CIVILIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE MILITARY CONFRONTATION IN 21 CENTURY

Summary of the presentation at the National Conference 
“EU, Bulgaria and Wars in the 21st century – the Underestimated Threats”
Sofia University, December 18, 2017

In the process of evolution Homo sapiens never had a viable strategy of individual survival: we can’t run fast enough to escape a cheetah, or kill a mammoth for dinner in a one-on-one fight. Humans became a success story and reached the current Anthropocene age riding on group survival strategy. In every community – tribe, nation or state this projected on a spiritual dimension a culture of legends, heroic myths, etc. that shaped a distinct tribal identity which is motivating the inclusion of individual members into tribe’s interest for survival and prosperity. For thousands of years, however, such processes inevitably generated two side-products –  the self-assessment of supremacy, and dominance.  E. O. Wilson wrote: “We’ve become genetically hard-wired to be tribal, to join groups … and, having joined, consider them superior to competing groups… Our groups — tribes, societies, nations — compete with one another for dominance”. Both are fundamental for the origin of war. 

The existential problem of the 21st century is that we are living in a world intensely globalized and saturated with state of the art WMD, but still governed by humans divided in tribes that seek dominance in the way they did for thousands years of history full of wars and bloodshed. We learned how to make nuclear bombs before we learned how to live together, and this reality represents an imminent danger to our civilization.
The solution is to design a new version of group survival strategy based on the scientific evidence that all of the current 7.5 billion people represent one biological species, and belong to the Human Civilization which is the spiritual dimension of group survival strategy that unlocks the capabilities of human beings to mutually defend their immediate and strategic self-interest by generating civilizational values. Eradicating confrontation and conflicts would bring additional benefits: $14.76 trillion cost of violence (12.4 percent of world GDP), i.e. or $1988 per capita worldwide, relocated to other global priorities; huge positive impact on productivity through releasing the currently classified edge military technologies; and transferring top IQ human brain potential from defense and security into productive areas. 

The key measure to international security is restoring the authenticity of the UN Security Council.
The United Nations Organization was established in a unique civilizational moment of truth – after WW2, the biggest anthropogenic disaster in human history. That contributed to designing the Security Council as a perfect instrument to prevent and solve international conflicts. Article 24, 41 and 42 of the Charter of the United Nations stipulate the unprecedented power entrusted by the global community into the hands of an organ whose permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) have, in aggregated terms, by far sufficient political influence, economic and financial instruments and military power capabilities to ensure that any of the Security Council resolutions is unconditionally materialized and any emerging disturbance of security character anywhere in the world is promptly and uncompromisingly resolved.
Humankind missed this chance in 1946 when W. Churchill, for ideological reasons, denounced the unity within the United Nations and declared the new tribal era in the history of human civilization.  As a result, all UNSC permanent members nationalized the extraordinary powers they were given to maintain international peace and security and started illegitimately misusing them as a powerful extension of their own national foreign policy. 
In order to bring peace and to downgrade the current intensive violent conflicts worldwide all UN Security Council member countries must denationalize their decision-making process on issues related to international security – by each of them creating national Agency for global security policies that works in transparent mode with vision beyond the narrowly defined immediate national interests and with focus on long-term and indirect benefits as well as beneficial by-products generated through the existence of stable, peaceful and predictable international political and security environment. 
Other powerful catalyzers of international stability would be: creating economic, cultural and humanitarian space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, establishing strategic cooperation between the United Kingdom and Russia, and improving the relations between China and Japan. 
The mission of research on new Civilizational strategy for Humankind is to amass powerful support for overriding the political prejudice of contemporary world leaders.

Keywords: Humankind, Conflict Resolution, UN reform, International Security

Ambassador Lubomir Todorov PhD