Published Articles by Lawrence Wittner

After thousands of years of bloody wars among contending tribes, regions, and nations, is it finally possible to dispense with the chauvinist ideas of the past?  To judge by President Barack Obama's recent rhetoric and Middle East policy, it is not.

An array of global problems -- including not only the aggressive use of military force, but climate change, disease, and poverty -- cry out for global solutions.  But we are not likely to see these solutions in a world of international anarchy, in which the "national interest" continues to trump the human interest.

Although national officials around the world are behaving much like their predecessors -- gearing up their countries for war -- there are reasons why war might actually be on the way out.

Is overwhelming national military power a reliable source of influence in world affairs?  Apparently not, for, currently, the United States is militarily supreme in the world, but unable to cope with a number of international challenges.  Also, in recent decades, substantial U.S. military advantages -- even when employed in bloody wars -- failed to prevent developments that it desperately sought to avoid.

Your doctors are worried about your health--in fact, about your very survival. No, they're not necessarily your own personal physicians, but, rather medical doctors around the world, represented by such groups as International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and the World Health Organization. They are warning you about a looming nuclear catastrophe as nations, embroiled in war, continue to brandish over 17,000 nuclear weapons. Are you ready to change the destructive behavior of your national leaders?
There has been a substantial growth in the number of "peace ships" in the past century and, for the United States, the most important of them is the "Golden Rule." By boldly challenging nuclear weapons tests in 1958, the "Golden Rule" and its pacifist crew set the pattern for the daring voyages of Greenpeace and other activists who finally convinced officials of the great powers to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty. Today, after being wrecked off the California coast, the "Golden Rule" is being lovingly restored by Veterans for Peace for a new mission designed to foster nuclear disarmament and world peace.