As Living Memory of World War II Fades, Its Lessons Are Being Forgotten
It is customary to start the year with predictions of what will happen in the 12 months ahead. From the implications of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House, to the potentially transformative effects of new technologies, there is much that lies ahead in 2025. But perhaps the most important aspects of the year to come are not the events that will occur, but past events that will be commemorated. Specifically, this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and, relatedly, the founding of the United Nations.
When the U.N. was formed by the signing of the U.N. Charter in 1945, the name referred to the coalition formed in January 1942 to defeat Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. The primary members of that coalition—the U.S., the U.K., the Soviet Union, China and France’s government-in-exile—comprised the key members of the new institution’s primary decision-making body, the Security Council. Given that previous great power concerts, from the Concert of Europe formed after the Napoleonic Wars to the Executive Council of the League of Nations formed after World War I, had faltered or effectively disbanded after perhaps a decade in existence, it is notable that the U.N. Security Council continues to exist.
But is its continued existence enough? The “father” of the U.N., then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s long-serving Secretary of State Cordell Hull, promised it would help secure the peace following the war. Of course, the U.N. has often failed to live up to Hull’s aspiration. Look no further than its continued inability to secure ceasefires in the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But as I wrote back in 2022 when the Security Council was being criticized over its inability to stop or respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “the original purpose of the Security Council was to prevent war between the great powers, not prevent the great powers from waging war.” Given that no major power has gone openly and directly to war with another one in 80 years, that purpose appears to be so far fulfilled.
Another way to reflect on both the U.N. and the broader legacies of World War II is not to assess them from the perspective of today, but from the perspective of the past. If 2025 marks 80 years since the end of World War II and the founding of the U.N., then consider the world 80 years before those events.
To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter.
In 1865, the United States was ending its devastating and bloody Civil War, and China was struggling to emerge from the internal turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion. Germany was not yet unified, with then-Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the middle of his own wars of unification. Japan was only beginning to emerge from isolation. African sovereignties were being conquered by the European empires. Latin America was still a realm of regular interstate war in the shadow of recurrent European and American intervention. As then-U.S. Secretary of State William Seward said about all the events unfolding in the 1860s, “The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.” If Seward had lived to see 1945, he very likely would not have changed this view.
It seems that the opportunity to learn lessons from World War II has been wasted. Or if they were learned at one point, they are now being forgotten.
But what would an observer from 1865 think of 2025? They would not be surprised that nationalism remains a potent force in international affairs. That Ukraine is once again the focal point of war between East and West would also be unsurprising, to observers from both 1865 and 1945. Most notably, they would note that the forceful rewriting of borders, a core characteristic of international politics of the 1800s and early 1900s, remains in vogue. While the notion of territorial integrity and the use of force only for self-defense are the codified cornerstones of the U.N. Charter, territorial conflicts continue to plague the earth. Indeed, the soon-to-be-inaugurated president of the United States is making overtures about territorial expansion in the Western Hemisphere through economic and military coercion.
Stated differently, it seems that the opportunity to learn lessons from World War II has been wasted. Or if they were learned at one point, they are now being forgotten.
As survivors of that war pass from the earth, the memory of its devastation is beginning to wane. This is not a new phenomenon. The political scientist Joshua Goldstein noted that humanity goes through cycles of major wars whose recurrence is attributable, at least in part, to generational change. As the esteemed international relations scholar Quincy Wright noted in the 1940s, “The warrior does not wish to fight again himself and prejudices his son against war, but the grandsons are taught to think of war as romantic.” Indeed, the need to keep salient the first-hand accounts of the horrors associated with nuclear weapons is a key reason the group Nihon Hidankyo received the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
Speaking to the U.N. Security Council on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kenya’s ambassador to the U.N., Martin Kimani, pointed to newly independent African states’ adherence to the U.N. Charter, saying, “We chose to follow the rules of the OAU and the United Nations Charter not because our borders satisfied us but because we wanted something greater forged in peace.” He poignantly described Africans’ resolve to “complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.”
It seems today that humanity may not complete that recovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment