This year, when legislators in both houses of the U.S. Congress introduced resolutions calling upon the U.S. government to lead a global effort to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race, the action was largely a response to the efforts of the Back from the Brink campaign. Begun in 2017 by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists, that campaign -- spurred on by an escalating nuclear arms race that is rapidly spiraling out of control -- has secured the endorsement of a significant number of major national organizations and government officials. And it has some prospects for success.
Published Articles by Lawrence Wittner
Although Albert Einstein is best-known as a theoretical physicist, he also spent much of his life grappling with the problem of war. Appalled by the threat to human civilization posed by unrestrained nationalism, he called repeatedly for the building of a peaceful world. "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking," he wrote, "if mankind is to survive."
When nations face sharp xenophobic and racist divisions within, they do have governments that can take action to counter them. But the situation is quite different in the international arena, which more closely resembles a lawless wilderness in which nations can engage freely in criminal violence. In addition, the absence of effective governance on the global level cripples efforts to tackle other major world problems, such as the nuclear arms race, climate change, and disease pandemics.
In recent months, U.S. immigration authorities deported about 80 Russian asylum seekers, shackled and handcuffed, on ICE planes to Moscow, where they were turned over to the FSB (the dreaded Russian Security Service). They were among about 1,000 other Russian antiwar and democracy activists seeking sanctuary in the United States who can expect a cruel fate in Putin's Russia.
Donald Trump has repeatedly proclaimed himself a nationalist and a keen supporter of an "America First" policy in world affairs. In line with this nationalist approach, he has worked to undermine the United Nations -- sharply slashing its funding and withdrawing from its key agencies, including the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council, and UNESCO. By contrast, polls show that most Americans have a favorable view of the work done by the United Nations and its agencies and want their country to engage closely with the world organization.
Ever since the atomic bombings of Japanese cities in August 1945, the world has been living on borrowed time, for major governments have been too committed to traditional thinking about international relations to resist the temptation to build nuclear weapons and threaten their use. Even so, thanks largely to popular pressure, governments have accepted some degree of nuclear constraint and nuclear war has thus far been averted. With a revival of public pressure and the implementation of measures to ensure international security, it still remains possible to safeguard human survival.
At a time when international cooperation provides the key to preventing a variety of global calamities -- including nuclear war, climate catastrophe, and massive starvation -- it's tragic that major nations, ruled by nationalist, rightwing parties, are on a collision course with the organizations that represent the international community. With the onset of World War II, most people finally realized that narrow nationalism had to give way to global cooperation. Let's hope that it won't take another world war or comparable catastrophe to convince people again.
Congressional passage of Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" provides the latest evidence that human greed, despite its primitive nature, is alive and well. Although modern productivity can provide abundance for all, irrational men like Trump and his billionaire friends insist on wallowing in great wealth, even as millions of people live and die in poverty and misery. Gandhi put it concisely when he declared: "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed."
Since the return of Donald Trump to the White House, he and his Republican allies have been working overtime to destroy the U.S. government's overseas humanitarian aid programs. Although the U.S. government has a lengthy record of assisting people of other nations stricken by hunger, war, and illness, such assistance is being rapidly dismantled, putting the lives of the world's poorest people in jeopardy. The result, according to the United Nations, is "a triage of human survival," with "114 million people facing life-threatening needs across the world."
Although Donald Trump has frequently billed himself as a "peacemaker" -- doing so at least 53 times during 2023 and 2024 -- his promises of peace have not been fulfilled. The primary reason for this failure is that, as his record indicates, he is much less interested in fostering peace than in expanding U.S. territory, military might, and power. Fortunately, however, institutions do exist that are genuinely committed to building a peaceful world.