How to end war

War can be stopped on different levels. The major cause of war in developing countries, especially those in Africa, is poverty, which reiterates the importance of making the elimination of poverty the number one goal for every government and for the international community. Another prevalent cause of war is the struggle for self-determination, which highlights the need for an international effort to promote and respect the democratic rights of all individuals and groups.

In the name of peace, every group and state should be committed to resolving disputes by non-violent means, and should only ever use force as a last resort for defensive purposes. No country should provide funding for a nation to create war for any other purpose, and implicit in this aim is that the arms trade must be very carefully regulated, in order to ensure that military arms do not end up in the hands of aggressor groups and states.

Wars for non-defensive reasons can only be fought now because there are people who volunteer to fight in these wars. Without these soldiers, not even the most powerful state could engage in a war of aggression. Therefore, no-one should ever agree to fight in wars that are not being waged for defensive purposes. Another way of preventing the expansion of war is for all nations to substantially reduce their arms to the amounts strictly required for the purposes of defence.

The powerful who are hell bent on using violence

Powerful countries may insist on using violence outside the auspices of the United Nations Security Council. For example, the US insisted on waging war against Iraq in 2003, despite the lack of support from the UN. It is also feasible that other states will bypass the UN and use violence to resolve their problems, if they do not see any particular incentive or benefit in either using the UN or acting peacefully.

Therefore, the UN has to operate a rigid system of incentives and sanctions. If a state acts within the authority of the UN, it will be treated as an equal member of the international community, with full trade and economic rights, but a state acting unlawfully outside the UN must be punished. Even a powerful state such as the USA will suffer if the rest of the international community decides to impose economic sanctions on it, bans US citizens from foreign travel, bars trade and isolates it from the international community.

However, the international community must be prepared to go a step further than this. If a state uses unlawful violence, then other states must act to defend those who are the victims of that violence. Powerful states such as the US only feel able to unilaterally use violence against relatively powerless states because they believe that they will encounter little military resistance. However, if the international community resolves to resist the use of unauthorised force by acting in the defence of the people being attacked, this will have a strong deterrent effect on powerful states contemplating the use of illegal violence.