Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present concrete proposals that contribute to ending the barbarism of the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people and, also, the barbarism of wars in the world. The term barbarism has two distinct but linked meanings: lack of civilization and barbaric cruelty. Barbarism means unbridled violence and contempt for human beings. Barbarism has permanently increased in the world. Year by year, decade by decade, violence and contempt for human beings have increased and there seems to be no limit to this phenomenon. Something much worse: men and women have become accustomed to barbarity and there is no longer any amazement, strangeness or horror when faced with inhumane acts. The First and Second World Wars established a new form of eminently modern barbarism, far worse in its murderous inhumanity than the warlike practices of the “barbarian” conquerors at the end of the Roman Empire. The year 1914 begins with unlimited sacrifices in the desire to eliminate the enemy. This sacrifice includes the civilian population itself. 1914 begins with the era of total war, the absence of distinctions between combatants and non-combatants. This is what is also happening in the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians of Hamas.
Michael Lowy, French-Brazilian sociologist and philosopher and director of research in social sciences at CNRS- French National Center for Scientific Research, states that modern barbarism or “barbarism generated within so-called civilized societies” is characterized by the use of technical means (industrialization of homicide, mass extermination thanks to cutting-edge scientific technologies), by the impersonality of the massacre (entire populations – men and women, children and the elderly – are “eliminated”, with as little personal contact as possible between those who make the decision and victims), through bureaucratic, administrative, effective, planned, “rational” (in instrumental terms) management of barbaric acts and through the use of legitimizing ideology of the modern type: biological, hygienic, scientific [LOWY, Michael. Barbárie e modernidade no século 20 (Barbarism and modernity in the century 20). Published on the website <https://www.ecodebate.com.br/2010/05/20/barbarie-e-modernidade-no-seculo-20-artigo-de-michael-lowy/> and, originally in French, in the magazine “Critique Communiste” nº 157, hiver 2000]. This is what is also happening in the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians of Hamas.
The Nazi genocide against Jews, gypsies and communists, the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Stalinist Goulag, the Vietnam war, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the two Iraq wars, the war in Afghanistan, the civil wars in Libya and Syria, and now the savagery of the October 7th attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians and the insane Israeli massacre of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip exemplify in a more complete way the barbarity that characterizes the world in which we live. The violence of conflicts in our time has no parallel in history. The wars of the 20th century and also those of the 21st century were and are “total wars” against combatants and civilians without discrimination. At the current time, Israeli government are indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Strip, killing thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in disobedience to international laws in an attempt to target the Hamas Palestinians responsible for the massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7th.
It is unacceptable to live in a world where, in the last 6,000 years of human history, there have been only 292 years of relative peace between peoples. The situation humanity has reached with the prevalence of barbarism over the values of civilization is regrettable. It should be noted that the antithesis of Barbarism is Civilization, which is considered the most advanced stage that a human society can reach. For a world society to be considered civilized, it must: 1) promote the satisfaction of the social well-being of the population in each country and globally; 2) ensure peace among peoples with the peaceful resolution of international conflicts; 3) preserve nature and/or promote the mitigation of the effects of human actions on it; 4) provide guaranteed security for all citizens who should not fear the loss of their lives or physical harm; 5) ensure the best possible quality of medical care for all members of society; 6) grant access to food and water to all citizens so that no person goes hungry or thirsty; 7) offer basic housing conditions for all citizens; 8) have a democratic legislative system whose laws are established to preserve the well-being of the population; 9) have an educational system that guarantees equal access to high-level education for all people, aiming to make its population highly educated; and, 10) ensure freedom of thought, belief, religion, affiliation and expression for the population and the right to participate in government decisions.
Given the dark history of attacks against humanity and their dark prospects, it is urgent to attack the evil of barbarism at its root with the construction of a new civilized world order to replace the dominant capitalist order that generates attacks on Civilization in all quadrants of the Earth that have been recorded for more than 500 years ago. For Civilization to impose itself against Barbarism, a new international system must be built because the current system is incapable of ensuring world peace and mediating international conflicts to avoid the end of humanity with the outbreak of a new world war of devastating consequences. It is increasingly evident that the current international system, with the ineffectiveness of the UN, does not have the capacity to mediate international conflicts. The need for a new international system composed of a world democratic Government, a world Parliament and a world Supreme Court to be built with the restructuring of the UN is increasingly evident.
The time has come for humanity to resolve not only the current international conflicts such as those between the State of Israel and Hamas, but also of the world, within the framework of Civilization. In the case of the conflict between the State of Israel and Hamas, it will only come to an end if, immediately, there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and the creation of a humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip to prevent Palestinians from dying from thirst and hunger. For this peace agreement to become lasting, it is necessary that, on the one hand, the pre-1967 borders between Israel and Palestine are respected, Jerusalem is transformed into an international city under the control of the United Nations, given that there is a profound disagreement between Palestinians and Israelis about their division, the immediate withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Palestinian lands in the West Bank, the return of refugees from the Arab-Israeli wars to their former lands and the recognition of Palestine as an independent state and, on the other, the Palestinians recognizing the State of Israel because neither Palestinians nor Israelis can impose their will on each other. The construction of peace can only happen between the State of Israel and the Palestinians if the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world, as well as the Palestinians, politically repel the extremists who exercise power in their territories and establish governments that seek conciliation between the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. This would be the way to avoid the continuation of the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people, which could evolve into a regional war involving all countries in the region.
The transition from a regional war to a global conflict can also happen with the involvement of major military powers with the United States and the European Union alongside Israel and Russia and China alongside the Palestinians. We need to prevent the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people from becoming the epicenter of a new World War. Only peace between Palestinians and Jews will avoid the worst for their people and for humanity. To definitively eliminate new risks of a new world war and to achieve perpetual peace on our planet, it would be necessary to reform the current international system, which is incapable of guaranteeing world peace. The new international system should work based on a Planetary Social Contract. The Planetary Social Contract would be the Constitution or Greater Law of planet Earth. To prepare the Planetary Social Contract, a Constituent World Assembly should be convened with the participation of representatives from all countries in the world elected for this purpose. The Planetary Social Contract should establish the existence of a world Government whose president should be elected with more than 50% of the votes of the world Parliament, which should also be democratically constituted.
To ensure democratic practice and governance on planet Earth, world power should be exercised by the world Parliament that, in addition to electing the President of the world Government, should draft and approve international laws based on the Planetary Social Contract. The world Parliament should be composed of a determined and equal number of representatives from each country democratically elected for this purpose. The President of the world government will only exercise command of the world government as long as he has the support of the majority of parliament. The world Government must have an organizational structure that is capable of dealing with international relations, military issues, the global economy, the global environment, education, health, infrastructure, science and technology, among others, to dialogue with the world Parliament and the countries that are part of the international system.
Parliamentarians should elect the board of directors of the world Parliament, which would have an appropriate organizational structure. The World Supreme Court should be composed of high-level jurists from around the world chosen by the world Parliament who would act for a fixed period of time and should elect the President of the Court to serve a mandate for a determined period of time. The World Supreme Court should judge cases involving disputes between countries, crimes against humanity and nature committed by national states and rulers in light of the Planetary Social Contract, judge conflicts that exist between the world government and the world party and act as guardian of the Planetary Social Contract. The world government will not have its own Armed Forces and must rely on the support of the Armed Forces of the countries that would be called upon when necessary.
Therefore, with this system, the world parliament would legislate successfully through a democratic process. There would be no need for an entity that would act as the world’s police officer because the person who would exercise power would be the President of the world government who would use the Armed Forces of certain countries that would be called upon when necessary. The new rule of international law would be exercised by the three constituted powers: World Government, World Parliament and World Supreme Court. World power would rest in the world Government, the world Parliament and the world Supreme Court. World power would not corrupt or be corrupted because there would be vigilance from all constituted powers. World government, world Parliament and world Supreme Court would act as checks and balances aimed at the efficiency and effectiveness of the international system.
The world government would only act to ensure that the international system evolves in an environment of peace between nations. Each country must be sovereign to act within the limits of its territory and not to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries. What would not be accepted is any country intervening with the use of force in the internal affairs of other countries, as has happened throughout history. The world government would guarantee respect for the sovereignty of the world’s countries, especially the weakest. The absence of a world government would represent a threat to the national sovereignty of most countries because they would be at the mercy of the strongest, as has been the case throughout history. If any country compromises the environment of peace between nations by intervening in the internal affairs of another country, the world government would act to prevent the aggressor from achieving his goals through diplomatic action or, in the event of failure, including the use of force. To this end, the world government would call on the armed forces of certain countries to fulfill the role of preventing any country from intervening in another using force.
Therefore, these are the measures that should be adopted to end wars in the world. It is worth noting that the global democratic governance (World Government, World Parliament and World Supreme Court) to be implemented would represent the most advanced stage of humanity’s political evolution because, throughout history, humanity has evolved from the village to form city-states, from city-states to constitute nation-states, from nation-states to constitute economic blocs such as NAFTA and Mercosur or the economic and political union of states such as the European Union. The next step for humanity would, therefore, be the constitution of a world Government, a world Parliament and a world Supreme Court to reach its highest stage of development with the promotion of true economic, political, social and environmental integration at the planetary level based on a planetary social contract approved by all countries in the world. Only with global democratic governance would it be possible to make the objectives of each country compatible with each other for the benefit of all humanity.
To make the new international system viable with the implementation of global governance, it is necessary that, initially, a World Forum for Peace and the Progress of Humanity be constituted by Civil Society organizations and governments from all peace-loving countries in the world. In this Forum, the objectives and strategies of a global movement for the constitution of a world Government, a world Parliament and a World Supreme Court would be debated and established, aiming to raise awareness among the world’s population and national governments in order to make it a reality a world of peace and progress for all humanity. This would be the path that would make it possible to transform the utopia of global governance into reality. Without the constitution of a democratic world government, the scenario that unfolds for the future will be one of economic, political and social disorder and war of all against all.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer from the UFBA Polytechnic School and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022), How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chișinău, 2023) and A revolução da educação necessária ao Brasil na era contemporânea (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2023).
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