PEACEMOMO’s Third Statement on the War in Ukraine
Innumerable lives suffer and perish in the tragic war taking place in Ukraine. The appearance of the war reflected in the Western media is Russia’s invasion and Ukraine’s resistance. However, the East-West civil war and bloodshed in Ukraine that unfolded since 2014, and the role played by the United States and NATO are also a part of this war.
This war is not between Ukraine and Russia. It is the ongoing global power contest and a military confrontation that could have been avoided and prevented, but has instead turned into a war in Ukraine. The post-Cold War era, not quite as it appeared, was actually a period of preparing and planning for war threats in vulnerable countries. The fundamental winner-takes-all strategy of hegemonic nations has not changed. This war in Ukraine has been predicted, but no one actively tried to prevent or mediate the adversaries. This war is doomed to prolong if this international failure continues.
War is barbarism itself. And just as all conflicts arise from mutual escalations, so too is the responsibility of doing the war. In a situation of heightened military tension, accidental events can trigger a war, but a single incident is not the cause or the major trigger of a war. While we all suffer from this war, we must also pay attention to the fact that war is an outcome of accumulated instigation of hostility, that failure to prevent a war in advance directly causes war, and that there are forces that derive great profits from war. And we have to talk about the great responsibility of those who plan the war and those who move not to stop it, who profit enormously from this barbarism that is taking so many lives. The weapon industries in industrialized countries cannot be ignored out as main beneficiaries of war.
The more profit the military-industrial complex makes, the more the brutality of war we see. And the tragedy is compounded that the innocent and poor people of the world are the first to be sacrificed. On the one hand, we talk about the urgency of solving the climate crisis, but on the other there is no information, monitoring, or efforts to control the carbon emission by this war or all military actions for war. This is uniform around the world. South Korea is no exception.
Humanity has few options left now. What the proxy war of global power confrontation in Ukraine shows is that now we have hit the deadly cross-road of cooperation or common destruction.
Humanity has few options left now. What the proxy war of global power confrontation in Ukraine shows is that now we have hit the deadly cross-road of cooperation or common destruction.
What is most urgent is to immediately stop the current acts of war and prevent further sacrifices. The task of all peace aspiring people is to demand that the United States and NATO negotiate directly with Russia, implement an emergency ceasefire, begin talks on a peace treaty, and sound the alarm about the dangers of escalating this war. This is to prevent a major catastrophe. Pointing the finger at one side makes neither negotiations, truces, nor cooperation possible.
We need to set off a global warning. We need to sound a global alarm about the danger of replacing common life and sustainability with the obsesssion of the interest of ‘my own country’, the danger that predicts more wars. Today there are no wars that are other people’s affairs, no more suffering apart from me, you, or us. Everyone has the responsibility to stop making the choice that degrade the scanty chance for us to choose a better life. Now is the time to set the alarm bell off before it is too late – global military contest will bring us all down.
Compared to what the state does, what citizens do seems weak. But let us recall and remind ourselves that the power to change the world has been triggered by those weak people connecting with each other in larger public sphere. In the era of climate crisis, let us gather strength and announce that there is no time and resources to waste on war. We can talk about the future only when we acknowledge that security should belong to everyone just as peace belongs to everyone. Peace as commons, security as commons!
February 22, 2023.
PEACEMOMO
Feminist Institute for Peace Studies (FIPS)
Trans-Education for Peace Institute (TEPI)
Read PEACEMOMO’s first and second statements on the war in Ukraine.
