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Harmony Forum

Peace from Harmony
Peace Culture through Harmony: Global Harmony as Necessary Guarantor for World Security and Nuclear Disarmament

Global Harmony Association (GHA)

April 22 – May 26, 2009

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4. Peace Culture through Harmony: Global Harmony as Necessary Guarantorfor World Security and Nuclear Disarmament

or: Through Freedom toward Harmony

Pilot project

by

Dr. Leo Semashko, project manager

and 119 GHA participants from 34 countries

(The participants list is in the Foreword)

 

Project publications:

In Russian: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=394,

In English: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=369,

In Spanish: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=es_c&key=93,

In French: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=fr_c&key=126,

In Japanese: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=jp_c&key=4,

In Romanian: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ro_c&key=4,

 

The project expresses o­ne of opinions of a world civil society and is intended for:

 

1. President Obama and the USA Government

2. President Medvedev and the Russia Government

3. The UN Peacebuilding Commission and Support Office

4. Federation of American Scientists (FAS)

5. Peace–making organisations

6. Mass media

Contents

 

Foreword

1.American Concept of Nuclear Disarmament as Beginning of the World Change to Global Harmony

2.President Obama’s Speech in Prague o­n April 5: From Freedom to Harmony

3.Result: Nuclear Disarmament as Inevitable Turn to Global Harmony

4.The Basic Conclusions of the FAS and NRDC Report: “From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy o­n the Path toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons

5.Importance of Nuclear Disarmament for Qualitative Change of World Peace Movement o­n the Basis of Global Harmony

 

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Albert Einstein

 

There is nothing more practical than a good theory

Ludwig Boltzmann

 

We must shift the arms race into a peace race

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

We need another definition of growth, development, prosperity, civilization and security

Francois Houtart

 

Human destiny will be what we make of it

Barack Obama

 

We can and should make human destiny harmonious

Leo Semashko

 

Foreword

 

The Global Harmony Association (GHA), since the year of its foundation in 2005, has focused o­n the idea of “a culture of harmonious peace,” also stated as “peace culture through harmony.” This concept was introduced in 1999 by Prof. Ada Aharoni, the creator of the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC)1. Dr. Leo Semashko, the founder of GHA, invited Ada Aharoni to be o­ne of the founding members of the website: New Culture of Peace from Harmony and Children Priority2. The establishment of the website “Peace from Harmony” o­n February 15, 2005, marked the de facto birth of GHA.

The GHA mission consists of implementing various global harmony projects to pave a way to harmonious civilization and harmonious peace beyond war and the arms race. GHA has created 17 global harmony projects within the last four–plus years. Each of these, perhaps with the exception of the Harmony Mathematics Project, is connected with the development of the harmonious peace culture, global social harmony, or, simply, harmony. This concept leads to understanding of the causation and the indestructible character of harmonious global peace, which is identical to global harmony and vice versa.

Harmonious peace culture is fully introduced in the following GHA projects:

1.Making Children a Priority in the World: May 2005

2.Harmonious Era Calendar: January 2006

3.Magna Carta of Harmony: December 2006

4.World Harmony/Peace Academy and General Harmonious Education: May 2007

5.Russia–Georgia: Harmonization through Education instead of Militarization: August 2008.

These projects are based o­n the foundations of Tetrasociology3, which is a science about social harmony at the global and national levels as well as individual harmony. The idea of harmonious peace culture is fundamentally connected with the harmonious peace theory within this science. The harmonious peace concept was developed and widely used in the previous GHA projects. Therefore, in the current project, we will not repeat anew this theory, but transform it to the new possibilities of nuclear disarmament, as voiced by United States President Barack Obama in April 2009.

The main idea of the project is a comparison and a contrast between national or regional armament and global disarmament, with the accent o­n the qualitatively different character of the latter. Global disarmament demands new vision and thinking, as Albert Einstein wrote, and an appreciation of the new uniting value of the global harmony as an absolute guarantor of disarmament. Global harmony is not a chimera or a false invention. It is a fact of the world and, specifically, of any national culture. In fact, harmony belongs to all world religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and all those that proclaim God as the Creator of world harmony. Global harmony has been at the core of world philosophy and science for thousands of years; it is found in the mysteries of Egyptian priests, in the manuscripts of Homer, Pythagoras, Confucius, Lao–Tszy, and hundreds of humankind’s most outstanding thinkers in all countries, continents, and civilizations.

The history and modern science of global harmony are presented in the GHA Magna Carta of Harmony 20064. However, o­nly recently in 2009, after President Obama’s speech in Prague about the great American initiative* of nuclear zero, the idea of global harmony received a powerful transformative impulse from being an important, but marginal, cultural fact to becoming a preferred value for modern humanity. This is what has brought us to the threshold of a harmonious civilization. And our project–Global Harmony as Necessary Guarantor for World Security and Nuclear Disarmament–is devoted to this idea.

* The GHA project authors distinguish the following notions and terms:

1.“The official (de jure) initiative for nuclear disarmament” is an expression found in the joint Statement of Russian President Medvedev and U.S. President Obama o­n April 1, 2009,5 in London and belongs to both countries;

2.“The initiative for nuclear disarmament de facto” is an expression found in President Obama’s instructions in early 2009 and in the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) corresponding report published o­n April 8, 2009;

3.“The concept of nuclear disarmament” is an expression found in President Obama’s speech o­n April 5, 2009, in Prague: the priority of this concept belongs to the USA. The concept of nuclear disarmament is a core and key of the corresponding initiative.

The initial content of the current project included nine items and was twice as long. This project variant is limited to the first five most critical items. However, the need of more detailed and systematic comparison of the global harmony and harmonious peace culture with the traditional peace culture is covered in other GHA texts.

 

1. American Concept of Nuclear Disarmament as Beginning of the World Change to Global Harmony

 

On April 5, 2009, in Prague, President Obama made a magnificent speech in which he presented the governmental concept of nuclear disarmament or “nuclear zero” in the 21st century. This concept is of world historical importance because it envisions, for the first time in history, a human course to global nuclear disarmament. Nuclear zero permits the view of global harmony as its universal guarantor.

The world knows of changes by some countries toward national harmony, for example, China, Singapore, Tunisia, and Malaysia. The world knows of the change in the European Union to the regional harmony. But the world yet does not know about change to a global harmony. Fortunately, global harmony is becoming evident in the move away from uni–polarity toward multi–polarity and multi–centric governance in which regions, along with the process of regionalization, is supplanting the old mode of me– or we–centered hegemony6.

The American concept of nuclear disarmament, as presented in April 2009, is humankind’s first step o­n the path that will lead the world change toward global harmony. And, just as nuclear disarmament is a global idea, it is clear that o­nly global harmony is capable of becoming the guarantor of its realization. The American initiative is a new powerful indicator of modern transference of humankind from an industrial to a harmonious civilization. GHA foresaw such transfer as early as 2005 and started its theoretical substantiation at that time, later affixing it in the GHA Magna Carta of Harmony in 2006.

To estimate the basic advantages of the U.S. concept of nuclear disarmament and to understand its problems, we plan to analyze shortly two documents:

1. President Obama’s speech in Prague o­n 5 April 20097, and

2. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report “From opposition to the minimum restraint: the new nuclear policy o­n a way of liquidation of the nuclear weapon”8, published o­n 8 April 2009, which calls for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning.

 

2. President Obama’s Speech in Prague o­n April 5: From Freedom to Harmony

 

This speech is a turning point o­n the way to a new epoch of global harmony and a harmonious civilization. As a national perspective, it first appeared in 2006 when China declared its goal of “building a society of social harmony” and depicted its rise as “a peaceful rise,” in contrast to a hegemonic rise. In 2009, President Obama’s speech marked this turn o­n a global scale for nuclear disarmament. As a guiding planetary principle, nuclear disarmament represents a change toward global harmony. To be fulfilled, nuclear disarmament needs global harmony and is impossible without it. That is why President Obama’s speech in Prague as the first sign of global harmony in the form of the nuclear disarmament concept deserves GHA’s most careful analysis and detailed commentary. We have chosen the following 20 key citations from his speech, which are followed by some comments:

1. “We are here today because enough people ignored the voices which told them that the world could not change.”

Comment: To overcome skepticism of many people who have no trust in the possibility of world change, a new world positive value is necessary. Global social harmony, or simply harmony, becomes such a world value. That is the value that will provide survival of humankind, its sustainable development, and prosperity with all its cultural diversity in the 21st century. The paramount importance of this value, and its content, are presented in detail in the GHA Magna Carta of Harmony9. President Obama ignores the voices of those who do not trust in a world change. The GHA also ignores the voices of those who do not trust in the world harmonious change or in global harmony.

2. “Moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon.”

Comment: In the 21st century, moral leadership can be more powerful than any weapon o­nly at the expense of a new, powerful priority value. Such moral and social value is harmony. Therefore moral and social leadership in the 21st century consists in scientific understanding of a priority of harmony and its advancement in life.

3. “Now this generation–our generation–cannot stand still. We, too, have a choice to make. As the world has become less divided, it has become more interconnected. And we’ve seen events move faster than our ability to control them–a global economy in crisis, a changing climate, the persistent dangers of old conflicts, new threats, and the spread of catastrophic weapons.”

Comment: Our inability to control the new threats and resolve old conflicts is a clear sign of the inadequacy of the old values, an old way of thinking and its paradigm. Globalization demands the choice and injection of a new value for the interconnected world–harmony. Globalization also demands a new harmonious way of thinking, which moves with events rather than lag behind them. Freedom is a priority value and paradigm of the old divided world, while harmony is a priority value and paradigm of the new interconnected world. Freedom lags behind events, while harmony moves ahead them. As the 20th century proved, freedom is unable to both control and prevent threats. o­n the contrary, harmony is capable of controlling and preventing them; harmony is capable of showing new thinking, its paradigms and projects.

4. “None of these challenges can be solved quickly or easily. But all of them demand that we listen to o­ne another and work together; that we focus o­n our common interests, not o­n occasional differences; and that we reaffirm our shared values, which are stronger than any force that could drive us apart. That is the work that we must carry o­n. That is the work that I have come to Europe to begin. To renew our prosperity, we need action coordinated across borders.”

Comment: More than 20 times, President Obama mentioned the words “together,” “common interests,” “shared values,” “across borders,” “common security,” “global safety,” “cooperation,” and similar terms. These words and concepts underline the qualitative difference between disarmament and armament. As far as armament is a national, individual, spontaneous and uncontrolled process, disarmament is at essentially another level: disarmament can be operated o­nly o­n a collective, global, conscious, and controlled basis of the universal social and value guarantor of global security via global harmony. Without those conditions of harmony, disarmament is impossible. As an essentially new and global process for humankind, disarmament demands a corresponding and essentially new and strong global value: harmony, which is capable of generating a truly common and global interest throughout the world commonwealth that will provide coordinated work across borders.

5. “Now, to protect our planet. … I pledge to you that in this global effort, the United States is now ready to lead. … To provide for our common security, we must strengthen our alliance: NATO. … NATO’s Article V states it clearly: An attack o­n o­ne is an attack o­n all. That is a promise for our time, and for all time. … We are demonstrating that free nations can make common cause o­n behalf of our common security. But no alliance can afford to stand still. We must work together as NATO members. … We must strengthen our cooperation with o­ne another, and with other nations and institutions around the world, to confront dangers that recognize no borders. And we must pursue constructive relations with Russia o­n issues of common concern.”

Comment: To provide global security to our planet, it is necessary to get global support, beyond NATO. In these efforts, it is impossible to differentiate between “common security” for NATO’s allies and “global safety” for all nations. Nuclear disarmament concerns all countries, without exception, because potentially any country may become a holder of nuclear weapon. Therefore, nuclear disarmament can be full o­nly when all countries uphold it. Under what conditions is that possible? 1. If the USA, as the leader of nuclear disarmament, will offer its universal guarantor, which can be o­nly global harmony. 2. If the USA and allies will not withhold security “for themselves,” but offer it also “for others.” Security can be o­nly “one for all,” without exception; otherwise, it is impossible. Interests of real “global safety” are of priority in relation to “common security” for NATO and any other alliances. “Common security” will not exist if “global safety” is lacking.

6. “Now, o­ne of those issues that I’ll focus o­n today is fundamental to the security of our nations and to the peace of the world – that's the future of nuclear weapons in the 21st century. Today, the Cold War has disappeared, but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons. Testing has continued. Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear materials abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build, or steal o­ne. Our efforts to contain these dangers are centered o­n a global non–proliferation regime, but as more people and nations break the rules, we could reach the point where the center cannot hold.”

Comment: In order for a global non–proliferation regime not to be broken by people and nations, in order for the risk of a nuclear attack to be reduced to zero, this regime must have an universal and effective guarantor that would be acceptable by all nations. o­nly global harmony can be such a guarantor. Another guarantor does not exist. o­nly global harmony can unite efforts of all nations in a direction of nuclear and, then, general disarmament, which is a necessary consequence of nuclear disarmament. Then the situation will never get out of human control.

7. “Now, understand, this matter to people everywhere. o­ne nuclear weapon exploded in o­ne city–be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague–could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be–for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival.”

Comment: This is o­ne more powerful argument of the inseparability of security o­n a “global” and “common” level. Just as the survival, society, and economy of humankind are global, so is security\ and safety global. o­n the other hand, President Obama lets us see: “if you do not wish to burn down in a nuclear fire–disarm” and, thus, includes fear into the basis of the nuclear disarmament concept. Humankind remembers the monstrous fear of nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which carried away the lives of 195,000 inhabitants. This bombing is estimated as a crime against humanity and “universal genocide”: Ernesto Kahan and Taki Yuriko10. Therefore, the nuclear weapon, irrespective of who owns it–nations or terrorists–dooms their owners to a crime against humanity and to genocide. The nuclear weapon itself is a crime. However, even though both fear and labeling ownership of nuclear weapons as criminal are strong negative stimuli for liquidation of those weapons, those factors cannot replace the powerful positive stimulus that global harmony offers for the purpose of nuclear zero and a global perspective of harmony that will follow. Global harmony, as the purpose and guarantor of the world without nuclear weapons, must be accepted as the basis of this concept.

8. “Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked–that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”

Comment: Why does such a deadly fatalism exist today? Why do “more nations and more people” aspire to possess “the ultimate tools of destruction?” Because corresponding negative freedom exists: That is, because some nations are free to have nuclear weapons, other nations are also free to have them in order to be protected from the threat of the first nations; because positive freedom lives in peace and global safety is absent; because the alternative of global harmony is absent. o­nly this alternative is capable of providing the basis for life in the context of a sustainable peace and the genuine promise of global safety.

9. “Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And as nuclear power … the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.”

Comment: To live free from fear in the 21st century, it is necessary to live in harmony. The first victims of the atomic bomb were the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nation of Japan has experienced the full horror of nuclear weapons. The USA understood and recognized the moral responsibility for nuclear disarmament now. It reflects credit upon the USA. However, if nuclear disarmament cannot be achieved alone, then HOW and WHAT can we do to unite together “to stand together and to live free from fear?” o­ne freedom is not enough here. o­nly global harmony, which is acceptable and necessary for all nations without an exception, can unite them. With the end of we–dominance, the world began to move toward multi–polarity, which is impossible without global harmony. Today, the question is HOW the USA can unite all nations under the aegis of global harmony if we want to lead the world nuclear disarmament? To begin with, USA will need to acknowledge the reality of our emerging Post–Hegemonic Era or Epoch of Harmony Globalisation11 that stresses harmony and cooperation as its central values. o­nly the recognition of global harmony will allow the USA to execute the moral responsibility and leading mission in nuclear disarmament and to be successful.

10. “So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I’m not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly–perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, “Yes, we can.”

Comment: It is necessary to underline o­nce again the historical meaning of America’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons, which can be o­nly the world of global harmony. Yes, it is a long–term goal for 20 to 40 years, but it starts now, in 2009. Many voices ignore the world change because many people do not understand and do not see the vector of this change today. If President Obama defines this vector as global harmony, the number of ignoring voices will reduce sharply.

11. “Now, let me describe to you the trajectory we need to be o­n. First, the United States will take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons. To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, and urge others to do the same. … To reduce our warheads and stockpiles, we will negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Russians this year. President Medvedev and I began this process in London (on April 1), and will seek a new agreement by the end of this year that is legally binding and sufficiently bold. And this will set the stage for further cuts, and we will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.”

Comment: The USA seeks to take specific steps toward a world without nuclear weapons, but it will o­nly convince other countries “to do the same” when the sincerity of its intentions are made manifest in concrete actions. Otherwise, no o­ne can seriously believe that its intentions are dedicated to peace and harmony and will not search in the USA’s actions for a hidden danger, as is the situation now. Other countries will fully believe the USA o­nly when America recognizes, as an ultimate goal, not national or the common (NATO) security but global safety o­n the basis of global harmony. o­nly the USA, aiming at global harmony and supported by specific steps, can convince other nuclear countries to trust the USA and “to do the same” at all stages of the long process of nuclear disarmament.

12. “To achieve a global ban o­n nuclear testing, my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. After more than five decades of talks, it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons to finally be banned. … And to cut off the building blocks needed for a bomb, the United States will seek a new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons. If we are serious about stopping the spread of these weapons, then we should put an end to the dedicated production of weapons–grade materials that create them. That’s the first step.”

Comment: These two treaties are excellent technical examples of what is required for nuclear disarmament. But it remains unfortunate that they do not guarantee that the process of discussion will not be stretched into the future for 50 or even 500 years. They are necessary but obviously insufficient to provide nuclear disarmament. They are the measures of technical restriction but do not give a social and value guarantee, without which any technical treaties will not be carried out even if they are accepted. Nothing will forbid any state to create the weapon of mass destruction of a non–nuclear class, etc. Therefore if the USAare serious about stopping the spread of these weapons, then we (USA) SHOULD” offer the comprehensive Global Harmony Treaty as the necessary guarantor and general platform for the world safety. Global harmony, as the necessary guarantor of world security, is concretized in international law by the Principle of Hegemonic State Accountability (PHSA)12. Like the concept of global harmony, the PHSA requires the renunciation of force and threats involving weapons of force. The PHSA is a call for greater accountability at every level of global relations. The PHSA is a principle for the Global Harmony Treaty, which should be accepted at the Global Summit o­n nuclear disarmament in 2010 at the USA Government initiative. o­nly the similar treaty will be the effective basis for quick approval and effective execution of all technical treaties of nuclear and general disarmament.

13. “Second, together we will strengthen the Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty as a basis for cooperation. The basic bargain is sound: Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy. To strengthen the treaty, we should embrace several principles. We need more resources and authority to strengthen international inspections. We need real and immediate consequences (sanctions/threats – GHA) for countries caught breaking the rules or trying to leave the treaty without cause.”

Comment: The Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty cannot be a basis for global peace cooperation. o­nly the comprehensive Global Harmony Treaty is the absolute/necessary guarantor for world safety and peace. o­nly the Global Harmony Treaty is capable to strengthen the Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty to provide effective execution by all countries and to transfer its centre from inspections and sanctions/threats to the international trust and positive economic and social cooperation. (Inspections and punishment for the disobedient is obviously insufficient arsenal for nuclear disarmament). The Global Harmony Treaty will define the world politics and international relations for all of the 21st century. The GHA Magna Carta of Harmony crafted by 43 co–authors in 2007 could be the heart of this treaty. The Global Harmony Treaty, prepared by the USA, would find at o­nce two powerful supporters: China, which proclaimed that it would be “building a society of social harmony” by 2006, and the European Union, which has been building Commonwealth of Nations for a long time o­n a harmony motto: “United in diversity,” which dates to Aristotle. With these allies, such a treaty would quickly garner world recognition and would open the political path for a comprehensive nuclear disarmament.

14. “And we should build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so that countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation. That must be the right of every nation that renounces nuclear weapons, especially developing countries embarking o­n peaceful programs. … We must harness the power of nuclear energy o­n behalf of our efforts to combat climate change, and to advance peace opportunity for all people.”

Comment: A new framework for civil nuclear cooperation will be, certainly, an important positive stimulus for nuclear disarmament. Likewise, nuclear energy usage for conservation of climate and maintenance of the world peace are its positive aspects. These positive consequences of nuclear disarmament could be expanded, for example, military funds could be released for creation of global harmonious/peace education facilities, building hospitals, habitation and roads in Africa and developing countries. All similar positive consequences will make for a wide harmonious system, which will find reflexion, substantiation, and development in the Global Harmony Treaty as a necessary basis for nuclear and general disarmament in the 21st century. Therefore, this treaty will be not o­nly a basis, but also the most attractive positive stimulus for disarmament in our century that will provide its success. Humanity will disarm not o­nly under the pressure of the weapons fear but also in pursuit of the common good of disarmament.

15. “The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons. All nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime. And that’s why we must stand shoulder to shoulder to pressure the North Koreans to change course. Iran has yet to build a nuclear weapon. My administration will seek engagement with Iran based o­n mutual interests and mutual respect. We believe in dialogue. But in that dialogue we will present a clear choice. We want Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations, politically and economically. We will support Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections. … Or the government can choose increased isolation, international pressure, and a potential nuclear arms race in the region that will increase insecurity for all.”

Comment: In order to make “the world stood together” and “all nations come together” and stand “shoulder to shoulder,” the new consolidating value of global harmony must be accepted. That is acceptable and necessary for all nations for their survival, security, peace, and prosperity. It should approve the corresponding Global Harmony Treaty (see above). Disarmament is a system that qualitatively differs from armament. Therefore, disarmament cannot be reached with the same instruments: pressure, isolation, threats, intimidation, economic blockade, embargo, military exercises, and so o­n. Disarmament demands a new consolidating value of global harmony and a corresponding culture of peace to support it. A new culture of peace is embodied in both the Global Harmony Treaty and in the Principle of Hegemonic State Accountability (PHSA)12. o­nly that can convince all nations without exception, including the North Korea and Iran, “to stand together and to stand shoulder to shoulder” with all nations of the world.

16. “So, finally, we must ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon. This is the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. o­ne terrorist with o­ne nuclear weapon could unleash massive destruction. Al Qaeda has said it seeks a bomb and that it would have no problem with using it. And we know that there is unsecured nuclear material across the globe. … So today I am announcing a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years. We will set new standards, expand our cooperation with Russia, pursue new partnerships to lock down these sensitive materials. … We must also build o­n our efforts to break up black markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial tools to disrupt this dangerous trade. Because this threat will be lasting, we should come together to turn efforts such as the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism into durable international institutions. And we should start by having a Global Summit o­n Nuclear Security that the United States will host within the next year.”

Comment: All four initiatives of the USA listed by President Obama, certainly, are necessary and deserve the world support. But these initiatives are limited by the military–technical sphere; therefore they are insufficient and hardly will be effective. Social, cultural, and economic spheres are excluded from these initiatives even though it is well–known that terrorism has roots in those spheres. o­n the other hand, these spheres make a soil for cooperation and union of nations. The most effective, though long–term, means of prevention of terrorism is education. First of all, in its modern form of the global harmonious/peace education, this project is prepared by the GHA 80 co–authors from 22 countries13 and has been approved by the IAEWP 18th World Congress of Educators for Peace in Malaysia in 200814. If the USA, together with the allies, prepares for the Global Summit 2010 Program of building of 10,000 schools for harmonious education of 500 to 1,500 pupils each, i.e. for 5 to 15 million children, and 10 Harmony Academies in such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Palestine, Somalia, and Sudan, the terrorism level will be lowered in many times in 10 to 15 years. (No military–technical initiative will provide a similar effect). This Program can be titled: “Harmonization through education instead of militarization and terrorism.” The similar project has been created in the GHA15. If we add to this Program the Global Harmony Treaty (see above) and the World Harmony/Peace Academy project, which GHA offered in the letter to President Obama, and the initiative of new international movement “For Peace from Global Harmony,” then the Global Summit agenda in 2010 would be more rounded and more successful. Global harmony and harmonious education are the best means to combat terrorism and to prevent it and also to unite all nations in peace initiatives. The Global Summit o­n nuclear security in 2010 will be even more effective if the International Congress of the world NGOs devoted to social, cultural, and economic aspects of nuclear disarmament is organized before. This Congress, generalizing results of the 100 previous antinuclear Congresses in the different countries, could express opinion of a world civil society o­n this topical question.

17. “There are those who doubt whether true international cooperation is possible, given inevitable differences among nations. And there are those who hear talk of a world without nuclear weapons and doubt whether it’s worth setting a goal that seems impossible to achieve.”

Comment: It is notable that President Obama repeatedly comes back to a problem of the international cooperation and possibility of nuclear disarmament. That is because it relates to the key question about the universal guarantor, which alone can be the basis for “true international cooperation” the likes of which the world has never seen before. The problem is that the nuclear weapon has arisen in an industrial civilization with its corresponding thinking. As the great physicist and philosopher Albert Einstein spoke, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Therefore, to solve the problem of the nuclear weapon and to reach nuclear disarmament, it is probably o­nly through the level of a harmonious civilization and its corresponding thinking, which are the core value of the scientific concept of global harmony. At the industrial level, differences among nations are insuperable obstacles, and nuclear disarmament and true international cooperation seem absolutely impossible. It is true. From here so many doubting people live in an industrial society. These people call themselves “realists.” But it is a realism of suicide. Therefore, if President Obama speaks of nuclear disarmament, he SHOULD also speak of global harmony, harmonious civilization, and harmonious thinking as the necessary guarantor for disarmament and as the basis for real cooperation. That is because, without global harmony, nuclear disarmament will be absolutely impossible.

18. “When nations and peoples allow themselves to be defined by their differences, the gulf between them widens. When we fail to pursue peace, then it stays forever beyond our grasp. We know the path when we choose fear over hope. To denounce or shrug off a call for cooperation is an easy but also a cowardly thing to do. That’s how wars begin. That’s where human progress ends.”

Comment: President Obama brightly expresses the dramatic nature of traditional industrial thinking and corresponding peace culture, which are powerless in the face of the differences, in peace achievement, to overcome fear by hope, to prevent wars and to end human progress. Thus President Obama didn’t mention a culture of peace in his speech. All listed problems, including nuclear disarmament, “stay forever beyond our grasp” in this culture, for which they are inaccessible and cannot be solved in it. These problems are accessible and solved for thinking and culture of new level: for a culture of harmonious peace. This culture is constructed o­n the principle: “If you want peace, create harmony” or “peace through (from, inside) harmony” of four sphere classes of the population. This culture finds in harmony the general and higher for all, without exception, people and nations value. In it, the differences transform from an obstacle and a division source into a source of association and mutual enrichment. Moreover, the differences of the nations and people are scientifically generalized in the concept of four sphere classes of the population16. These classes are harmonious by social nature. They exclude any antagonism among themselves, providing “true cooperation” at all levels. If the USA wishes to be the nuclear disarmament leaders, they SHOULD become the leaders of global harmony, harmonious peace culture, harmonious education and all other issues related to harmony. o­nly in this culture, is it possible to understand and accept that it is possible to move not o­nly from capitalism to harmony, as has the European Union, but also from communism and traditional culture of harmony, as has China and as North Korea and Cuba and other countries can do. Harmony can also move not o­nly into Christianity but also into Islam as it has in Tunis, Malaysia, and other countries, and can in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. The USA chose a way to harmony through nuclear disarmament. Russia will go to harmony from sobornost. Each country will choose their own way to harmony. o­nly o­n this cultural soil, the USA can be successful in their historical mission of the nuclear disarmament leader. o­nly o­n this soil, the USA will convince all nations and they will believe them.

19. “There is violence and injustice in our world that must be confronted. We must confront it not by splitting apart but by standing together as free nations, as free people. I know that a call to arms can stir the souls of men and women more than a call to lay them down. But that is why the voices for peace and progress must be raised together.”

Comment: As history shows, freedom, the traditional culture of peace, and peace education are incapable to confront violence and injustice in our world and also to make a call to disarm as priority. For what uniting force hopes President Obama says: “ The voices for peace and progress must be raised together?” What does “together” mean? o­n WHAT BASIS is “together?” These questions remain without answer in his conception of nuclear disarmament. The answer to them can be received o­nly at another level from positions of a new value of global harmony. o­nly from this other position, a call to disarm will be stronger “in the souls of men and women” than a call to arms. Therefore, we will repeat an inevitable conclusion: If the USA wishes to be the nuclear disarmament leader they SHOULD become the leader of global harmony, harmonious peace culture, and harmonious education. The voices for peace and progress will be raised together” o­nly through harmony, because harmony will unite all people as it is a source for peace, progress, and justice.

20. “Human destiny will be what we make of it. … Let us bridge our divisions, build upon our hopes, accept our responsibility to leave this world more prosperous and more peaceful than we found it. Together we can do it.”

Comment: President Obama’s optimism inspires us and we share it. But he can convince us if all his great changes will be added by value change: transition from priority of freedom to a priority of global harmony. Then, we together will make human destiny harmonious and we will leave this world for our children and grandchildren incomparably more prosperous and absolutely peaceful. Together, we can do it if we recognize global harmony and stand o­n it as o­n the general foundation.

 

3. Result: Nuclear Disarmament as Inevitable Turn to Global Harmony

 

The ideas in President Obama’s speech are focused o­n value transition from freedom to harmony or through freedom to harmony. This transition makes up the core of the American concept of nuclear disarmament in spite of the fact that the term “harmony” is never mentioned in it. However, the system and universal character of disarmament, its bonds with all spheres of global society, and a possibility of its achievement o­nly at a new level of thinking and value priority–all this “iron” logic of nuclear disarmament conducts to global harmony with necessity. Therefore, nuclear disarmament is an inevitable turn to change global harmony for the USA and the world.

Freedom was, is, and will remain a great and imperishable value. The history of last centuries proved that freedom is necessary and that a worthy human life is impossible without it. But freedom has exhausted its historical urgency and now appears insufficient for modernity. Freedom is not capable to stop, solve, and overcome growth of the global problems and dangers that threaten to destroy humankind. Freedom was not able to prevent violence and injustice of the last centuries. Freedom no longer inspires people. At first, people possess freedom in practically every country but, secondly, freedom more often turns to negative freedom of violence, crime, terror, and war. Freedom droved down humanity up to the freedom of self–destruction in nuclear war or in the system global crisis of economy, finance, policy, ecology, consciousness, moral, education, mass–media, state and other institutes wallowed in the incurable corruption, criminality and neglect of the population interests.

In the system global crisis freedom is threatened with two basic dangers: poverty in its various forms of hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, and violation of other elementary human rights, and over richness, which can be called “a golden cage.” Freedom is not able to rescue itself from these dangers.

Therefore, o­nly harmony can keep freedom as a necessary internal element. Freedom divides differences and often creates hostility; it does not allow people to unite. Harmony unites differences, makes peace, friendliness and brotherhood of them. Harmony is not o­nly wider, but is more powerful than freedom. It is not o­nly a value, but also a science that freedom lacks. A harmony science is Tetrasociology17. In more details the question of modern transition from freedom to harmony is considered in special section of the GHA academic project18. Global harmony becomes a priority value of a new, harmonious epoch of humanity. The American concept of nuclear disarmament is its first step and mark that defines universal importance and historical meaning of this concept.

 

4. The Basic Conclusions of the FAS and NRDC Report: “From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy o­n the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons”19

 

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report calling for fundamental changes to USA nuclear war plan. President Obama announced it o­n April 5, 2009, in Prague. This report proves the President’s idea about the necessity of nuclear disarmament that the USA present nuclear potential not o­nly is useless but also is dangerous for America. Therefore this report shares the estimation, which the American nuclear initiative deserves as an epoch–making change of humanity to the world of global harmony without the nuclear weapon.

This report concerns o­nly military–technical aspects of nuclear disarmament; therefore we will be limited to the short analysis of its basic conclusions. The report is prepared as a scientific and technical substantiation of the American initiative of nuclear zero. It is presented in the following press release shortly20:

“In Prague, President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons. Today (April 8), the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved.

“From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy o­n the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons” calls to abandon the almost five–decade–long central mission for U.S. nuclear forces, which has been and continues to be “counterforce,” the capability for U.S. forces to destroy an enemy’s military forces, its weapons, its command and control facilities and its key leaders.

“The current rationale for maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons no longer exists,” said Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Strategic Security Program at FAS and o­ne of the report authors, “and to get future reductions in the number of weapons, we have to eliminate the missions they are assigned.”

The nuclear mission flows from directives and guidance given by the president, through the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Strategic Command where it is implemented into elaborate war plans. The report calls for eliminating all but o­ne mission for nuclear forces.

“President Obama has already taken the first step by stating America’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons,” said Robert S. Norris, senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council and report co–author. “We present the radical changes needed in U.S. policies to make disarmament a reality.”

That sole mission is deterrence, narrowly defined, to mean the certain capability to retaliate if any nation was unwise enough to use nuclear weapons against the United States or certain allies.

“Under minimal deterrence, all requirements for war planners to achieve an advantage in a nuclear exchange or limit damage to ourselves will disappear, leaving o­nly in place the most basic mission of a sure retaliatory response,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the FAS Nuclear Information Project and report co–author.

The report makes these main points:

* Current nuclear doctrine is an artifact of the Cold War that needs to be fundamentally altered. The counterforce mission, and all that goes with it, should be explicitly and publicly abandoned and replaced with a much less ambitious and qualitatively different doctrine.

* A minimal deterrence mission should be adopted as a transitional step o­n a path to zero nuclear weapons.

* The President must be continuously engaged in this transformation with specific and direct instructions to the national security bureaucracies. Otherwise, presidential intentions can be co–opted and diffused.

* o­nce formulated the President should publicly announce the changed role for nuclear weapons and the new types of targets.

* Under American leadership, the process should lead to engagement with the other nuclear powers toward a global goal of abolition.

* The new strategy can be carried out with weapons in the current arsenal. No new weapons need to be built nor an extensive new complex created.”

These points are important and necessary, but they also do not leave for military–technical frameworks, as well as the speech of President Obama in Prague. Above, we formulated necessary social, cultural, and economic additions, which, in an equal measure, concern the given report. Its contents could be added by the following sections/themes:

1. The sphere classes of the population as actors and guarantors of national and global harmony: Sociological study of sphere classes and their dynamics in the USA, Russia, China, India, Japan, and European Union for 50 years. (This study, which is made partially for Russia, will be the new powerful empirical proof of the scientific theory of sphere classes of the population as actors of global and national harmony and guarantors for peace and disarmament. This study could be made in o­ne year by the group of international scientists of 15 to 20 sociologists under the FAS aegis and American Sociological Association).

2. Global change to harmony since 1990 after the USSR and world system of socialism collapse

3. The tendency of global harmonization since 1990 up to now: EU, China, and other countries

4. The harmonization tendency in the USA: 13 towns named Harmony21, 14 schools of harmony in Texas and Louisiana22, annual Harmony Festival in California23, and others.

5. Culture of harmonious peace: theory and logic of global harmony through a prism of nuclear disarmament

6. The Comprehensive Treaty about Global Harmony as the Absolute Guarantor for the World Safety and Peace

7. The economic program of building of 10,000 schools of harmonious education and 10 Harmony Academies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Northern Korea, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Congo, Ruanda, and Uganda: “Harmonization through education instead of militarization and terrorism.”

8. Creation of the World Harmony/Peace Academies of in the USA24, Russia, China, India, and EU

9. Creation of the International Peace Movement For Peace from Global Harmony

10. A series from 100 International anti–nuclear Congresses.

11. The World NGO’s Congress devoted to social, cultural, and economic aspects of nuclear disarmament before the Global Summit o­n nuclear disarmament in 2010.

The GHA has the projects and in–progress work practically in all listed sections, which could be developed within the FAS and are published or are available as additions to this report or as an independent report linked with the first report. This addition would provide social, cultural (including value), and the economic basis of the American conception of nuclear disarmament that will essentially strengthen it and will provide to it the best understanding, recognition, and prestige in the world. This addition of unfolding positive social, cultural, and economic changes o­n a way of global harmonization will allow humankind to enter the nuclear zero conception of Martin Luther King’s great and inspiring idea: “We must shift the arms race into a peace race.” Building schools and academies of harmonious education, the centers of psychological and economic harmonization, organizing harmony contests and festivals worldwide o­n the means releasing from nuclear disarmament will become epochal “peace race” activities. It will be the most effective, stimulating, and attractive alternative to the arms race.

It is possible to work out of the listed sections (projects) under the aegis of the FAS in its two program areas: Learning Technologies and Strategic Security could be created by corresponding international design groups of 20 to 30 experts, consisting half from the GHA experts and half from the FAS scientists. Considering the strategic and long–term character of the studies and design workings o­n global harmony in connection with nuclear disarmament, the best variant would be a creation within FAS of a new, fourth program area: Global Harmony Strategy from 20 to 30 international experts of the GHA and the FAS. The approximate subjects of this program area the FAS are defined above in the listed 11 themes.

 

5. Importance of Nuclear Disarmament for Qualitative Change of World Peace Movement o­n The Basis of Global Harmony

 

The importance of the American concept of nuclear zero now is difficult to completely estimate because of its scale. Therefore, we will be limited to value it for the world movement of peace supporters, which degenerates and becomes obsolete in traditional quality that found reflexion in actual crash of the World Peace Council (WPC)25 after the USSR collapse. The GHA sees a historical value of the American initiative in the following directions of impact:

1.The American concept of nuclear disarmament, the purpose and guarantor of which is global harmony, has taken a vanguard place in the international movement for peace, in the peace culture, and in peace education. Therefore, it becomes the most actual subject of study and discussion for all peace–making organizations of the world, and also in all schools and other educational institutions in the world.

2. This concept deserves discussion in a series at least of 100 international antinuclear Congresses. The GHA supposes to organize the first Congress o­n a theme: “Initiative of Nuclear Disarmament of the USA and Russia: Rotary Change to World Peace and Global Harmony,” in St. Petersburg o­n October 18–20, 2009. The GHA, together with the collective members, can organize a series from 100 similar Congresses in other countries: France, Japan, Argentina, Canada, China, India, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in the African countries and o­n other continents, certainly, under condition of their financing by an American side.

3. The nuclear disarmament concept puts forward before the World Peace Council the question about its revival o­n a qualitatively new basis of global harmony as the source of world peace and higher guarantor for nuclear and any other disarmament. In this connection, it is expedient to change the Movement title: “For Peace from Harmony” or “For World Peace from Global Harmony.” Such change in the Peace Movement will be curing and effective, adequate to new realities of the 21st century. o­nly such a change will allow the WPC to rise o­n a modern level and to become the global centre for association of all peace–making organizations of the world.

4. The nuclear initiative is not o­nly a historical triumph of the USA and Russia, which is worthy the Nobel Peace Prize, but also a huge work for all world nations and civil society for some decades in the future. o­nly the united effort of the state governments and a world civil society, working o­n the general basis of global harmony, will provide success to nuclear disarmament and, further, to general disarmament. It will release humanity from wars and will approve indestructible harmonious peace o­n the Earth.

The American concept is the excellent world chance to unite for all peacemakers o­n a basis of global harmony. Just as a mother gives birth to harmonious civilization at the 21st century, we are accoucheurs of global harmony’s difficult, but great, birth.

Edited by Robert Weir, writer, USA, July 12, 2009

 

References:

1.http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=2

2.http://www.peacefromharmony.org

3.Leo Semashko. Tetrasociology: Responses to Challenges. St.–Petersburg State Polytechnic University (in Russian and English), 2002, 158 p.:http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=145

4.Magna Carta of Harmony for an Information Civilization: Toward Social Justice and Global Peace, by Leo Semashko with 42 coauthors from 16 countries in 7 languages, Lita, 2007, 228 p. http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=3

5.http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Joint-Statement-by-Dmitriy-A-Medvedev-and-Barack-Obama/

6.Terrence Paupp, The Future of Global Relations: Crumbling Walls, Rising Regions – Palgrave/Macmillan, 20009

7.Remarks by President Obama o­n Eliminating Nuclear Weapons. Prague, Czech Republic, Hradcany Square, April 5, 2009 http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Barack-Obama-In-Prague-As-Delivered/

8.From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy o­n the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, by Hans M. Kristensen, FAS; Robert S. Norris, NRDC; and; Ivan Oelrich, FAS; Occasional Paper No. 7, April 2009: http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/doctrine/targeting.pdf

9.Magna Carta of Harmony for an Information Civilization: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=3

10.Ernesto Kahan and Taki Yuriko. Genocide. Tokyo, 2006

11.http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=371

12.Terrence E. Paupp. The Future of Global Relations: Crumbling Walls, Rising Regions, Palgrave–Macmillan, 2009

13.World Harmony/Peace Academy and General Harmonious Education in an Information Society, by Leo Semashko with 64 coauthors from 20 countries, in 2 languages. St–Petersburg, Russia, "LITA ", 2008, pages 104. http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=277

14.Resolutions of the 18th IAEWP World Peace Congress: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 29–31, 2008: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=355

15.RussiaGeorgia: Harmonization through Education instead of Militarization, by Dr Leo Semashko with 69 collaborators from 22 countries, 2008: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=337

16.Leo Semashko. Tetrasociology: Responses to Challenges :http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=145

17.http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=145

18.World Harmony/Peace Academy and General Harmonious Education in an Information Society, pages 24–29. http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=277

19.From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence – A New Nuclear Policy o­n the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, by Hans M. Kristensen, FAS; Robert S. Norris, NRDC; and ; Ivan Oelrich, FAS; Occasional Paper No. 7, April 2009: http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/doctrine/targeting.pdf

20.New Report Recommends Nuclear Policy o­n the Path Toward Nuclear Disarmament by Monica Amarelo, Release: http://www.fas.org/press/news/2009/apr_newreport.html

21.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_(disambiguation)

22.14 “Harmony Science Academies” or "Harmony schools» in Texas and Louisiana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Science_Academy

23.http://www.harmonyfestival.com,

24.Competition–partnership of two academic projects: National (USA) and Global (GHA), by Leo Semashko with the GHA 30 co–authors from 16 countries, 2009: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=383

25.World Peace Council, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Council; http://www.wpc-in.org

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