The World Army

Nov. 12, 1997

Basis for a Successful Future of the World

by Robert van Harten

The World Army is the symbol that we have outgrown war. The World Army does not want to fight. It is so constituted that is does not have to fight. It compels other armies not to fight. The World Army is the first army that is truly invincible.

A general that wants to become a true general in our times, that is a General, must relinquish the desire to fight. He must feel that a true general feels that fighting is a step down. He has to educate his soldiers that a successful soldier is a soldier that does not have to fight, although he is fully capable to do so. He needs idealistic soldiers, who can become World Army soldiers with a mission. Their mission is to abolish war. They must have the power, feel the power and feel that not using, not expressing the power is the ideal, the fulfilment.

At present we have national armies that do not have anymore a motive to fight. Because there is no motive, there is no willingness, no will to fight. The army is in an impasse. An army without a motive to fight is no army, cannot call itself an army. Still armies are send out to for instance Bosnia or Somalia. If the army fights, soldiers will die. Soldiers can only die for a cause, a national cause. They cannot die, that is do not want to die for a cause that does not concern them. Their mission and training is to defend their country or the stakes of their country. They cannot defend, as it is now, another nation or people, because their emotions will not be released. Without the necessary emotions a soldier cannot fight. He has to fight by order, but when his heart is not in it, it leads to disaster (Vietnam). Not to fight also leads to disaster (Sebrenica). (in Sebrenica a few thousand Bosnian people were murdered after the Dutch peace keeping forces, which were there to protect them, lapsed and gave the enclave over to the enemy forces)

What we need is an army with a motive; an army that can fight for an international cause. Such an army is a World Army. The best example is the united armies that fought in the Gulf War. There we have seen its effectiveness. After the Gulf War it has become clear to all countries with dictatorships that conquering another country, where international stakes are involved, is out of the question. It is courting suicide.

The establishment of a World Army is a necessity in the management of international affairs. A global economy needs the protection of a global army, a World Army. That army will create the necessary stability that supports rapid growth of the world economy. Now that the two blocks of the Cold War are dissolved, it is an opportune time to unite. It is opportune because otherwise there is the danger that new blocks will form in time, that might opt for a competition, a competitive challenge. The hour is now.

The ICPF report "Uncommon Opportunities" that was presented to the United Nations in 1995, speaks of the necessity of World Peace and a World Army as a basis for the future development of the world. Only in peace hunger and poverty can be abolished and full employment realised. Only in peace the whole world can live in and acquire prosperity. Only in peace the human resource can blossom and expand. Peace is the key, it is the perfect starting point to solve all human, social and environmental problems. Human resourcefulness backed by hundreds of millions of highly educated people, backed by computers and Internet that can bring the world’s information resources to every home and workspot, will definitely be able to solve most if not all human, social and environmental problems. At the same time it will open the ways to solve our individual and psychological problems. For how long it will take to discover the true rules of success. At present it is a hotchpotch, because we do not yet know where are the keys, nor where are the locks for the keys. But in the near future we will discover what makes for success and what makes for failure; in business, in our lives, in the economy, in science, in the nation, in all the small moments of our lives. So far success is happening unconsciously or half consciously. We cannot deny that certain companies are very successful and others not. There is a reason, there are reasons on every level. If we know the reasons and follow the right rules, everyone, every company, every nation can make a success of itself.

This is the challenge for the turn of the millennium, the challenge of this hour. It is the most rewarding adventure of these times.