Opinion
In 2025, India should play the role of peacemaker in world affairs
Summary
- The New Year has brought a grim reminder from New Orleans of terror as a threat, even as war rages in West Asia, Europe and elsewhere. India must push for UN reforms and a permanent seat at the high table on the back of global principles with world peace as the aim.
Go home and get a nice, quiet sleep": When Neville Chamberlain gave this piece of advice after signing the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938, he also used the phrase “peace for our time." Now often cited as peace in our time, it was short-lived back then and is recalled now only with a sense of irony.
Indeed, peace in our time has been the single most elusive aspiration of the post-war years. We only have to look at the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans, US, a city known for its love of music and as the birthplace of jazz. At least 15 innocent civilians were killed and dozens injured in an attack ascribed to a US citizen inspired by Islamic State (IS).
To extremists, of course, there are no innocents—save for their ‘own kind.’ The relentless Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed children and babies too.
Last year was crammed with war and conflict, the most egregious example of which was Israel’s disproportionate reaction to terror strikes by Hamas that sparked off fierce but uneven warfare, with hostilities reaching Lebanon and Iran as well.
In tandem, the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, not only without let-up, but interspersed with Russian threats of a nuclear strike, as the new normal sinks to a new low.
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Elsewhere too, existing conflicts escalated last year in Sudan and Myanmar, while the long-running conflict in Syria came to a sudden end—or so we hope, given how radical Islamists breathe down the neck of that war-ravaged land. Last year’s intensification frequently threatened to turn raging conflicts into wider regional wars, with the alarming potential to turn global.
When US-supplied missiles were fired at Russia, and Iran joined the West Asian conflict by firing missiles at an Israel already embattled by its Lebanese proxy, and when North Korean troops were drafted by Russia against Ukraine, the clock seemed to be ticking its way to World War III.
In March, IS-Khorasan Province wreaked havoc in Crocus City, Russia, killing 145 people and injuring 550 in a coordinated shooting and slashing attack. Whether Russia was paying a price for its war on IS terrorists in Syria was unclear, with Syria the playing field of militia groups that could swing either way— towards a moderate Islamic regime or an intolerant Taliban shadow.
The former scenario, should it unfold, with stability in Syria, could mean fewer Crocus-type attacks where IS terrorists would fan out of Syria to target crowded settings. But the New Orleans attack should remind us that now is not a time for the world to lower its guard. Peace in our time may be some distance away.
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One player missing in action was the United Nations, a body charged with the task of helping build peace, not just preventing conflagrations or keeping warring sides at bay. Peace building is more than rushing Blue Helmets around the world.
With the next US administration to be headed soon by Donald Trump, known for his UN-scepticism, it falls upon India more than any other nation—given its historical role and geopolitical neutrality—to dig its heels in for multilateralism.
This will need the UN to be restructured, with India playing its rightful role as a permanent member of its Security Council.
With a trade war looming between the US and China, whose eyeing of Taiwan could turn into a flashpoint that opens yet another theatre of war, it’s a principle that needs robust advocacy right now as a basis for UN efficacy. For peace is an idea whose time has come.
Also read: Mint Explainer: How is India pushing to reform the UN Security Council?
