Only India can usher in global peace

India is well-positioned to take on the leadership role in ushering in global peace as “the world is witnessing an unprecedented upheaval with violence, conflicts, economic inequalities, environmental crises and technological disruptions which have led to a deadly cocktail” that puts humanity in peril, said Palki Sharma Upadhyay, TV journalist and editor, Firstpost YouTube channel.

Speaking at a session titled ‘Rotary brings peace,’ at the Kochi Institute, she gave a vivid description of the uncertainty plaguing the world. “We need to address the systemic breakdown in the global order, and India as the leader of Global South has the immense potential to lead the world in navigating through wars, economic disparities and disruptions caused by AI and other emerging technologies,” she said. The raging Ukraine war since 2022 had resulted in global disarray as it affected the energy markets, food supplies, and led to over 30 million people displaced in Europe, the biggest since the World War II. “There is lot of uncertainty as we don’t know how the Ukraine war will shape out in the near future,” she warned.

India and other countries are trying to stop the war “through a diplomatic solution. Indian PM Modi told Russian President Putin that ‘this is not an era of war’ in the early stage of the Ukraine conflict,” she said. The Oct 7, 2023 terror attack by Hamas and taking of hundreds of Israelis as hostages has become a full-blown war between Israel on one side, and the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran bloc on the other side of the divide.

In this complex Israel-Palestine conflict, over 40,000 innocent lives were lost in Gaza over the last two years, and “at present we have around 30 armed conflicts including those in Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia.” Over five lakh people had died in Syria in the last 13 years in a raging civil strife, she said. (Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has captured power, and President Bashar al-Assad and his family have fled to Russia.)

Non-state actors

In today’s conflict-ridden world, nation states have to contend with non-state actors like terrorists, lone wolves and mercenaries who don’t observe “any rules of modern warfare.”

The military-industrial complex of the US has benefitted as it exported over 50 per cent of its arms and weapon systems, worth $2.4 trillion, to these conflict zones in last 2–3 years, she said.

Turning her focus to economic disparity, she said, “globalisation has concentrated wealth in the hands of few rich countries and individuals with a World Bank report saying that 9.2 per cent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.” Another UN report details that 700 million people are hit by extreme poverty.

While tackling the scourge of poverty, “it is not enough to provide just food, as we need shelter, education, health and opportunities for growth.” There is staggering disparity and distress in Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South Asia and Latin America, and there is an urgent need to address “social unrest, conflicts and the migration crisis in these regions,” she explained.

A UN study had stated that “climate change is a major threat to global peace, and it is a force multiplier with droughts, floods and other natural disasters on the rise due to historical emissions of greenhouse gases.”

While nations play the blame game on meeting emission targets set at COP Summits, climate change will not wait for political consensus. “We have to understand that floods, droughts and hurricanes are geopolitical events. The worse hit are poor countries with scant natural resources, even as their people migrate to other places in search of livelihoods, thus becoming planet refugees.” Some European nations pay African states for restricting their people from taking the perilous boat rides. “If they still land in Europe or America, they are called aliens and are detained and deported,” she said.

Climate change events alone had shaved off four per cent GDP of West and Central Africa.

Emerging challenges through AI platforms are “a perfect storm waiting to happen and we don’t know what effect they will have on the job markets and the social fabric.” While policymakers are trying to catch-up with tech platforms like AI, “politicians claim to serve the people, but in reality, they serve their own interests at the expense of others.” In recent years, 50 countries have held elections for new political set-up, and “whenever there is a regime change, we can expect more disruptions like in Uganda, the Maldives and Bangladesh. We still don’t know what effect Trump 2.0 will have on the global geopolitics.”

For decades, as champion of unity in diversity with faith in its non-violence and pluralism, India was in an eminent position to take centre stage in geopolitics, she said.

We talk to all

India has not sided with any country in the ongoing wars, as “we are a peacebuilding nation.” We buy drones, weapons from the US, high-tech defence platforms and oil from Russia, have close ties with both Iran and Saudi Arabia, and nurture friendly ties with both Israel and Palestine.

As an ideal candidate for peace leadership, “we have the goodwill of all nations in the world.” India has sent its peace-keeping force to 40 countries with “over 200,000 Indian soldiers helping in rebuilding livelihoods in strife-torn regions of Congo, South Sudan, Lebanon, Afghanistan and other countries.” India is trying to reform the United Nations in tune with the “multilateral rule-based global order we are striving to usher in. During the G20 Summit in Delhi, we have inducted the African Union in the elite group.” More collaborations and partnerships are in the offing to foster dialogue for a multilateral world order which is now fractured and torn by violence and conflicts.

Earlier, past Trustee Gulam Vahanvaty said that a third Rotary Peace Centre offering a short-term course to train 40 peace fellows in two batches in a year will be set up either in South Korea or at the Symbiosis University, Pune. “Already we have five Peace Centres offering long-term Masters courses and two centres for short-term certified programmes affiliated to top varsities in the world,” he said. Each peace centre turns out 50 peace scholars a year, and “all their visas, airfare, boarding, lodging and tuition fees are met by Rotary,” he said.

Rotary is committed to global peace through promotion of understanding, fellowship and integrity, he said. Vahanvaty, along with PDG Muthu Palaniappan, handed over the Pride of India Award to Palki Sharma.

Picture by V Muthukumaran