Emmanuel

I am hopeful that one-day war will be abolished.

However, the wars of the post Cold War, post 9/11 are symbolic to me as a new era of endless War where diplomacy has lost its necessity and ability to protect human life.

One of the good things about the Cold War was that, in a sense, it was black and white: communist democracy vs. capitalist democracy--highlighted by the USSR and the USA. Integral to these conflicts were delineation of power along said lines.

The mode of international affairs in the Cold War was much different: direct conflict was considered too dangerous to be permissible. Therefore, there was a kind of indirect conflict that not only opened up the possibility of diplomacy, but also made it necessary. What is so dangerous about the time we are living in is that there is no unquestionable need for diplomatic accord by the international community.

Without diplomacy, how can we hope as a species to move beyond the War? If history has taught me anything it is that unilateral power must assert itself without shame – from the Crusades to Hitler to Pol-Pot. Questions of legitimate cause or course of action have no place in blackouts by ideological certainty.

The post 9/11 era is evidence that this blackout is very real. From the prosecution of information whistleblowers, to secret military tribunals behind closed doors, there is little evidence to support that the attitude by Western power is not one in the same line of totalitarian regimes of the past.