A war is a fierce armed struggle between two or more states, governments, societies, or paramilitary organizations like militias, mercenaries, or insurgents. Extreme violence, damage, and fatality are typically its defining characteristics, whether caused by conventional or irregular military forces. In the absence of hatred and violence, peace is the idea of communal friendship and harmony. Peace is frequently used to refer to an absence of conflict and the absence of the fear of violence amongst individuals or groups in society. The most bloody war in American history was the Civil War. Battles like Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg and Stones River surprised locals and foreign observers with their extraordinary brutality. Through coordinated U.S. diplomacy, investment, and security sector involvement, the U.S. initiative to Prevent Conflict and Increase Stability envisions a ten-year, proof, whole-of-government effort to build peace and long-term Stability. The paper shall discuss war and the outlook for peace in the United States.
Before the war, the debate over slavery had split the South and the North for many years. The problem had not been resolved by measures like the Missouri agreement and the Agreement of 1850 (Clegg, 2020). Enslaved African Americans performed most of the plantation labour, which was the foundation of the Southern economy. On the other hand, manufacturing played a bigger role in the Northern economy. The North’s growing abolitionism in the 1850s led the South countries to worry that the national government would try to abolish slavery. The Southern states held that the federal government lacked the authority to determine when slavery should be legal in a particular state.
The Republican Party’s overtly antislavery candidate won the 1860 national election. Following Lincoln’s victory, 11 Southern states broke away from the Union to defend what they believed to be their legal right to retain enslaved people (Clegg, 2020). These nations came together to become the Confederate countries of America. The Confederate president was Jefferson Davis. Lincoln was dedicated to maintaining the Union. When he was elected president, he avoided using violent threats. Still, he pledged to defend “the property and locations” in the South that belonged to the national government. In Charleston, South Carolina, Fort Sumter was one of those locations. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces began firing on Fort Sumter despite Lincoln’s oath. The U.S Civil War officially began as a result of this.
The peace conference is a valuable diplomatic tool in the arsenal of those driven by the necessity of averting fatal conflict. It enables concentrated attention on the current problem, brings all key parties together, preferably in a neutral venue, with a dependable convener, and creates momentum and a specific deadline for action. The so-called worldwide conferences, which began in the 1960s and have since spread in quantity but not always in quality, are where conference diplomacy is conducted (Snow, 2020). These gatherings help avert conflicts more indirectly. They serve the overarching or supplemental goal of explaining the underlying causes of conflict, like environmental degradation, poverty, and cultural miscommunications, even as they pursue specific goals in and of themselves.
The first attempts to end the wars that decimated the Italian peninsula can be attributed to the fourteenth century. In the years that followed, the mechanism was sometimes utilized to stop protracted and broad violence, as at Westphalia. Conference diplomacy, however, was not consciously used as a new tool of the international organization until the Congress of Vienna (Snow, 2020). A conference intended to handle the war’s conclusion and create a universal ceasefire in its wake is exemplified by the Conference and Orchestra of Europe that resulted from it. When a clear strategy is missing, diplomats should be cautious about turning to conferences, which invariably attract media attention. A big conference meant to exert strategic pressure on parties or potential stakeholders to a dispute may not always be more appropriate than more native diplomacy, like in the case of the European Union’s mediation between Serbia and Kosovo.
One of the six main organs of the UN, the General Assembly, is responsible for the organization’s key policy-making, deliberative, and representative functions. Its mandate is outlined in Section 4 of the U.N Charter, which is currently in effect for its 77th session. Annual sessions of the General Assembly are held there in New York City’s General Assembly Building under the direction of its president or the United Nations secretary-general (Debbas, 2021). The main portion of these sessions typically lasts from September through a portion of January till all problems are resolved, which frequently occurs before the beginning of the following session. It may also meet again for extra or urgent extra sessions. The 51 founding countries were represented at the first session, which was held on January 10 in London’s Methodist Central Hall. Casting in the General Assembly is by two-thirds of those present and voting on some significant issues, such as fiscal concerns, suggestions on peace and security, as well as the election, admitting, suspension, or expelling of members.
The upkeep of global peace and security is primarily the duty of the Security Council. Each of its fifteen members has one vote. According to the United Nations Charter, all Members are required to abide by Council decisions. When evaluating whether there is aggression or threat to the peace, the Security Council is in charge. It suggests ways of adjusting the settlement terms and encourages parties to a conflict to settle it peacefully. The Security Council occasionally has the option of using sanctions or even approving the use of force to preserve or restore global peace and security. The General Assembly and the United Nations’ other major organizations give the UN Secretariat the authority to carry out their daily operations. The Secretary-General leads the Secretariat, which employs dozens of thousands of UN personnel at duty stations around the globe. Internationally and locally recruited UN employees serve in work locations and on peacekeeping deployments. Serving as a peacemaker in a violent globe is risky (Novosad & Werker, 2019). Numerous courageous women and men have sacrificed their lives for the UN since its founding.
There are several trouble spots in the world today. These include hunger, conflict, climate change, child abuse and the COVID-19 epidemic (Wellensteen, 2018). The traditional diplomatic methods used to address international conflicts, even during the Cold War, represented the state system that had dominated global politics for centuries. It was logical to view international war as arising between nation-states acting as a unit based on consistent and distinct national interests inherent in geography, environmental assets, and other enduring characteristics of countries. It concluded that conflict between countries reflected competing interests if these interests determined how states behaved. These confrontations were frequently viewed as zero-sum games in which the entrust state won, the more its foe lost.
Everyone suffers when women aren’t included in efforts to build peace because they are also the primary caregivers for families (Davies & True, 2019). As peacekeepers, humanitarians, and mediators, women are also strong supporters of world peace. For communities to be robust to shocks, handle conflicts, and adjust to varying environmental conditions, it will be impossible to attain the degree of confidence, cooperation, and inclusion necessary without peace. Russia’s war in Ukraine has dashed assertions and expectations about a sustained state of peace in the larger European region. It has sparked thoughtful discussion regarding the methods and resources available to preserve peace during the rivalry between superpowers and weaker multilateral agencies. These trends have been frequently noted over the previous ten years. Meanwhile, the EU’s (European Union) own peace initiative serves as a model for its foreign policy, with the promotion of world peace and security remaining a key objective.
The money spent on weapons should be channelled to better sectors of life that could aid in the sustainable development of the globe. This index serves as a reminder that expenditures in both health and education are necessary throughout childhood and maturity to set populations on the path to higher levels of economic production, competitiveness, and self-reliance. Investments in health and education are crucial, and this is not a new development. We know the significance of concentrating on the first nine months (from conception to age two). The discovery that a child’s and adolescent’s development lasts for around another 7000 days is what is new. We now understand that a vital element in the efficiency of these efforts is the scheduling of education and health interventions concerning crucial developmental stages throughout the life course.
References
Clegg, J. (2020). A theory of capitalist slavery. Journal of Historical Sociology, 33(1), 74-98. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/johs.12259?casa_token=sxONtruN4XoAAAAA:NoO70E2jwlAP0nr_bZ1YQH9UkGMUvaUKKq9qMcm1fePkbhAz3LKeW-llcgbUaeEgIs58uTkuLmOqCali
Davies, S. E., & True, J. (2019). Women, peace, and security: A transformative agenda? The oxford handbook on women, peace and security, 3-15. https://www.academia.edu/download/84901286/Davies158490_Published.pdf
Gowlland-Debbas, V. (2021). United Nations Sanctions and international law. Brill. https://scholar.archive.org/work/b2qkgbhwcfhqxng2d4tyisdbia/access/wayback/https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0506-7286-2004-2-263.pdf
Novosad, P., & Werker, E. (2019). Who runs the international system? Nationality and leadership in the United Nations Secretariat. The Review of International Organizations, 14(1), 1-33. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11558-017-9294-z
Snow, N. (2020). Rethinking public diplomacy in the 2020s. In Routledge handbook of public diplomacy (pp. 3-12). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/download/64089796/Public%20Diplomacy%20by%20Nancy%20Snow.pdf
Wallensteen, P. (2018). Understanding conflict resolution. Sage. https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781526462947_A34677683/preview-9781526462947_A34677683.pdf
write