The 9 Petalled Flower Of Peace: Petal 3 - The military

This is a realistic and feasible goal for humanity. Why do we really need such huge armies armed to the teeth with expensive weaponry? Who really wants to attack whom? What if every nation on earth signed a binding non-offensive treaty with the USA, which seems to want to have as many weapons as the rest of the world put together? What if all the countries of the world agreed, by binding treaty, to scale their armies down to a minimal basic level in which they had enough to deter aggressors, everyone would surely be the benefiters? Switzerland, for example, doesn't retain huge offensive military capacity, as it isn't planning on attacking anyone – but it has a defensive capacity sufficient to deter any of its neighbours from attacking it. Just defence, an organisation my Institute was involved with way back in about 1990, campaigned for exactly this kind of restructuring to be undertaken by Britain's defence policy. It is difficult to see however that the current major military powers could unilaterally agree to this, and it would therefore have to be something agreed to by all major military powers simultaneously. This would also have to include comprehensive nuclear disarmament down to minimal levels as part of the defensive restructuring of the world's military forces. It is going to have to be accompanied however by a major shift in thinking and especially among policy experts. This is why my Institute is advocating that we in the UK and indeed globally, start developing a Peace Policy, to go alongside, our defence policies. The Jaipur Declaration is about showing how a genuine peace policy is feasible, and how it can replace outmoded thinking about defence and security policy, and that it draws on several interconnected areas of policy and thought simultaneously, like the petals of a flower. Now we are discussing the central floral axis of peace and non-violence in themselves.

This is again a big ask, but not impossible, long term. Why should mankind tolerate millions of armed soldiers rampaging across the planet, soaking up our precious resources and energy and finances, and periodically launching either civil wars or international or even global wars? In the best traditions of chivalry and warriorhood, knights were there for the protection of the weak and the oppressed; mankind still, arguably, needs minimal defence forces, but their pledge should be to protect civilians from attack, by rogue actors, or psychopathic criminal types, and their main function as well, ought to be resolving conflicts that are threatening to break out. The warriors of the future, therefore, might be highly skilled mediation intervention forces who would parachute into conflict areas and get all parties to sit round the table and come up with a peace plan.

In many parts of the world, police forces are out of hand, and arrest and victimise people for trivial offences, or even for thought crimes, or simply for infringing some kind of draconian code that the central state apparatus imposes; policemen need retraining that their primary task is literally "to keep the peace" and that means working with their neighbourhoods to keep everybody getting along with each other, and following the dharma. Most criminals probably don't realise what they do is so wrong, so educational outreach can help instruct them in moral codes and self-esteem building so they realise that crime is foolish and doesn't pay in the long run.

Prisons are highly expensive to run and also don't really work since people simply re-offend, and they can actually act like "crime schools". Instead, they should focus on education and the moral transformation of attitudes, so people are led to realise that crime, especially violent crime, is an assault on morality and spiritual law (dharma) in whatever cultural or theological tradition that this is explained by; also, by de-criminalising non-dangerous drugs, as is slowly happening in many countries, prisons would become less frequented, and in the Netherlands, with its liberal drug regime, prisons are actually being closed down due to not enough criminals! In fact, far from being criminal, the correct use of psychoactive drugs, which are legal in many parts of the world, have always been a part of mankind's spiritual quest to find heightened states of consciousness. In ancient cultures Shamans and Rishis knew which plants caused which insights, and this sacred knowledge was handed down from the earliest times of human evolution. Even in India today, Shivite mendicants can legally use Cannabis as part of their sadhana, as Sufis do in the Middle East; even ordinary Indians will have a glass of Bhang to celebrate the Holi festival. More recently, LSD, Ayahuasca and DMT have been used by voyagers into innerspace and scientific experiments have been conducted which show something of the extraordinary experiences that the human mind is capable of. From a perennial perspective however, such intoxicants, although interesting, are not necessary, since the brain already contains all these chemicals, which can be released naturally at the right time through meditation, prayer and intellection. The point however, is that misuse is a medical and social matter, countered through education and enlightenment, rather than a criminal one. The definitive guide to such sacred plants is Schultes, Richard Evans and Hofman, Albert and Ratsch, Christian

Plants of the Gods: their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers (Healing Arts Press, Vermont, 1992). "The Tibetans considered Cannabis sacred. A Mahayana Buddhist tradition maintains that during the six steps of asceticism leading to his enlightenment, Buddha lived on one hemp seed a day. He is often depicted with Soma Leaves in his begging bowl, and the mysterious narcotic-God Soma has occasionally been identified with Hemp. In tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas of Tibet, Cannabis plays a very significant role in the meditative ritual used to facilitate deep meditation and heighten awareness" (Ibid. P. 97-98) Yet millions of people worldwide are currently incarcerated for simply wishing to try out these ancient rituals. Some scholars have described this situation as a "war on consciousness" see Hancock, Graham Supernatural: Meetings With The Ancient Teachers Of Mankind (2006) and Strassman, Rick DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical (2001).

The true wealth of a nation should not be judged on how many destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines and attack helicopters it has – but rather on how much disaster relief equipment it has, whether it can send aid to people in relief and distress from natural disasters, how much poverty it has, how peaceful and happy the people are, and whether there is hunger, homelessness and violence on the streets and in people's homes.

This is a summing up of the economic arguments against violence and militarism, and in favour of peace and nonviolence. Anyone who has suffered hunger enough to go hungry, or worried about where they are going to sleep that night, knows how debilitating and soul destroying this experience can be (unless you have chosen this life as a religious mendicant). The Jaipur Declaration therefore calls on economists and political leaders, and business leaders worldwide to speak up for peace as a priority over war fighting.

This is an idea that Gorbachev had in proposing a Green Cross International, following Chernobyl. Now, following Fukushima, it is more imperative than ever (see http://www.gcint.org/our-history). But current world leaders need to get on board with this project, and make it an absolute priority. It can be done; a Brigadier General from the India army (General Eustace d'Souza) once lectured to my institute at London University about the work being done in the Indian army to create eco-battalions that can help with re-forestation programmes and other environmental work. Other armies worldwide need to act on this. Recently, in the UK, when faced with major flooding in Somerset and the Thames valley, the army helped local people to save their homes from destruction. The Philippines army helped with clearing up the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan there in 2013, which killed at least 6,268 people, and where bodies are still being discovered even now. The Jaipur declaration however is suggesting that instead of armed forces just responding to these emergencies on an ad hoc basis, we drastically rethink the whole purpose of armed forces, and retrain element in the armies of all nations, solely and exclusively for the purpose of intervening in natural disasters, thus giving them the right training and equipment for this end, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, tsunamis etc. Since such extreme weather events seem to be on the rise, so we should our adapt military thinking accordingly

This is simply common sense; nuclear weapons cannot really be used except in an Armageddon scenario, and they are very costly to build and maintain and deploy; the risk of accidents arising from their existence is also statistically great, meaning that probably, eventually, there will be an accumulation of accidents in their production or storage facilities; there is also the danger of accidental nuclear war breaking out, when faulty computer equipment might announce that country x is launching missiles on country y, thus causing country y to attack, yet in fact the initial alarm was false; this has in fact happened several times in the past decades, and one occasion, Russia nearly launched its missiles on the west, only to be stood down at the last minute when Yeltsin asked his advisers to recheck the data since he wanted to be sure before he pressed the button, and yes, it fortunately turned out to be a false alarm – this would have triggered world war three, and was only minutes away from happening. See May, John The Greenpeace Book Of The Nuclear Age: The Hidden History Of The Human Cost (London, 1989). The author also participated in an academic Seminar at the gates of the Faslane Nuclear Submarines base in Scotland in June 2012, and various academic papers were presented including information regarding the Russian near-accidental launch of World War Three. How many other such accidents have there been that we have not been told of?

The same statistical probability is that nuclear power is unsafe as a main energy source for humans to use, since there are no safe long-term ways of storing the waste products; Chernobyl, Three Mile island and now Fukushima along with many other smaller accidents, mean that the sooner the world weans itself off nuclear power the better.

There are many non-violence activists and trainers around the world, many of which have websites. Information on most of them can be found in the excellent Housmans Peace Diary produced annually which includes a World Peace Directory of peace campaigning and peace education organisations worldwide (see http://www.housmans.info/). Most non-violent initiatives don't get reported by the mainstream media: for example, the Syrian Nonviolence Movement, operating both inside and outside Syria, is hardly ever mentioned, nor is Syrian Peace and Justice. Peace News is an excellent newspaper that carries such information regularly (see www.housmans.com). Campaign Nonviolence is a new group founded last year by the Franciscan group Pace e Bene aiming to make nonviolence more mainstream in global society than today, it asks its members to take a three-fold pledge to 1) practice nonviolence towards oneself 2) To practice nonviolence towards all others 3) To practice nonviolence by joining the global movement to abolish war, end poverty, stop the destruction of the earth and foster a just and peaceful world for all. In effect this is the Jaipur Declaration in microcosm. See http://paceebene.org/campaign-nonviolence

Although this may all sound a big ask, it is probable that our descendents, way off in the future, will look back on our time with incredulity, long after these aims have been achieved, and wonder why on earth we didn't get there sooner

Many countries around the world still have military conscription, and in times of war, other countries also enact laws obliging young people to serve in the military, as the USA did in the Vietnam War. Having youngsters give their time to their country doing some useful social and community projects instead would be a much better idea. The author has proposed to the UK government that a National Citizens Community Service scheme be introduced, and the idea has in fact been take up with some pilot schemes, and now a private members bill which is going through the parliamentary process. Given the high levels of youth unemployment worldwide, giving all young people a chance to serve their country doing useful social and community work, for which they would receive free accommodation, get a basic wage, and meet interesting people all over the country, would seem to be an excellent way of mobilising the energy and vigour of young people to lay the foundations of peace rather than requesting them to lay their lives down and to kill "enemies".