Wake-up call for religions: Choose life instead of destruction

All religions united in Religions for Peace should go out against the resumption of the arms race and the breaking down of arms control agreements. They should actively promote a new concept of peace and security, charting a more promising response to key challenges affecting humanity.

Military expenditures continue to rise excessively. They are approaching 2 trillion dollars annually worldwide. In addition, the nine nuclear states intend to spend 1 trillion dollars on renewing their nuclear weapons over the next ten years.

World wide public opinion is unaware of the fact that ever-increasing military expenditures do not lead to greater security, but on the contrary: to greater insecurity. The destructive power of existing weapon systems is far greater than ever before, in our current extremely vulnerable modern world. There is a serious unacceptable risk of weapon systems getting out of control, causing unimaginable devastation.1 We risk the annihilation of Mankind.

Security can no longer be unilaterally assured at the expense of other nations. The prevailing concept of Mutually assured destruction (MAD) should be replaced by the concept of mutually assured (shared) security (MAS).

The present policy emphasis is still on the old adagio: “if you want peace, prepare for war”. In the nuclear age, this should change into: “if you want peace, actively prepare for peace”. This does not only include the prevention of military conflicts, but also the joint efforts towards addressing other major global challenges. Priorities in global spending should be reset.

Urgently needed is a revisiting of the work done by the UN High Level panel on major challenges in 2004.

This is the moment for Religions for Peace to take a stand and live up to its vocation!