations, and later regions, according to a share of the vote, which is made up of a voting base per nation, which is the same for all, and the respective population size. Comparable conversion procedures apply to world regions that are to be understood as transnational, i.e. which have overcome nation-statehood and have their own delegations. This could apply, for example, to an evolving European Union.
Resolutions of the UN General Assembly are passed with different majorities according to the scope of the resolutions. A 'qualified majority' could suffice for the legislative process and an 'enhanced qualified majority' would be needed to amend the UN Charter. (2)
European politician Jo Leinen and international networker Andreas Bummel ('Democracy Without Borders') also call for a democratically elected world parliament and integrate this into a multilateral structure and reform of the UN:
"The World Parliament would be anchored as the main organ of a third-generation world organization. As the central pillar of a world peace order, it should, for example, have a say in coercive measures and peace operations, and participate in a global inspection system in the wake of complete nuclear disarmament. New supranational institutions, which are already under discussion and will sooner or later be on the agenda, such as a world central bank, a world tax authority, a global anti-trust authority, a criminal police and an intervention force, as well as the introduction of global taxes or a global basic income, require democratic legitimacy and parliamentary control by a world parliament."
(Leinen/Bummel (2017, 374)
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The proposal of a 'United Nations Parliamentary Assembly' (UNPA) developed by Leinen/Bummel and the international NGO "Democracy Without Borders" envisages that the democratic world parliament is decided by a resolution of the UN General Assembly and initially established as a UN subsidiary body in the sense of Art. 22 of the UN Charter. This means that a resolution of the UN General Assembly would be sufficient and no vote in the UN Security Council would be required. This parliament would initially be composed of members of the national and transnational parliaments and could then be elected directly in the global context as the rights of control and co-decision are expanded step by step. (3) This could involve a mixed electoral system in which both direct candidates and parties could be elected. In my opinion, the number of available parliamentary seats for a country or a transnational region could be determined by a key of population size, spatial size and qualitative factors, such as the contribution to the fulfillment of the CO2 climate convention and a democracy index.
The corresponding "Campaign for a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations" (UNPA Campaign) exists since 2007. The demand for a democratic world parliament is currently (as of March 2025) supported by approximately 1850 members of parliament from approximately 140 countries and hundreds of NGOs and numerous citizens worldwide. (4) (5)
Two paths are conceivable in terms of institutionalization: The first way would lead to a gradual replacement of the existing UN General Assembly by the democratic World Parliament. The second way would be the coexistence of the UN General Assembly and the World Parliament in the sense of a bicameral system. Both ways have advantages and disadvantages. While on the one hand, the bicameral system would allow for intensive checks and balances, this could also lead to institutional wrangling over competencies, unnecessary delays in decision-making processes, and blocking of necessary decisions. Replacing the UN General Assembly with a democratically elected world parliament would have the advantage of replacing the civil servants delegated by nation states (including undemocratic states) with elected representatives. The collective decision-making power would then lie with delegates who are democratically elected in global elections and decide independently. Also, the temporal decision-making processes would probably proceed more quickly than with multiple mutual communication and mutual control between two assemblies, each with thousands of members. On the other hand, this would dispense with an additional control and advisory body that reflects the will of the various governments.
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Therefore, the concrete shaping of the path to a democratic world parliament, if it is actually taken, must inevitably be left to the concrete political processes in the conflicts of interest and the compromise solutions to be found within the framework of existing and expandable margins of international politics (and of course try to bring one's own position into networking contexts).
The EU-Parliament, the Latin American Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament as well as NGO's like ATTAC or BUND also demand a democratically elected UN-Parliament, first of all as a UN subsidiary body according to UN-Charter, Art 22. This is important to note because the accusation of political world disengagement is easily brought forward, especially by those who cannot imagine radical innovations of the international political system. The establishment of a democratic world parliament within the framework of the UN is a current issue for many democratic institutions and groupings in the global context, and not the vision of a few scholars and networkers imagining the future.
"The European Parliament has (...) called in a resolution for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. The Assembly, it said, should be embedded in the UN system and 'strengthen the democratic profile and internal democratic process' of the UN.
In the resolution, the European Parliament argues that 'this Parliamentary Assembly should have the full right to information, participation and control, and should be able to adopt recommendations for the United Nations General Assembly.' " (6)
Visionary Building Block 2: Reform of the UN Security Council.
The UN Security Council's function in the post-World War II era was to open up a privileged position for the victorious powers with regard to future peacekeeping and war prevention. With the permanent membership and veto power of Russia, China, the USA, France and England, these powers also had the opportunity to assert their geostrategic and economic interests in terms of security policy. In recent decades, however, the priority of the permanent members of the UN Security Council has increasingly shifted away from a responsible global orientation towards a national-chauvinistic representation of interests. In this context, the permanent UN Security Council members also blocked each other when it came to necessary security policy decisions so that the UN Security Council was incapable of acting and could not fulfill its global political function.
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At the latest since the blocking of the resolution condemning the Russian attack on Ukraine by the Russian representative in the UN Security Council, it should have become clear to a wider public how counterproductive and absurd the veto power in the Security Council is. It is completely absurd for a permanent member of the UN Security Council that attacks another state militarily to be able to use its veto power to block all effective world policing measures by the UN. As a result, the United Nations is unable to implement the peace policy objectives of the UN Charter.
There is also criticism that large states, such as India or Brazil, were not permanent members of the Security Council. Furthermore, the question arose whether transnational associations, such as the EU or the African Union, should also have a seat on the UN Security Council.
A fundamental criticism can also be made of the fact that the activities and decisions of the UN Security Council are not controlled by any democratic institution, such as a UN parliament. The UN Security Council is therefore a rather undemocratic institution that is historically outdated and in need of fundamental reform. This is the only way to solve present and future security problems in the interest of the world community.
Within the framework of the concept of a radically renewed and democratized UN advocated here, a modified structure and function of the UN Security Council must now be designed. The UN Security Council must continue to fulfill its task with a focus on global conflict hotspots and the timely development of conflict solutions. However, the subdivision into a permanent and expanded Security Council is abandoned. All member countries or regions of the future Security Council will be elected by the UN General Assembly, e.g. every five years. The Security Council's decisions have the character of recommendations for the UN General Assembly. Individual states no longer have a veto right. Resolutions of the Security Council, which then consists of 15 members with equal rights, must be passed by a qualified majority and are bound by the political and legal framework decided by the democratically elected world parliament.
The UN General Secretariat or the UN President, who will be elected at a later date, has the right to participate in the meetings of the Security Council in an advisory capacity and is an additional control body that reports to the UN Parliament in a timely manner on the decisions and recommendations of the Security Council.
This reform will now make it possible for every state or region to have a chance to participate in the UN Security Council with an equal voice. The blocking of the UN Security Council by the right of veto will no longer apply. This also institutionalizes democratic control of the Security Council. There is a shift of power to the UN Parliament, without losing the ability to process a security-relevant decision quickly and in line with the situation.
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Visionary building block 3: Reform of the UN General Secretariat
The current institution of the UN Secretary-General is proposed by the UN Security Council and elected by the UN General Assembly for a five-year term. The UN Secretary-General has no authority to issue directives for the UN. He has the right to participate in the meetings of the UN main bodies (exception: deliberations of the International Criminal Court). He directs the administration of the UN General Secretariat and represents the UN externally.
These quite important functions are now being expanded within the framework of the proposal for a global political reorganization presented here. The UN General Secretariat, as well as the UN Secretary-General, will be replaced by a UN President elected by the UN Parliament for the legislative period, who represents the world government, has the right of nomination for the ministerial members of the world government and has a democratically controlled authority to issue directives. The UN Parliament controls the UN Presidency and can bring about a vote of no confidence and a change of government by a qualified majority.
The individual members of the government with special portfolios, such as environment, security or economy, have to present themselves to the UN General Assembly and are individually confirmed or rejected in their functions by the assembly.
The UN General Assembly forms the actual legislature. A democratically controlled world government has - in close coordination with the UN Security Council - the global monopoly on the use of force and responsibility over the executive. Within the framework of a world domestic policy, the world government works toward cooperation among all nations and regions. It uses mainly diplomatic means as well as procedures of conflict mediation. It can only apply sanctions or even military intervention on the basis of a corresponding resolution by the democratically elected UN Parliament. The UN world government is supported by regional transnational governments, whose representatives are elected regionally and who exercise and also guarantee regional or decentralized administration in the sense of subsidiarity.
The transnational regions are in turn subdivided, initially for a time into nation states, increasingly into subnational and also cross-border regions and their local administrative units in the form of counties and cities. Their representations, too, are of course to be elected democratically.
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In this context, the principle of subsidiarity must be effectively anchored in law and made increasingly competent over the years. Only when it becomes clear to citizens that their concerns are being dealt with swiftly and fairly at the right place and institutional level, will skepticism about a world government give way to satisfaction with the newly staggered responsibilities.
The world government is controlled by the UN General Assembly, which can formulate a vote of no confidence by a qualified majority and for which the world government is accountable in regular debates, and by the relevant chambers and instances of the International Court of Justice.
Global, regional and local committees of petitions and ombudspersons or councils also constitute citizen-based control bodies. A special direct-democratic control mechanism is also created when the intentions of a UN World Citizens' Initiative prevail.
Visionary building block 4: UN World Citizens' Initiative
There is currently no citizens' initiative or referendum at the global level. Democracy is not understood here in terms of participatory global citizenship. People with a global citizenship consciousness do not have the opportunity to vote or elect globally.
In order to achieve a more direct say in the sense of democratic participation in the global UN system, which has so far been based at best on multilateral representation, this would have to be made possible not only through the election and establishment of a world parliament but also with other forms of direct democracy.
The NGOs Democracy Without Borders, Civicus and Democracy International are therefore calling for a critique of the UN's undemocratic structures and the possibility for citizens to exert influence through new procedures:
"The coronavirus pandemic, climate change and many other challenges underline the fact that all people on this planet are connected to each other. As world citizens, we are all in the same boat but we have no say at the United Nations (UN) as the most important arena of global politics. The Security Council decides on matters of international peace and security and the General Assembly makes recommendations, launches treaty negotiations or is engaged in international agenda-setting. The UN, however, is an exclusive club of appointed government diplomats. The UN's democratic deficit has been complained about for decades. While the UN has made some effort to include civil society organizations and other major groups in some of its deliberations, there are no means for ordinary citizens to take influence." (7)
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Therefore, the current global initiative for a UN World Citizens Initiative (UNWCI) should be supported. This campaign, with the support of numerous international NGOs, such as Democracy Without Borders, Civicus, Democracy International, Global Justice Now, and Asia Democracy Network, seeks direct democratic world citizen participation. Similar to the arrangements for a European Citizens Initiative (ECI) already practiced in the EU, the UNWCI seeks to combine direct-democratic and representative-democratic procedures. If this initiative is successfully taken up by the UN, then the question of the appropriate number of votes (world population quorum) required for such a global citizens' demand must of course be asked. It is also necessary to consider to what extent not only a certain number of votes is required, but also a consideration of all transnational world regions. This is then the precondition that such a campaign is subsequently also carried out worldwide and no world region is ignored.
"The idea of a UN World Citizens' Initiative (UNWCI) is that if a certain number of global citizens endorse a citizen-launched initiative, UN bodies such as the General Assembly or the Security Council have to put the item on their agenda and give representatives of the initiative the floor to make their case. In terms of the General Assembly, this could be done during the annual general debate while heads of state and government are present.
A UNWCI will allow global citizens to have more impact in a world with growing dilemmas that require the global cooperation of both states and citizens alike. It will help create a citizen-based global political sphere." (8)
For a global plebiscite, a quorum must be met so that this democratic instrument is manageable and the multitude of plebiscites does not overwhelm all institutions involved. The model for this could be the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI), where one million votes from at least a quarter of the EU states is the threshold for carrying out the initiative.
Such a petition would undoubtedly have to be carried out digitally. The question then arises of how to protect against international hackers attempting to attack such an initiative. Technological solutions would have to be found to prevent this.
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Preparations would also have to be made for the institutionalization of such a global consultation initiative. The NGO Democracy Without Borders proposes, among other things, the establishment of a digital Global Voting Platform (GVP), through which international discussions and statements on UN decisions can take place. Voting could also be used to create opinion polls on the main issues affecting the global community. The only prerequisite for participation is the registration of a cosmopolitan status, which a person interested in this can already do independently with the help of a smartphone. (9)
It will certainly be more difficult to win over autocratically or even dictatorially governed regimes to approve and implement the respective cosmopolitan aspirations in their state. This will be particularly difficult if the initiative is concerned with the observance of human rights and the implementation of democratic structures. Nevertheless, these considerations should not be a pretext for abandoning the current efforts towards a UNWCI but should be taken into account conceptually in the further concretization.
Visionary Building Block 5: World Legislation and International Court of Justice
The existing world legislation, as far as one can speak of it at all, is not able to transcend the borders of nation-state sovereignty and is dependent on the acceptance and implementation of decisions of the UN General Assembly by nation-state governments or even transnational regions.
The existing judiciary at the world level, while already offering valuable starting points for global jurisdiction, has not yet been fully implemented at the UN level. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) consists of 15 judges from 15 different states who are elected by the UN General Assembly. Its jurisdiction covers domestic disputes and legal opinions on questions of international law. However, the USA, for example, only submits to the ICJ to a limited extent.
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over proceedings for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression - when nation-state prosecution is not possible or not desired. Again, it should be noted that a number of important countries have not acceded to the ICC's jurisdiction, including the United States, China, Russia, India, and Turkey. Also, the ICC is not a UN institution but only cooperates with the United Nations.
Based on this analysis of the legislative and judicial capabilities of the United Nations, some changes would have to be made within the framework of the vision elaborated here.
Decisions made on the basis of the UN Charter by the world parliament to be elected in its area of competence are binding worldwide. Supra-regional political institutions, such as the European or African Union, and nation states, to the extent that they still predominate in the transition, exclusively pass resolutions in their parliaments and formulate laws where these are not affected by UN resolutions and are within their sphere of competence. Subnational regions and other subdivisions are given partial autonomy with regard to individual areas of regulation where this makes sense in the context of world legislation in the sense of subsidiarity.
The position of the United Nations International Court of Justice is upgraded and the various chambers are brought together under one institutional roof. It includes both the prosecution of institutions and representatives of institutional bodies and the function of a constitutional court. No country, no region is entitled to evade prosecution by the UN-controlled court if, for example, state violations of human rights, sustainable development laws, arms control laws or peace regulations are reported, prosecuted and tried here. Another chamber of the World Court, which is subdivided into different sections, deals with constitutional complaints from individual states or world regions, which can relate to individual regulations of the UN Constitution, but also to legal regulations at the transnational and sub-national regional level.
The International Court of Justice is called upon when global or transregional problems are involved that cannot be successfully dealt with by regional and local jurisdiction. In keeping with the principle of subsidiarity, judicial referral of crimes committed by criminal individuals and groups will be decentralized to local courts based on UN law.
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5.4 Can the EU play a central role in disarmament and arms control?
The EU is at a security policy crossroads. The war in Ukraine seems to be forcing it into a long-term rearmament phase. But how inevitable is this rearmament dynamic really and what security policy alternatives would there be?
It was from Europe that both the Enlightenment and colonization began. Europe is the place where nations fought each other most fiercely in dozens of bloody wars - a historical fact whose terrible experiences, however, were also the precondition for the attempt to cooperate peacefully with each other in large parts of Europe and to form transnational structures in the form of the European Union.
Wouldn't Europe as a continent and as a European Union therefore be particularly suited to advancing the cause of peace? The historical role played by many European states in the then CSCE negotiations initially gives grounds for optimism that Europe would in principle be able to contribute to global détente. [10]
Current developments show, however, that at least the EU relies more on weapons than on diplomacy and a pan-European security order. An 800 billion euro armaments package has been put together on the grounds of being able to defend against an aggressive Russia. The EU White Paper published in March 2025 also sets out a rather bellicose course for the EU to be capable of defense by 2030
(“White Paper for European Defense-Readiness 2030”).
However, the focus should be on peace and European cooperation, which could well include a necessary defense capability with a sense of proportion.
It has not yet been decided whether the Nobel Peace Prize for the EU was justified.
In 2012, the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for its peacekeeping role and multilateral mediation activities. However, the question has not yet been decided whether this Nobel Peace Prize was rightly awarded. The decisive factor in clarifying this question is likely to be the extent to which the part of Europe represented in the EU will militarize itself in the future and attempt to use primarily military force to assert and secure its global political and economic interests.
Political scientist Werner Ruf makes the connection between neoliberalization and militarization of the EU. He analyzes the relationship between the neoliberally justified opening of markets in North African states, such as Tunisia or Morocco, and the creeping expropriation of the inhabitants caused by the elimination of protective tariffs and European market invasion. This expropriation was accompanied by the reduction of the state's ability to control the economy in these countries, the migration movements significantly caused by the extreme lowering of living standards, and the associated construction of Fortress Europe. He summarizes his analysis as follows:
"The opening of markets provides the building blocks for the transformation of Europe into a fortress; the conjured common values turn into an increasingly transparent whitewash, which is less and less able to conceal the double standards of the human rights discourse and the increasing militarization of the former peace project."
(Ruf 2018, 101)
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In view of this problematic development, it would be necessary to actually give validity to Europe's original idea of peace, which was ultimately the ethical foundation in the normative self-claim of the founding phase of European unification; it would also be necessary to follow up the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize with a reality of peace-building measures.
This means that the OSCE negotiations, which have been deadlocked since 2010 at the latest, would have to be revived and would have to give themselves a binding agenda. This would be the appropriate institutional framework in which the EU, among others, would have to become involved in peacemaking. Here, a peacemaking negotiation tradition can be taken up, which could become an essential component of a positive European identity in global civic consciousness.
But the Russian aggression against the Ukrainian state [11] makes this a distant possibility. Certainly, the EU cannot stand by and watch the destruction of a state in its immediate neighborhood, the systematic shelling of civilian objects, the destruction of infrastructure and the killing of thousands of people. It is necessary under international law and morally justified for the EU states to support Ukraine, including militarily. But the support of Ukraine in the resistance against an armed Russian aggressor would have to be accompanied at the same time by a united negotiating power of the EU and corresponding offers of negotiations to the actors involved in the war. A ceasefire and the joint development of a peace plan or a European security order is only possible by a combination of comprehensive support for the resisting Ukraine in the sense of the UN Charter and constantly offered negotiation options by the EU to both sides. [12]
Security architecture from Lisbon to Vladivostok?
Starting points for future OSCE negotiations could initially be the abandonment of arms exports to areas of tension. The larger project then certainly lies in the disarmament of the States Parties through the (re)installation of appropriate disarmament treaties - also in negotiation with states outside the OSCE. Of course, this also includes ratification of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as part of an international ratification movement.
This would also be urgently necessary: The U.S. is planning the largest arms budget in its existence. Russia is announcing a new program for uranium-fueled nuclear missiles that can reach anywhere on Earth and bypass national defenses. China is investing a large portion of its national budget needed for environmental and social measures in armaments. Saudi Arabia is investing its oil billions in weapons technology in its dispute with Iran and its proxy war in Yemen. The USA and Russia have cancelled part of their disarmament treaties. France and GB are working on modernizing their nuclear weapons.Germany plans to acquire fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons. In 2026, US medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons are to be stationed in Germany under US command.
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The preconditions and developments in the war in Ukraine in particular demonstrate the problem of the nuclear threat in a conventionally driven war. The Russian government is openly threatening to use nuclear weapons by demonstratively increasing the readiness of its nuclear weapons in the context of the war in Ukraine. At the beginning of the war, Putin threatens that anyone - including then Europe - who interferes and threatens Russia will experience something they have never experienced historically. [13] The nuclear danger, however, appears in the Ukraine war in a double perspective: as a threat from nuclear weapons and as a threat to nuclear power plants, which become a weapon in war. [14]
Austrian peace researcher Thomas Roithner notes that Europe, invested by the Treaty of Lisbon (2007), is trying to join the ranks of political powers that are arming up, and develops a proposal for a civilian core Europe in opposition to this (Roithner 2020, 213f.). The German political scientist Werner Ruf also assumes that the EU is on its way to becoming a military 'global player' (Ruf 2020) [15] and calls for a return to security policy in the sense of diplomatic peacekeeping and supportive development policy.
He goes even further, calling for a security architecture from Lisbon to Vladivostok. This vision is also used by the former Russian president and current vice head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, in reference to a national-chauvinist view from the Russian perspective. He compares Ukraine to the Third Reich. The collapse of this Nazi system could be the liberation for an "open Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok." [16] At the same time, Putin speaks of the concept of the Russian world, the "Russki Mir," which must be protected internationally. [17] Here it becomes clear that the demand for a Eurasian peace area can only be attempted if this is actually thought of transnationally and developed independently of national-chauvinistic and folkish deformation.
What is the EU going to do now?
Will the EU also continue to arm itself or be a peacemaking power that uses its political and economic power diplomatically to keep the peace? Will the EU continue to pursue a more bellicose course in the war in Ukraine or will it prioritize diplomatic initiatives and compromise solutions? How will a state, such as the economically strong Federal Republic of Germany, contribute here - as a representative of diplomacy and multilateralism or as a representative of a militarization of the EU? [18] Will the EU, in confrontation with the global superpowers (USA, Russia, China), advocate that nuclear warheads and launchers be reduced to the point of a complete ban on nuclear weapons, that anti-personnel mines be banned, that chemical and biological weapons continue to be destroyed, and that the conventional arms industry be converted into a peace industry? Will the EU ban the export of weapons to areas of tension or continue to pursue it as before? Will the EU insist that states, groups, and companies that contributed to environmental destruction through the use of weapons technology be required to fund damage repair? Or will the EU classify the arms industry as sustainable as part of its taxonomy and once again pervert the concept of sustainability?
Will the EU abandon its CFSP and PESCO goal [19] of increasing national defense to 2% of gross domestic product in favor of a higher budget for international development tasks? Will dismantling independent national military structures in favor of European defense efforts lead to the aggressive militarization of the EU or to a substantial peace dividend, the proceeds of which can be used to address global problems? Or will the EU use the Russian invasion of Ukraine for a long-term rearmament at the expense of development support?
Can the financing of the "Future Combat Air System" (FCAS) with a combination of stealth bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, accompanying swarms of drones, and digitally networked combat equipment such as new-generation warships and tanks still be prevented, which will bring billions in profits to the arms industry and tie Europe's future resources to military destructiveness with this gigantic destruction program?
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The positive answer to these questions will determine whether the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union was premature or actually justified.
In any case, the European Union still offers a great opportunity to overcome nation-state borders step by step - despite all setbacks - in favor of a transnational regionalization, and thus, on the one hand, to continue to defuse the nation-state or national-chauvinist war ideologies within Europe and, on the other hand, to find a transnational and supraregional perspective for action with regard to a global security policy.
A further rearmament and militarization of the EU - even in the context of the Ukraine war - should not be seen as imperative. No other transnational association of states in the global context has such a history of common understanding, of turning away from interstate aggression while at the same time developing common democratic institutions and procedures as the EU. The historical memory of the EU states certainly plays a central role here, as they have experienced many times in the past centuries how destructive military aggression has been to the coexistence of European states.
Certainly, who will dominate will also play a role: The economic forces that profit from further armament, or the EU's economy, which is dependent on international trade and so on peaceful conditions.
European development perspectives and security concepts
The EU will only be able to play its peace policy role effectively in the future if its structures develop further and could thus also serve as a model for the necessary changes within the UN system.
Furthermore, the developing institution of the European Parliament could be a model for a democratic world parliament, especially with regard to its electoral procedure and the distribution of seats - as the Campaign for a Democratic Parliament at the UN (UNPA Campaign) already envisages. [20]
If the principle of unanimity in the Council of the European Union were then also abandoned, a model for a global governance concept could also be developed here within the framework of the UN. There, it is particularly important to overcome the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which is responsible, among other things, for the fact that an aggressor like the Russian Federation can veto a condemnation of this aggression and peace-making measures in Ukraine.
The peace policy alliance 'Rethinking Security' is developing a concept consisting of five pillars of security policy as an alternative to the EU's military build-up until 2040: equitable foreign relations, strengthening sustainable development, expanding the international security architecture, resilient democracy and arms conversion. [21]
With a focus on Europe, the following central conceptual building blocks can be identified from the five pillars of security policy of the peace initiative 'Rethinking Security':
- The UN Security Council consists of representatives of continental regional security councils, such as a European Security Council.
- The OSCE is developing into the key security policy body in the European area.
- There is a priority of civilian measures of war prevention and security policy over world police or even military measures.
- NATO accepts expenditures for civil measures of conflict regulation and development cooperation. There is a gradual transformation of NATO into an organ of civil security policy.
- A development plan for the Middle East and Africa is drawn up under the auspices of the UN. The peace and security architecture in these regions will also be strengthened.
- Global peacekeeping operations will be carried out with world police resources only when civil conflict mediation is no longer helpful.
- Training programs for populations in resilient security policies will be carried out. This involves building the capacity for civil resistance in the event of autocratic self-empowerment or an attack.
- A civil conflict culture is built up in states and regions. For example, national and international mediation centers are being established;
- There is an establishment and expansion of civil peacekeeping and unarmed civil peacekeeping.
- The arms industry is largely being transformed into a peace industry, and national militaries are being transformed into technical assistance organizations. [22]
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These are conceptual elements of a prioritized civilian European security policy, which are very close to the views represented here and which should be supported in the long term.
However, it would be an expression of political naiveté to believe that a transnational organization such as the EU should currently unilaterally disarm in the face of Russian aggression as well as other militarily highly armed states and focus only on civilian peacekeeping. Nevertheless, further armament in the EU must be avoided, as financial resources must be used for other priority goals, such as fighting the climate crisis and against the impoverishment of part of the EU population. Thus, in the course of a desirable reduction of European military expenditures, this means an increase in the efforts of European coordination and central control of European military policy. Overcoming the largely isolated practice of national armaments and military policy would bring significant synergy effects and substantial savings without having to rearm further.
In this context, it is important to focus on the need to become more independent of the U.S., which in the past has also been proven to have committed considerable violations of human rights internationally (e.g., the use of Napalm and Agent Orange in Vietnam or the second Iraq war). Also, the national-chauvinistic 'America first' of the USA is certainly contrary to the peace policy intentions of 'Rethinking Security'. It is also not certain whether the largely formal democratic structures in the USA, at least at present, can be maintained in the future. Here, Trump's re-election at the end of 2024 was a disaster for the US political system, which is in need of reform even without this. But the EU can no longer depend on a great power that is increasingly becoming an insecure and weak democracy.
Accordingly, the EU would also need to be more independent in terms of security policy vis-à-vis the U.S.-dominated NATO in the future - unless, after a democratic renewal of Russia, NATO once again draws closer to Russia.
These would therefore be positive development perspectives within the framework of a vision of European development – while being well aware that the current trend is in a different direction. The white paper presented in spring 2025 and the four-year armament program initially speak a different language. But future-oriented development ideas should be based on considerations that have to be thought about over longer periods of time.
Conclusion
European security policy could – despite current contrary trends – lead to a peace policy that is globally networked and to a democratically controlled global security architecture if it gets rid of too close ties to the USA and NATO, frees itself from their neoliberal regime, gets out of the grip of the military-economic complex, also refers to the elimination of social disparities within the EU and more strongly to development cooperation with the EU's neighboring states.
The European Union can therefore become an important step towards a peace policy that is also globally networked and a democratically controlled global security architecture if it frees itself from its neo-liberal regime, frees itself from the grip of the military-economic complex, and also relates to the elimination of social disparities within the EU and likewise to the development of the EU's neighboring states. There, it could contribute to the stabilization of social conditions in the interest of the majority of the population there in the sense of a policy oriented toward social balance, economic progress, peaceful coexistence, distributive justice and sustainability.
EU security policy should not be understood as a rearmament program and war policy, but as a peace policy based on multilateral understanding, diplomacy and negotiation skills.
It is not justifiable to keep peace (still) within the EU, but to export weapons to the outside world and support questionable war operations, to pretend to be a social union and ultimately end up with a military union. [23]
I would have liked to continue formulating here: In this context, Russia should not be seen as an enemy in the context of an intensifying international confrontation, but, as long as the possibility still exists, as a negotiating partner of the EU with whom it is necessary to cooperate diplomatically for the further development of both regions in terms of security policy, economy, culture and ecology.
However, this possibility is currently restricted due to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the cooperative perspective in the sense of a security policy based on diplomacy and treaties as well as political and economic cooperation should guide EU policy at least in the medium term. A continuous increase in arms spending would be extremely counterproductive in this sense.
Even if the EU - in view of the Russian attacks on Ukraine and the international unreliability of the current US government under Trump and Vance - wants to go down the road of military deterrence with massive rearmament measures in spring 2025, these demands for increased diplomacy and international cooperation, which the EU should advocate, remain valid.
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5.5 Disarmament of nation states, clandestine and terrorist organizations and armed individuals
At present, there is little sign of a global political reform agenda as described here. Nevertheless, this should not limit and silence utopian thinking.
The positive vision of world political development presented here envisages the United Nations' monopoly on the use of force. This means that the highly armed states are to be disarmed step by step in the course of coordinated negotiations.
The step-by-step disarmament of nation-states is a complicated process, but it is imperative in order to secure the United Nations monopoly on the use of force and to free up financial resources from national arms production for social, ecological and humanitarian purposes. Nation-state disarmament must be achieved with priority through persistent persuasion, the use of diplomatic means, civil society pressure, and positive resource incentives.
If this disarmament of nation states, which must be decided by a majority of the United Nations, does not succeed with all states, i.e. if they resist disarmament after trying all persuasion-based means, all available and legitimate means in the sense of the UN Charter, in particular economic sanctions, must be used to enforce global disarmament.
Certainly, disarming criminal, terrorist, and clandestine organizations as well as armed individuals will require the use of a massive police force or the deployment of robust UN military units against resistance. These armed operations require a legal basis for decision-making secured by the UN Charter and individual judicial approval and must be made transparent, at least in retrospect.
Despite the U.S. and Russia beginning to withdraw from nuclear disarmament treaties, other states are currently making initial attempts to reach a global understanding on nuclear disarmament issues for the first time since the thoroughly successful CSCE negotiations. 122 states signed the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty in 2017 as part of a UN initiative initiated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
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ICAN is an international alliance of about 450 civil society non-governmental organizations from about 100 countries and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its successful preparatory work on this nuclear weapons ban treaty.
This treaty prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and proliferation of nuclear weapons. (24)
This is certainly a step in the right direction, even if it is only the rather powerless states that have agreed to a treaty. This could exert a certain pressure on the nuclear powers. However, this will only become a powerful movement if the majority of the respective populations turn against the mutual nuclear threat in the course of international networking and, for example, democratic elections can no longer be won if there is an option from parties to use nuclear weapons.
Parallel to this, the pressure on the nuclear powers must be carried into the UN General Assembly or the still to be established UN Parliament, in order to exert influence on the Security Council and the nuclear powers still largely assembled there.
The World Future Council (WFC) works on specific projects to promote disarmament and arms conversion with regard to weapons of mass destruction, small arms and remnants of war. For example, it supported and observed the mass meltdown of small arms in Banja Luka (Bosnia), Herzegovina and Argentina and the recycling of these weapons for the production of spare parts for wind turbines, for example. In 2013, the Argentine initiative to destroy approximately 160,000 small arms was awarded the Silver Future Policy Award by the World Future Council, a prize sponsored by the WFC for exemplary legislation in the areas of disarmament, sustainable development and peacemaking. (25)
"WFC's Peace and Disarmament Working Area works closely with policymakers and other stakeholders to publicize good policy solutions against the persistence of weapons of mass destruction and the production and trade of conventional weapons. It also raises public awareness of the devastating effects of explosive remnants of war." (26)
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In the process, exchanges between countries and regions promote approaches to solutions with the goal of making the best disarmament measures known beyond national borders.
Another successful global disarmament initiative can be seen in the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Under its auspices within the organizational framework of the UN, more than 96% of the world's declared chemical weapons have been destroyed. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. Again, the successful activities of the OPCW demonstrate how negotiations in the context of the UN can significantly reduce threat situations instead of entering into the arms spirals of hegemonic powers. (27)
If one adds up the global nation-state investments in armaments, one arrives at trillion-dollar amounts that would help to eliminate or significantly reduce famine, water shortages, child mortality, lack of education, inadequate health care systems and the consequences of the climate crisis.
The remainder of the arms industry produces strictly controlled weapons technology and equipment under public contract for the various branches of the World Police as well as the UN blue helmet troops and other UN military units to be equipped with an extended mission. This will be exclusively cost-covering, i.e. not profit-oriented, and will require only a fraction of the previous national armaments budgets.
In this case, the massive savings in resources resulting from the far-reaching investment in armaments can indeed be seen as a huge peace dividend. This resource relief for the world is of course reinforced by the elimination of the immense damage to buildings, infrastructure and the environment, since the UN's monopoly on the use of force and the disarmament of all other powers and groups largely eliminate the possibility of military conflicts and the associated destruction of human civilization and the natural environment worldwide.
But not only the economic and the ecological peace dividends are a yield of such a positive vision of the world order: immeasurable suffering, fear and terror as well as innumerable deaths and injuries are avoided by the elimination of military conflicts. This then is the humane peace dividend.
An ecological peace dividend could then consist, for example, of the removal of approximately 1.6 million tons of military material from the Baltic and North Seas. Part of the saved national arms investments would have to be used under the direction of UN and EU institutions to ensure that the rusting bombs, submarines and toxic barrels are recovered from the seabed before their toxic substances seep into the seawater, subsequently entering the human food chain through fishing.
That would be the vision. The reality, however, looks completely different, more like the opposite. Since the Russian Federation has broken out of the European peace order and invaded its neighboring state, the signs of the times are pointing more towards rearmament in the sense of a global arms spiral. The world's resources are increasingly being spent on the acquisition of ever more dangerous weapons. Almost all nuclear disarmament treaties have been terminated or suspended. The Doomsday Clock of international nuclear scientists stands at 90 seconds to 24.00 - closer to catastrophe than ever before.
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5.6 Establishment of a democratically controlled world police and a UN monopoly on the use of force
Of course, civil conflict resolution in the sense of diplomacy, mediation and the holding of legal processes are in the foreground. In civil conflict prevention, the concept of 'civil peacekeeping' is to be implemented in cooperation between UN mediators and local peacekeepers. Nevertheless, in the event of failure of civil society processes, e.g. in the course of disarming groups of people, as already mentioned, the UN's monopoly on the use of force must be enforced with the help of world police resources.
The democratically elected organs of an emerging new order in the global context are therefore explicitly excluded from the unconditional renunciation of violence, especially in the sense of global policing when it comes to combating crime, massive environmental destruction, warlike aggression or violations of human rights. A distinction must therefore be made between an initial situation in which civil-societal pressure is exerted by peaceful but forceful means and an advanced development phase with the need for a monopoly on the use of force in a new socio-ecological social order of international democracy in order to maintain this order in the sense of a 'defensive global democracy'. A new global order is dependent on the fundamental reform of the United Nations in the sense of strengthening and democratization. Only within such a process can steps towards a UN monopoly on the use of force and the simultaneous disarmament of nation states and transnational blocs be justified (Moegling 2023).
Especially in the process of disarming nation states, regions, criminal organizations as well as private individuals, it cannot be assumed that all parties involved will agree.
Police executive rights, such as the carrying of weapons, will in the future only be within the authority of security organs legitimized by the world police.
The only organs that will be allowed to carry weapons will be the police forces and the UN military forces, which will be legitimized by UN resolutions.
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A clear distinction must be made here between the police forces, which will have a civilian priority, and the UN military, which will be deployed only when all civilian means have been unsuccessful (see Table 9):
Tab. 10: On the distinction between police and military operations.
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World police deployment
- Bound by UN Charter, rules of global police engagement and transnational laws;
- Priority: mediation of peace in the sense of 'just policing' with the aim of finding a compromise in the sense of a win-win situation;
- Cooperation with civilian UN conflict regulators as well as indigenous groups and joint engagement against criminal social forces when purely civilian conflict mediation no longer helps;
- World police activity with rule-of-law policing options in cooperation with and at the request of affected states: e.g., arrest warrant, use of service weapons only in emergencies, no military equipment;
- No deployment during acute military conflicts (no peace enforcement).
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UN military deployment
- Bound by codified international law for military operations, e.g., UN Charter, Geneva Conventions;
- Use of force and weapons against a state or against a separatist movement in the event of a massive violation of human rights and international law and massive environmental damage on behalf of the UN when civilian and world police means can no longer succeed (R2P);
- Military operations after unsuccessful ultimatum also as UN-mandated military interventions with conventional weapons, such as armored personnel carriers and combat aircraft, even against the will of affected states;
- Also deployment during acute military conflict, e.g., interstate war of aggression (peace enforcement).
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Police forces are organized on a supra-regional, regional and local basis and, in cooperation with the courts, monitor compliance with the laws adopted by the World Parliament on the basis of the UN Charter, are allowed to investigate, disarm, arrest and hand over to the arresting judge.
A distinction must be made between different world police bodies according to their missions: Between UN police units acting internationally under UN mandate, Interpol, and subnational or local police forces, each with different objectives and capabilities. The previous practice of allowing nation states to second international police forces on a voluntary basis for peacekeeping missions must be replaced by fixed police contingents under the UN umbrella. These police units are to be stationed in the transnational regions.
The supra-regionally organized and internationally controlled police forces of Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) should be able to intervene, especially when organized crime is detected at the international level.
Interpol's structure and jurisdiction also need to be changed. Until now, Interpol has not had its own police investigators but has coordinated national police investigations and data collections.
Up to now, Interpol has been recognized as an international association with the status of an internationally active NGO at the United Nations. Since 1997, it has had a cooperation agreement with the UN, which grants Interpol observer status at the UN. Interpol is backed by 190 states. However, the international police organization is currently subject only to internal commission control.
In the present world police model, however, there would have to be external and independent control in cooperation with and accountability to the reformed UN Parliament in order to prevent dependencies, police arbitrariness, lack of transparency and corruption.
The example of Interpol illustrates the problems when the world police umbrella organization also accepts donations from multinational corporations as well as from individual autocratic states, such as Qatar or the United Arab Emirates.
Interpol has also been criticized for its cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, such as Sanofi. Interpol represents the interests of pharmaceutical companies, e.g. by investigating the spread of cheap and affordable generic drugs, and in return receives millions in donations for the Interpol budget. (28)
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In contrast to the previous Interpol, the present draft of a reorganization of global structures is about a democratically controlled, world police umbrella organization with transnational, regional and decentralized bodies, which is subject to both transparent and effective external and internal control, but which has expanded executive rights compared to the previous international police organization. Interpol is to be adequately funded by the United Nations.
Secret services of various kinds no longer play a role in the vision of a reorganization of international relations developed here. They are to be abolished on all sides and in all regions. All world police measures are to be disclosed transparently - sometimes only afterwards - in order to enable democratic control of the UN executive by the elected legislatures and citizens.
UN military forces must be further developed in terms of their capabilities and function. In this context, the UN blue helmets must be strengthened militarily and given the UN-controlled right to take robust action in order to intervene in cases of genocide, massive environmental destruction or warlike conflicts between different regions or population groups. This means that the function of the UN blue helmets must clearly go beyond peacekeeping in favor of effective peacebuilding. In order to be able to enforce peace in extreme cases, a well-equipped and permanent blue-helmet intervention force is necessary, which can be decided upon by an agreement of the UN states in accordance with § 43 of the UN Charter. These UN military intervention forces are to be stationed in the various transnational regions to enable faster intervention in an emergency. In extreme cases, the future deployment of blue helmets is no longer tied to the agreement of the states or groups involved; instead, the blue helmets act on the basis of a decision by the UN General Assembly (three-fourths majority) at the request of the UN Security Council.
The 2007 Peace Report, presented by five peace institutes, pointed the way in the direction to be taken for UN military operations:
"We propose that military missions be subject to at least the following criteria:
1. Legality: they must comply with the UN Charter and the Basic Law;
2. Distinction between peace policy and functional reasons: power, influence and alliance policy goals must not be the deciding factor;
3. Priority of civilian alternatives: have all non-military alternatives been exhausted or are recognizably futile?
4. Overall political concept, including clarification of the conditions for success in the target country;
5. Evaluation: no foreign deployment without accompanying evaluation and subsequent assessment of its costs and benefits.
6. Exit strategy: when and how should a mission be terminated?" (30)
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Currently rather unpopular and unconventional approaches to a global security order should also be considered. NATO could initially expand to include other more Western states, such as Australia, Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand or Japan. And then we would have to think further in the longer term: Why should NATO not expand in the future to include previously hostile or very different states? This can only be a win-win situation if, for example, both Ukraine and the Russian Federation are made an offer by NATO and, in the event of a ceasefire, talks on joint NATO membership are initiated as a prerequisite for peace negotiations. This may be the necessary and decisive step to avoid further military escalation or even nuclear war. A NATO enlarged to include more and more countries could assume a global policing function under the umbrella of a democratized UN. To this end, NATO would also have to change its weapons technology. The prior disarmament of nation states in a coordinated global disarmament process under the leadership of the United Nations could lead to a huge peace dividend and a global spring.
It is difficult to say at this stage whether this is a viable option. But those responsible should at least consider this option. No stone must be left unturned in order to establish world peace.
There are, of course, plenty of counter-arguments to this. Works by Ganser (2027) and Dagdelen (2024) condemn NATO as an organization on behalf of the USA that is responsible for a multitude of crimes against international law. They do not see it as a defensive alliance but as a military force to secure and enforce US hegemony. NATO should therefore be dissolved in favor of a European security alliance that integrates all states, including the Russian Federation. Sevin Dagdelen (2024, 118) ends her book with the following statement:
"And by trying to realize its claim to global dominance, NATO is ultimately conjuring up the most dangerous constellation of forces against itself. The pursuit of alternatives to NATO is resistance to a world war policy. We need peace instead of NATO."
One objection to this is that a dissolution of NATO would give authoritarian and undemocratic powers, which are heavily armed, carte blanche for their campaigns of conquest. In the past, NATO has certainly acted contrary to international law in several cases, as the military mandate of the UN or the veto-blocked UN Security Council was not given or it was demonstrably lied to by the USA, e.g. in the case of the 3rd Gulf War. Nevertheless, a demand for the dissolution of NATO is not in the interests of societies that are still trying to develop or maintain democratic structures.
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Nevertheless, despite Trump's unspeakable statements, Article 5 does provide these states with a military assistance pact that has so far prevented military aggression, for example the crossing of further borders by the Russian Federation. This is of existential importance, especially for the Baltic states and the Eastern European countries, which would not be able to defend themselves without NATO's military protection. Dagdelen should be clearly contradicted here, as she ignores this need for protection in favor of an absolute devaluation of NATO as a power that destroys peace.
Another argument in favor of NATO expansion - instead of dissolution - would be the reduced power of the USA if other influential states were to join. The USA would certainly continue to occupy an important position within NATO, but the principle of unanimity in the NATO Council and other regulations would relativize the dominance of the USA and provide a counterweight in terms of power politics.
The development capability of such a military alliance must also be considered, especially if a globally expanded NATO were to act more and more on behalf of the UN as a global police force. No other military alliance will be able to do this in the long term as a power legitimized under international law to put autocrats in their place.
It should be pointed out here that NATO can only succeed in performing a global policing function if an internationally coordinated disarmament process is carried out step by step via the UN - in particular if the nuclear potential of all states is disarmed first.
Whether these considerations make sense and could be relevant in the future is not yet foreseeable. However, an attempt should be made here to start a serious discussion about the expansion and a changed peace policy role of the most powerful global military alliance.
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Conclusion: The current escalation of military conflicts, such as in Ukraine, the Middle East, Yemen or Syria, requires a combination of diplomatic measures, changed transnational security structures and global police interventions under the control of the United Nations. Societal pacification requires an intellectual maturity on the part of all those involved, which - despite all educational and awareness-raising efforts - cannot yet be taken for granted. In order to close this gap, civil society pacification measures must be supplemented by more effective global police interventions than in the past, especially when opposing groups disregard international law and use unauthorized armed force. Military means under the supervision of the UN should only be used in extreme emergencies if the combination of civil society and global police measures fails or if the global police peace actors involved are threatened by military force. The redefinition of a globally expanded and re-equipped NATO could play an important role here.
The spectrum of global policing options should also be expanded to include ecological crimes that affect the interests of humanity as a whole. Ecological crimes, such as the burning and deforestation of the rainforest or the state-driven increase in CO2 emissions, are no longer acceptable in the future, as they affect the conditions of existence of the next generations and, in principle, of human civilization on this planet.
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Excursus on Chapter 5.6
Should NATO extend an invitation to Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation to join? A utopian sketch.
No stone should be left unturned in the attempt to end the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Ultimately, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure, nature and the extinction of hundreds of thousands of human lives, there is the danger of a Third World War with the use of nuclear weapons. This would also mean the end of everything that civilization has achieved so far. A nuclear inferno cannot be wanted by anyone in their right mind.
But even beyond the war in Ukraine, it is worth considering how a future international security architecture could develop.
First, an historical reconstruction of relations between NATO and Russia will be undertaken. This will be followed by considerations of a future development of the international security architecture in a utopian sense, and finally, an initial critical assessment of this utopian sketch will be made.
Many things are possible today that would have been considered unrealistic in the past.
At the beginning of 2025, re-elected US President Donald Trump and the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, are negotiating directly with each other to find a way to end the war in Ukraine. The US and Russia, together with the PRC, also vote in the UN Security Council in favor of a US-sponsored resolution to end the war in Ukraine. Who would have thought this, or even publicly suspected it, just a few months ago?
Much of what previously seemed impossible is now possible in international politics – even if it must be strongly criticized that no participation of Ukraine and the EU is initially planned for the US-American and Russian negotiations.
It also gives the impression that two powers of ecological imperialism are trying to come to an agreement on how to distribute the raw materials of a militarily defeated country.
But before a NATO-centered plan for the future, which admittedly still seems unrealistic at present, is to be developed, the relationship between Russia and NATO is to be reconstructed from a historical perspective.
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The proposal of a rapprochement between NATO and Russia has historical antecedents
In some respects, the proposal under discussion here was very much a transnational topic at the end of the 20th century after the end of the 'Cold War' and at the beginning of this century. [5]
In 1990, the CSCE states agreed on a new European security order in the Charter of Paris, which provided for democracy and the rule of law as well as joint security cooperation. Furthermore, Yeltsin's proposal in 1991 raised great hopes. He made Russia's accession to NATO a long-term goal. The invoking of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty in the wake of NATO's military response to 9/11, i.e. the attack on the New York Twin Towers in 2000, was supported by the Russian government, which kept the northern corridor to Afghanistan open for NATO troop logistics. In his 2001 speech before the German Bundestag, Putin expressed his openness to an expansion of transatlantic cooperation, a European security structure and more intensive cooperation with NATO-West. In 2000, Vladimir Putin even initiated a request for Russia to join NATO in talks with then NATO Secretary General George Robertson, which, however, did not trigger any commitment on NATO's part. However, a NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002, in the context of which important developments were mutually shared. It continued the 'special cooperation' against the background of the NATO-Russia Act, which had existed since 1997 and set itself the following objectives:
“The parties had identified joint peacekeeping operations, arms control, the fight against terrorism and the stopping of the narcotics trade as fields of cooperation. These goals were to be implemented, among other things, by setting up the NATO-Russia Council, which was to meet regularly. The exchange usually took place at the ambassadorial level.” [6]
The Russian government also proposed a European security order that would have provided for intensive cooperation between the West and Russia. The Bill Clinton administration might also have supported Russia's admission to NATO if Russia had developed into a market-based democracy. [7] Overall, the signs pointed to cooperation and détente between Russia and the West. This only changed significantly with the attack by the USA under US President George W. Bush with a 'coalition of the willing' on Iraq in 2003 without a corresponding resolution of the UN Security Council in accordance with international law. In addition, the USA appeared before the UN Security Council, where, among other things, the necessity of an attack on Iraq was justified with the help of forged documents relating to underground missile launch sites. This situation marked a turning point in Russia's relationship with the United States and NATO. In addition, there was the insult of the United States increasingly referring to Russia as a second-class power or a regional power (Obama), but also the increasingly revanchist interests of the Russian Federation in expanding its sphere of influence again. When, in this context, the eastward expansion of NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia was discussed in 2008, the relationship between NATO and Russia increasingly deteriorated. One expression of this was the Russian occupation of Ukraine in 2014, which was contrary to international law, and the subsequent mutual artillery shelling between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed eastern Ukrainian secessionists. For such geostrategic interests, Europe as a whole was then also devalued in the sense of a 'decadent Europe' and in 2021 Putin spoke of the 'Trinity' of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. This was already foreshadowed by the Russian Federation's impending attack on Ukraine in February 2022, which was justified in particular by security concerns regarding an expanding NATO and broken promises on the part of the West.
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In this context, the Russian side and Putin repeatedly emphasized that the 2-plus-4 Treaty signed in 1990 had been broken by the NATO side. This would have stipulated that NATO would not expand in the direction of the Eastern European states. However, Putin is only referring to initial agreements in the run-up to the 2-plus-4 negotiations, where Gorbachev was actually presented with initial promises from James Baker (“not one inch eastward”) and Dietrich Genscher to freeze NATO expansion. However, in the further course of the negotiations, these announcements were withdrawn at the initiative of the US government. The offer of a non-expansion of NATO was replaced by a financial offer, in particular from Germany, to subsidize the Soviet Union with billions of German Marks. This was also accepted by Gorbachev. The money flowed and the ban on NATO's eastward expansion was not included in the 2-plus-4 Treaty, contrary to Putin's statement. This would also have been highly problematic under international law, since every state has the right to independently choose the alliance system it wishes to join. In this case, NATO did not exert any pressure on the Eastern European states to join NATO. The NATO alliance was important for the former Soviet states because they hoped it would protect them from renewed Russian occupation and domination.
So: The idea to be outlined here of a renewed intensification of cooperation between NATO, i.e. the West, and the Russian Federation has a historical background and is now being proposed again in a completely disrupted and highly dangerous world political situation.
The draft of a utopian sketch in relation to NATO, the UN and the hostile states
Let us therefore sketch an unusual and unconventional view of the future that sets a different focus for conflict resolution than usual -- but admittedly has a rather unlikely chance of implementation:
If one is of the opinion that the current and future global problems can only be solved through transnational understanding with the participation of a powerful overarching structure, it is not a big step to bridge divides and make an offer to the hostile states from the largest transnational military power, NATO. It is about rethinking security [1] and setting aside military dogmas and security policy prejudices.
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This offer would include an immediate ceasefire as a prerequisite for demilitarized and internationally controlled zones between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and the opening of NATO accession negotiations for Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation, subject to conditions to be formulated precisely.
For the future opening of NATO accession negotiations, precise conditions would be formulated that would have to be met before the negotiations could begin. These conditions include the conclusion of a peace treaty between Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation that complies with international law on the one hand, and at least the suspension of Western sanctions on the other. The question of reparations and the prosecution of war crimes must also be settled. Furthermore, recognizable and verifiable steps towards democratization, e.g. granting freedom of expression and free elections, and the rule of law, e.g. independent courts and the fight against corruption, must have been effectively established.
At the same time, the security architecture with the PR China would have to be improved through a cooperation agreement between NATO and the PRC. This would be linked to a future accession perspective under certain conditions for the PRC as well. Ultimately, the aim should be to strive for a global security architecture through a worldwide expansion of NATO and, if possible, the inclusion of all states, especially the states of the global South.
What is there to lose with such an offer? Wouldn't this result in a win-win perspective for all states involved? Wouldn't it lead to a global spring with a huge peace dividend? Wouldn't the forces be freed at last to effectively counter global crises, such as the already occurring climate crisis?
Ultimately, this would be based on an international reorganization and a world order that provides for a democratically controlled superordinate power at the UN level. Such a newly conceived UN, strengthened by world police cooperation with a global NATO that has been transformed in its task and structure, would plan and implement a joint fight against the climate crisis, pandemics, wars, famines and economic crises. The global redistribution of wealth and social wealth would also be an objective of this transnational agenda, since peace can only be achieved through intra-societal and transnational justice. However, this can only succeed if a superordinate structure with power and the economic institutions contained therein try to implement this in terms of regulatory policy.
Future generations will not be able to understand if no agreement can be reached here. The brutally waged war in Ukraine could then be turned into its historical opposite in the intended NATO offer and become the starting point for a positive future development. It can be assumed that none of the state war actors involved has an interest in a military escalation towards nuclear destruction. All the states involved, as well as the international community, would be left as losers – if anything at all still exists of them after a nuclear war.
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The utopia outlined here could then be further developed as follows: In addition to a globalization of NATO, all nation states and transnational alliances would then gradually disarm in a coordinated manner to such an extent that NATO's global policing function under the auspices of the United Nations becomes possible. As a first step, the United Nations' nuclear weapons ban treaty [2]
must be implemented by all nations. This will be much easier if all NATO states gradually join as a common and global security alliance in the future. If national disarmament then takes place in internationally controlled steps, NATO can also disarm to such an extent in the future and de-escalate its military threat potential that global policing with the help of police equipment would be sufficient.
To prevent such a military security alliance from acquiring excessive power or individual states (or a single state) from gaining dominance, NATO must be integrated into the United Nations. In this context, the United Nations should not only be strengthened but also democratized, always somewhat ahead of empowerment. There are plenty of suitable proposals and discussions on this, both within the United Nations [3] and from outside through NGOs [4]. In particular, the UN Security Council needs to be democratized, whereby the permanent members would first have to renounce their veto rights.
Initial discussion approaches of the utopian sketch presented here
So much for the sketch of a planetary utopia that runs counter to the war cries of the participating warring parties and the global arms race.
Opponents of such a blueprint for the future will surely emerge immediately from all political directions and denounce the lack of realism and naivety of this draft.
But who is naive? The one who votes for more of the same or even for military escalation, or the one who seeks solutions that take into account the big picture and its interrelations, as well as the future development of planetary civilization?
Is it reprehensible to be afraid of a nuclear war and to look for cooperative solutions? Isn't it rather courageous to think the unthinkable and to face radically new models of cooperation?
“That's utopian!” will be the reproach of the recipients of these considerations. Yes, it is. A utopia tries to constructively think its way into the future and create solutions for pressing problems. The ability for utopian thinking has been lost on many responsible people at the moment and has given way to a flat and uninspired realism.
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In my opinion, political science also has the task of conceptually imagining the socially unpopular and unthought and of making suggestions in a utopian sense, how a fateful development can still be prevented and at the same time something new can be built.
If this can lead to suggestions and concrete steps on how to turn hostile people into partners in a gradual process with certain prerequisites, then it was definitely worth the effort of utopia.
Risks and resistance to NATO expansion to the east
When the basic assumptions of the utopian proposal at hand are discussed in social discourse, it is important to clarify what risks and what resistance there will be to the implementation of this proposal, and who the social allies in the transnational context could be who have an interest in its implementation.
Risks would arise in the admission of the three states mentioned to NATO, especially if these states were still internally corrupt and repressive, if their aggressive military-industrial-political core were still in power. Who invites a predator into their own house?
It could also be argued that it is not NATO's expansion that is necessary, but rather that its containment and ultimately its elimination would be conducive to world peace. After all, NATO has shown in the past how it has disregarded international law and is only the military arm of US imperialism. It is therefore also unsuitable as a supporter of a fair global distribution of social wealth, and would in fact seek to prevent it.
Another argument against linking NATO expansion and the demand for the rule of law and democracy as a condition for accession could be based, on the one hand, on the fact that some NATO states themselves have problems with this. The current development of the USA and the Trump administration's dismantling of democracy could be taken as proof of this.
On the other hand, it could be criticized from a completely different perspective that Western norms are being used to hegemonically reshape culturally different states.
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Nevertheless, the fact that hardly any global change will be possible without NATO – and against the will of the United States – argues in favor of its further development. The possibility for states that feel threatened to seek military protection could also make the offer attractive and contribute to ending the currently escalating war in Ukraine. Also, the UN can hardly achieve any impact in peace-building measures without the support of a global security system acting as a world police force. And: the current situation, with its constant military escalation, is so hopeless that new diplomatic avenues and development prospects must be opened up for which it is worthwhile for the warring states to agree on a ceasefire and peace.
In this context, it is of course important to consider how an even more powerful NATO can in turn be protected from the uncontrolled exercise of power and integrated into a democratizing UN in accordance with the rule of law.
So such an enlargement process immediately presupposes the fundamental reform of two transnational organizations. This is an additional complication.
Many questions, problems and possible arguments.
As I said, such a scenario of global NATO enlargement is unlikely. This is due in particular to the current events of increasing hostility and a lack of willingness to talk between the European NATO states and the Russian aggressor state. The historic clashes between Zelenskyi and Trump and Vance in February 2025 also speak against such an expansion process.
As I said: Rather unlikely - but worth striving for in terms of peace policy?
Notes:
[1] https://www.sicherheitneudenken.de/
[2] https://www.icanw.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019_vertragsheft.pdf
[3] https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/pact-for-the-future-zero-draft
[4] https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/we-the-peoples/
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[5] The reconstruction of the historical development of Russia's relationship with NATO is based, in addition to my own assessment, on the following sources, among others Arte documentary from April 2, 2024: Arte (2024): Old Friends, New Fronts.; Zagorski, Andrei (2010): The Russian Proposal for a Treaty on European Security: From the Medvedev Initiative to the Corfu Process. In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2009, Baden-Baden 2010, pp. 49-67. https://ifsh.de/file-CORE/documents/jahrbuch/09/Zagorski-dt.pdf, undated, April 3, 2024; German Federal Ministry of Defense (2024): Dialog für mehr Transparenz. In: https://www.bmvg.de/de/themen/dossiers/die-nato-staerke-und-dialog/nato-russland-rat, undated, April 3, 2024; Schmid, Ulrich (2021): Nato und Russland. Vom Beitrittswunsch zur Bedrohung. In: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/politische-buecher/nato-und-russland-vom-beitrittswunsch-zur-bedrohung-17345639.html, 25.5.2021, 3.4.2024; Blätter für die deutsche und internationale Politik (2022): Krieg und Frieden: The Ukraine Conflict. Special edition March 2022.
[6] Federal Ministry of Defense (2024): Dialogue for more transparency. In: https://www.bmvg.de/de/themen/dossiers/die-nato-staerke-und-dialog/nato-russland-rat, undated, 3.4.2024.
[7] Cf. Schmid, Ulrich (2021): NATO and Russia. From desire for accession to threat. In: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/politische-buecher/nato-und-russland-vom-beitrittswunsch-zur-bedrohung-17345639.html, May 25, 2021, 3.4.2024.
(A first draft of this discussion proposal was published by me in the online magazine 'Telepolis': https://www.telepolis. de/features/Mit-diesem-Schritt-koennte-die-Nato-den-Streit-mit-Russland-umgehend-beenden-9670453.html, 29.3.2024; an extended version was published in: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/profdrklausmoegling1952/entwurf-einer-nato-erweiterung-zukuenftige-nato-erweiterung-nach-osten, April 3, 2024, last revised February 26, 2025.)
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5.7 The UN Pact for the Future
In January 2024, recommendations from a UN Pact for the Future, which was discussed with hundreds of NGOs and is to be further developed, were presented. The Pact for the Future is based on the UN reform processes for the UN General Secretariat's 'Our Common Agenda', the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDG follow-up conferences. The text with the results and measures of the UN Pact for the Future is to be adopted at a Future Summit in September 2024 and then reviewed by the UN General Assembly in 2026 with regard to its implementation.
The German UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse and Namibia's Ambassador Neville Gertze have been instrumental in driving forward the preparatory process for the Pact for the Future. The 'Pact for the Future' summarizes the current global crisis situation as a starting point for the necessary measures:
"We are at a moment of acute global peril. Across our world, people are suffering from the effects of poverty, hunger, inequality, armed conflicts, violence, displacement, terrorism, climate change, disease, and the adverse impacts of technology. Humanity faces a range of potentially catastrophic and existential risks. We are also at a moment of opportunity, where advances in knowledge and technology, properly managed, could deliver a better future for all." (30)
Multilateral cooperation is viewed critically with regard to the UN Security Council and the global financial architecture, among other things.
The recommendations for the Pact for the Future, which are to be adopted by the UN in late summer 2024, advocate a new start in international cooperation based on the United Nations Charter. Based on the three pillars of the UN Charter - development, peace, security and human rights policy - a series of rather general proposals for change are made across 148 topics on 29 pages with a focus on poverty reduction, peacekeeping and the fight against the climate crisis and environmental degradation.
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The demands of the UN Pact for the Future
The demands of the recommendations for the UN Pact for the Future are divided into five thematic areas:
* Sustainable development and financing for development;
* International peace and security;
* Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation;
* Youth and future generations;
* Transforming global governance;
The seriousness of the situation is appropriately formulated in point 23, among others:
"We remain resolved, between now and 2030, to end poverty in all its forms and dimensions and hunger, everywhere, as a priority. We recognize our responsibility to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources and that we may be the last generation to have a chance of saving the planet." (31)
The climate targets of the Paris Climate Conference, including the 1.5-degree target that will probably already be exceeded in 2023 and the target of zero CO2 emissions for 2050, are now adopted and the focus is placed in particular on the aspect of climate justice with a view to developing countries. However, point 45 reminds us in very general terms, i.e. without naming specific polluters, to refrain from unilateral measures of economic protection driven by national interests that could hinder the socio-ecological development of poorer countries.
The peace and security policy at the heart of the recommendations of the Pact for the Future contains correct, but largely very general formulations, such as in point 50:
"We recognize the interdependence of international peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. We reaffirm the need to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to justice and are based on human rights, the rule of law and good governance at all levels and on transparent, effective and accountable institutions. In this regard, we recognize the importance of fostering a culture of peace, upholding the rule of law and promoting human security." (32)
Specifically, it calls for all cases of violence worldwide to be halved by 2030. It also calls for the participation of women in all decisions to enforce peace and security as well as the protection of civilians and, in particular, young people and children in contested areas. However, the implementation measures for this remain vague.
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The link between climate change and violent conflicts is finally correctly addressed in point 69:
"We recognize that climate impacts can multiply risks that fuel conflict. We encourage the relevant organs of the United Nations, as appropriate and within their respective mandates, to intensify their efforts in considering and addressing climate change, including its possible security implications. We urge the Security Council to address the peace and security implications of climate change in the mandates of peace operations and during discussions on other country or regional situations on its agenda, where relevant." (33)
However, the environmental and climate-destroying effects of the military in both peacetime and wartime are not addressed. As there are now enough meaningful statistics on this, this could have been mentioned very specifically at this point. Thus, the ecological effects of the militarization of the world remain a blind spot in the recommendations of the UN Pact for the Future.
There is a clear call for the further development and better financing of peacekeeping, peacebuilding and enforcement action in order to enforce international security on the basis of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, without, however, naming specific and relevant financial policy instruments.
A future UN General Assembly is proposed to deal with international disarmament issues.
Point 81 speaks out in favor of the civilian use of nuclear energy:
"We reaffirm the inalienable right of all countries to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination." (34)
This negligently fails to address the dangers posed by nuclear accidents and the lack of disposal options for radioactive waste. It also fails to mention that the generation of energy in nuclear power plants is by far the most expensive method of energy production, which can only be made possible through massive state subsidies.
Until the final abolition of nuclear weapons, paragraph 80 calls on the nuclear weapon states to take measures to prevent accidental nuclear war and the use of nuclear weapons in military conflicts. Furthermore, additional measures for nuclear disarmament are called for. The proposals remain general and even refrain from deliberately mentioning the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
With regard to innovative technological development measures, the security aspect of developing measures to ensure the peaceful use of outer space and prevent military conflicts in space is addressed. Military threats to systems stationed in space and an arms race in space would have to be prevented by means of appropriate regulations. However, such rules and measures are not specified.
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With regard to the limited use of AI in weapons systems and the prevention of autonomous weapons systems, however, points 88 and 89 of the proposed pact for the future contain somewhat more specific formulations:
"88. building on progress made in multilateral negotiations, we commit to concluding without delay a legally binding instrument to prohibit lethal autonomous weapons systems that function without human control or oversight, and which cannot be used in compliance with international humanitarian law, and to regulate all other types of autonomous weapons systems.
89 We commit to strengthening oversight mechanisms for the use of data-driven technology, including artificial intelligence, to support the maintenance of international peace and security. We also commit to developing norms, rules and principles on the design, development and use of military applications of artificial intelligence through a multilateral process, while also ensuring engagement with stakeholders from industry, academia, civil society and other sectors." (35)
Point 90 is very cautious about only exploring measures that relate to the application of biotechnologies, particularly in the event of war.
The area of "Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation" emphasizes the use of science and new technological developments for the benefit of humanity by promoting, among other things, a better income, more sustainability in production and more inclusive forms of participation in line with the 2030 Agenda. The major differences in access to science and new technologies between rich countries and developing countries must be reduced. Barriers that prevent women and girls from having access to science and new technologies in particular must be removed worldwide.
In particular, research and innovative technologies for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) must be activated and disseminated worldwide. And in point 101, with reference to the policy briefs of the UN General Secretariat, the focus is once again placed on the situation of developing countries and the promotion of digital technologies:
"We call upon the United Nations system to support the efforts of developing countries to develop and strengthen their national science, technology and innovation ecosystems. To facilitate these efforts, we welcome the Secretary-General's vision to work towards a UN 2.0 to increase the effectiveness of the Organization through enhancing capabilities in data analytics, digital transformation, strategic foresight, and results orientation."
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The thematic area "Youth and Future Generations" emphasizes that today's actions determine the future of youth and the next generations. In this context, political action by young people who are committed to climate protection, social justice and gender equality is welcomed (point 103). However, the aspect of a commitment to the preservation or implementation of democracy is not mentioned here - in consideration of authoritarian states? - is mentioned. However, the participation of young people at regional, national and international level is called for and the establishment of a UN fund or UN investment platform to support youth work within the framework of the United Nations is called for (point 111).
Young people should be protected in all countries. Obstacles to the political participation of young people under the age of 30 should be removed.
The thematic area "Transforming global governance" was unable to present any specific proposals for improvement relating to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. In addition to a few general formulations on improved communication and coordination between the various UN bodies, the co-organizers were only able to comment that work would be carried out in the course of 2024.
The general and non-binding statements that the UN General Assembly needs to be revitalized are particularly disappointing. The UN General Assembly is an important advisory and policy-making body that will continue to work together with the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General in "full compliance with existing mandates" (point 119). Despite the considerable need to restructure the UN Security Council and the cooperation between the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, nothing more can be inferred here.
In the further course of the statement, the strengthening of the UN Economic and Social Council and its improved cooperation with other UN bodies, e.g. to deal with global economic shocks and to improve the position of economically underdeveloped regions, particularly in dealing with the debt problem, are addressed at a general level.
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summarizing evaluation of the UN Pact for the Future ( as on March 2024 )
In addition to some welcome general considerations on human rights, environmental sustainability, participation, the debt problem and the international wealth gap as well as security and peace policy, there are only a few specific innovative demands in the recommendations for the UN Pact for the Future, which is to be further discussed in the course of 2024 and adopted in September 2024.
Positive aspects include more concrete proposals on equal rights for women and girls, the participation of young people in decision-making processes, the ban on autonomous weapons systems that function without human control and the strong focus on the catch-up development of poorer regions of the world. The rejection of nuclear weapons and the associated disarmament proposals should also be mentioned positively.
The public relations work of the two UN ambassadors as part of the collective preparation of the recommendations for the Pact for the Future should also be seen as positive overall: Extensive statements were included as part of participatory communication:
- From 80 delegations from UN member states
- From 500 statements from major groups and civil society groups and stakeholders
All of these statements have been published in a transparent process. (36) The various proposals are read and discussed at three digital events with the participation of delegations from the various groups and institutions. There is nothing wrong with this. The documents published by the various idea providers represent a wealth of creative proposals from global society for shaping the future world and the future of the United Nations and are well worth reading.
Rather weak and in urgent need of supplementation are the demands in the draft Pact for the Future that relate to the centers of power in the global security and financial architecture. Here, the previous recommendations appear to have been too cautious with regard to powerful actors within the UN framework. It remains to be seen whether the proposals to be presented by the coordinators in the summer, e.g. on the reform of the UN Security Council, can be more concrete in this respect.
The ecological effects of the militarization of the world in both peacetime and wartime remain unmentioned. Only the influence of climate change on violent conflicts is mentioned here. Furthermore, there is an uncritical focus on the civilian use of nuclear energy, which overlooks the existing risks and problems.
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A proposal to reform the UN institutions is to be presented in June. In May 2024, a future summit of civil NGOs will be held in Nairobi to further discuss and prepare the pact for the future. So writes Rolf Bader (2024), an IPPNW activist:
Nairobi was chosen as the venue to give greater weight to Africa's interests and concerns. The unequal distribution of life opportunities between countries of the South and the North is a major cause of tensions and violent conflicts. The civil society conference in Africa will certainly also discuss debt relief, the reduction of protectionism and fairer trade structures." (37)
With a view to the initial question posed in the subtitle, it can be stated that the UN could indeed get things moving via the recommendations for a UN Pact for the Future to be adopted, but it is questionable whether there is enough air for this to happen quickly and continuously enough in view of the existing and expected threats. Or to put it another way: how much speed can be expected from the players in the reform process and what obstacles will power centers uninterested in change put up to stop the reform process?
Will the UN Pact for the Future only be a 'civilian fig leaf' and merely serve as an alibi for otherwise non-participatory processes in the UN's inner circles of power? The answer to this question will depend on how much power the UN Pact for the Future will be endowed with. In other words: How binding will the Pact for the Future be? What controls and sanctions are planned for compliance with the specific steps envisaged in the Pact for the Future for a future world development oriented towards the Sustainable Development Goals? Who has the power to decide on the further implementation of the UN Pact for the Future? And, of course, what is the response in the individual states and in civil society worldwide, including the NGOs involved in this implementation process?
New York and the agreed UN pact on the future (September 2024)
On the UN pact on the future adopted by world leaders in New York in September 2024, it is positive to note that important statements were made on the further development and control of artificial intelligence (AI) and also on the development of autonomous weapons systems. The peace policy and social justice perspectives are also to be endorsed, but still lack the necessary concretization in the implementation measures. Furthermore, among other things, the right demands are made to change the international financial architecture.
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However, as suspected, there was no significant intervention in central UN decision-making structures and mechanisms in the proposal text and in the final vote on the text. The UN Security Council remained essentially untouched. Although an expansion of the UN Security Council to include, among others, representatives of the African continent was addressed, the statements on changing the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council remained extremely vague:
“The question of the veto is a key element of Security Council reform. We will intensify efforts to reach an agreement on the future of the veto, including discussions on limiting its scope and use;”
(United Nations (2024): Pact for the Future. Action 39 (g), 27)
Nor was the establishment of a democratically elected UN parliament, parallel to the UN General Assembly, called for. Corresponding proposals, e.g. from 'Democracy Without Borders', were not implemented in the proposal. Only general proposals on the work of the UN General Assembly were put forward. The only specific proposal is the demand for female candidates to be considered when the UN Secretary-General is elected by the UN General Assembly (United Nations (2024): Pact for the Future, Action 42 (c)).
Nuclear power also remained as a future technology in the desired energy policy spectrum.
The ecological impact of the military in everyday operations and in the event of war was also not mentioned. Overall, it is striking that although many aspects of sustainability and peacekeeping, as well as nuclear disarmament, were addressed at a general level, concrete implementation measures and penalties for non-compliance were not mentioned.
There is a lack of binding demands for a universally accepted UN jurisdiction for all members of the United Nations.
This means that although the process towards a UN pact for the future was transparent and was able to involve parts of international civil society, to bring in initial necessary statements and demands, the overall results fell short of their potential and took too much account of the globally dominant states – ultimately a missed opportunity for strengthening and simultaneously democratizing the UN.
Nevertheless, the process around the UN Future Pact has had a positive effect in that international communication structures have been established through it, leading to the formation of numerous NGOs that now want to take a new approach to reforming UN structures. The former managing director of IPPNW, Rolf Bader, summarizes the demands of the international NGOs for the revision of the UN Charter, based on Article 109, as follows:
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“• Make the Security Council more representative and restrict the use of the veto.
• Include the environment as a pillar of the UN and create an Earth Governance Council – alongside the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and a high-level Human Rights Council – to combat climate change.
• Make the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice binding and universal.
• Enforce gender equality during the Secretary-General's terms of office. More inclusion and citizen participation, for example by creating a UN Parliamentary Assembly.
While the five permanent members of the Security Council cannot veto the holding of the conference, an amendment to the charter (recommended by a two-thirds majority of the conference) will only come into force if it is ratified by two-thirds of the UN members, including all permanent members of the Security Council. This is a major hurdle to overcome.
The campaign includes renowned international NGOs – among others, Democracy Without Borders, Oxfam, Pax Christi, Coalition UN We Need, Trust Africa, World Federal Movement, Global Governance Forum.”
(Bader 2025)
It remains to be seen to what extent the alliance, which is to include around 100 NGOs by spring 2025, can once again bring about a change in direction in the reform process of the United Nations. The outcome of the US elections and the nationalist course of the second Trump administration, which is trying to weaken the United Nations by withdrawing from various UN areas, is an additional complicating factor.
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Notes
(1) Cf. also Moegling (2019c and 2019e).
(2) The model here could be the concept of qualified majority voting in the Council of the EU: 55% of EU member states vote in favor of the proposal - in practice, this means 15 out of 27; the proposal is supported by EU member states that together account for at least 65% of the total population of the EU. Voting by an 'enhanced qualified majority' is regulated there as follows: At least 72% of Council members must vote 'yes' and they must represent at least 65% of the EU population. Cf. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/de/council-eu/voting-system/qualified-majority/, n.d., 22.4.21.
(3) Cf. Leinen/Bummel (2017, 371ff.).
(4) In: https://de.unpacampaign.org/unterstuetzung/, n.d., 1.12..2019 and newer figures in: https://www.unpacampaign.org/supporters/, 8.3.2025.
(5) The UNPA campaign is not to be confused with another older (since 1889) international effort to build another global parliamentary assembly, the 'Interparliamentary Union', which consists of representatives of the various national parliaments, but does not seek direct election. The 'Interparliamentary Union' sees itself as an international advisory body, which was established to strengthen national parliaments as well as for international cooperation, e.g. in the meantime via an association agreement with the UN General Assembly. Among other things, it advocates for human rights, the preservation of natural livelihoods, and peacekeeping, primarily at the parliamentary level (see https://www.ipu.org/, dated March 17, 2019). A cooperation of UNPA Campaign and Interparliamentary Union would be desirable, whereas competitive behavior would be counterproductive here.
(6) In: https://www.epo.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=587:
europaparliament-demands-democratization-of-uno&catid=123&Itemid=139, dated June 9, 2005, retrieved March 17, 2019.
(7) https://www.worldcitizensinitiative.org/, n.d., 4/29/2021
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(8) In.https://www.worldcitizensinitiative.org/#:~:targetText=The%20idea%20of%20a%
20UN,floor%20to%20make%20their%20case. o.D., 25.11.2019.
(9) https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/de/gvp/, n.d., 4/29/2021.
[10] This blog represents a revised version of my contribution to the online journal Telepolis: https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Zukunft-der-EU-Militaerische-Grossmacht-oder-globale-Friedenskraft-7253544.html, 5.9.2022, 7.9.2022.
[11] Certainly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has a history. But the decision of the Eastern European states to apply for NATO membership is a security policy decision of autonomous states and cannot serve as a justification for Russia's attack. No state should be regarded merely as a 'front yard' of its own geostrategic interests. This applies both to Russia and, of course, also to the United States.
[12] Cf. on the necessary peace policy measures, among others, my contribution in Telepolis: Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine: Vier Schritte nur zum Frieden? In: Telepolis, https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Russlands-Krieg-gegen-die-Ukraine-Vier-Schritte-nur-zum-Frieden-7132665.html?seite=2, 6.6.2022, 6.6.2022.
[13] See, e.g., https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/putins-rede-kurz-vor-dem-angriff-wer-sich-einmischt-muss-mit-vergeltung-rechnen/28099766.html, 2/24/2022, 9/1/2022.
[14] Cf. the essay by Bernhard Trautvetter in: https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Wie-weit-ist-es-von-der-Zeitenwende-zum-Zeitenende-7250400.html, 9/1/2022, 9/1/2022, and the article by John Mearsheimer in: https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Brinkmanship-in-der-Ukraine-7246879.html?seite=all, 8/30/2022, 9/1/2022.
[15] Ruf, Werner (2020): Vom Underdog zum Global Player. Deutschlands Rückkehr auf die Weltbühne. Köln: PapyRossa Verlag.
[16] Cf. reference to Medvedev statement in https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article238010209/Medwedew-will-offenes-Eurasien-von-Lissabon-bis-Wladiwostok.html, 5/4/2022, 9/1/2022.
[17] Cf. https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-krise/neue-doktrin-erlassen-was-russkij-mir-fuer-putins-aussenpolitik-bedeutet_id_141788633.html, 6.9.2022, 6.9.2022.
[18] Werner Ruf already raises clear concerns about Germany's peacemaking role, as armament and the expansion of economic and political dominance within the EU framework and arms exports to international areas of tension can be observed (Ruf 2020).
[19] CFSP = Common Foreign and Security Policy (of the EU), PESCO = Permanent Structured Cooperation (primarily refers to joint EU military projects).
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[20] Cf. Leinen, Jo/Bummel, Andreas (2017): Das demokratische Weltparlament. J.H.W. Dietz-Verlag: Bonn.
[21] Cf. Becker, Ralf/ Maaß, Stefan/Schneider-Harpprecht, Christoph (Hrsg) (2019): Sicherheit neu denken. Von der militärischen zur zivilen Sicherheitspolitik – Ein Szenario bis zum Jahr 2040. In: https://www.sicherheitneudenken.de/media/download/variant/183983 , o.D., 30.4.2021, 33 ff.
[22] Ibid.
[23] For more detail, see: Roithner (2020).
(24) Cf. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/friedensnobelpreistraeger-ican-kritisiert-bundesregierung-15234122.html, 6.10.2017, 8.1.18 and http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/nobelpreise/friedensnobelpreis-geht-an-anti-atomwaffen-kampagne-ican-15233815.html, 6.10.2017, 8.1.18.
(25) In: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/de/weltzukunftsrat-foerdert-reduzierung-von-kleinwaffen/, n.d., 2/24/18.
(26) In: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/de/frieden-und-abruestung/, n.d., 2/24/18.
Cf. https://www.opcw.org/, 7/30/2018.
(27) Cf. https://www.opcw.org/, 30.7.2018.
(28) See, e.g., the Zeit publication by Schmidt/Martiniere (2013) and the film broadcast on Arte, "Interpol - Who Controls the World Police?" (2015).
(29) In: http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/science/gutachten07.html, 14.6.2007, 30.8.2018.
[30] Pact for the Future, in: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sotf-co-facilitators-zero-draft_pact-for-the-future.pdf, S.1, 26.1.2024, 13.3.2024.
[31] Pact for The Future: a.a.O., S.5.
[32] Pact for the Future: a.a.O., S.8.
[33] Pact for the Future: a.a.O., S.10.
[34] Pact for the Future: a.a.O., S. 12.
[35] Pact for the Future: a.a.O., S.12.
[36] Vgl. https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/pact-for-the-future-zero-draft, o.D., 15.3.2024.
[37] Bader, Rolf (2024): Reform der Vereinten Nationen. Freundlicher Angriff auf die Veto-Mächte, in: https://www.telepolis.de/features/Reform-der-Vereinten-Nationen-Freundlicher-Frontalangriff-auf-die-Veto-Maechte-9651133.html, 11.3.2024, 11.3.2024.
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The first steps on the long road of social realignment.
Chapter 6:
First Measures on a long road of social pacification
Strategies, commitment and goals must be based on the same values.
By societal pacification, both peace in the social world and peace with the biosphere are meant. Here, in the sense of Johan Galtung (1998), peace means not only the absence of war (negative peace) but a comprehensive peace, a positive peace. Positive peace refers to the ability of people, groups, institutions and societies to resolve conflicts empathically and creatively without the use of physical, cultural or structural violence. Social pacification in the sense of positive peace refers to justice and respect for human rights within a society as well as between societies. In this context, positive peace also refers to a careful treatment of nature based on the principle of sustainability. The destruction of environments or the damage of the entire biosphere deprives life on this planet of its existential basis and, as already explained, also initially leads to conflicts of displacement and violent conflicts.
Social pacification thrives on civil society engagement in a quality that does not involve violence against people, nature and things. The initiation of far-reaching social reforms and their accompaniment by civil society can only succeed by making use of all creative and powerful forms of social resistance, protest and organization, by changing voter behavior and by changing forms of working and living together. Pressure on parties, governments, institutions and decision-making bodies must succeed through a coalition of significant segments of the population in conjunction with scientists, educational workers, politicians, economists and administrative specialists who use peaceful forms of engagement, resistance and constructive conflict behavior to make a start on social transformation at all levels. This includes mass rallies, expert hearings, tribunals with media impact, blockades, sit-ins, human chains, public theater work, protest concerts, crowdfunding, publication activities and media work, committee and parliamentary work at all levels, involvement in political party’s and NGOs, enlightening and emancipating educational work, meditation and self-work, boycotts of goods, rituals and therapies of reconciliation, school and university strikes up to - in the most extreme case - general strikes in solidarity with the majority of the unions that are ready for change. General strikes are the most powerful means of working for a global reorganization.
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Likewise, engagement in socio-ecological parties and pressure via the electoral vote should be used regarding their scope. Starting an alternative way of living and working as well as the individual change of one’s own consumption style also has an immediate and continuous effect.
In this context, approaches and forms of resistance within the framework of a feminist security and foreign policy must also be addressed. In particular, it is women who have participated in many forms of protest and organizing against predominantly male-dominated structures of violence in the past. (Lunz, 2022, 53ff.) Since women have often also been and continue to be victims of male violence in both peacetime and wartime, their priority is to advocate for a social reordering that helps overcome patriachal structures of violence and male militarism. The activities of the NGO 'Women's League for Peace and Freedom' (WILPF) can be seen as exemplary in this regard.
All of these diverse forms of engagement must be shaped by the values of a new order so that they can also achieve the desired social goal and not be in contradiction to it – these are the values centered around the following concepts: Peacefulness, democracy and maturity, environmental (co-)awareness, freedom in responsibility, justice and solidarity. With violence and undemocratic means no new order in the intended sense can be achieved, because violent forces would again become the bearers of violence, even in changed social constellations, and would ensure a social order that exercises violence.
Explicitly excluded from the unconditional renunciation of violence are the democratically elected organs of a new order in the global context in the sense of world police deployment when it is a matter of combating crime, massive environmental destruction, warlike aggression or violations of human rights. A distinction must therefore be made between a development phase in which civil society pressure is exerted by peaceful but forceful means and the necessities of a monopoly of force of a new socio-ecological social order of international democracy established by these means in order to be able to maintain this order in the sense of a 'defensible global democracy'.
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Strategies with different time perspectives and priorities
In awareness of the long-term vision developed here for a reordering of the world, it is now necessary to strategically outline the first steps that tie in with the current state of global society and the biosphere. What are goals and measures that could already be implemented in the near future? A priority list for most sectors of societal transformation will be developed. Criteria for the top ranks on this list are relevance in terms of urgency, effectiveness, legitimacy, and the degree of difficulty in terms of social enforceability. At the beginning of the various topics, therefore, come first measures (priority measures: immediate or within 1-5 years) [1] that, in my opinion and based on societal and ecological data, are extremely urgent, very effective, extremely legitimate and relatively easy to implement. This is followed by necessary development steps towards a new order, which are to be taken in the medium term (medium-term measures: within 5-10 years). This does not then mean that the last-mentioned measures (longer-term measures: within 10-15 years) are to be neglected within the framework of this priority list, but rather refers in particular to the time perspective and complexity of the necessary development. All the measures listed here would have to be taken if decisive steps are to be taken towards a social and ecological reorganization on a global scale - and, in connection with this, on all other system levels.
It is obvious for many people to first get involved at the local level and close to home, in climate alliances, project-related initiatives, in the context of local politics and life-world changes. Beyond local engagement, people should therefore also try to network regionally and supraregionally, to learn from each other, to organize themselves and to communicate with each other internationally. Respectful interaction in social networks and in one's own critical media is a favorable prerequisite for connecting the local with the global. Everyone who is involved locally should also be a member of a supraregional or international initiative or organization. In the sense of holistic thinking, this enables a systemic feedback effect and an increase in the impact of local, regional, supraregional and global strategic measures.
The measures to be presented here over a period of 1-15 years then also represent the beginning of a systemic reorganization in an even longer-term perspective. With these measures and further development steps, capitalism, which is currently unleashed in the global context, is to be contained and tamed to such an extent that, step by step, a new order emerges worldwide through this systemic transformation, which is no longer steered by the pursuit of profit, exploitation and greed, but increasingly by economic activity oriented towards the common good, the pursuit of justice, democratization, viable multilateral diplomacy and the assumption of ecological responsibility.
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This socio-ecological, economic and democratic reorganization can then no longer be called 'capitalism'.
6.1 Economic development steps
In order to advance economic development steps in responsibility for the earth as a whole, a reorientation of the UN special organizations on behalf of the democratically elected UN institutions is necessary. The World Bank, IMF and WTO must be persuaded to transform their promotion, sanctions and investment policies.
In order to avoid global economic and financial crises and to initiate initial systemic changes, the following steps must first be initiated internationally by the UN and its specialized agencies, by transnational alliances of states and national governments, supported by international, national and regional civil society pressure:
Priority actions (immediately or within 1-5 years):
- States and transnational institutions must commit to responsible public investment policies. Especially in times of economic downturn, public investment should be increased in a Keynesian sense. In particular, this should be done by increasing the economic capacity of the population through increases in minimum wages, pension subsidies and subsidies for social insurance benefits. An effective rent cap that opens up affordable housing will also be necessary here.
- To finance the necessary reform measures in part, income and wealth taxes for the rich as well as inheritance taxes on large estates must be increased significantly and in a progressive manner.
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- Mortgage securitization and highly speculative transactions with derivatives must be banned. Betting on the decline of currencies or the occurrence of environmental catastrophes, for example, will no longer be permitted in the future and will be punishable by law. Internationally coordinated and effective financial transaction taxes must be levied on financial speculation, both for shares, foreign currencies, bonds and for the part of derivatives that are still permitted. This can begin promptly with the states or regions that are prepared to do so and should be extended in the longer term.
- Privately organized cryptocurrencies must be banned internationally. The public sector must retain control over currencies.
- Interest may only be granted or taken within an approved margin to ensure the security of the borrower or to enable comparable conditions for lenders.
- Multinational corporations must pay taxes where they earn profits. Shifting profits to tax havens or losses to high-tax countries is prevented within the framework of international cooperation. Corporate divestments and, in some cases, state takeovers in the event of damaging behavior must be examined and decided upon.
- A strict supply chain law must be passed worldwide that makes corporations criminally liable for inhumane and environmentally unfriendly production conditions of their suppliers.
- The violation of human rights and the causing of environmental damage through economic activities must be made internationally punishable. The externalization of these crimes in favor of the shareholders of corporations and at the expense of those affected and the general public is thus prevented.
- Internationally applicable minimum taxes for multinational enterprises (20-25%) must be introduced to prevent tax dumping and extortion of states by corporations.
- The gross domestic product (GDP) must be replaced as a reference point for calculating the economic performance of societies in the sense of economic growth thinking in favor of an index that focuses on the supply of people with basic foodstuffs, the observance of human rights in work contexts, educational structures, health care as well as the yield of an ecologically sound economy.
- More economists and policymakers from the Global South must be included in multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to bring about more favorable financing and lending conditions for countries of the Global South. Binding economic goals must be set and measures must be initiated to create an economic and financial balance through multilateral communication processes, taking into account the centuries of colonization and exploitation of the regions of the Global South.
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Medium-term actions (within 5-10 years):
- Trade union representation and workers’ councils must be established in companies worldwide. Workers must be given a significant share of company profits through creative models.
- All banks must finance and set up relevant security funds for savings deposits in order to prevent international financial crises. Existing deposit insurance limits should not be reduced above the level of 20% of the deposit capital. Deposit and investment banking must be organizationally separated.
- The right to cash must be preserved so that individual purchasing behavior remains outside state or other digital control.
- Businesses taking a solidarity-based economic approach (non-profit orientation, sustainability, democratic decision-making structures, orientated towards the common good) are to be particularly promoted with special public programs, which in turn are to be financed from the revenues from the financial transaction tax.
- Internationally and in all states and regions, a right of class action and a right of association action against corporations must be granted. International treaty provisions that run counter to this requirement must be eliminated or revoked.
- The phenomenon of 'unequal exchange' must be revised step by step. World trade prices must reflect the real value created by the labor of people and the natural resources used. First steps towards a worldwide minimum wage have to be initiated.
- Weapons manufacturers, such as the producers of anti-personnel mines, must be held liable for the costs of disposal.
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Longer-term actions (within 10-15 years):
- In the context of UN-led international agreements, poorer states or regions should be allowed to impose moderate protective tariffs for a period to be defined in favor of their economic development, without countermeasures being taken. This applies in particular to countries of the Global South, which have a right to emerge from post-colonial structures and whose independent development must be protected.
- While richer states or regions must not be allowed to subsidize economic products or services with public funds (exception: solidarity economy), poorer economies may be allowed to do so for a period of time to be defined in the context of international agreements.
- Steps must be taken to initiate a single world currency to prevent speculation with national and regional currencies.
- Effective financial transaction taxes are to be extended to all financial products and all states or regions.
- Corporate structures must continue to be unbundled, dominant multinationals expropriated, downsized, nationalized and democratized in the case of socially irresponsible behavior, and small and medium-sized enterprises given special support.
- National or regional tax corridors should be established internationally, which define the national limits, especially of corporate taxation. This will prevent national tax dumping and enable taxation to be coordinated on the basis of the economic needs of a state or region. This will prevent the existence of antisocial tax-havens.
- A refinancing model must be developed that allows the arms industry to share in the social and ecological costs of wars in the long term. The arms industry and arms suppliers must be given an appropriate share of the reconstruction costs of cities destroyed in wars.
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6.2 Democratic development steps
Priority actions (immediately or within 1-5 years):
- An internationally composed commission at the UN level to develop a data-based report that analyzes, based on criteria, which states can be classified as democratic. This will be linked to proposals and measures on how the re-democratization of authoritarian states and the democratization of dictatorships can be achieved both through positive incentives as well as sanctions at the state-institutional and societal levels.
- All UN structures need to be reviewed to see how the countries of the Global South can be involved more strongly and on an equal footing. As long as the UN Security Council with its permanent members still exists, the inclusion of states from the Global South, such as Brazil or India, in this extremely powerful body should of course be considered. In the medium and long term, however, central power within the UN should be transferred to democratically elected bodies.
- Further steps must be taken to democratize the United Nations. For this purpose, among other things, the UNPA campaign would have to come to an agreement with the Interparliamentary Union and, in the sense of synergetic efforts, try to have a democratic world parliament established first as a UN subsidiary body, whose competencies could then be expanded step by step.
- To this end, a corresponding motion for the establishment of a democratic world parliament would have to be submitted jointly by both international networks to the UN General Assembly. Subsequently, there is the possibility of first establishing a parallel United Nations Parliament (UNPA) in the sense of Art. 22 of the UN Charter, which would emerge from democratic elections in the states that support the corresponding treaty.
- In order to achieve a meaningful balance of forms of direct and indirect democracy at all levels, the possibility of a UN World Citizens' Initiative (UNWCI) should be established in the short term via a resolution of the UN General Assembly. Global citizens' demands and consultations, to be organized digitally, could be incorporated into decisions of the UN Parliament when it is in session.
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- Andreas Zumach (2021) makes a proposal for the future financing of the United Nations: But in order to bring about a reform and an increase in the effectiveness of the currently weakened United Nations, e.g. in combating famine or the climate crisis, or in protecting threatened groups of people, the UN's structurally induced chronic financial shortage would have to be overcome. While UN member states would spend nearly two trillion U.S. dollars on armaments and military personnel in 2019, they would have only 53 billion dollars (= 0.065 percent of global GDP) left, mainly in the form of voluntary contributions. Zumach (2021, 35) calculates this disparity as $248 per earthling for military spending and only less than $7 for UN funding. Zumach (2021, 40) offers a calculated funding proposal for the United Nations: "One possibility would be to determine UN contributions according to a fixed percentage of global gross domestic product (GDP). 0.06 of global GDP in 2019 of $87.55 trillion, raised through mandatory obligatory contributions by member countries of 0.06 of their respective national GDPs, would have yielded reliable funding for the UN system of 52.5 billion instead of the non-binding budgeted 53 billion pledged as 80 percent voluntary contributions."
The U.S. political scientist Joseph Schwartzberg (2013), author of the book "Transforming the United Nations System," among others, makes another proposal that gives the United Nations even greater financial leeway: He proposes - similar to Zumach with regard to GDP - a fixed percentage of gross national income (GNI) as the basis for financing, but sets this contribution initially at 0.1 percent of GNI. This percentage would then be twice the total expenditure of the United Nations.
- Democracy must not end at the company door. In many countries of the global South, in particular, the first step is to establish adequate legal foundations for co-determination. In countries of the global North, where co-determination is on the decline or is being fought by corporate leaders with their law firms, more effective penalties for the obstruction of co-determination would have to be introduced. This includes protection for committed employees against the intimidation of initiators of works council elections and against the active obstruction of elections by management.
However, due to the expansion of tasks envisaged in the present draft of a global reorganization, a more significant increase in compulsory payments to the United Nations should be planned in a step-by-step manner, in parallel with the growing peace dividend - initially within the first five years to 0.5% of the gross domestic product.
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Medium-term actions (within 5 -10 years):
- Nation-states and regions are to be supported financially and with expertise from the UN that decide to re-democratize or adopt a democratic order for the first time. Resistant dictatorships are to be sanctioned, e.g. advantages in the international trade system are to be withdrawn.
- The work of the world parliament is started. Its representatives are determined in worldwide democratic elections. The competencies of the world parliament will be gradually expanded in cooperation with the UN General Assembly and in parallel to the decrease of the decision-making powers of the UN Security Council. The UN Charter is to be adapted or extended accordingly by democratic decision.
- The world parliament is elected in free elections with two voting rights (direct candidate and party). The elections are carried out digitally in all UN member states. Accordingly, protected voting options are to be set up and guaranteed worldwide.
- The world parliament elects the UN Secretary-General, who de facto takes over the global presidency. The UN General Secretariat then also has the right to propose the structure of the departments and to appoint the ministers, who, however, must present themselves to the World Parliament and must first be confirmed by it in a simple majority vote.
- All nation-states submit to the international jurisdiction of the various chambers of the International Court of Justice in cases involving international concerns and requiring supranational jurisdiction. International jurisdiction is then superior to national and local justice.
- World police cooperation is to be strengthened. For this purpose, a central world police coordinating office is to be established, positioned at the United Nations.
- In this institutional context, a central environmental police department is to be established at the UN, which, equipped with executive powers, can take the initiative via the UN Secretary-General or the UN President, if the UN Parliament or the International Court of Justice so decides.
- The legal status of world citizenship is to be introduced via a world citizenship passport, which can be applied for digitally at the competent UN authority. This internationally valid passport will gradually replace national passport documents.
- The compulsory contributions to the United Nations from nations and regional associations of states are to be increased step by step to 1% of the gross domestic product in the course of the growing peace dividend and in view of the growing tax revenues from the destruction of tax oases. This is justified by the growing tasks and the assumption of expanded responsibilities with regard to global administration, Jurisdiction, policy-making and peacekeeping.
Longer-term actions (within 10-15 years):
- The United Nations should also, in the long term, assume more intensively its responsibility towards strengthening democracy and democratic parliaments in the international struggles to destroy or roll back democracy, to balance social injustice, to secure peace, to deal with the outbreak of pandemics and environmental degradation in various regions of the world. Furthermore, in the long term, the transfer of national sovereign rights to the UN should be established where global concerns are affected or problems can only be solved globally. The United Nations must be equipped with the appropriate institutions and the necessary resources for this purpose.
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- Once a sovereign democratic world parliament with the corresponding sovereign rights has been achieved, which will emerge step by step from the UNPA initiative, decision-making powers of the UN Security Council are to be transferred to the UN Parliament. The UN Security Council is elected by the democratic world parliament. All its members have equal voting rights. The veto power of privileged states is abolished. Measures for the election of a world government headed by the UN President will be initiated and controlled by the UN General Assembly. Such a world government, which also integrates the UN General Secretariat, is strictly and constitutionally obliged to uphold its commitment to the principle of subsidiarity .
- The compulsory contributions to the United Nations are to be increased to 2% of the gross domestic product. With the increased responsibility for organizing elections, financial support for institutions and individuals with responsibilities, and especially international peacekeeping, including the financing of civil peace initiatives, the world police and the permanent UN military, they have now reached the provisional ceiling of 2% of the gross domestic product.
- The world government, led by the UN Secretary-General, is strictly and constitutionally bound by the principle of subsidiarity. The corresponding chamber and the world's highest constitutional court monitor compliance with the principle of subsidiarity in particular. Class action lawsuits can be filed with the International Court of Justice if the (to be expanded UN Charter) is violated.
6.3 Ecological development steps
Priority actions (immediately or within 1-5 years):
- The global warming of the biosphere, which is already occurring, threatens the very foundations of human life. In the shortest possible term, there must be a zero-tolerance policy at the United Nations level toward nations and corporations that boycott the international environmental treaties, e.g., the Paris Climate Accords, in the fight against global warming and the exceeding of the 1.5-degree target. All means of sanctions offered by a United Nations Charter, to be amended accordingly, must be exploited in order to still fall well below a two-degree warming of the earth's atmosphere by the end of the 21st century. In this context, the UN must also be given the mandate to intervene with graduated sanctions in the event of massive interference by a nation-state in climate-relevant natural resources. For example, Brazil can no longer be allowed to massively clear or burn its rainforest, the lungs of the earth, for soy cultivation, cattle breeding, gold mining and land speculation. For this purpose, a central environmental protection organization of the United Nations should be established with executive power, which, in cooperation with regional and local environmental protection authorities, monitors compliance with environmental standards and controls appropriate sanctions. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) are not sufficient to institutionalize this at the global level.
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- The concepts of a more effective trade with emission certificates have to be implemented as well as the introduction of punitive tariffs on goods that are produced in a way that is harmful to the climate and the environment, so that such production is no longer profitable for corporations and national economies. It might be necessary to consider compensation payments to poorer countries for a transitional period, so that this is also done in a climate-just manner.
- Parallel to the expansion of a solar energy supply infrastructure, measures are being taken to end the generation of electricity from lignite and hard coal (see also middle- and longer-term measures). Transitionally, the supply of heat and electricity can be ensured through the burning of sewage sludge in the formerly fossil-based power plants. Modernized gas-fired power plants can also ensure security of supply in the initial phase of the socio-ecological transformation. Later, gas-fired power plants based on 'green' hydrogen can take over this function. The supply of district heating from power plants should be expanded.
Facilities with large batteries are to be expanded to compensate for dark and cloudy periods and to ensure a consistent energy supply.
- Nuclear power plants do not represent an energy alternative due to their hazardous nature (see Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Fukushima) as well as the non-existing disposal or transmutation possibility of the radioactive material.
Nuclear power is also the most expensive source of electricity, considering the government subsidies, the disposal services that must necessarily be developed over thousands of years, and the entirely likely event of a further nuclear catastrophe.
Nuclear power plants hinder the consistent transformation to a solar energy supply infrastructure and must be shut down quickly.
Attempts to 'greenwash' nuclear power must be publicly tabooed, represent a point of reference for civil society resistance, and should be rejected in parliament (on the attempt at 'greenwashing' by the EU Commission, see Moegling 2022).
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- An international boycott of all yields of so-called 'unconventional methods' of energy extraction (fracking, oil from tar sands as well as open-cast coal mining by mountain blasting) has to be carried out immediately. But also the 'normal' mining of coal and the conventional extraction of oil and gas must be stopped step by step in the coming years with the increase of renewable energy production and intelligent power grids and storage possibilities.
- Aviation fuel must be taxed. Diesel vehicles polluting the environment with NOx and gasoline vehicles with above-average CO2 consumption must be taxed more heavily. The tax-privileged company car principle must be abolished or should only be applied to ecologically compatible vehicles. 40,000 merchant ships and 300 cruise ships, which are mainly operated with extremely polluting heavy fuel oil, must be subjected to massive CO2 taxes, so that a short-term decommissioning or a medium-term change in the propulsion technologies becomes necessary. This is to be coordinated internationally by the relevant UN institutions so that there can be no exceptions. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by making international transport more expensive and thus in some cases no longer worthwhile, this will promote both the environmentally friendly conversion of propulsion technologies as well as the regional production and consumption of regional products.
- The disposal of plastic waste in the sea must be stopped immediately. The producers of plastic packaging and plastic bags, for example, must be financially involved in the removal of plastic waste in the sea. The eternalization of environmental costs by plastic waste producers can thus be stopped.
- Recycling chains must be organized end-to-end to enable the recycling of generated waste materials. Controls must ensure effective waste separation. In this context, the export of waste to other, especially to the Global South countries must also be stopped. Waste must be disposed of or recycled where it is used.
- States and regions that have not yet introduced speed limits on their highways can regulate this by law in the short term following the relevant parliamentary decisions, without incurring major costs. Speed limits, e.g. at 110 km/h or 65 miles, ensure less fuel consumption, lower tire abrasion and thus a decrease in particulate dust pollution as well as greater safety on motorways.
- Measures for the socio-ecological transformation of society - also in an international context - must be provided through compensatory financial support for those regions of the world and income groups that cannot afford ecological innovations such as heat pumps, photovoltaic systems or electric cars. In addition, the change in public infrastructure towards a climate-friendly structure, such as local and long-distance public transport, must be designed in a socially acceptable way (see also social measures).
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- The switch to energy-saving and regenerative heating systems as well as the thermal insulation of houses is to be promoted by the individual nation-state with the help of increased subsidies and raised tax incentives. This is to be financed by an effective CO2 tax for companies.
- The poisoning of soil, groundwater and air due to emissions, over-fertilization via manure disposal, use of pesticides and uncontrolled waste disposal must either be made punishable worldwide and without exception or be subject to such high environmental taxes that it is no longer economically viable for the users of these resources. First of all, record-keeping obligations and precise accounting of the amount of fertilizer applied must be tied to stricter regulations in order to ensure the short-term protection of soil and water.
- Consumer behavior must immediately change radically and globally. The focus of purchasing decisions should not be on cheap meat products, but on more plant-based products that have been grown regionally and ecologically. Corresponding meat taxes to be levied by the nation-states will burden meat consumption and will be used specifically for the ecological cultivation of grain, rice, fruit, vegetables, etc. in the form of tax incentive systems. Either farms will convert to organic farming with the help of tax incentive systems or they will no longer be able to achieve profitability via the state-imposed internalization of costs.
- At the local level, the municipal decision-making bodies must make the necessary climate decisions, which are aimed at achieving climate neutrality in the medium to long term (preferably, within 5 to 10 years). In addition, municipal climate councils and assigned thematic groups composed of climate experts and scientists as well as committed citizens are to be established, which stimulate the implementation of the climate resolutions of the local municipal decision-making bodies and also monitor them through their expertise and feedback to the public. As a first measure, local public transport should be made free of charge and the first steps towards a car-free city center should be taken (reduction and increase in the cost of parking spaces, closure of large parts of the city center to regular car traffic, short-term establishment of continuous bicycle lanes at the expense of car traffic, expansion of parking spaces on the outskirts of the city in conjunction with local public transport).
- Endangered seas must be protected: Designation of marine protected areas based on a global ocean treaty under the auspices of the United Nations. Ecological measures (regarding fishing bans of endangered species, the end of waste dumping, stricter transport guidelines and safety regulations, etc.) must also be taken for the remaining marine areas and secured via regular monitoring and sanctions.
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- To compensate for the historical climate debts of the rich regions of the world, they must begin to finance the repair of climate damage, such as the construction of dikes, the building of irrigation systems or the planting of forests. Parallel to this, the poorer regions of the world are to be supported with the implementation of an infrastructure based on regenerative energy production. Due to the disproportionate share of CO2 emissions by the richer part of the world, these measures must also be financed by these regions in the sense of global justice. This is to be coordinated and controlled by the responsible institutions of the UN.
These are certainly measures for eliminating the ecological justice gap that still need to be implemented in the next ten years, but which must already begin to have an immediate impact in the first five years.
Medium-term actions (within 5-10 years):
- It is rightly demanded by Greta Thunberg (2019, 103) - based on IPCC figures - that for a medium-term period the CO2 budget still available for global emissions has to be calculated if the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still to succeed. In order to have a 67% chance of meeting the 1.5-degree climate target, only 350 gigatonnes of CO2 could still be emitted globally, based on 2019 levels of emissions. In 8.5 years, calculated from 2019, this CO2 budget would be exhausted. [2] These are indeed the figures that must be used as a guide. In this context, the CO2 reduction must be made climate-compatible in a global comparison, so that richer regions have to save more CO2 than poorer regions. A similar calculation must also be developed for the emission of other greenhouse gases, such as methane.
- The implementation of a solar energy supply structure in conjunction with an increase in energy policy efficiency prevents, on the other hand, the hegemonic need to secure or exploit oil and gas deposits as a cause of military conflicts. On the other hand, the poorer countries of the Global South in particular become independent of oil and gas imports and can supply themselves autonomously due to the abundant availability of solar energy. Corresponding solar projects, be they based on photovoltaics, thermal towers or wind power, are to be promoted in the Global South - both centrally and decentrally - by the nation-states, the regional and transnational institutions and the United Nations from the proceeds of CO2 taxes.
- The expansion of free public transport and the network of bicycle paths in the cities and in rural areas close to the cities, which was started as a short-term measure, must be further expanded with the help of an increased use of financial resources under consultation with the local citizens, so that the inner cities can be largely car-free and returned to their citizens as a livable public space within five to ten years.
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- A more effective UN-organized trade in environmental certificates will be developed. This will be an incentive system that rewards sustainability-oriented action more clearly than before or, in the case of non-sustainable action, leads to severe financial damage for the corresponding companies and nations. An ecological way of doing business will be rewarded through more effective certificate trading, functioning as a positive incentive system.
- Especially ecologically committed countries should join together to form 'climate clubs' that adhere to the ecological goals of UN environmental standards, which in particular impose higher taxes on the export of environmentally destructive products or goods produced with environmentally destructive technologies from fossil-fuel-oriented countries.
- International trade agreements that, among other things, grant corporations the right to sue if their economic activities are impaired by environmental standards or human rights regulations must be reversed worldwide with the support of the UN. Legal possibilities for contractual breaches must be provided due to the currently occurring global ecological emergency of the climate crisis, the consequences of the pandemic emergency and the immense costs of the necessary reconstruction of militarily destroyed areas.
- The privatization of drinking water sources and the sale of portioned drinking water in the private sector, especially in the Global South, must be reversed. International water corporations are to be adequately compensated for extraction and pipeline systems through revenues from the various environmental taxes with a view to their real costs, not in terms of the returns to be made at present and in the future.
- There will be an international ban on factory farming, a practice in which animal cruelty is currently the norm. There should be severe penalties for those farmers who confine animals to cages without the possibility of movement and who use hormones to speed up meat growth. The intended decline in global meat consumption makes it possible to keep farm animals in a manner appropriate to their species. This requires a change in the subsidy policy of the states and/or regions, such as the EU. In the medium term, only farms producing and processing according to strict organic-ecological principles may be subsidized. This will make the conversion to organic farming attractive.
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- 'Urban Gardening' is to be promoted in the short and medium term instead of hindering this administratively. Especially in large cities, suitable fallow land should be managed communally and according to ecological principles, in the spirit of the common good economy. Urban flat roofs should also be used for gardens, especially in the sense of hydroponics.
- The own subsistence economy oriented to ecological principles is to be taken up again on a larger scale, not only via 'urban gardening'. For this, legal framework conditions must be created to enable the decisive fight against and revision of 'land grabbing' especially in the southern countries of the hemisphere. Small farmers must be given the chance to return to their land. Land and agricultural subsidies for organic farming must support and accompany this process. The slums of the major global cities must be eliminated step by step in this sense.
Longer-term actions (within 10-15 years):
- Longer-term measures must achieve a significant step towards global climate neutrality by 2035 in an intersectional and internationally managed approach if global warming is still to be mitigated. The question is whether the complete global CO2 neutrality called for by the IPCC for 2040 to 2050 would not have to be achieved earlier in order to still prevent an uncontrollable climate development beyond the 1.5-degree target.
- The gradual elimination of oil-based combustion engines is another important goal that must be linked to the introduction of innovative drive technologies ('exnovation'). In this context, the development of drive technology based on hydrogen technology or fuel cells must be pursued in particular, since e-mobility with large lithium-ion batteries is associated with extreme environmental wear and tear in a less than sustainable sense. Of course, the electricity needed to generate hydrogen when using hydrogen technology should come from renewable energy sources. Fuel cell-based e-mobility must also be integrated into an overall concept with regard to the reduction of individual transport with motor vehicles and the expansion of local and long-distance public transport, which is already to take place in the medium term, as well as the network of cycle paths, which is to be expanded.
- The energy transition, the achievement of climate neutrality through the accelerated reduction of emissions of man-made greenhouse gases, must be achieved, among other things, by ending the burning of fossil fuels in favor of modern technologies and power plants based on renewable energy production. This must be achieved in conjunction with intelligent management of national, regional and global energy networks. The relationship between energy production, balancing power plants and energy storage must be optimized on the basis of engineering concepts. The burning of coal and oil for energy production should end worldwide by 2035 at the latest.
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- Appropriate and internationally coordinated measures must be taken for massive reforestation of forests on a global scale in order to promote biodiversity as well as CO2 sinks and oxygen production. While this must begin immediately and continue over the longer term, it can only have a longer-term impact due to the growth period of the plants.
- Efforts to designate one-third of the oceans as marine protected areas must be completed to enable the renaturation of polluted marine areas and the protection of endangered marine life.
- International disarmament measures with a coordinated expansion of the UN monopoly on the use of force will lead to a decrease in military activities, both in the context of maneuvers and everyday military life as well as in the course of military conflicts. In the long term, this will lead to a significant reduction in the environmental damage caused by the military on a massive scale, especially the climate damage caused by the military.
6.4 Peace policy development steps
Priority actions (immediately or within 1-5 years):
- The currently stalled OSCE disarmament negotiations must be effectively resumed with the aim of a double disarmament strategy - to simultaneously disarm nuclear weapons and conventional weapons step by step. In the spirit of the earlier thoroughly successful CSCE negotiations, time-limited target agreements on disarmament measures must be signed and, at the same time, comprehensive international controls by UN institutions as well as clear sanctions for non-compliance must be established. The disarmament treaties that have been terminated in recent years must be updated and expanded to include further actors, e.g. the Peoples Republic of China. The nuclear-weapon states must finally be persuaded to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
- In this context, a peace treaty must finally be concluded between the EU and Russia and the US and Russia, and western intermediate-range missiles threatening Russia must be dismantled.
In parallel, Russia dismantles its own intermediate-range missile sites aimed at the EU.
In conjunction, Russia must withdraw from eastern Ukraine and Crimea, where, in both areas, an internationally controlled vote on national allegiance must also take place.
An international protection force with significant participation from the BRICS countries, among others, secures the demilitarized zone for a period of time necessary for this.
A new period of détente is to be initiated through UN coordination and facilitation. Similar contractual arrangements are to be concluded intergovernmentally in other regions under UN control, and missile sites, tanks, troops and ships are to be withdrawn.
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- As a first step, international development cooperation must be increased to the required 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product for those nations that have so far been insufficient financial contributors, so that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - including in the area of peace policy - can begin, at least in its initial stages. Development cooperation worldwide must be project-based and continuous in the sense of 'help for self-help', as well as strictly and transparently evaluated, so that the money does not seep into the accounts of corrupt politicians or is not transferred abroad.
- It is no longer acceptable that hospitals, aid transports and schools are the targets of military attacks. The world community must send a clear signal and pursue such attacks resolutely and with robust means in such a drastic way that this possibility becomes an ineligible option for any war opponent, warlord or fanatical state. Signing, the Safe Schools Declaration, for example, is a first step here, [3] but such a signing must be legally binding on a state. Schools, universities, kindergartens, hospitals and similar institutions must be effectively guarded and protected in crisis regions. The establishment of monitoring measures and the imposition of the strictest sanctions by the International Court of Justice, to be supported here by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Educational Organization (UNESCO), must also be ensured.
- All production of land and water mines must be prohibited. Those who planted such mines and also those who produced these weapons shall be obliged to remove these mines at their own expense.
- Research into the use of artificial intelligence for the military use of robots must be stopped. Scientists and companies involved in this research must stop their research on ethical grounds. [4]
- Research on biological weapons - also disguised as defensive weapons - must be stopped immediately. This must be strictly controlled and monitored so that no pandemic can originate in a research laboratory.
- The United Nations will assume transnational control of the future development of AI, especially in connection with nuclear weapons systems, in order to prevent an AI-controlled nuclear war or an unintended nuclear war. Existing UN initiatives to limit the risks of AI development should be given a more comprehensive mandate and the cooperatively developed consequences should be made more binding than is currently the case. Votes in the relevant UN Commission of Inquiry should be taken by a qualified majority, e.g. a three-quarters majority (no right of veto), and confirmed by the UN Parliament.
- The EU revises its decisions on extensive rearmament programs and strengthens its diplomatic cooperation in Europe. This includes the development of a pan-European security architecture. The destruction of social resources by investing huge sums in rearmament programs is transformed in the sense of coordinating European defense measures within the framework of a European security architecture. The focus here is on the trusting cooperation of European states.
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Medium-term measures (within 5-10 years):
- The earlier disarmament treaties, such as INF, ABM, New Start and the Open Skies Treaty, are to be fully reinstated after the conclusion of the negotiations. In particular, the People's Republic of China is also to be included in the disarmament agreements. The ratification of the United Nations nuclear ban treaty – including by the nuclear powers – should be completed during this period. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which has not yet been implemented, should enter into force.
- The disparity between financing international development cooperation ( 0.7% of GDP) and military armament (2.0% NATO demand for military armament) must be eliminated. There must be more investment in civil development cooperation than in military rearmament programs in the future. The inhumane disproportion that has existed up to now must be changed step by step in the medium and long term. Effective coordination and control at the UN level between the various measures of the World Bank, IMF, WTO, UN Economic and Social Council, funds and programs would have to be taken over by a UN agency specifically responsible for development promotion, which would work closely with the UN General Assembly and the UN General Secretariat or later with the UN President.
- The United Nations will be authorized by an amendment to the UN Charter to intervene in the sovereignty of a country and protect the corresponding population group in the event of massive human rights violations by a government via an initiative of the UN General Secretariat or the world government, the UN Parliament or the UN Security Council with a qualified three-quarter majority in the UN Parliament. Perpetrators - including government officials responsible for such violations - must be arrested and brought before the International Court of Justice.
- Every UN state must submit to international jurisdiction, also with regard to human rights violations and violations of the Geneva Conventions in the event of war. No membership in the United Nations is compatible with non-recognition of international jurisdiction.
- NGOs oriented towards pacification and the preservation of human rights, such as Peace Brigades International (PBI) [5], the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Civil Action (ATTAC) [6] or the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) [7], must be supported with commitment and financial resources and respectfully included in global governance processes. The international trade union movement and the bodies of the UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) must also be more closely involved in decision-making processes within the framework of this policy concept.
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Longer-term actions (within 10-15 years):
- The nation-states and world regions are to be disarmed step by step in favor of a world police structure directed and controlled by the UN. The monopoly on the use of force passes from the nation-states to the democratically elected institutions of the UN as a structural prerequisite for the maintenance of world peace.
- World policing under the direction of the UN and its transnational, national and local authorities develops a security culture that involves local civil society forces and initiatives in a conciliatory way. Only after civil society mediation and conciliation procedures have been exhausted are the use of the world police force necessary.
- The privately organized nation-state or regional structures with regard to weapons production and armaments are dissolved in favor of production facilities for equipping the world police. This means a reduction of the arms industry to about 10% of its present level in order to provide for the equipment of the world police forces.
- The arms conversion of the weapons industry that has become redundant must be completed. Publicly funded training and education programs will enable a conversion to peace industries and expansion in the service sector, e.g., for health and care professions.
- In this context, complete nuclear disarmament and destruction of nuclear arsenals will also take place.
- Global disarmament and thus the shrinking of national defense budgets will result in a decisive peace dividend: freed-up financial resources amounting to trillions of dollars, which can be used in particular to tackle the climate crisis, for peacemaking measures, for disaster prevention as well as for social compensation on a global scale.
6.5 Social support steps
Priority actions (immediately or within 1-5 years):
- Efforts must be made at various levels, also to avoid distribution and displacement struggles, to secure vital resources for all people living on this planet, such as clean water, healthy and affordable food, renewable energy, war-free living spaces, affordable transportation, education and basic health care as well as affordable housing. To this end, the first steps must be taken towards the socialization of key national and international industries and the reversal of privatizations, for example in the areas of railways, water supply, education, the health system, housing associations and the postal service, in order to prevent the prioritized profit-oriented handling of vital resources and life opportunities. This begins with price controls and unbundling measures with regard to corporate structures within the
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framework of international antitrust law, which must be tightened up. The initiators of these measures would have to be the international trade union movement, the International Labor Organization of the United Nations (ILO) in cooperation with civil society non-governmental initiatives, resistant local and supra-regional citizens' movements, as well as parties and parliaments committed to democratic engagement and the common good. By restructuring or further developing national and transnational democracies, corresponding democratic majorities must be won for such a process of social upheaval.
- The first effective steps must be taken to provide all people with a minimum wage, a basic pension and insurance benefits that enable them to live in dignity. This is to be financed from the 'peace dividend', the closing of tax havens, the global minimum tax for multinational corporations and the tax revenues that grow as a result, the robot tax to be levied, and the reduction of corporate profits via the internalization of the external costs they cause.
- Human health must not be subject to the capitalist paradigm of profit. The necessary medication must be provided for public health care and not restricted depending on the economic interests of the health insurance companies. Hospitals should remain predominantly in public hands so that medical care for the population in the event of illness is maintained. Doctors' practices must be adequately financed. Medical centers with general practitioners and various specialists in different local regions should also be promoted. The high hurdles to medical studies must be reduced.
- The increase in the world’s population beyond the planet’s resource capacity, encouraged by religious convictions, e.g. in orthodox Catholicism, ultra-orthodox Judaism or a backward Islam, especially in combination with a lack of education, must be countered with first steps, especially through education, free and subsidized contraceptives and financial incentive measures. In particular, the combination of enlightenment, emancipation, education and prosperity, which is already occurring, shows that the birth rate can settle down to a reasonable level.
- Measures for the socio-ecological transformation of society - also in an international context - must be provided through compensatory financial support for those regions of the world and income groups that cannot afford ecological innovations such as heat pumps, photovoltaic systems or electric cars. In addition, the change in public infrastructure towards a climate-friendly structure, such as local and long-distance public transport, must be designed in a socially acceptable way (see also social measures).
- Together with OXFAM (2025c), an additional wealth tax for billionaires and multi-millionaires is to be demanded, which would have to be used for public welfare purposes - from infrastructure to social security and climate adaptation measures.
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Medium-term actions (within 5-10 years):
- The demand to secure the resources necessary for a livable existence applies above all to the regions of the Global South. Contact must be made with the democratic protest movement in the regions of the Global South in particular, and international networking must be used to jointly organize political pressure in the direction of the development outlined for all global regions. In this context, steps must be taken by the United Nations via the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund towards a global structural equalization, which will lead to a reduction of the wealth of the top earners in the Global North as well as of the same population group in the Global South via increased top tax rates, additional machine taxes for industrial robots, via more efficient certificate trading, the destruction of tax havens and increased inheritance taxes in favor of the poor population strata, especially in the regions of the Global South.
- In this context, further steps must be taken to introduce a regional minimum wage, basic pensions and social security for all, with the aim of completing this process in the next few years.
- The displacement of the rural population in the Global South due to 'land grabbing' must be reversed. Under the supervision of the competent institutions of the UN, with the help of UN lawyers, small farmers must be given back the lands that were wrongfully taken from them years or even decades ago. They must also be guaranteed reconstruction aid and start-up subsidies.
Longer-term actions (within 10-15 years):
- Of course, efforts must be made to reduce the birth rate worldwide as soon as possible by means of educational measures, free contraceptives and a corresponding child benefit policy. The plea of the Club of Rome "The earth is full" must be taken seriously. The earth's population has almost tripled within two generations. A similar or even increased rate of population development consuming the earth must be prevented, especially with longer-term measures in the interest of future generations. Increased migration movements and mass flight, intensified distribution struggles as well as the overtaxing of the earth in terms of resource consumption and overburdened sinks would be the consequence of a population increase that continues unchecked in the future. The financial support for families who have more than two children in the future must be significantly reduced in the sense of a degression.
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- A longer-term strategy to calculate the profits gained by way of colonization must be developed in order to calculate the damage caused by colonial countries and appropriate repayment obligations must be established to be paid to the exploited countries and regions of the world. This is to be negotiated and decided in a court of law before a special tribunal on 'colonialization damages' to be established by the UN.
The other measures that are based on the current state of society in a global perspective should not be further differentiated according to their temporal perspective, as they would generally have to be implemented as soon as possible, i.e. promptly.
6.6 Steps towards mastering digital developments in democratic societies
- Vital or life-threatening facilities and technologies are to be taken off the WWW and isolated in order to avoid hacker attacks or prevent cyber wars.
- Digital transparency in a democracy must be limited so that the necessary privacy remains protected. The creation of state Trojans and built-in security loopholes in digital technologies must be withdrawn and sanctioned.
- The development and use of spy software must be banned internationally.
- The development of artificial intelligence, as well as the use of virtual realities, are to be controlled ethically and in their technological development.
- The use of Chat GPT and similar apps in educational activities should be regulated. The focus should be on a critical analysis of the program's responses.
- There must be a worldwide debate, supported by the United Nations, on the ethical consequences of the 'digital revolution' in order to prevent the transformation of the human and the destruction of a democratic space to maneuver.
- Jobs lost due to digitalization and the resulting increase in profits must be compensated for by a digital tax and the associated financing of further education and training measures for the 'substituted' employees.
Steps towards a cultural transfer, educational justice, the inclusion of scientific findings and the preservation of a democratic media public sphere
- Coordinated through UNESCO and equipped with a robust financial budget, every effort must be made to ensure that education is made possible as a basic human right, especially for all children and young people. In this regard, much emphasis should be placed on intercultural and intracultural transfer so that the youth of the world can learn from both the achievements of their own culture and the achievements of other cultures. Education must be oriented towards the postulate of the Enlightenment, to encourage young people to think for themselves, to become responsible citizens, to be capable of democracy. Education for sustainable development (ESD) should be able to initiate behavior oriented towards sustainability.
- In the sense of a global structural equalization, poor states or regions should be supported with international subsidies for targeted and controlled investments in education. Countries that offer only limited education to future generations or keep them away from education should be subject to international economic sanctions.
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- A critical world public must be maintained and national or regional obstructions of science and journalism must be prevented. Democracy without freedom of the press, without the inclusion of scientific knowledge and a critical public media, is unthinkable. When in Turkey critics of economic development are called 'economic terrorists' by the country's own president, when in the U.S., media that criticized the president’s political course are called 'fake news media' and enemies of the people by the U.S. president, when independent and critical journalists are killed in Russia, Slovakia, the Philippines, Iraq or Malta, and when in China government critics are imprisoned and kept away from necessary health care, the timeliness of this demand becomes clear. Violations of the right of independent, science-based and critical media and their journalists must be relentlessly investigated and combated by the institutions of the international executive and judiciary on behalf of the UN.
6.7 Educational measures against the construction of concepts of the enemy
The manipulative creation of interstate enemy concepts must be rejected on ethical grounds and on grounds based on international law. Of course, criticism of the state counterpart must be allowed if it is fact-based, i.e., supported by transparent and verifiable facts. However, the generation of enemy concepts described here does not lead to a diplomatic solution of military conflicts, but to their intensification. The creation of manipulative concepts of the enemy is an act that prepares for and promotes war, and it is important to avoid or expose it both in the media and in institutional educational processes.
Especially in historical and political education, the uncritical adoption of enemy concepts must be prevented. Of course, education alone cannot change the world. Civil society, the media, the politicians they elect, and regional, national, and transnational political institutions are primarily responsible for preventing the emergence of enemy concepts and exposing their ideological function in a preventive manner. Nevertheless, the education sector should also make its contribution to peacekeeping by recognizing the construction of enemy concepts as an ideological and war-preparatory measure. The following possibilities, among others, are offered in the school and extracurricular framework of political education:
- Asking oneself as teachers and as learners what one's own enemy concepts are and examining them for prejudices and sweeping devaluations contained therein;
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- Critical political-historical educational work on examples of constructions of an enemy concept as measures preparing for war;
- Make the topic of enemy concepts the subject of ideology criticism and social-psychological studies; in this context, it should be asked and provided with historical examples what a culture of reconciliation should look like;
- Make political education controversial: Analyze mainstream media and alternative sources comparatively to analyze concepts of the enemy;
- Examine pictorial representations of 'homo hostilis' and examine aesthetic devices for their manipulative effects;
- Discuss with contemporary witnesses the historical construction of concepts of the enemy and their impact;
- Establish and maintain contacts in exchange projects and humanitarian assistance;
- Promote own media activities, such as podcasts, blogs, student newspaper articles or radio reports, on the topic of enemy concepts.
Care must be taken here to ensure that learners are in turn not manipulated or overwhelmed in the projects dealing with the phenomenon of enemy concepts. This can be achieved through methods of independent learning and research on controversial and multi-perspective source material as well as through encounters with people who think differently. [8]
Epilogue to this chapter: The individual as part of a whole is called for
These various measures, which certainly still need to be supplemented, are the first steps in the direction of a positive vision of a realignment of the world, as it was conceptually developed here. Starting points of a positive vision have been presented here at all necessary levels, for which it is worthwhile to live an ethically oriented life and to engage socially.
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Some people will ask themselves whether their own commitment is at all effective ("After all, you can't change anything"). We can tell them that if many people around the world take small and sometimes larger steps in the right direction, try to orientate themselves towards a positive vision of global development in the most diverse organizational and life-world contexts and also in their own lifestyle behavior, the cumulative influence will be enormous and - with the necessary staying power - will also lead to systemic and structural changes. A peaceful and sustainably developed world is (still) possible if people start to engage collectively and even more effectively for the preservation and shaping of their planet.
However, it would be naive to believe that no economic and political counterforces would exist. The fossil fuel industry, the arms industry, parts of the financial sector, overpowering multinational corporations, interested billionaires, extremist political groups, dictators and their entourage, as well as politicians and state organs in authoritarian societies who are beholden to these forces and interests, are trying to consolidate and defend structures that prevent a new order in the sense of more peace, democracy and sustainability. These restorative forces are also organized and active in their own interests of economic profit and political power.
And yet: Time is pressing in view of the problems that are occurring and those that are to be expected. Retreat into the private sphere no longer appears to be an option. No one will be spared from the developments that are already occurring and threatening. Everyone should ask him/herself what contribution he/she can make to a reorganization that is as effective as possible. This requires a transformation of the private and egoistic self-image towards a humane self-image whose positive meaning of life is derived from the balance between the fulfillment of one's own needs and the orientation towards the social and ecological whole.
Notes
(Chapter 6)
[1] The 5-year period is an approximate period, which explains the division of the intervals into mathematically overlapping periods of 5-10, 10-15 and 15-20 years.
[2] Cf. Thunberg (2919), 103.
[3] Cf. https://www.worldvision.de/pressemitteilungen/2018/05/22/safe-schools-declaration, 22.5.2018, 23.5.2018.
[4] For example, Google probably wants to end its cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense in the field of artificial intelligence starting in 2020 due to protests from employees, https://gizmodo.com/google-is-helping-the-pentagon-build-ai-for-drones-1823464533, 6/3/2018, 6/4/2018.
[5] https://www.peacebrigades.org/, n.d., 11.6.2018.
[6] https://www.attac.org/de/attac-europa, n.d., 11.6.2018.
[7] http://www.icanw.org/, n.d., 11.6.2018.
[8] The necessary steps within processes of historical and political education were developed following Moegling (2019d).
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Negotiations and diplomacy instead of military confrontations
Chapter 7: Classification of the present approach in the theories of international relations
Theoretical penetration of international relations is usually related to events of global political significance - be it the end of the two world wars of the 20th century, the confrontation of two hostile blocs, the end of this confrontation, or the increased occurrence of international terrorism:
"It is in the logic of social science research that a change in the object of research triggered by changes in realpolitik is always accompanied by an adjustment of the theoretical-conceptual tools of a discipline, and that the development of international relations theory can always be understood only in its close interaction with its historical-political context." [1]
The theoretical approach presented here, which brings theories of international relations, where they do not contradict each other, into a context with each other, as well as social-psychological and individual-psychological approaches in connection with this, is very strongly influenced by the current time signatures. The thinking represented here has been generated by the increased appearance of right-wing populist politicians in the system of international relations, by the unspeakable fighting in Syria - here also by Turkey's invasion of the Syrian Kurdish region 'Rojava' - and by the war in Yemen, the Israel-Palestine conflict, by the appearance of IS terrorism, by the confrontation between former US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un flaring up again and again, as well as the activation of enemy images towards Russia and China and the associated threat situation.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has once again made very clear the influence of the desire for hegemony in connection with geopolitical spheres of influence.
The example of these conflicts made the imperfection and vulnerability of the previous system of international relations particularly clear.
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The approach of a multi-perspective theory of international relations represented here is at least partially committed to realist or neo-realist thinking [2] when, starting from a critical analysis of real conditions that can be found, it is first of all a matter of taking threats in the international context seriously, but then developing first steps towards a civilization of international politics. This realistic view of the politics of nation states as well as analyzable international political structures corresponds to the demand advocated in this book for the absolute disarmament of nation states as well as terrorist and other criminal organizations with a preceding and in part parallel development of a democratically controlled world police force on behalf of the United Nations. This deprives nation-states of the military basis for hegemonically asserting their nation-state power interests against the interests of other regions of the world. Military defense of nation-state borders will also no longer be necessary, since no military threat can emanate from another nation-state and the monopoly on the use of force lies with the United Nations or its regional and local subordinate administrative units. A spiral of rearmament with the argument of a 'balance of power' is no longer necessary if the potential nation-state opponent can no longer rearm itself and is also disarmed.
The world political situation, which can rather be understood as a mixture of structural attempts at order and anarchy, is thus ordered and pacified by a global authority for order, control and sanctions, which is under the democratic control of the United Nations General Assembly and the structurally modified Security Council, within a world legal framework oriented to the UN Charter.
In this context, other real threats or dangers, such as mafia and terrorist organizations, must also be combated and disarmed on behalf of the UN.
Masala (2022), a representative of the neorealist school of the theory of international relations critically deals with the policy concepts based on the idealist theory:
"The concepts that have been put forward, developed, and tried out in political practice are legion. They range from ideas such as a new global concert of power, more imperial leadership, stronger global organisations, and regional integration along the lines of the European Union, to utopian ideas such as the creation of a world federation. All of them have so far failed to produce a stable order for the 21st century.
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On the contrary, the attempts of the 'Western' world to create a new global order after the end of the East-West conflict have contributed in no small measure to the fact that we live in a world of disorder today." [ 3]
In these statements, the reduced world perception of the realist or neorealist theory becomes clear. Certainly, Masala is right when he criticizes that especially the USA, under cover of its own economic and political interests, pretends to bring democracy, more justice and freedom to countries like Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq. Nevertheless, this is no proof for the failure of idealistic theory and for the harmfulness of utopian designs of international politics. This is more evidence of elements of idealist theory being misused as ideology.
In diesen Aussagen wird die verkürzte Weltwahrnehmung der realistischen bzw. neorealistischen Theorie der Weltwahrnehmung deutlich. Sicherlich hat Masala recht, wenn er kritisiert, dass insbesondere die USA unter Verschleierung der eigenen ökonomischen und politischen Interessen vorgaben, die Demokratie, mehr Gerechtigkeit und die Freiheit in Länder wie Afghanistan, Syrien oder den Irak zu bringen. Dennoch ist dies ja kein Beleg für das Scheitern der idealistischen Theorie und für die Schädlichkeit utopischer Entwürfe der internationalen Politik.
On the basis of Kant's statements, which belong to the idealistic theory, the necessity of universal values and institutions based on them was justified, independent of the limitations of realist thinking. National chauvinism and the attempt to optimize the interests of nation states cannot be the basis of a meaningful vision of international relations. Values oriented toward pacification, conversion, deliberation, sustainability, and democratic participation, to be described in terms of justice, peacefulness, altruism, empathy, ecological stewardship, and tolerance, are fundamental to a visionary design that transcends historical and contemporary limitations in the international system.
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Similarities can be seen here with Dieter Senghaas’ (1994) approach in the idealist tradition ("Civilizational Hexagon"). Senghaas developed six factors decisive for a peaceful society as expressions of a successful civilization process: deprivatization of violence (public monopoly on the use of force), control of the monopoly on the use of force by the rule of law, democratic structure and democratic decision-making processes, social justice, compromise-based conflict resolution within the framework of a multinational society, and control of conflict and affect in a situation of mutual dependence. If these factors are present, the state is more likely to have a peacemaking function in the global political context. However, it should not be concealed here that Senghaas's approach refers predominantly to Western (European) states and assumes that the current Western development model is a suitable universal template for describing such peacemaking factors and their interaction. In this context, developments in other cultures as well as future developments of alternative and communitarian life cultures come less into view. Contradictions and violent immanences of Western modernity would be faded out. [4]
On the other hand, Dieter Senghaas far-sightedly addresses the role of domestic tolerance with regard to plural life designs for transnational tolerance as a prerequisite for peace. Thus he is in the tradition of Immanuel Kant (1795) and emphasizes that domestic and international peace belong together:
"Pluralization as a perceived threat and tolerance as a solution, both institutionally secured and emotionally anchored: this is, globally considered, one of the great challenges for humanity in the 21st century, no less important than the accentuating global environmental problems. A look back at the 20th century illustrates the explosive nature of the problem. In this century, 'alternatives' to tolerance were often put to the test in a barbaric and gruesome way: Exclusion, ghettoization, apartheid, expulsion, 'ethnic cleansing,' genocide, and, above all, civil wars in many varieties, wars and world wars." [5]
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This assessment of the role of tolerance for pluralistic world concepts, political concepts and lifestyles is to be endorsed here. Here, of course, tolerance has its limits when other values, for example contained in religions or political concepts, violate the human rights formulated in the UN Charter and even intolerant groups and individuals demand tolerance for themselves.
In addition, the present approach is based in particular on critical theory and its references to the system of international relations. The older reflections of Horkheimer and Adorno, but also the more recent conceptual reflections of Habermas and Linklater, were very inspiring.
The fact that states in which democratic conflict resolution between competing groups succeeds and is structurally anchored in the state structure are more likely to be peaceful than states that are ruled autocratically or dictatorially seems to be a convincing argument. However, this is partly counteracted by the pressure from alliance systems to form military alliances - especially when these alliances serve hegemonic interests.
Johan Galtung's (1998, 2004) reflections on 'positive peace', which can only occur when cultural and structural violence in a state territory has been overcome and enemy images have also been dismantled, also fit in with this approach to international relations.
Some of the basic assumptions of world systems theory, as formulated by Immanuel Wallerstein (1974, 1979 and 1989), are also convincing. A fundamental approach to the global system of international relations asks what contribution a state or a supranational organization can make to the enforcement and stabilization of dominant (capitalist) economic structures in the global political and economic system. This has an analytical function that is already inherent in Marx/Engels, but also, in particular, in Lenin's reflections on the theory of imperialism. Wallerstein now combines Marxist-Leninist analysis with dependency-theoretical analytical arguments, so that not only the dependence of the current political system on economic exploitation interests becomes clear, but also the function of different stages of development of world capitalism in different global regions (centers, semi-peripheries and peripheries) can be analyzed within the framework of the world economy. Both, external factors, e.g. military interventions or the 'terms of trade', and at least partly endogenous factors, e.g. existing environmental conditions, are considered here.
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The question is, however, whether there are not in fact possibilities for intervention that open up ways out of the interdependence of international political processes and capitalist exploitation interests. Ultimately, the threat of climate catastrophe in particular leads to options for action that go beyond this and can certainly exert their influence at all levels worldwide in a pressure-filled manner, i.e. supported by many social forces. How else could the global erosion of living conditions on this planet be stopped in the interest of all people? By the way: Even rich and powerful people want to breathe smog-free air, drink clean water and be spared from storms and floods. And at some point, even their amassed wealth can no longer protect them from the natural disasters they helped cause ...
It must also be objected that there is no uniform economic and political interest of capital, but that there are often considerable contradictions between the individual fractions of capital. Energy corporations interested in the proliferation and use of nuclear or coal-fired power plants represent a different interest than companies specializing in renewable energy production. War industries represent different economic and political interests than economies oriented toward the prevention of violence and times of peace in order to be able to trade unhindered.
This means that the merits of world systems theory in focusing on global systems from e.g. economic or political aspects are diminished if an overly simplistic determinism is asserted. [6]
The approach to international relations taken in this book is quite compatible with a number of considerations of constructivist theories of international relations. Constructivist theoretical approaches, e.g. Wendt (1987, 1999) or Katzenstein (2010), argue that cost-benefit calculations of states are not sufficient to analyze behavior in the context of international conflicts. Politics in the context of international relations is also socially constructed. Here, identifications, e.g. with nations, religions, systems, such as democracy or a leader, are the prerequisites for an assessment of one's own behavior as right or wrong or as good or bad. Such identifications then often superimpose cost-benefit calculations and relativize a corresponding efficiency-oriented thinking in an international context.
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In particular, Huntington's (1996) thesis on the 'clash of civilizations' became known, which, among other things, considered cultural overidentification as the cause of (also violent) conflicts. Against this, Katzenstein (2010) objected that this inevitability does not have to exist, but also an intercultural clash would be possible under certain conditions. Here, the constructivist approach comes closer to the considerations represented in this volume, in that Katzenstein calls for a universal order within which cultural commonalities could be emphasized and lead to international political practice. [7]
The neo-Gramscian approach to international relations also enters into the present work, at least where the question of the alternative design of global structures that could overcome the hegemonic aspirations of various regional powers is raised.
Gramsci's views on cultural hegemony also still have analytical significance today if we look at the hegemonic cultural penetration of social media and TV programs. The enculturation into an imperial way of life (Brand/Wissen 2017) takes place largely on an unconscious level and is implanted in the thoughts and feelings of those affected.
When reference is made to the connection between internationalized modes of production within the framework of a globalized economy and transnational forms of nationalization, the present approach certainly approaches neo-Gramscian considerations. After the expiration of the model of the 'Pax Americana' based on the Fordist mode of production, the dominance of a single overpowering state can no longer be expected, at least in the medium term. International hegemony will be attempted primarily by transnational capital. However, it is questionable whether these influences are sufficient to establish neoliberal hegemony in the international context. Internationally organizing movements and organizations, such as the international trade union movement, ICAN, Greenpeace or ATTAC, as well as the mass protests that can be observed worldwide, point to forms of resistance that are definitely taken note of by the transnational institutions. [8]
Unlike most theories, feminist international relations theory does not start with statehood and its international interdependencies. The theoretical approach of Feminist International Relations (FIR) criticizes the fact that the fixation on statehood and the analysis of relations between states does not take into account the circumstances of women's lives or ignores the places and the contexts in which women live (Enloe 1989/ 2014). Only by considering the milieus in which women live and work can insights be gained regarding their security situation that would be overlooked by focusing on statehood. Only then can it be analyzed how international politics uses women and marginalizes them in many regions.
Most of the theories of international relations that are commonly used and traded in political science around the world have one thing in common: they are not holistic, but focus on collective and structural influences on the economy, politics, and ecology. As important as this is, according to the approach of this book, the external and the internal must nevertheless be thought of together. Without the individual self-work and personal maturation of women and men in the lifeworldly social context in all different cultures and geopolitical spaces, structures will also always turn against man - no matter under which intention they were formed or influenced. A fundamental reorganization of international relations in the sense developed here will in perspective only take place if people worldwide individually and in social cohesion carry out personality developments which are the psychological basis for radical changes.
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Only when self-confident and empathetic people in all regions of the world organize themselves within and outside of political parties and offer civil society resistance against the insanity of wars, international environmental crimes, against de-democratization, financial speculation and extreme social injustice, will the social pressure arise that is necessary for a new order. Only when, in the course of these worldwide protests, structures can be opened up for people's participation, and democratically socialized personalities increasingly succeed in taking up important decision-making positions in regional and transnational institutions, will it be possible to introduce high-quality changes in international relations in the sense meant here.
Many democratic personalities with the competencies of Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela, supported by a broad base of civil society resistance, will be necessary for this. The worldwide student protests and school strikes directed against the climate policy of the ruling class gave us hope.
The mass demonstrations and protest rallies that can be observed in spring 2025 – also primarily initiated by young people – in Europe and now also beginning in the USA could be the beginning of a democratic spring directed against the de-democratization of the world by authoritarian regimes.
What is not needed, on the other hand, is the national-chauvinist thinking of political figures, as depicted in the following quote from former and re-elected U.S. President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in September 2018:
"We reject the idea of globalism
and embrace the idea of patriotism." [9]
- Words of a man who has learned nothing from the national chauvinism of the past world wars and their disastrous consequences ...
The Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 also shows how nationalism and ethnic thinking combined with extreme domestic repression lead to a threat to world peace.
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Notes
(Chapter 7)
[1] Schieder/Spindler (2010, 11).
[2] Cf. on the foundation of realist thought Morgenthau (1958, 1963) and on neorealist thought in particular Waltz (1959, 1979).
[3] Marsala (2010, 10).
[4] See Imbusch (2002) for a more detailed critique of the civilizational hexagon.
[5] Senghaas (2006).
[6] See also Nölke (2010).
[7] See also the comparative work on theories of international relations in Menzel (2001), Schieder/Spindler (2010), Tuschhoff (2015), and Schimmelpfennig (2017).
[8] See Bieler/Morton (2010) for a summary account of Neo-Gramscian perspectives on international relations.
[9] Quote taken from the report on Donald Trump's speech in the Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA) of 26.9.2018, p. 20, written by Frank Herrmann.
The children of this earth: What will their future life be like? How can we give them a future worth living?
Final Chapter 8:
Summary and Epilogue: A new world order
The holistic approach
Only rarely do political science approaches succeed in going beyond a partial specialization of their statements or a focus on a single theoretical approach. For this reason, the complexity of social processes can only be grasped in a one-sided and sometimes under-complex way. For example, neoliberal theories of economic development are linked to economic interests and are therefore deliberately formulated in a one-sided and partially specialized way in order to exclude alternative perspectives and to provide their clientele with strategies for action aimed at maximizing individual profits.
The book is therefore based on a holistic approach whose primary interest is to analyze and assess social perspectives from different angles in order to formulate requirements for future social development that is oriented towards universal values and human interests in peace, justice and the preservation or restoration of a balanced ecology. This approach is primarily based on eight systems theory assumptions:
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1. Everything is connected to each other: the single parts to each other and the parts in turn to the whole. Events that are taking place far away can therefore have a great effect in the vicinity.
2. Within this order, political activity can cause an effect that leads to a change in the partial relationships among one another and thus also leading to an influence on the social whole.
3. Structures strengthen the whole against the dynamic of the parts. However, structures are built up of individuals, which in turn can change structure-forming rules.
4. There are different system levels. Organizational patterns at the various system levels are less hierarchical; systems usually have multivariate organizational patterns. Information and influences run in all directions, downward, upward and on the horizontal plane.
5. In contrast to a simple machine, wholes in the sense of living systems do not function in a linear-causal sense, but changes result from cyclic information patterns with multiple feedback loops.
6. Living systems are characterized by the principles of self-organization and self-renewal (autopoiesis). This means that a functioning system is able to define its order relatively independently, to change it and to reorganize it in a learning process.
7. A realignment of the whole emerges when the various partial activities of many individuals work together intensively enough and in a way that is systemically appropriate for the structural change.
8. When partial areas interact in a systemically coherent manner, they develop a system- changing dynamic. Then – also in a disruptive sense – qualitative changes can occur at high speed, a global realignment.
Often areas, that are separate from each other, such as body, mind, psyche and society, as environment, economy and health or as identity, religion and war, are understood as interrelated areas. Here too, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Partial areas interact systemically and can generate a dynamic and global effect. For example, the spread of the corona virus shows us how the social handling of the virus can lead to fears of contagion in people, changes in interpersonal behavior, economic crisis such as the collapse of corporate sales and mass layoffs as well as political crises. In the same way, the Corona crisis has shown that a neoliberal economic regime, in the course of which privatization and commercialization of health care is carried out, is not capable of successfully fighting a pandemic. The terrible price is vast numbers of seriously ill and dead people.
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Not understanding how everything is connected can therefore be utterly dangerous. Underestimating the effects of everyday behavior, that is, at the micro level, can also be extremely dangerous. Underestimating how the daily media coverage of murders and human torture and the virtual participation in these events can affect young people is to overlook the psychological vulnerability of people. Mass shootings in schools and deadly attacks, but also the willingness to kill in war, are an expression of this ignorance.
On the other hand, educational processes that occur on a democratic basis and are oriented toward sustainability cannot be valued highly enough for their significance for the whole. Peaceful meditation, interpersonal love and helping each other can also yield processes with global charisma, if empathy and willingness to help become the basis of a collective solidarity.
The connection also becomes clear when we look at the combustion of brown or hard coal for heating as well as for industrial energy production and its connection to the release of additional climate gases. The climate warming caused by CO2 emissions, among other things, has a wide range of effects, from changes in ocean currents, the formation of deserts, the increased occurrence of violent storms, the melting of glaciers, the rise in sea level, to the thawing of the permafrost and the corresponding release of climate-relevant methane. The climate and ecological changes and upheavals lead to mass exodus and migrations of people, which in turn are not willingly accepted by the locals and lead to violent conflicts and a shift in the balance of political power.
Wars arise when the political possibilities of the actors involved to resolve a conflict have failed. Only the historical contextualization of military conflicts can show which interests, measures and refusals to cooperate led to the outbreak of war. As a rule, economic interests, such as the arms industry's pursuit of profit or the exploitation of fossil fuels or rare earths, are linked to power-political or geopolitical options. These different interests as well as the historical genesis of a war must be considered in context if considerations for ending a military conflict are to be realistic and successful.
This book is devoted to these interrelationships and to the possibilities of having an ethically justifiable political influence on the whole.
A vision cannot be accused of being visionary.
The book begins with a critical analysis of the current state of society in a global context. The central social areas are analyzed and evaluated in terms of their connections: economy, politics, ecology, military and culture.
The focus will be on global structures of greed, which found their historical expression in colonialism, but also in post-colonial times their extension and systemic modification.
Subsequently, a focus is also placed the reconstruction and classification of the international resistance movements that resist the dominant economy, social injustice, the climate destruction and against the militarization of the world.
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In a second step, negative scenarios are developed for these areas. The question here is what the future of global society will look like if we fail restrain the threat of a global military catastrophe, to prevent the climate catastrophe, to counteract the tendencies of de-democratization, to eliminate social inequality and to prevent the digital transformation of human values in the context of a culture that is hostile to humanity.
The sketching of such negative scenarios, which are constructed in the sense of heuristics from a combination of facts, theoretical assessments, assumptions and hypotheses, is, in addition to the critical analysis of the actual situation, the basis for the demand for a radical reorganization of world society so that such a development can be prevented.
In a third step, the positive vision of a (still) possible global development is then described, which can occur if the right measures are taken and the decisions necessary for this can be enforced and implemented through civil society resistance, democratization and international networking. This vision is based on ecological necessities, the criteria of democracy, peaceful coexistence, the protection of human rights, a humane economy, social justice, an enlightened culture, i.e. on the principle of a multidimensional sustainability. However, concerning the various dimensions of sustainability in regard to the current and future climate threat situation, the primacy must be the ecological dimension, against which every measure and strategy must be measured.
On the basis of the critical analysis, the negative scenarios and the positive vision of planetary development developed on various levels, the first concrete steps are then developed that can be applied to the current state of global politics, the neoliberal economy, global ecology and diversified cultural lifestyles.
As already said in the introduction: Such a vision cannot be developed on the basis of an established and narrowing view on the shortcomings and limitations of the present. The constant accusation of insufficient realism misses the intention of the visionary project. Therefore, a vision cannot be accused of being visionary. Only the first steps towards a long-term approach to a vision must be based on what is currently available. Here it is then also legitimate to ask to what extent the first steps are realistically chosen.
The positive vision of a new order, on the other hand, is an expression of what is ideally desired and wanted and can only be redeemed in several generations - if mankind is actually still given time until then.
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Time dimension of a realignment
The positive vision of a reordering presented in this book has been developed against the background of the analysis of the actual situation and negative scenarios, but also of desirable developments, in order to enable the survival of the human species. For this it is urgently necessary to recognize the own responsibility of the present generations, so that the time of reversal and reorganization is not missed - thus once again Hans Jonas (1979/2015, 8f.):
"What comes to technology, however, ethics has to deal with actions (...) that have an unprecedented causal reach into the future, accompanied by a foreknowledge that also, as always incomplete, goes far beyond anything experienced before. To this is to be added the sheer magnitude of the long-distance effects and often their irreversibility. All of this places responsibility at the center of ethics, with horizons of time and space that correspond to those of action."
Those who argue in this context that man is fundamentally evil, that man behaves like a wolf towards others, and that therefore a positive vision of human development is naive and unrealistic, should be reminded that there are enough worldwide examples in the recent history of mankind of positive humanitarianism, of civil courage, of commitment against oppression, of helpfulness and empathy – from Bertha v. Suttner, Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzei to Greta Thunberg.
The many forms of support and help that people give each other in families, circles of friends, political actions or work relationships also speak a positive language with regard to development possibilities of human beings. It must also be emphasized that we have only an ontologically and phylogenetically very short development phase of mankind behind us. We have possibly only walked the first few centimeters of a path that is thousands of kilometer long. Visions of human development in the future must therefore not only cover a few decades but also a range of many generations – so said Wilhelm Reich in his speech to the 'Little Man':
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„You always think in too short terms, Little Man, just from breakfast to lunch. You must learn to think back in terms of centuries and forward in terms of thousands of years. You have to learn to think in the terms of living life, in terms of your development from the first plasmatic flake to the animal man, which walks erect but cannot yet think straight. You have no memory even for things that happened ten or twenty years ago, and so you keep repeating the same stupidities you said 2000 years ago. More than that, you cling to your stupidities, such as your ‘race’ ‘class’ ‘nation’ religious compulsion and suppression of love as a louse clings to a fur. You do not dare see how deeply you stick in the morass of your misery. Every once in a while, you stick your head out of the morass to yell, Heil! the croaking of a frog in a marsh is closer to life.“ [1]
Sense of life and development of personality
People must find out why they want to live on this earth, what values and what meaning of life they want to pursue. They must clarify for themselves what social order they are striving for and, in this sense, work for a new order if the previous world order does not correspond to their ideas of a 'good responsible life‘.
Accordingly, they have to develop, mature, grow and create breakthroughs for themselves and for each other on the personality level and in their social relationships. People – regardless of culture and region – can find ways for themselves to develop in the context of like-minded people through changed forms of politics, new life contexts, forms of solidarity-based economic activity, through educational processes, therapeutic interventions or meditation practices.
At the personality level the prerequisite for this is, among other things, the development of mindfulness, i.e. the ability to perceive and reflect attentively with regard to one's own thoughts, feelings and actions. This often requires pausing, lingering and slowing down in one's own life. People who become aware of themselves in this sense – it has been argued – are not so easily manipulated, do not lose themselves in virtual worlds or other addictions, are less fearful, do not identify with their alienation, develop individuality and civil courage. The combination of mindfulness, personality maturity and democratic capacity through educational processes of various kinds is seen as a good basis for having a positive influence on economic, ecological, social and political structures.
It should be noted that this ability to make decisions about a good life in responsibility is only available in societies that function relatively well systemically and are not involved in wars and oppression by extreme illegitimate rule. For regions such as the Gaza Strip or Sudan, different conditions currently apply. Here, it is simply a matter of survival or finding ways to escape.
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Determinants of realignment
In particular, the threat of ecological devastation, increasing social injustice, the military annihilation scenario, increasing de-democratization, de-humanization in the course of digital transformation and the increasing occurrence of pandemics pose threats to the survival conditions of humanity for which decisive sustainable countermeasures on a global scale must be effectively implemented without further delay. Sustainable development refers here multidimensionally to ecological, economic, political and cultural aspects of global development with ecological aspects as priority and means not only the preservation of the basis of life for future generations, but also the healing of what has been destroyed. Due to its global nature, such a development cannot be initiated by nation states alone, but must urgently be coordinated transnationally with the involvement of a reformed UN.
In the course of constructing a positive vision of social change, the socio-economic prerequisites for a peaceful and ecological coexistence in the sense of a post-growth society and alternative economies with a clear orientation towards the common good are also described. The economy must primarily serve people and not primarily the profitability interests of its shareholders. Various resistance movements against the neoliberalized economy and for a common good-oriented economy are outlined and analyzed. Steps out of the grip of a greedy economy, including processes of expropriation or re-appropriation, are described and provided with examples of a human and ecologically oriented economy.
The present positive vision of societal development opportunities has also at the level of international politics presented proposals, which will be briefly summarized again here.
The proposals can be outlined at various levels and are extremely topical due to global political developments, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the wars in Yemen and Syria dramatically demonstrate:
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1. The consistent democratization of the United Nations through a democratically elected world parliament, the restructuring of the UN Security Council and an elected and strictly controlled world government;
2. Linked to this is a gradual development of a denationalization of political rule in favor of a regionalization to a sensible degree according to the principle of subsidiarity;
3. A revaluation and restructuring of international jurisdiction from which no UN state can escape;
4. An international disarmament and dismantling of states, armies and illegitimate organizations in favor of a democratically controlled monopoly of the use of force by the United Nations;
5. The use of disarmament profits, i.e. the peace dividend, for the urgent and globally relevant sustainable development tasks - first and foremost for climate protection, peacekeeping, health systems and the eradication of world hunger.
We are of course far from a demilitarization, a denationalization and an implementation of universalism as well as an establishment of cosmopolitan structures of order. The Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022 and the inability of the United Nations to act preemptively here and also to respond effectively in military escalation shows this in a dangerous way.
Nevertheless measures to achieve this state of international reorganization are an important key to global pacification and to the release of resources, especially for the poorer part of the world. If, through the drastic reduction of armament expenditures in the course of disarming the nation-states, the trillion-dollar resources necessary for the development of the poorer regions of the world could be raised, economic reasons for mass migration and the associated conflicts and problems would also be at least considerably reduced.
Also by the timely countermeasures against the ecological climate collapse, which require significant investments, the ecological reasons for future mass migration will be reduced, at least in the medium term, due to the time delay caused by climate slowness.
Political scientist Farsan Ghassim determined in an empirical study that the idea of a global democracy and a democratic global world government does have appeal among the populations of a number of influential countries - according to Ghassim (2021):
"In all the countries surveyed, clear majorities support the idea of a global democracy. The international average is 65 percent. The range extends from 57 percent in England and 61 percent in the USA to 68 percent in Brazil and 74 percent in Japan. Germany, at 64 percent, is in the middle of these five countries."
Don't let anyone tell you that no one wants global democracy. Ghassim's survey results make it clear: It's not hopeless to work for a change in global governance structures.This resonates with many people. More people are interested in global democracy than nationally oriented politicians would have us believe.
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The biosphere responds to human intervention
The overexploitation of nature does not go unanswered. Planet Earth is beginning to defend itself against humans. However, a catastrophe on a global scale can still be prevented.
The United Nations IPCC World Climate Report makes it clear that between the – likewise problematic – 1.5°C degree target and the 2.0°C degree target by the end of the 21st century, there is a significant difference for the global climate situation, especially for already disadvantaged regions and populations:
„Populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences with global warming of 1.5°C and beyond include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods (high confidence). Regions at disproportionately higher risk include Arctic ecosystems, dryland regions, small island developing states, and Least Developed Countries (high confidence). Poverty and disadvantage are expected to increase in some populations as global warming increases; limiting global warming to 1.5°C, compared with 2°C, could reduce the number of people both exposed to climate-related risks and susceptible to poverty by up to several hundred million by 2050 (medium confidence)“ [2]
Achieving the 1.5°C target is probably - now from the perspective of 2024 - no longer possible. However, the measures required to achieve this would have to be initiated immediately and would have to go well beyond the 45% global CO2 reduction by 2030 compared to 2010 and the complete CO2 neutrality by 2050 required by IPCC . [3] In view of the currently accelerating global warming, the existence of uncontrollable tipping points, the effect of climate feedback effects, but also the millions of deaths from starvation as well as the threats to world peace due to climate development, there will by 2050 be no more time for climate neutrality measures.
Nor can it be assumed that the measures envisaged by the Paris Climate Convention will be sufficient to come close to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2.0°C by the end of the century. It is already foreseeable that even compliance with the Paris Climate Convention will lead to global warming of more than 3°C with dangerous consequences for planetary life. But not even meeting the climate targets of the Paris Convention is guaranteed. [4]
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Recent studies by IPPC (2021 b, 12, 2023) make it clear that the climatic situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years, so that only less than 300 giga tons of CO2 may be consumed worldwide from 2021 onwards if the 1.5 degree target is still to be achieved with a probability of 83%. And this CO2 residual budget must also be allocated in such a way that it is possible to speak of climate justice.
The IPPC (2023, 12) states in its 2023 Synthesis Report, for which over 9000 studies were analyzed, that the 1.5 degree limit will be reached very soon, but that there is nevertheless hope for pushing back global warming if drastic measures are taken in the short term:
Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, with the best estimate of reaching 1.5°C in the near term in considered scenarios and modelled pathways. Every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards (high confidence). Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years (high confidence).
However, climate justice in the broader sense also means that the richer regions of the world must largely finance the ecological protection and prevention measures for the poorer parts of the world, including the necessary conversion to climate-friendly renewable energy production. In this way, centuries of colonial and post-colonial exploitation of entire regions of the world can be compensated step by step, at least partially, in financial terms.
In this book, therefore, the necessary packages of measures are outlined in stages over a period of 15 years. By then, all important decisions must have been made and the necessary measures introduced in order to be able to change the global development process in time.
In addition to achieving emission reduction targets earlier, the main priorities here are
- Switching to renewable energy supplies in the electricity and heating sectors;
- Redirecting public financial resources away from the weapons industry and towards financing climate prevention and protection measures;
- Promotion of efficiency and energy-saving measures instead of technical solutions in the sense of 'carbon engineering';
- Development of fiscal incentives for ecological redirection and a more effective CO2 emissions certificate market.
- Special financial support for the regions of the world that are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change.
The knowledge for socio-ecological transformation is available; however, the political will of those responsible must continue to develop so that these measures are actually implemented as quickly as possible.
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The relationship between nation-state disarmament and the establishment of a UN monopoly for the use of force
Furthermore, in view of the growing threat, it is necessary to take the first sensibly coordinated steps with regard to global disarmament without further delay:
The technology of nuclear weapons is currently being modernized and further developed by all nuclear powers at great expense. There are increasing attempts to use artificial intelligence and cybercrime in warfare. Private mercenary armies, nuclear armed hypersonic missiles, the use of autonomously deciding killer robots as well as the militarization of space are threatening. The armament madness no longer knows any ethically determined limits.
However, there is also a risk of unintentional interference by programs that take on a life of their own. In particular, there is a risk of the uncontrolled further development of artificial intelligence into a 'super intelligence' that is superior to humans in terms of its technological intelligence. There is a danger that such a 'superintelligence' will take control of the internet and destructively interfere with the critical civil infrastructure. This can lead to considerable social disruption and even civil war-like situations if medical care in hospitals collapses, traffic lights at intersections no longer work, the power supply breaks down or pensions can no longer be paid. An 'accidental nuclear war' is also entirely conceivable through the intrusion of artificial intelligence or the failure of AI in weapons systems and is unfortunately not unrealistic. Renowned international AI researchers warn against this. (Bläsius 2024)
In the current situation, we are still clearly in a world of growing multipolar threat. Individual nation-states, power blocs and alliances backed by the international arms industry, as well as terrorist militias and clandestine organizations, threaten world peace in a way not seen since the so-called end of the 'Cold War'. Democracies are also currently becoming defensive or are in retreat. Autocracies, armed to their teeth, are attempting to assert hegemonic interests in their regions of the world using hybrid, partly hidden, partly open warfare.
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The Russian war in Ukraine is only the negative culmination of this trend toward internal and external repression. The Russian invasion of Ukraine made the threat tangible for Europe as well. The ongoing war in the Middle East in 2024, which culminated in Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and the disproportionate retaliation in the Gaza Strip with 10,000 deaths, especially among Palestinian civilians, shows how unresolved conflicts and a lack of effective transnational structures repeatedly lead to dramatic historical events.
This means that the nation-state disarmament of the world is imperative, but it would be an expression of dangerous naivity if especially those states and alliances with democratic self-claims and with at least to some extent developed democratic structures were the first to begin to radically disarm and to demilitarize unilaterally. The result would be a defenselessness that would be exploited by authoritarian and politically immature regimes as well as terrorist and politically extremist organizations. Nazi rule and aggressive military technology would not have been stopped by good persuasion, carol singing and cheerful music. This is not to devalue forms of social defense in principle, but in peaceful resistance to aggressive totalitarian regimes, people who refuse and resist are imprisoned, tortured or killed immediately.
However, forms of social defense, such as refusal to cooperate, demonstrations and mass strikes, can play an important role, for example, when a regime is on the decline and no longer has the support of its own military.
In the first steps, disarmament in the nuclear and conventional fields can only be achieved through international disarmament negotiations, supported by a transnational alliance of democratic states and regions, in the context of the United Nations.
This international disarmament can only take place if it is supported by a global civil society movement that provides the necessary impetus and a powerful support for this process. The success of the peace movement in the 1980s and 1990s proved this. The ‚Mayors for Peace‘ movement, the civil society activities of ICAN or the activities of the 'Women's International League for Peace' (WILPF) point in the right direction.
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At the same time, or rather in the individual steps leading up to these precisely coordinated disarmament measures, UN blue helmet troops with an expanded mandate and the a UN world police force must be established as a counterweight and for corrective measures. Without the synchronization of international disarmament of the nation states and the establishment of a functional, supraregional, regional and locally structured and well-equipped executive, an irresponsible power vacuum would arise.
Although a global expansion of an alliance system is unlikely, it should be considered. Even if this seems absurd at first glance, it should at least be considered whether an expanded and modified NATO could take over the global policing function within the framework of the United Nations.
Even if this seems absurd at first glance, we should at least consider whether an expanded and transformed NATO could take over the global policing function. The prerequisite for this would be the integration of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation into NATO and, in the next steps, the integration of the People's Republic of China and other countries. In this sense, the expanded and technically upgraded NATO would provide the necessary global police security structure for the UN - provided that the UN were democratically reformed. The integration of Ukraine and the Russian Federation into NATO would be the offer to end the war in Ukraine. A win-win situation. Certainly, the risks and also the resistance would have to be considered when discussing such an unconventional solution to many problems (see Chapter 5.6 and the associated excursus for more details).
In any case, the world would be certain of a huge peace dividend.
As I said: rather unbelievable in view of the current upheavals.
But even in another scenario, the world will not be able to avoid global disarmament if it wants to find the necessary resources to tackle global problems and crises.
Accordingly democratic disarmament decisions lead to disarmament being carried out by all states as a parallel and controlled transparent process. States that refuse to disarm should be subject to economic and political sanctions in such a way that they primarily affect the ruling and refusing elites. Illegal organizations are to be prosecuted, sanctioned and dissolved at the national and supraregional levels by the world police.
Russia's war in Ukraine shows once again very clearly that a world police operation or the deployment of UN-led troops only makes sense if a state accused of military aggression cannot threaten to use nuclear weapons.
Parallel to this, democratic structures beyond the nation-states must be established and expanded step by step at the regional and UN levels. In this context, courageous civil society engagement as well as the democratic organization of the necessary social change on the global level have an important and indispensable function. In order to implement a democratic and socio-ecological reorganization, all previously successful forms of civilian resistance are to be used, from mass protests and mass strikes to boycotts of goods. Also appropriate voter behavior and involvement in socio-ecologically oriented and peace-politically committed institutions, parties and trade unions of course play an important role.
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Hopeful development has begun
Even if climate policy is not yet developing effectively enough, even if world hunger has still not been eliminated, even if the international security system has suffered a major defeat with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, existing positive world political developments should nevertheless not be overlooked. In many places around the world, there are currently protest and resistance movements working for a more peaceful and sustainably developed world in terms of a new order.
On the question of social transformation, Friedrich Engels developed considerations as early as 1895 which, in my view, are still valid today - according to Engels:
"The time of surprise, of revolutions carried out by small conscious minorities at the head of unconscious masses is over. When it is a question of a complete transformation of the social order, the masses themselves must be involved, must themselves already have understood what it is all about, what they stand up for with life and limb. History of the last fifty years has taught us that. But for the masses to understand what has to be done, long, persistent work is needed, and it is precisely this work that we are doing now, and doing it successfully, which is driving the opponents to despair." (Engels 1895)
A social transformation and reorganization will therefore not take place via a single global disruptive outburst but will consist of very many movements and political measures that are persistently taken with a long-term perspective.
At present, mass protests by adults can be observed worldwide, but it is in particular the youth who are taking a stand against violence and climate destruction. For example, at the "March for Our Lives" in March 2018 U.S. students very clearly and loudly demanded a social transformation in the area of the arms industry and the laws that control it, against the interests of the arms lobby and the associated politics. On the occasion of the series of mass murders in U.S. schools, about 800,000 students and adults showed solidarity in an impressive demonstration organized by survivors of the massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with the aim of building a longer-term political movement against the activities of the U.S. gun lobby, especially the NRA, the corresponding gun industry and the politicians they pay. [5]
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Likewise, the worldwide resistance of indigenous peoples and their support groups against the destruction by the fossil industry of the livelihood environment and natural basis, represents another, not to be underestimated, counter-movement against the overexploitation of nature and against the climate destruction. The Ogoni people in Nigeria, the Sioux in North Dakota, indigenous inhabitants of the rainforest in Brazil or the Cree Nation in northern Alberta are fighting against the destruction of their livelihoods with public relations, blockades, legal disputes and protest camps. They become politicized in the course of these disputes and recognize the connection between capitalism, state repression and the destruction of natural habitats. Young people work together with older generations in resistance to the fossil fuel industry.
The fact, that in March 2019, for example, student protests in connection with school strikes against the destruction of the climate and for effective and timely climate protection took place in about 2,000 cities in 120 countries worldwide [6], is also a sign that committed civil society resistance is emerging in the student generation. In Berlin alone, 25,000 students took part in the strike. [7] Six months later, there were already 240,000 people in Berlin, for example, and worldwide several million young people supported the climate strike. In particular, the fact that pressure of institutional refusal is also being used here in the context of a school strike makes one attentative. The 'Fridays for Future' (F4F) movement initiated by the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg shows that young people are increasingly willing to resort to more radical civil society means. They have understood that everything is at stake ("We are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future.", "There is no planet B"). It will be extremely interesting to see what effect these mass protests of the F4F movement will have. This depends on the extent to which they can stabilize, network and expand to other fields of action, as well as involve the older generations. The question also arises whether the connection between internationally working structural features of the capitalist economy, the political system and the destruction of the biosphere will be recognized. Also the own consumption behavior, for instance boycotting products manufactured or operated in a climate-damaging manner, will play an important role.
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This is - after the break with the established culture of the 68 generation – possibly the beginning of another cultural revolution, which however, due to the massive threat situation, could now encompass much broader parts of the world population with a global reach.
About 27,000 scientists [8] from Switzerland, Austria and Germany ('Scientists for Future') have, as this is written, signed a declaration supporting the climate protests of the young people. Similar activities are emerging in other countries. International support from currently about 15,000 scientists of the 'Alliance of World Scientists' from 182 countries is for instance being created. These scientists state, "The students are right. The scientific results clearly support their climate policy commitment." Parallel networks of parents ('Parents For Future') and teachers ('Teachers For Future') also support the student protests and call on the school authorities to refrain from school disciplinary measures in case of strike participation. 'Students For Future' are also emerging at universities and they organize strike actions at universities and „Public Climate Schools“.
The commitment of young people in particular gives us hope that effective and long-term counter-movements will emerge and that a new generation will, in the sense of a radical cultural upheaval, break free from the stupefying media embrace of the military-industrial complex, from the priority of one-sided career interests, and from the depoliticizing and climate-damaging consumer orientation.
In this context, Western society could give back something of what it robbed from the subjugated peoples over centuries in the course of the colonization processes – according to the former German development minister Jürgen Todenhöfer:
"The history of the West is a history of brutal violence and great hypocrisy. Nowhere in the world does the West fight for the values of its civilization, but rather exclusively for its short-sighted interests. For power, markets and money. Often with terrorist methods. The sufferings of other peoples and cultures are of no interest. (...) The West needs a non-violent humanist revolution. Instead of misusing the values of its civilization to rape other peoples and cultures, it should fulfill its centuries-old promises to humanity." [9]
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This also means that the rich regions of the world, such as the EU or North America, must lead the way in reducing climate-relevant emissions. Poorer regions in the world must still be given some time to catch up with developments that were denied to them by colonization and an unjust world economic order. However, here too, it is important to achieve sustainability in industry, transport, agriculture, etc. as early as possible.
Of course, the ban on nuclear weapons initiated by the United Nations and the international NGO ICAN and which came into force on 22.1.2021, is also cause for hope. Although this ban applies legally only to the ratifying nations, it sets new international ethical standards to which the international peace movement can refer. Now, for the first time, a ban treaty is anchored in international law alongside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the nuclear states have to confront.
The UN agreements on the destruction of nuclear weapons, to which 73 states had already signed up by the beginning of 2025, represent a first step. A further 21 states are in the process of ratification (ICAN 2025). These figures need to be expanded and, in parallel, the reduction of national arsenals of nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons must begin by means of a binding UN resolution.
Also the worldwide movement of 'Mayors for Peace' with more than 8,000 participating cities from 165 countries, which support the immediate shutdown of operational nuclear weapons and the dismantling and destruction of all nuclear weapons, gives reason for hope with regard to the destruction of nuclear weapons.
Another interesting initiative is the suggestion for the establishment of a Finnish Ministry for Peace and Sustainable Development presented by the Finnish 'Women for Peace' in March 2021 on the occasion of the International Women's Day. This initiative, supported by some Finnish NGOs, criticizes the waste and misinvestment of societal resources for armament and war. The initiating women call for the establishment of a Finnish ministry that will ensure that a considerable part of the money spent so far on the military is spent on peace, poverty reduction and hunger eradication, and ecological development aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They also call on other countries to establish such ministries to work for a more peaceful, just and environmentally sustainable world. The further development of this initiative must be followed closely. [10]
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The movements critical of racism, currently e.g. 'Black Lives Matter', also represent a political activity to be taken into account for the social reorganization. [11]
'Black Lives Matter' is a protest movement originating from the US Afro-American community, which opposes the systemic racism in the society. It was founded as early as 2013 due to serious cases of racism and also because of latent everyday criminalization, but it became a mass protest movement against racist police assaults, especially due to the videotaped and documented murder of George Floyd, which also spread internationally.
"Black Lives Matter' (BLM) has no centralized structure, but is a 'grassroots movement' that is networked in a decentralized manner. BLM arranges demonstrations, marches, and rallies. BLM slogans such as "Hands up! Don't shoot!", "No justice, no peace!" or "Is my son next?" spread through the media worldwide in the course of these protests.
Starting with the police-involved chokehold death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, mass demonstrations were organized in the U.S., where millions of people took to the streets. There were also protests in Europe. For example, in Vienna in the early summer of 2020, about 50,000 participants, and in Berlin in June 2020 - despite Corona - 15,000 mainly young people demonstrated against social racism.
Former and re-elected U.S. President Trump, on the other hand, described the demonstrators as 'terrorist antifa' and, based on riots by only a few who violently exploited the demonstrations, threatened the entire movement with operations of the National Guard: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts." [12]
In the wake of such statements, heavily armed right-wing-oriented white civilians gathered at monuments of former U.S. colonial masters, racist politicians and generals in order to, with the use of firearms, including rapid-fire rifles in some cases, prevent these monuments from being brought down by activists.
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The movement has already so far, at least in large parts of the USA, achieved a new discussion about the racism issue and suspensions of violent police officers and criminal court proceedings have been initiated. It has also been achieved that colonialism, slavery and neo-colonialism are dealt with again. The movement should however, deal self-critically with tendencies of splinter groups in order not to become racist themselves by discriminating white Americans across-the-board. The eminently justified protest movement must also try to prevent plunder and destruction from being carried out in the shadow of the protests. This makes it easier for the opponents to classify Black Lives Matter as a terrorist movement. Here the reckless shift in standards for defining 'terrorism' is striking. In Turkey, demonstrators against the Erdogan regime are also labeled as terrorists by the regime. In Hong Kong, protests against China will also be regarded as terrorism in the future due to the enforced security law. The former and re-elected US president Trump called the American Antifa terrorists. In the same way, Putin called the Ukrainian government members fascists and terrorists.
Autocrats and authoritarian regimes shift the concept of terrorism, thus creating conditions for democratic opposition to be persecuted and threatened with repression.
Right-wing extremist and right-wing populist political parties are gaining electoral success worldwide and are once again taking a more offensive role. At the same time, resistance is forming - hopefully in good time - among the populations of the affected countries. At the beginning of 2024, for example, several million German citizens protested against the extreme right. The occasion was the conspiratorial meeting of national-chauvinist politicians - including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) - in a villa in Potsdam. There, they discussed the deportation of millions of citizens with a migration background and their supporters. This led to an outcry among the German public and a demonstration movement in all German regions that lasted for months. This also gives hope. [13]
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In the spring of 2025, there are numerous mass protests and large demonstrations in Europe against right-wing extremism and against authoritarian governments. People are beginning to defend themselves against state arbitrariness, corruption and electoral fraud in predominantly grassroots democratic movements. Is this the beginning of a lasting European wave of protest, in which people increasingly resist the rightward development, authoritarian states and fight for just and livable conditions?
In states such as Romania, Greece, Hungary, Spane or Italy, the degree of repression is still relatively low. Authoritarian regimes, such as those in Turkey, Georgia or Serbia, are trying to discredit these protests, as is happening in Russia, in terms of treason and terrorism, and to use force against them.
The deceased French resistance fighter and diplomat Stéphane Hessel accordingly called on the youth of the world in particular to revolt against such shifts in meaning and injustices and to get involved in making the world more equitable:
„It is true the reasons to be indignant can seem today less clearly related or the world too complex. Who's doing the ordering, who decides? It is not always easy to differentiate between all the currents that govern us. We are not any more dealing with a small elite whose joint activities can be clearly seen. It is a vast world, of which we have a feeling of interdependence. We live in an interconnectivity as never before. But in this world there still are intolerable things. To see them, it is well and necessary to look, to search. I say to the young people, Search little, and that is what you are going to find. The worst of attitudes is indifference, to say "I can do nothing there, I'l just manage to get by." By including yourself in that, you lose one of the essential elements that makes the human being: the faculty of indignation and the commitment that is a consequence of it.“ [14]
In addition to working for peace and an ecologically intact world, this commitment should include the preservation of the still existing democratic leeway, which was historically fought for by previous generations at great sacrifice. This should be linked to the commitment to worldwide democratic structures under the umbrella of the United Nations and to the socio-ecological redirection of societies in the course of a systemic transformation of world capitalism. The following overview, which must certainly be supplemented by many other initiatives, gives at least a rudimentary insight into the diversity of NGOs, initiatives and movements, which could be the initiators and supporters of such a global reorganization:
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Who are the social forces of a socio-ecological reorganization? All socio-ecologically, democratically and peace-politically engaged citizens, parliamentarians, parties, trade unions, parliaments and institutions in local, national, regional and global contexts as well as worldwide resistance NGOs and initiatives such as:
Transparency International, ATTAC, Network for Fair Trade, Fair Trade Forum, foodwatch, Fridays For Future, Scientists For Future, Amnesty International, Alliance internationale pour la defense des droits et des libertes (AIDL), Extinction Rebellion (XR), Smash Cruiseshit, Seebrücke, Greenpeace, Global Witness, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Doctors Without Borders, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) – Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), World Future Council (WFC), Friedensinitiativen und -foren, Women for Peace, Women’s International League for Peace‘ (WILPF), Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag, Netzwerk Friedenskooperative, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Peace Brigades International, Democracy without Borders, UNPA Campaign, Democracy International, Civicus, Asia Democracy Network (ADN), Asia Forum of Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), Asia Democracy Research (ADRN), Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), Democracy for Hongkong (D4HK), Open Russia, Pussy Riot, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Rete Italiana per il Disarmo, Movimento Nonviolento, Sea-Watch, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), digitalcourage, International Commitee for Robot Arms Controll (ICRAC), Campaign to stop Killer Robots, WWF, Safe School Declaration, Save the Children, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflicts (GPPAC), Peace SOS, World Beyond War, Wuppertaler Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, UNESCO Associated Schools Network, International Rescue Commitee (IRC), The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Study (ACDHRS), African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), Palestinian Center for Human Rights, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem), Human Rights Watch, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Netzwerk politischer Kommunen (Kommuja), Tamera, Kommune Niederkaufungen, Greenpeace, Service Civil International (SCI), Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg, Ende Gelände, OXFAM, Ehrfurcht vor allem Leben (EVAL), Global Justice Now, World Vision, The Humanitarian League Advocacy , Pacific Climate Watch , Science for Peace, Nobel Peace Prize Watch, No More Bombs, Ziviler Friedensdienst, Nuclear Age Peace, Socio-ecological union international, Sortir du nucleaire Paris, Swedish Peace Council, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, Veterans for Peace, Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World BEYOND War, South Africa, Seattle Anti-War Coalition; Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity; Friends of the Earth Australia, Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, Scottish Campaign for Nuclear, Basel Peace Office, Cameroon for a World BEYOND War, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Cessez d’alimenter la Guerre, Disarmament and Security Centre, Global Campaign for Peace Education Japan, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Hawaii Peace and Justice, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Movimiento por un mundo sin guerras y sin violencia, LobbyControll, Campact, Mighty Earth, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Mayors for Peace ...
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A world government for planet Earth, which is small in the cosmic scale, will have to come true anyway sometime because of future requirements and problems. However, this will not be a totalitarian world regime of an enriching and power accumulating clandestine world elite, but a democratically structured world society on the basis of the structurally reformed United Nations in cooperation and subsidiarity with the various global regions. The international democratization process must also be accompanied by a democratization of production and value creation. The economic and political system must be based on the same democratic principles. In this connection in particular, the present draft differs from most ideas of global reorganization.
There is no alternative
Many will currently be of the opinion that the vision developed here is unrealistic, that this can never be implemented in the future, that a comprehensive orientation towards the common good contradicts the human character. I would like to counter this negative anthropology once again:
Firstly: Who can say now, at the more or less beginning of human history, what development potential humans as a species and the human community will have in the future?
And secondly, I would like to ask: What is the alternative? Without a democratically controlled global union and an accompanying socio-ecological and democratic transformation of politics and economy, humanity will not be able to secure the future of coming generations. Planet Earth will literally be on fire due to ecological and military catastrophes. The first fires are already burning.
Who is actually naive? The one who sees the developments and takes radical countermeasures or the one who pleads for 'business as usual'?
In this context, radicalism is something completely different from extremism. Radicalism in the social transformation process means starting at the root ("radix") of problems: It is about the worldwide and in all regions of the world step-by-step transformation of capitalism in favor of a relationship between economy and politics, which is characterized by responsibility and orientation towards the common good. Economy and politics must serve the needs of all people and let the principles of justice, democracy, peacefulness, science and ecological responsibility become their guiding paradigm. Such a system, which is to prevail worldwide, can no longer be called capitalism, but provides for a state framework for the economic process in a national, regional and global context, which releases market-economy processes from their robber mentality, regulates questions of property and wealth distribution differently, eliminates the tension between economy and ecology, controls technology development ethically and releases the creative economic power of the people for the purpose of the common good. The corresponding transformational steps toward a radical reorganization in this sense have been described in detail in the context of the present book. [15]
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Therefore, once again in conclusion the demands in current interpretation of Marx/Engels [16]:
Internationalists and global citizens from all over the world unite! You have nothing to lose but the chains of your nation-state, the destruction of your liberties, the exploitation by multinational corporations and finance-capitalist speculators, the revenge of the biosphere, digital ankle cuffs, armament spirals and wars, mental programming, misguided investments and value creation as well as the nuclear devastation of the planet.
What is to be won is a peaceful, socially just, democratic, economically sensible and ecologically responsible world!
However, the commitment to a global realignment must by no means be violent, i.e. in an extremist sense. Therefore, we should distance ourselves from the supposed consequences of Marxist thinking. Violent revolutions in history have only led to other forms of open or structural violence. Violent protests today further lead to a stigmatization and criminalization of the protests. The resistance should be peaceful and powerful, in that the mental creative forces, the creativity and intelligence, the solidarity and the civil courage of the people in the commitment, already in the beginning show what will be the task in the future: A new social order that takes into account, supports and promotes people of every skin color, every race, every age, every gender and every region in their basic needs for material provision, for work in solidarity, for a life in harmony with nature, for democratic self-determination and for freedom with responsibility.
There is no reason to give up, the struggle for a life worth living on Earth is far from over! The representatives of the fossil industry, the arms industry, the warlords, the financial speculators, the billionaires, the autocrats and dictators are confronted worldwide and in numerous places by many people united in protest against the destruction of present and future living conditions. In the cooperation and networking of social movements, initiatives, trade unions, parliaments and political parties and institutions oriented towards a new order, it is now important to show a strong will for change and to make an effective contribution to a global new order in a wise, peaceful and yet powerful radical way.
And: Change cannot be postponed much longer due to the enormous threat situation. Change must begin now and be continued at all systemically interrelated levels. A change of direction is still possible. Civil society movements, organizations and initiatives in all parts of the world can have synergistic effects and become an effective force that brings about a new quality of social life and a future worth living for future generations.
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Notes
(Chapter 8)
(bibliography see at the bottom of this page)
[1] Reich (1948/2013, 97f.).[
[2] IPCC (2018, 13).
[3] Cf. IPCC (2018, 16).
[4] Cf. Scientists for Future (2019, 80)
[5] Cf. https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2018-03/march-for-our-lives-washington-demonstration-waffengesetze-parkland, 25 Mar. 2018, 17 Mar. 2019.
[6] In: https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-516131.html, 15 Mar. 2019, 15 Mar. 2019.
[7] Cf. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/fridays-for-future-im-newsblog-veranstalter-25-000-teilnehmer-bei-demo-fuer-den-klimaschutz-in-berlin/24106530.html, 3/15/19, 3/15/19.
[8] Cf. https://www.scientists4future.org/, 3/15/19, 9/10/19.
[9] Todenhöfer 2019, 292f.
[10] Cf. Klötzer/ Launokari (2021) (Women for Peace – Finland).
[11] Cf. Yann Durand: "Black Lives Matter" - Nur ein Strohfeuer im Kampf gegen den Rassismus? https://www.dw.com/de/kommentar-black-lives-matter-nur-ein-strohfeuer-im-kampf-gegen-den-rassismus/a-53959251, 27.6.2020, 20.3.21; Jiréh Emanuel/ Mariam Aboukerim/ Naomi Lwanyaga: Black-Lives-Matter-Demos:„Wir sind Deutschland“, https://taz.de/Black-Lives-Matter-Demos/!5689380/, 13.6.2020, 20.3.21; UN verurteilen tödliche Polizeigewalt gegen Schwarze. https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2020-05/usa-polizeigewalt-schwarze-vereinte-nationen-kritik, 28.5.20, 20.3.21.
[12] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/george-floyd-proteste-minneapolis-1.4921880, 29.5.20, 20.3.21.
[13] Cf. Moegling, Klaus (2024): Stärken die Anti-AfD-Proteste die Demokratie?
In: Telepolis, https://www.telepolis.de/features/Staerken-die-Anti-AfD-Proteste-die-Demokratie-9626421.html, 13.2.2024, 16.2.2024.
[14] Hessel (2011).
[15] Cf. chapter 5.7
[16] Cf. Marx/Engels (1848/1983, 60).
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The youth protest: Civil society resistance to the destruction of their future. When will this reach the social spheres of power and domination?
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