Former UN assistant secretary general
sees hope in the present crisis, as a global dialogue takes place on
possibility of warA new reality: The world's
people are "waging peace"
[3-15-03]
Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of
the United Nations, now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in
Costa Rica, was one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and
has worked in support of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in
San Francisco to be honored for his service to the world through the U.N.
and through his writings and teachings for peace. He spoke at a program of
the United Nations Association of San Francisco on February 5, 2003.
This summary of Muller's talk has been circulating widely
on the Web, and the UNA-SF
plans to put the full text on their website as soon as possible.
This summary was prepared by Lynne Twist.
Lynne Twist's Summary of Dr. Muller's Speech
in San Francisco on 2/5/03
Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations,
now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica, was one of
the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked in support
of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in San Francisco to be
honored for his service to the world through the U.N. and through his
writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty, Dr. Muller surprised, even
stunned, many in the audience that day with his most positive assessment of
where the world stands now regarding war and peace.
I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by
his remarks. What he said turned my head around and offered me a new way to
see what is going on in the world. My synopsis of his remarks is below:
"I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so honored to
be alive at such a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going
on in our world today."
(I was shocked. I thought - Where has he been? What has he
been reading? Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What
is he talking about?)
Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history
of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue
and conversation about the very legitimacy of war."
The whole world is in now having this critical and
historic dialogue - listening to all kinds of points of view and positions
about going to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation
the world is asking - "Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there
enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to
warrant an attack? What will be the consequences? The costs? What will
happen after a war? How will this set off other conflicts? What might be
peaceful alternatives? What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of?
What are the real intentions for declaring war?"
All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of
the United Nations Security Council, the body that was established in 1949
for exactly this purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than
fifty years to realize that function, the real function of the U.N. And at
this moment in history - the United Nations is at the center of the stage.
It is the place where these conversations are happening, and it has become
in these last months and weeks, the most powerful governing body on earth,
the most powerful container for the world's effort to wage peace rather than
war. Dr. Muller was almost in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of
this dream.
"We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world
community, are WAGING peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and
we must not let up. It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense
proportions. It has never happened before-never in human history-and it is
happening now-every day every hour-waging peace through a global
conversation. He pointed out that the conversation questioning the validity
of going to war has gone on for hours, days, weeks, months and now more than
a year, and it may go on and on. "We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes,
troops are being moved. Yes, warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor
is angry and upset and spending a billion dollars a day preparing to attack.
But not one shot has been fired. Not one life has been lost. There is no
war. It's all a conversation."
It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in
the most significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in
the history of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever
before-not before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new and
it is a stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and responsibility.
In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being
formed. Russia and China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented
outcome. France and Germany working together to wake up the world to a new
way of seeing the situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history
of the world are taking place - and we are not at war! Most peace
demonstrations in recent history took place when a war was already waging,
sometimes for years, as in the case of Vietnam.
"So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what 'waging
peace' looks like."
No matter what happens, history will record that this is a
new era, and that the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a
global dialogue looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global
community at the legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate to
go to war.
Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of
that nation are being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink,
and allowing all nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision
to go to war or not.
Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York
Times article that pointed out that up until now there has been just
one superpower-the United States, and that that has created a kind of
blindness in the vision of the U.S. But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are
two superpowers: the United States and the merging, surging voice of the
people of the world.
All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert
Muller, one of the great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing
short of a miracle and it is working.
Lynne Twist
San Francisco, CA
