A Global Security System

A Global Security System Sally Campbell

Having touched upon the complex subject of “security” earlier this year, my ears have now become hyper-attuned to the words “security” and “safety”. It is troubling to think how far we have progressed as human societies on so many levels, and yet how poorly we have addressed our common universal need for security and safety. During the 20^th century, we saw new beginnings, with the development of institutions such as the League of Nations which led to the founding of the UN. The 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawed war and has never been overturned. The Geneva Conventions, The International Court of Justice, and The Rome Statute which founded the International Criminal Court – these constitute a framework for international law and international humanitarian law. They clearly set out war crimes, especially respecting civilians, aid workers and war prisoners. The many arms limitation treaties represent society’s understanding of the lethal direction in which we’ve been headed for many decades now. Yet somehow people now feel (and are) less safe and secure than ever before.

Why is that and what can we do about it?

In my view, we are in the throes of “the end of empire” and no, it isn’t pleasant. Watching a tv series like The Fall of Civilizations is rather chilling as it shows in devastating detail how, time and again, our world has experienced horrific violence wrought in the name of imperialism and colonialism. And worse yet, settler-colonialism in places like the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and our most devastating recent example, Israel-Palestine.

Gideon Levy, senior journalist for Ha’aretz, the Israeli daily, said that Israel’s ongoing violence and dispossession of the Palestinian people rests upon 3 myths that Zionists have embraced to establish and maintain supremacy in Israel-Palestine:

1. Jewish people are the chosen people.
2. Jewish people are the eternal victims.
3. Palestinian people are less than fully human.

(Levy at UVic, 2015, sponsored by Canadians for Justice & Peace in the Middle East, CJPME)

Variations on that theme can be seen in the mythology around the Canadian settler-colonialism context:

1. Euro-Christian settlers had a superior culture to bring to this land.
2. The Doctrine of Discovery gave explorers the right to claim “vacant land” in the name of their sovereign. Vacant land was that which was not populated by Christians.
3. Indigenous peoples were uncivilized savages.

Behind these implanted false ideas, of course, was the desire for the land, for its resources, for control over the region at the expense of the indigenous people living there. Greed, ambition, ignorance, willful blindness – all these underlay the so-called brave and noble endeavours of the settlers. The people that my non-indigenous ancestors taught were heroes were actually usurpers and plunderers, bringing weapons, disease and entitlement. It seems to me that until we in the imperial West truly understand and account for our own settler-colonial violence, we will look the other way as others wreak havoc on indigenous populations. The massive outcry

over Israel’s killing of 6 Western foreign–aid workers (and 1 Palestinian) from World Central Kitchen last week, after about 200 innocent Palestinian aid workers have suffered the same fate with little condemnation of those war crimes, was a grim reminder of our devaluation of “the other”.

Right now, a huge challenge for non-indigenous peoples everywhere is to de-colonize our minds and hearts. I view this as a life-long learning and listening process. Part of the learning is to confront militarism and Canada’s role as loyal 1^st lieutenant of first the UK and now the US, in sustaining empire. We have considered ourselves as “honest broker” in foreign policy, the “good guys”. Yves Engler offers a solid debunking of that myth in his recent blog post of April 1^st, 2024. He shows Canada’s ongoing role in supporting Israel’s settler-colonial project on Palestinian land. As he says, “The honest broker construct is damaging for two reasons. It confuses people about Canada’s role in the world, undermining the critical consciousness required to seriously challenge Canadian foreign policy. It suggests Ottawa is a benevolent international actor rather than largely driven by the interests of empire and corporations.” (Italics mine.)

Canada has such an opportunity to recalibrate right now. We’re on the brink of purchasing armed drones (the 2 most favoured bids are from Israel & the US); we’ve not yet taken delivery of the F-35 fighter jets we’ve bought from the US because they don’t work. If Trump gets re- elected, he may reassert pressure on Canada (as per his November, 2019 letter) to increase our annual contribution to NATO to 2% of our GDP from its current 1.3%.

At the same time, all levels of government recognize our affordable housing crisis, the need to invest more deeply in our health care system, the need to make child care & education key priorities, to fairly fund our reconciliation process, and to reverse our shameful role in the climate crisis. To do this, we could start by freeing up funding from war/war-preparation rather than sliding into more spending. The latter course will be inevitable unless we reassess our stance in the world and move away from aggressive alliances such as NATO. The fact that international small arms sales have tripled since 2001 (A Global Security System: An Alternative to War, World Beyond War, 5^th Edition, 2020 @ p.51) is a good indicator of the collision course our world is currently on. We need to shift from a war system to a system where we define peace by common human security rather than protection of national interests.

If not now, when?

Next week: more on A Global Security System.