Shalom! to the Peace movement. It's ill, incomplete, and broken -without global health.

 Health to Rotary International.  With out it...it will rest in Peace.

Rotary should package its "Service above Self" in the context of HEALTH, not PEACE.
At the end of this rant is the ChatGPT definition of Shalom. 

THE FOUR WAY TEST

Of everything we think, say, or do? 

Is it the TRUTH?  

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICAL to all concerned?

 Know that the word Everything is an autological word...meaning exactly ‘everything’.

Consider your personal Rotarian support regarding these two statements below regarding our commitment to best serve humanity - and actually achieve our commitment for engineering a more just and sustainable world we all hope for, know is possible, and most consistent with Rotary’s current 7 pillars of service.

 
1.  The global PEACE Movement will finally work if Rotary can redefine the word Peace and have all peace efforts within each Peace organization within every nation, agreeing to the 8 pillars Rotary has now chosen.  

 Is it the TRUTH?  

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICAL to all concerned?

 

Consider these current world dilemmas regarding violence.

·        In 1948 the UN Charter put into ‘international law’ its highest priority of protecting the national sovereignty of nation states - and that nations would not take land from others by force.  And with that, it non-democratically created the Security Council and established its veto power to the winners of that war.

·        More wars occurred over the last 20 years than occurred in 60 years after the end of World War II.

·        Ukraine/Russia permanent peace agreement.  And Russia keeping it?

·        Ukraine/Russia cease fire agreement.  And Russia keeping it?

·        Israel/Gaza permanent peace agreement.  And Israel keeping it without taking more Palestinian land in the West Bank.

·        Two state solution regarding Isreal and Palestinians.

·        Gang control in Haiti killing, kidnapping, and raping civilians, policeman, and Peacekeepers in Haiti.

·        An end to the global war on terrorism (a tactic of the less powerful).

·        An end to drone, cyber, bio, chemical, autonomous weapons, or use of conventional weapons like car/truck bombs, or used for ramming crowds...

·        11,000 to 13,000 children under the age of 5 dying every day from easily preventable poverty related malnutrition and infectious diseases even when there is no war, genocide, or natural disaster.

·        War in Sudan

·        Evolution of weapon systems

·        Genocides

·        Elimination of all nuclear weapons.

·        Holding war criminals accountable.

·        Peace is an ambiguous word that means vastly different things to people.

·        There are different levels of peace (personal, community, homeland, global...

·        Most people and most nations strongly believe in Peace through strength.

·        Others believe peace is possible through disarmament, non-violence, or just getting enough people to take one -of the four -Peace education courses linked to Rotary International (The Peace Game, Rotary’s Positive Peace course, Peace Education,  

·      In the 2024 (18th addition) of the “Global Peace Index which ranks 163 independent states and territories covering 99.7% of the world‘s population” “uses 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators from highly respected sources and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of societal safety insecurity, the extent of ongoing to domestic international conflicts, and the degree of militarization.” 

It is produced by “the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)...the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness”. 

The 2024 “report finds that many of the conditions that precede major conflicts are higher than they have been since the end of the Second World War. There are currently 56 active conflicts, the most since the end of Second World War, and with fewer conflicts being resolved, either military or through peace agreements.  The number of conflicts that ended in a decisive victory fell from 49% in the 1970s to 9% in the 2010s, while conflicts that ended through peace agreements fell from 23% to 4% over the same period.”

“Conflicts are also becoming more internationalized, with 92 countries now engaged in a conflict beyond their borders, the most since the inception of the GPI in 2008, complicating negotiation processes for a lasting peace and prolonging conflicts. The internationalization of conflict is driven by increased great power competition and the rise of mid-level powers, who are becoming more active in their regions. Although the measures of militarization had been improving for the first 16 years of the GPI, the trend has now reversed and in 2024 militarization deteriorated in 108 countries.”

“The combination of these factors means that the likelihood of another major conflict is higher than any time since the inception of GPI.”  Since the Peace education day that I studied for and attended every session in Calgary in June 2025, Rotary is no longer working with IEP.  The reason why has yet been given.

·  

2.  A global HEALTH Movement can best prevent the greatest number of human deaths, the most human suffering, and protection of environmental systems.

Is it the TRUTH?  

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICAL to all concerned?

Consider these current global health problems, threats, and costs in human lives, productivity, and environmental sustainability.

Smallpox that took the lives of over 300 million people in just 70 years of the last century, until a global campaign succeeded in its global eradication in only 10 years.

Polio eradication (initially launched by a Rotary Club in the Philippines eventually went global and is now 99% complete after missing its original year 2000 deadline.  Since then, there have been six major “global deadlines” set (2000, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2018, 2020) but not achieved.  The next is 2026 but some Rotary leaders believe this will not be achieved unless the world achieves most of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals with their target date being 2030.  So far under 20% of those goals established in 2015 have been met.  

Measles: Returning because of distrust in science and vital governing institutions.

Covid: Always changing and evolving...but we do not. And our governance systems don’t either.

Bird Flu: Likely our next pandemic.

Bioweapons development and capacity to target specific genetic differences.

Cyber vulnerability to hospitals, water treatment, food transportation, electricity for ________ (related to food production, health prevention and treatments).  

Mental health: We can believe anything...and everything we think.  With little change.

Truth decay:  Our personal and political truths are lethal without objective Truths.

Drug Addiction: Our mind’s aversion to the discomforts we need to grow resilience to survive and thrive.

Obesity:  Filling our stomach with feel good foods that sicken and kill us while busting our nation’s budget with a medical care system that does not do prevention.

Micro Plastics: 

Forever Chemicals: Evolved from Teflon...trying to make life easier.

Processed foods:  Our addiction to sugar and salt, and feeling good while we eat, but feeling bad later as body systems are poisoned.

ROOT CAUSES!  What are the “root causes” of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? President Trump avoided the question during press overage of the negotiation... to stop the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people in Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers conscripted for Russia’s illegal war to enlarge its nation.

Root causes are what one looks for - if they are serious about prevention. Or looking for what went wrong to prevent another crisis.  Doing this may be the most cost effective investment known to life on this precious planet. A root cause is a mental concept that can be applied to any problematic issue.  Be it health, wars, genocide, environmental destruction, or broken relationships.

But President Trump is interested in looking good regardless of the cost to others, or consequences down the road.  And even if he admitted it was Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, that would not be a root cause.  You might suggest it was Putin’s desire to rebuild a Soviet Union but that is only one step closer.  Still nowhere near the original cause. 

Some logically say it was Biden‘s fault for not going ‘all in’ and demanding Russian leave Ukraine or sufficiently arm Ukrainians to do it on their own.  Putin’s threat of nuclear war blunted that possibility.  Yet we are nowhere near the root cause.

Deeper thinking minds have asserted that war is human nature - and wars will never stop. Truth is, primates will always fight, but it is only Homo sapiens that create mental identities of nationalism, religion, or economic systems - and then decide to kill and die in mass numbers -  trying to protect their minds cherished beliefs. And ignoring the Truth of humankind is one family, now with the global means of mass destruction that can end civilization as we know it - if not our own species. 

So human nature is not the root cause.  But our mental defect is. 

Over the last 5000 to 7000 years our creative minds invented concepts as a way of enlarging and bonding our tribe together.

And it is our mental resistance to creating a global governance system where the rule of law replaces the law of force.    

The system we have now puts the protection of nation states (the concept of national sovereignty) which allows governments to do anything they want, anytime they want, to whomever they want, within their own borders.  And if they have nuclear weapons are powerful military’s they can do whatever they want beyond their own borders to anyone they want, if they think they can get away with it.  

This is what both Putin and the Israeli government are doing.

It’s the same the United States has done many times.  In 2003 invasion of Iraq or its recent bombing of Iran’s nuclear power facilities.

This ‘system’ ‘originated about 400 years ago with the treaty of Westphalia. And in 1948 it was cemented into “International law” within the United Nations by the nations who won World War II. The United Nations charter is a defective global governance system like what the United States created with its constitution 11 years after the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution gave States power over the protection of human rights.  This led to the US Civil War that killed about 700,000 Americans. That’s more deaths than the US lost in all the wars we have fought in since then combined.   

But this is not a mental health issue we think about.  And our collective lack of understanding that ‘we the people’ on this amazing planet do have the agency and capacity to insist that our leaders and our nations put the protection of human rights and the environment above the protection of national sovereignty.

This would likely end wars between nations.  But there would still more people dying each year from infectious disease related to poverty and malnutrition - than from all the wars, revolutions, genocide, pandemics, violent extremist, weather conditions combined.

To stop this hidden holocaust and end our insanity we must look the root cause of our own unexamined assumptions - that this dysfunctional system cannot be changed. 

Trying to explain this to highly intelligent people is like trying to tell someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s that their mind isn’t working right. Most simply cannot be convinced they are out of touch with reality.   There’s a medical and mental health term specifically for this blindness to reality. Anosognosia.

For over 70 years, Albert Einstein and other wise individuals wanted to create a world, Federation.  But people rightfully feared a global government for religious or rational reasons.  Because governments have killed more of their own people by genocide than their own people killed in wars, they have fought in.

Over the last century, approximately 100 million people were killed in wars.  But over 160 million were killed in genocides by their own governments.

Consider Smallpox alone took over 300 million lives in just 70 years of the last century.  That possibly existed for two centuries.  But it was a global effort that eradicated it saving millions of lives and billions of dollars still, annually.   

Humanity is not going to create a world, Federation or any government that is going to put the protection of human rights and the environment above the protection of each nation’s government.

So, the next best thing is to fund the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that were globally approved in 2015 to be achieved by 2030.  This is affordable and achievable and would best protect most human rights.  Clean water, safe sanitation, adequate nutrition, basic education, and primary healthcare can be purchased if businesses want to keep capitalism, profit making, and their own communities sustainable.

Given the costs economically and of lives lost by wars nations have been fighting, and the pandemic, environmental destruction, genocides and the evolution of terrorism, it would be incredibly wise to address these root causes by funding a 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

We must make the health of people and the environment a priority.  Not Peace, for which there is no definition everyone can agree on.  But everyone wants Health for the things we all need.

SHALOM: After writing all of the above, I asked ChatGPT for a literal definition of the Jewish word Shalom.  Its answer:

The Hebrew word “shalom” (שָׁלוֹם) comes from the root sh-l-m (ש-ל-ם), which means to be whole, complete, or sound.  So, the literal definition of shalom is:

• Wholeness
• Completeness
• Well-being
• Peace (as the state that comes from wholeness, not just the absence of conflict)

That’s why shalom is used both as a greeting (“hello/goodbye”) and as a blessing — it’s wishing someone wholeness, harmony, and health in all aspects of life.

[next I asked ChatGPT  “So it looks like the word health is the most comprehensive meaning”  Its response]

Exactly — you’ve put your finger on something important.  If we trace shalom back to its root meaning (“wholeness, intactness”), the closest single English word is health.

• In older English, health didn’t just mean “not sick.” It meant whole, sound, complete — the same sense as shalom.
• From that wholeness, you naturally get the sense of peace, harmony, prosperity, safety, and well-being.

So yes — while peace is the common translation, health (wholeness of body, mind, community, and spirit) may actually be the most comprehensive meaning.

 Would you like me to map out a little diagram showing how shalom → health → peace/prosperity/safety are all connected?

 [YES!  That would be interesting. Please do.]

 Here’s a simple text diagram you can copy and paste anywhere. It shows how the root meaning of “shalom” branches out into related ideas:

                 SHALOM (שָׁלוֹם)

                   "Wholeness / Completeness"

                              │

                              ▼

                          HEALTH

              (soundness of body, mind, and spirit)

 

         ┌─────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────┐

         ▼                                     ▼                                    ▼                                        ▼

     PEACE                         PROSPERITY                     SAFETY                         WELL-BEING

 (harmony, no                 (flourishing,                   (security,                        (inner calm,

  conflict)                      fullness of life)            freedom from harm)       contentment,

                                                                                                                           harmony)

  

The purpose of government...has yet to be applied

 “Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.” - Robert LeFevre 

"Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”   Thomas Paine, Common Sense.  Published Feb. 14, 1776. 

"The function of the true state is to impose the minimum restrictions and safeguard the maximum liberties of the people, and it never regards the person as a thing." -- Immanuel Kant  (1724-1804) German philosopher

"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve."  -- Henry George  (1839-1897) American political economist    Source: The Functions of Government, Social problems, vol 12,  (1884)

“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good and difficult for them to do evil.”   William Ewart Gladstone  

“The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion—it is an evil government.”  – Eric Hoffer’

"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."  -- Andrew Jackson  (1767-1845) 7th US President    Source: July 10, 1832, Veto of the Bank Bill

“Reason is the life of the law.”  Edward Coke 

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." Confucius

“The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people." Frank Kent

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."   -- Benjamin Franklin   (1706-1790) US Founding Father

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."   -- James Madison   (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President    Source: to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”  – Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."  -- Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778) French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil"   -- Thomas Mann  (1875-1955) German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature (1929)

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness."  -- Thomas Paine  (1737-1809) US Founding father, pamphleteer, author     Source:  "Common Sense"

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

'If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." Paul Wellstone

"People only see what they are prepared to see.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson - (1803-1882) American essayist, poet

“Rights precede government.”  – Sheldon Richman, "TGIF: Free Speech Upsets Powers that Be" [2023]

America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the the inextiguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government.   — John Quincy Adams, Address [July 4, 1821]

"We are corrupted by prosperity.  And when the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied."  -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus  (c.55-c.120 A.D.) Senator and a historian of the Roman Empire

"Government requires make-believe. Make believe that the king is divine, make believe that he can do no wrong or make believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Make believe that the people have a voice or make believe that the representatives of the people are the people. Make believe that governors are the servants of the people. Make believe that all men are created equal or make believe that they are not."  -- Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013)

"Life, faculties, production -- in other words, individuality, liberty, property -- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation and are superior to it."  -- Frederic Bastiat  (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848    Source: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1848)

But what is needed for a satisfactory solution of the burning problem of international relations is neither a new office with more committees, secretaries, commissioners, reports, and regulations, nor a new body of armed executioners, but the radical overthrow of mentalities and domestic policies which must result in conflict.  – Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944]

The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.” Ludwig von Mises, Chapter III: Etatism

"Through the rapid proliferation of laws reaching every corner of human 

existence, the government is manufacturing more criminals now than ever before.” -- Jonathan H. Adler   Tyranny Now, LIBERTY, p. 55, November, 1994.

Existing government systems and structures in the US and globally have not heeded the wise words of Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet “Common Sense”.  He was certain that the only legitimate “design and end of government’ is the protection of people’s “freedom and security”.   

“If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?

Congress?”  Men's restroom. House of Representatives, Washington, DC

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.   — Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

“It is not by the intermeddling of ... the omniscient and omnipotent State, but by the prudence and energy of the people, that England has hitherto been carried forward in civilization; and it is to the same prudence and the same energy that we now look with comfort and good hope. Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest.     – Thomas Babington Macaulay, Southey's Colloquies on Society [1830]

If the ruling power in America possessed both . . . the right to issue orders of all kinds but also the capability and habit of carrying out those orders; if it not only laid down general principles of government but also concerned itself with the details of applying those principles; and if it dealt not only with the country's major interests but also descended to the limit of individual interests, then liberty would soon be banished from the New World.  — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835]  [apply quote to our global level!!!] 

"It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. ... We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving them, not reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? ... We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer."   -- Ronald Reagan  (1911-2004) 40th US President   Source: First Inaugural Address, 1981

From Reaction to Prevention. Make Health, not Peace our core objective.

From Reaction to Prevention: A Call for the Peace Movement to Transform into a Global Health Movement and prioritize achieving the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Inspired by Disrupt Science: The Future Matters  (Mihai Nadin, 2023)

 “Reaction to breakdowns is more expensive, by many orders of magnitude, than prevention… The living is by necessity anticipatory.”  — Mihai Nadin

For decades, the global peace movement has mobilized after violence erupts—calling for ceasefires, organizing protests, and responding to refugee crises. Yet wars, genocides, and political violence continue, often increasing in scale and frequency, but fortunately with fewer casualties.

In 2024, there were 61 active state-based conflicts, the highest since 1946.

Since 2010, the number of such conflicts has nearly doubled, and battle-related deaths have increased fivefold, even with temporary fluctuations.

In 2023, the total was 59 conflicts—also at historically high levels.

Organized violence in 2024 claimed nearly 160,000 lives, making it the fifth-deadliest year since 1989.  In 2023, conflict-related deaths reached approximately 122,000, driven by fights in Ukraine, Gaza, and Ethiopia’s Tigray region. 

Civilians are increasingly targeted: in 2024, 13,900 civilians were killed in one-sided or targeted attacks, a 31% increase from the year prior.  In Gaza and Lebanon, 94% of the 26,000 casualties in 2024 were civilians or unidentified.

In urban conflicts, roughly 50–66% of casualties are civilians, depending on how “unknowns” are treated.

Historical patterns & genocides. 

Compared to the 20th century, conflict deaths dropped post–World War II, with spikes in the 1970s/80s (up to 300,000 annually); since then levels stayed lower—aside from recent surges in regions like Ukraine, Ethiopia, and the Middle East.

The Human Security Report 2005 noted a 40% decline in armed conflicts since the early 1990s and an 80% reduction in genocides between 1998 and 2001—but high-intensity conflicts persist.

The Darfur genocide (2003–2005) resulted in an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 deaths, primarily civilians.

The Sudan genocide amid civil war (2023–present) and the Masalit massacres reflect ongoing genocidal violence, with tens of thousands killed—Masalit fatalities in particular range from 10,000 to 136,000.

 

Summary Table

Period / Region	Conflicts (State-Based)	Total Deaths	Civilian Deaths & Notes
2000 early 2000s	Decline noted	Lower than prior decades	Genocides decreased by ~80% by 2001
2010 vs. now	Nearly doubled	Deaths ~50%	Civilians increasingly targeted
2023	59 conflicts	~122,000 deaths	High civilian toll in Ukraine, Gaza
2024	Historic peak: 61 conflicts	~160,000 deaths	13,900 civilian-targeted deaths (+31%)
Darfur (2003-05)	Genocidal event	200,000- 300,000 deaths	Majority were civilians
Sudan (2023-present)	Genocidal campaigns	10,000-136,000 civilians	Ethnic targeting Masalit massacres

Because peace efforts have been largely reactive—addressing the symptoms of conflict, not its causes conflicts are surging both in frequency and complexity, with state involvement and non-state actors overlapping and rising.

Total fatalities remain alarmingly high, especially among civilians; the risk from organized violence is climbing rather than declining.  Thus, preventive strategies and protection—especially safeguarding civilians and healthcare services—must be a top priority given the rising trend of deliberate targeting.  Especially given the record numbers of attacks on medical infrastructure and personnel.

The ideal path is prevention as the peace actually intended by the Peace movement. Peace lovers can be forgiven for this reactionary thinking.  But not if such thinking persists.  Drawing from Nadin’s anticipatory systems theory, there must be a strategic and tactical pivot: The peace movement transforming into a global health movement—focused not on the absence of war, but prioritizing progress in health (mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, government, economics...).

Like disease, violence has causes—poverty, exclusion, misinformation, trauma, resource scarcity, flawed beliefs and dysfunctional governance and economic systems. These causes are identifiable, measurable, and preventable.

War, like cancer, is often predictable and increasingly aggressive. The longer we wait to act, the more expensive, deadly, and widespread it becomes.

Reframing Peace as Global Health:

Traditional Peace Movement	Peace as Global Health Movement
Ceasefires after war	Prevention before war
Protest against violence	Investment in equity & nutrition
Humanitarian aid post-crisis	Early education, mental health, and social resilience
Diplomacy & treaties	Just governance, truth-telling, inclusive economies

Remember that the single greatest human achievement accomplished in just 10 years was the global eradication of Smallpox.  This global infectious disease had killed over 300 million people in just 70 years of the last century.  That was more human deaths lost in that whole century from wars, revolutions, genocides and murders combined.  And even now 11,000 to 13,000 children under the age of five die each DAY from easily preventable malnutrition and related infectious diseases. This death toll is about 3 times the pace of death in Hitler’s concentration camps - and does not include current daily child deaths from wars, genocides, pandemics, or natural disasters.  And they are not news. Yet these preventable deaths are a primary driver of conflicts.  The loss of a child, even a parent’s fear of losing one - from any cause -is greatest terror of all human experiences.  Yet they are ignored by most progressive organizations and their greater movements.

This calls on peace organizations, foundations, governments, and other progressive movements to champion global health by adopting an anticipatory framework using data and lived experience to identify and intervene before conflict ignites.

Making wise investments in the social determinants of peace like primary health care, food security, basic education, climate resilience/restoration, and justice -

Framing the ambiguous word of peace which can mean many different outcomes for different entities into the language of public health: Prevention, early intervention, systems care, and holistic well-being.

Ideally, progressive movements would align and develop a unified strategy to prioritize a holistic and comprehensive effort to fund the UN 17 SDGs to best achieve the 169 subgoals within them, by educating the public that the peace most progressives image must be far more than a historic slogan.  Health is ambiguous.  It is a measurable, proactive process, and achievable - just like disease prevention when minimal resources are committed.  Just as medicine evolved from crisis response to preventive health, the peace movement must evolve and adapt from its reactionary or preemptive efforts of protests to prevention.  From managing symptoms to strengthening all of life’s vital systems.

“At stake is the future of humankind and even of life on planet Earth.” — Mihai Nadin

Stop treating peace as the absence of war, - or trying to redefine Peace, an ambiguous word even before our polarized era, accelerating Truth decay, and agreeing on anything locally, nationally, or globally.   Start referencing peace as the bearing of health, justice, and foresight to all threats to human freedom and security.

The challenge of overcoming the prevailing global and political mindset of “peace through strength” will be easier, cheaper, faster, and more effective than any a new effort to redefine peace.  Humankind’s well-being through prevention— via global health, compassion, and systemic solutions is possible by a united progressive movement of movements.

Resources.

BOOK:  Disrupt Science: The Future Matters by Mihai Nadin (published November 19, 2023)

 Mihai Nadin argues that our current scientific paradigm is too focused on reductionism—breaking things down into parts—and reactive responses like treating disease only after it appears. That way of thinking, while powerful in engineering and data-driven tech like AI, often overlooks the complexity and adaptive nature of life itself. 

 Life—from bacteria to humans—is inherently anticipatory: organisms act in ways that prepare for future changes rather than merely reacting. This anticipatory intelligence is non‑deterministic and emergent, shaped by memory, creativity, and awareness of consequences. Humanity’s future depends on embracing this complexity instead of relentlessly pursuing progress at any cost. 

Nadin calls for a “Second Revolution in Science”: a shift that completes what he terms the Cartesian Revolution by integrating meaning, ethics, and anticipation back into scientific inquiry. Instead of building ever more powerful machines and accumulating data for its own sake, science must rediscover how to interpret data through purpose—and prevent breakdowns before they happen. This is especially urgent in light of global crises like pandemics and climate challenges. 

 His core ideas:  “Reaction to breakdowns is more expensive, by many orders of magnitude, than prevention… The living is by necessity anticipatory.” 

 “Anticipatory actions are expressed through non‑deterministic processes that unfold in concert with reactions. They engage the wholeness of life, including its interactions with the environment.” 

 “The moment of truth can no longer be postponed. At stake is the future of humankind you and even of life on planet Earth.” 

 “A ‘Second Revolution in Science’ could unleash humanity’s remaking, free of surrendering to want… Science has the opportunity not only to measure everything—life included—and accumulate data and process it for its own sake, but also to realize its meaning.” 

 The peace movement must shift from reaction to prevention.  Why wait for disasters when anticipating them would be smarter and cheaper?  

Embrace complexity and meaning: Move from typical progressive simplicity to objective science to understand reality to achieve real and sustainable progress.

Ethics and foresight underscores the fundamental flaws within the Peace movement’s reliance on the ambiguous word of Peace.  Without a clear and deep reflection of the causes of violence and other even greater threats to human freedom and security, current conditions will only worsen.

The context of Disrupt Science nails the peace movements’ shortcomings in their failure to anticipate and effectively address the root causes of war, genocide, and systemic violence. Combined with the greater lethality of infectious diseases related to poverty (clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, access to basic health services and education make the need for championing health instead of peace even more relevant.

Mihai Nadin’s central argument is that life is inherently anticipatory.  He provides a powerful critique of how modern systems (including science, politics, and social movements) repeatedly react to crises instead of preventing them with direct implications for the global peace movement.

Traditional peace advocacy over the decades grows after violence erupts. Demands for ceasefire calls and caring for refugees’ spike, with a focus on diplomacy or protests while largely ignoring the need to dismantle the systemic and structural drivers of violence (like the powerless United Nations to stop wars and genocides or effectively address inequality, resource plundering, border disputes, or identity manipulation.  Promoting “peace” primarily as the absence of war, rather than the presence of justice, foresight regarding the value of healthy literate people, and sustainable security and environmental systems.

Nadin’s anticipatory framework challenges this reactive model when he writes, “Reaction to breakdowns is more expensive, by many orders of magnitude, than prevention.”

Wars and genocides are not spontaneous.  They are predictable given the flawed global governance and economic systems, or the ignored warning signs like exclusion, propaganda, wealth hoarding, ecological collapse, authoritarianism, and historic grievances.

Preventable conditions relying on science, not hope. This is what Nadin’s science of anticipation calls for.  Early detection of systemic stress—political, environmental, social, psychological.  Intervention before escalation, like adequate food supply, clean water, sanitation, access to primary health services, living wage jobs giving citizens and families basic dignity.  Similar to how a vaccine prevents disease, a focus on public, economic, and environmental health prevents wars, genocides, and corruption.   This new health movement requires a holistic and comprehensive approach that was intended in 1948 with the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that must now be accomplished by achieving the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  A global advocacy effort uniting the three basic progressive movements (Peace, Environment, & economic/social Justice) and the tens of thousands of organizations within each prioritizing advocacy for funding all 17 goals simultaneously. By integrating ethics, history, cost savings, compassion, and creativity into advocacy for one global policy for human health and a sustainable environment.

A united movement that invests in early childhood development, food security, climate resilience, media literacy, inclusive governance, and justice that embraces our global complexity and interdependence. Not just “peace talks” and clever slogans with regular sound bites about wars costs in blood and coin.

Nadin asserts “The living is by necessity anticipatory.”  And if the peace movements treated societies like living systems, they’d see the peace they have always dreamed of, preventing violence before it appears, while saving more lives and dollars than the disarmament and the banning of weapons they have wasted so much time primarily focused on.

Nadin’s call for a “Second Revolution in Science” that includes meaning and ethics, means the priority of health trumps the call for peace.  This is the revolution the progressive movements must urgently align on.  The Peace movement must adapt and go from: “Stop this war!”  To “Prevent the next one by confronting its roots now.”  From: “Negotiate a ceasefire.” To: “Transform the systems that make violence inevitable.”

This moment of Truth can no longer be postponed. At stake is the future of humankind and perhaps most life on Earth.

Environmental health linked to Human health and security are also benefited by achieving the UN 17 Sustainable Development goals.

 2.     AN EMERGENT PLANETARY HEALTH LAW    ERIC C IP*

Abstract: The health of the planet and its life forms are under threat from anthropogenic climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, and the extreme weather events, heatwaves and wildfires that accompany them. The burgeoning field of planetary health studies the interplay between humanity and the Earth’s biosphere and ecosystems on which human health depends. Scholarship on law from a planetary health vantage point remains scarce. This article fills this gap by delineating the conceptual building blocks of a planetary health law, which, in its latent form, is dispersed across various hard and soft sources of international environmental law and global health law that converge on the right to a healthy environment, and, to a lesser extent, rights of nature emerging in various domestic jurisdictions. It elucidates how the fragmented regimes of international environmental and global health law could be developed in more coherent ways, driven by an overarching concern for the integrity of the planetary foundations of life. 

INTRODUCTION:  For millennia, during the geological epoch known as the Holocene, humanity thrived on the Earth’s clean air, freshwater, and generally stable climate and temperatures.  Since the dawn of what is being increasingly referred to as the Anthropocene epoch around the time of the Industrial Revolution, the manifold planetary crises of climate change, widespread air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, and the reconfiguration of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus have been culminating into an existential threat to the well-being of children now living. Major achievements in global health since the end of World War II could easily be reversed as rainfall patterns change, temperatures rise and extreme weather events happen more frequently.  Countless people have succumbed to rapid changes in precipitation and temperature, for example.

The growing science of planetary health studies how political, economic and social forces across human societies shape the biophysical dimensions of Earth, which in turn determine population health and the enjoyment of human rights. From the vantage point of planetary health, humans are part and parcel of the planet’s life systems, not separate from them, and the flourishing of humanity within safe ‘planetary boundaries’ should take precedence over short-term economic and political considerations.  Underlying the perspective of planetary health is the principle that humans ought to ‘conserve, sustain, and make resilient the planetary and human systems on which health depends by giving priority to the wellbeing of all’.  Studies of law from a planetary health point of view remain surprisingly rare and underdeveloped. This article fills a gap in the literatures on both planetary health and law by setting out a conceptual account of planetary health law, which fosters the reinterpretation of existing, albeit fragmented and under-coordinated, norms in a more coherent way. When this is impossible, it can help understanding of how the existing regimes of international environmental and global health law, understood broadly as encompassing both ‘hard law’ and ‘soft law’, should be integrated in a way that is driven by an overarching concern for rights, be they the rights of humans or the rights of nature.

* Professor, Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China, ericcip@hku.hk. This study was partly supported by the Outstanding Young Researcher Award of The University of Hong Kong. The author is grateful to anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful comments and the International & Comparative Law Quarterly editors for their editorial work. All errors remain my own. 1 D Schimel, Climate and Ecosystems (Princeton University Press 2013) 51. 2 S Whitmee et al, ‘Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch: Report of the Rockefeller–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health’ (2015) 386(10007) Lancet 1973, 1974.  3 See PJ Crutzen and EF Stoermer, ‘The “Anthropocene” (2000)’ in S Benner et al (eds), Paul J. Crutzen and the Anthropocene: A New Epoch in Earth’s History (Springer 2021) 19. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of British Institute of International and Comparative Law. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. [ICLQ vol 72, October 2023 pp 1047–1067] doi:10.1017/S0020589323000325

3.  The summary of a 1980 U.S. bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger put global development in the context of US national security.  It specifically warned ...“The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair, and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order… Neither the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical global threats… [measurable] or not... this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”

They concluded “promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S. national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. [WE] consider this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”

We are now experiencing consequences of ignoring those warnings.   Specifically increases in “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide, human trafficking…).   Combined, we see these global forces today continuing to fuel the authoritarian populist movements around the world.   Governments' “self-interests” can no longer be more important than humanity's potential to thrive and survive in the face of these accelerating threats.