Toward the common GOOD (Global Organization Of Democracies)

by Charlie Keil

The big world conferences on climate every 20 years (1972 Sweden, 1992 Brazil, 2012 Denmark) have failed. Bill McKibben and 350.org are raising consciousness and prodding consciences daily, but the big lever of "world opinion" needs a pivot point or fulcrum, a forum or year round parliament of small and responsible democracies so that all the rapidly growing threats to species and cultural diversity can be addressed rationally and continually. I believe that dramatic steps toward nuclear and general disarmament are both necessary and possible at this time. This will open the way to much reduced or eliminated "war budgets" and a release of funds for rapid reforestation & permaculturing of the planet.

Since I witnessed Biafra going under in the 1960s, the UN has never stopped a war, or an "ethnic cleansing," or an "administrative massacre" (Hannah Arendt's precise term replacing 'pogrom', see her Eichmann in Jerusalem), or an "attempted genocide." Many wars by states against nations (e.g. U.S.A. against the Six Nations confederacy, China against Tibet and nation peoples of Sinjiang Province, Russia against Chechnya) have gone on for centuries. Described very precisely by Bernard Nietschmann ("The Third World War: Militarization and Indigenous Peoples" Cultural Survival Quarterly 11(3), 1987) many are still ongoing a quarter of a century later. From Nietschmann: "Every nation people that has resisted state invasion has been accused of being terrorists: Karens (all 5 million), Miskitos, Kurds, Palestinians, Basques, Irish, Oromo, Tamils, and so on. From the state point of view only terrorists resist state 'integration'."

This "war on terror" became World War Three immediately after World War II (circa 1948) when Burma invaded 5 nations within its borders, India invaded Nagaland, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran divided up Kurdistan, Israel was given a piece of Palestine, etc. etc. etc. etc. and now World War Three has become the unwinnable War on Terror again. None dare call this progress.

War doesn't work anymore. Big expensive tech is easily destroyed by low cost tech. Think roadside bomb. An old mortar can destroy any nuclear power plant. The greatest aircraft carrier is undone by a half ounce of anthrax, bioengineered smallpox, bigpox, or by radiation, or by chemicals. Think drone attack blowback. Any one person can use all three kinds of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Finally, big states, power politics, growing populations have come up against walls of limited resources and vast pollution. The American Empire or "global economy" will shrink steadily or collapse quickly, whatever we call it. China, all other states (and nations trapped within them) face limits to growth and limits to destroying Nature.

Smaller democracies like Denmark, Costa Rica and Vermont are doing well. The Swiss Confederation is doing very well. Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine/Lebanon could figure out how to share water, basic resources, and thrive economically as Confederations. Indigenous nation peoples all over the world require something like the Swiss confederate model to survive in peace and prosper.

This proposal aims to conserve both species and cultural diversity on this planet:

For the Common GOOD

To stop the ecocatastrophe and build world peace processes a Global Organization Of Democracies (GOOD) supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) could coordinate efficient regional police to help prevent "administrative massacres" and terrorism, thereby enhancing the security of all peoples and encouraging states to redirect a growing portion of their military budgets to economically sustainable and resilient problem-solving over time.

A Global Organization Of Democracies whose representatives meet year-round to instruct a reform caucus at the UN and to mobilize regional police in pursuit of justice as defined by the arrest warrants and subpoenas of the International Criminal Court (ICC), might undertake five important processes:

1. a continuing effort to intervene diplomatically, economically, politically, and to make arrests, if necessary, whenever the ICC determines that the "cleansings" or "administrative massacres" which lead to genocide are in the planning and/or early execution stages;
2. the pursuit and arrest of individuals and small groups of terrorists, identified and located by open-source international intelligence, for the ICC;
3. a continuing effort to halt the invention and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, so many of which are ever more easily delivered by a single person;
4. promote steady nuclear and general disarmament processes in all the nations of the world that would release billions of dollars, euros, yuan, yen, rubles, francs, pounds, kroner, pesos, etc. as well as many brilliant minds; for
5. solving the world's most pressing life problems - climate change, ozone layer depletion, top soil erosion, AIDS, illiteracy, overpopulation, famine, landmines, etc. - that currently are the root causes of civil unrest, wars, more terrorism, insecurity, etc.
   Without small, professional but unarmed police teams in each region of the world that are capable of making arrests, giving safe haven to witnesses, backing up the diplomacy of democratic nations supporting the international courts, there is no reasonable alternative to unjust and unwinnable wars that destroy people, destroy Nature -- the uniquely co-evolved & irreplacable speciation we depend upon for our very survival.

Without a growing sense of peace and security world-wide we are not going to decentralize, revitalize, and transition to strong local communities quickly enough. To survive we have to stop burning fossil fuels, commit to appropriate and sustainable tech, achieve a moratorium or ban on genetically modified organisms . . . . . . I feel a long list coming on! But what is the point if there is no G.O.O.D. meeting daily to discuss these issues, plan accordingly, set goals, reach agreements, issue guidelines, increase our resilience as a rare and endangered species graced with consciousness & conscience?

Steps to take daily ourselves:

1. collect GOOD endorsements from all the organizations, NGOs, non-profits;
2. keep asking people in the small democracies to take action;
3. write op ed pieces, letters to the editor, and make 'wake up' phone calls to friends.