One World, Many Peaces

Freaky Facts: Worldwide Military Spending Figures

Warning: the following is not for the weak at heart or those easily excitable by all things military. Chinese annual military expenditures have increased 230% since 1998 (guess how this compares to the U.S.), among other freaky facts about national military expenditures around the world.

The following military expenditures figures (from the leading journal Arms Control Today) include all current and capital expenditures on personnel, procurement, operations, maintenance, and research and development for armed forces, defense ministries, and military space activities.

Some freaky facts include: Chinese military expenditure growth dwarfs that of the U.S. over the past decade, by about five times; more money was allocated to the bank bailout than total U.S. military spending for 2008; China's military expenditures will be bigger than that of the British and French combined with ten year at current rates of growth:

Current Trends in Military Expenditures:

• Total world military expenditures in 2008: $1,464 Billion
• Total U.S. military expenditures in 2008: $607 Billion
• Increase in U.S. military expenditures since 1998: 67%
• Total Chinese military expenditures in 2008: $85 Billion
• Increase in Chinese military expenditures since 1998: 230%
• Total French military expenditures in 2008 $66 Billion:
• Increase in French military expenditures since 1998: 4%
• Total British military expenditures in 2008: $65 Billion
• Increase in British military expenditures since 1998: 20%

While the need for defense spending is understandable if in the end undesirable, there is no end to what these funds could do as current events if only a small fraction of them were reallocated towards creating a more peaceful future by peaceful means .

Brazil Reasserts its Regional Leadership Role by Moderating Honduran Crisis

 

The drama surrounding the fate of disputed Honduran premier Manual Zelaya took an unexpected turn when he bunkered down in a Brazilian embassy on Monday. As world leaders condemned the interim government of his rival Roberto Micheletti, who took power after Zelaya fled during a constitutional crisis related to extending his term in late June, many believe that this is one more move by which Brazil is reasserting its regional leadership role.

 

According to Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a consultancy based in New York: "If Brasil can somehow find the key to peaceful, prompt resolution, they will win major plaudits, and many will begin to see Brazil as the new arbiter of hemispheric issues." Argentina held this position at the turn of the 20th century, and it may be that Brazil is already at the turn of our own. Still, a smart place to start would be to deal with the violence outside the embassy. Regardless, no economy in South America can match that of Brazil, perhaps the ultimate source of its clout.

During the ongoing gathering of world leaders at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he asked Zelaya to not give the Honduran military any pretext to resort to violence, according to the Associated Press. "We can't accept that for political differences people think they have the right to depose a democratically-elected president," he said. Brazil is already known worldwide for its strong diplomatic corps, and its star football/soccer players often act as goodwill ambassadors. Brazil also successfully mediated a border dispute between Peru and Ecuador in 1998.

 

Brazil is not a stranger to the international peacemaking spotlight. It belonged to a legendary group actually called the ABCs (Argentina, Brazil, Columbia) who brokered several ceasefires over the course of two decades. Brazil also belongs to the up-and-coming economic megapower group called BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's biggest city, is also looking to host the 2016 Olympics in steep competition with Chicago, and will host the World Cup of Football (soccer) in 2014. Although these events lie in the future, their success may depend at least in part on current events.

 

With Missile Shield Shelved, Global Détente Appears Underway

The benevolent boulder that was President Obama's momentous announcement last week that the U.S. will abandon George W. Bush's planned missile shield in Eastern Europe has already begun a massive series of ripples across all the globe's oceans. The move is, arguably, the first from Obama's Washington to actually put Cold War-Bush rhetoric and policies behind us, but also to dive head first into the unknown. Yet, a special period known as the détente (after the French word for "relaxation") during the Cold War can serve as a insightful pivot point.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the superpower U.S. and U.S.S.R. entered into a period of more open communication and less explicit aggression known as the détente. Three treaties led the way, all related to nuclear missiles: the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty. Despite ongoing proxy wars like Vietnam, the two superpowers at least pretended to want to get along. The détente fizzled slowly over the course of the decade, and was put to rest even before President Ronald Reagan announced his plans for a atmospheric missile shield dubbed "Star Wars."

 

 

Others date the end of the Cold War détente when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Today's global détente seems to be going in reverse from. A missile shield that never was will, as Obama announced, not be. His Russian counterpart, President Medvedev, called the move "courageous" as if taken aback, and may now be incentivized to halt the recent arms deal with Venezuela, triggered by U.S. military buildup in Columbia. Israel has leaked through Russia that it has no plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, one of the missile shield's main purposes, and even Israel and Iran suddenly seem more willing to talk about their most serious issues.

One major difference and problem with Obama's declaration is that it was done wholly unilaterally, seemingly catching all other parties involved and bystanders by surprise. Whether or not this reinforces or chips away at the imagined omnipotence of the sole remaining superpower (at least before China's and India's middle classes climax) cannot, of course, be determined yet. Still, the parallel with the Cold War détente is palpable and gives reason for hope as a current event creating the future.

Peace One Day Video by Antony Adolf on Peace: A World History

In celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21st (Gandhi's birthday), the star-studded Peace One Day campaign is holding an inspirational peace video contest. Along with contributions by Angelina Jolie, Ban Ki Moon, Paul McCartney, Jude Law, Alanis Morissette, Lenny Kravitz and many others, here is the inspirational video by Antony Adolf on Peace: A World History: 

 

 

Looking for a way to building peace on September 21? Thousands of events and activities in your community and around the world are available here. Want to share your experience with the world afterwards? Then Speak Your Peace!with One World, Many Peaces.

More peace-related videos can be found at One World, Many Peaces TV on YouTube. We hope you make your September 21st a current event creating a future of peace.

Will Japan Remain a U.S. Colony?

In a provocative article entitled "Will Japan Become a Chinese Colony?," Forbes' weekly Asia columnist and author of the recently released The Coming Collapse of China, Gordon G. Chan, suggests that it will unless the U.S. does something about it. I believe a more pertinent question to be "Will Japan Remain a U.S. Colony?," with the answer being not if its new government has its way.  Potential changes in the U.S. mercenary and/or defense force in Japan reveals an assumption Chang, and U.S. policy makers, seems to make.

U.S. Admiral Timothy Keating, who heads the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command covering East Asia, is in his own words "very confident, almost certain, that there will be -- maybe some discussions about certain aspects of US-Japan military alliance -- but writ large no significant change." Speaking in Washington at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, Keating was preparing for a meeting with Japan's new government, lead by the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan.

The U.S. currently has some 47,000 troops in Japan, there since the end ofWorld War Two (1949). Bases are spread throughout the country, but over half the U.S. presence is on the small island of Okinawa. Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's new prime minister who recently trounced the government which has ruled since 1955, has in the past encouraged a move of U.S. troops from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam. Insofar as U.S. military presence is concerned, there is little difference between "U.S. territory" and "colony," if there is any with "Japan."

Keating called Japan the "strategic lynchpin for us [the U.S.] in the Western Pacific." Hatoyama has made it clear that he wants to strengthen ties with China, presumably at the expense of the U.S. This is why Chang asks if Japan will become a Chinese colony, overlooking the fact that militarily at least Japan remains and is likely to remain a U.S. colony. In any case, debating a potential historic pivot for Japan from the U.S. to China overlooks the fact that as a current event creating the future, Japan is and is likely to remain a U.S. colony militarily