Asia and the Prospects for World Order

Abstract

Three critical unsolved problems, Asian as well as global, confront the world: peace, population, and pollution. Non-violence, economic development, and social justice are needed to solve these problems, which are global in their scope. World order is a workable system of war prevention conceived on a global basis. International institutions capable of keeping the peace are required to achieve it.

There are six major Asian countries or areas capable of affecting developments in Asia: Japan, mainland China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East complex. Of these, only Japan, Israel, and possibly Indonesia are capable of creative action in the sense used by Arnold J. Toynbee. In many Asian areas, hate between adjacent countries is so great that constructive moves for peace are unlikely. Thus, Asia desperately needs world order but is not likely to contribute much toward its achievement. World order, if it comes, will result from widespread disarmament of the super- and middle-sized powers, the growth concurrently of an international peace force, and the creation of international institutions with power to prevent violence and administer justice. Leadership must come from the Soviet Union and the United States, hopefully through the United Nations, or from amplification of the treaties of General and Complete Disarmament filed by the United States and the Soviet Union at Geneva in 1962.

China can be disregarded for the time being as a paper tiger. The Soviet Union is more likely to contribute to world order than the United States, which has become a militaristic nation since the end of World War II. The Germanization of the United States springs from a powerful and highly respected elite corps of military officers who manipulate the youth of the nation through conscription. Much of this is due to the unnecessary involvement of the United States on the land mass of Asia. Withdrawal of American forces from Asia is the place to start in the search for world order.