Editorial. A question of peace

Citation

Coleman, J. (2000), "Editorial. A question of peace", European Business Review, Vol. 12 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2000.05412aab.001

Editorial. A question of peace

Edited by John Coleman

Editorial

A question of peace

In Orwell's 1984 the Ministry of Peace was responsible for conducting war - and a great deal of talk about peace has characterised the prelude to major conflicts between peoples. Historically, most world leaders would probably have preferred to achieve their objectives without resorting to violence. For some, war has nonetheless proved an appealing means to reinforce their power or divert attention from more mundane internal problems. Europe this century has seen itself torn asunder by such demagogues. It was to counter such folly and provide an alternative way of "doing politics" that the Council of Europe was formed half a century ago. In this new century, we feel the need for it as never before.

The modern world with its proliferation of technology and commerce stresses peace and prosperity as the winning formula. But as we find increasingly prosperity and the greed it induces can be just as potent a source of conflict as acute deprivation. It is important not to bandy the word peace about but to examine closely the conditions in which peace has a chance. This is especially true in what Wolfgang Sachs has called the "post-ethical" society. The thrust of all the contributions to this issue could be summed up in the single phrase "a search for honesty".

Douglas Hurd, whose book The Search for Peace looks at the diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving peace over the last two centuries, presents a realistic view of international relations and modern Europe. With regret, he cannot share the view that the horrors of war will "force human nature into a new mould, squeezing out greed, hatred and fear that in history have been the main incentives to violence and war". The hope must be that looking at those causes honestly provides the best chance for "peace in our time".

In the next article, Aidan Rankin - appropriately for a Yorkshireman - gets down to the brass tacks of an honest policy for an honest society. The pseudo-liberal, he argues, sees a black man not as a fellow human being but as a cipher to reinforce his own phoney anti-racist theories. Under the "official version" of multi-culturalism, people are not treated as individuals but placed in politically correct boxes according to ethnicity or other arbitrary criteria. The working class, who make cultural diversity work in practice more than anyone else, are oppressed by middle-class censors in a reversal of the Marxist class struggle. Genuine liberalism, by contrast, takes as its starting point the individual. It places him in the context of a wider community, whose shared values of tolerance, honesty and free speech transcend the boundaries of race or creed.

Robin Guthrie begins his contribution by looking back through the centuries at attempts to create a united Europe. In so doing, he draws some very interesting and salutary comparisons with our own, more recent efforts. He emphasises especially the principles on which the Council of Eurcope was founded as the true basis of European unity and views the Council, warts and all, as the only institution that can draw all Europe together. It was no accident that it was to the Council that Mikhail Gorbachev insisted on delivering his speech about the Common European Home.

Thomas Orszag-Land writes again from Budapest and gives a lively account of how Hungary is confronting the money-lenders of the underworld, who have a stranglehold over a high percentage of the small and modest-sized firms created in the post-Communist era. This is particularly interesting in the light of earlier articles on digital money in this journal and it is yet another example of the fact that honesty is the best policy and the most effective means to resolve conflict.

Professor David Begg writes about the report by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the East-West Institute in New York, with which he himself was involved: "How EMU affects Central and Eastern Europe". Perhaps it goes some way to answer Robin Guthrie's fears that we are digging a new economic ditch between East and West. The authors clearly do not see the Eastern European countries joining EMU immediately when they join the EU and they emphatically reject a narrow exchange rate band prior to entry.

In conclusion, Europe might do well to recall the words of George Washington when the American Constitution was about to be presented:

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hands of God.