Chapter 63 Refutation of the "Mighty Peace Theory" and the Maintenance and Utilization of the Existing Ways of Peace

On February 5, 2007, the US "Newsweek" published an article entitled "Prospects for the Post-American World", the author is the columnist Fareed Zakarian.She said: "For the United States, we are definitely at a low ebb. Bush is only in the last year of his term, the United States is mired in Iraq, and there is a lot of hostility to the United States anywhere in the world. If we face this situation situation, then we may be able to get a glimpse of what a world without the United States would look like. It would be a world in which the United States does not dominate, and perhaps a world without leaders, a world of festering problems and endless blame-shifting on each other Until a world where problems explode." She meant that without the United States, the world would be in chaos.This point of view is in line with the point of view that has been prevailing in the West for many years, and the current world is "peace under the guardianship of a superpower".

After the Second World War, some such "philosophers" appeared in the West, especially in the United States. They exaggerated the Roman style of peace, and exaggerated that a certain superpower could realize the "Roman idea" in real life. British historian Niall Ferguson once said: "The end of American hegemony is unlikely to promote the orderly development of the world towards a multipolar system. Leading role. The world will become 'Infinity World'. 'Infinity World' will ultimately mean a new dark age of anarchism. It will be an age of imperial decline and religious fanaticism, a time of economic plunder in forgotten parts of the world era, a world of economic stagnation, and an era of imprisoned civilization.” This is actually a theoretical excuse and a rhetoric for a powerful country to seek world hegemony for itself.In this regard, some domestic scholars do have the same argument, which essentially means that only by acknowledging the hegemony leading the world can there be peace.This kind of argument is very dangerous. It is an unrealistic illusion of power and hegemony.Today's peaceful environment in China is not obtained through the gift of power and hegemony, but through long-term tit-for-tat struggles with power and hegemony.

Such as the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the War to Resist U.S. Aid and Aid Vietnam, and the Jinmen Artillery Battle. It also included breaking through the economic blockade and economic sanctions imposed by Western powers led by the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. It also included political, cultural, and diplomatic interests. The maintenance of China is achieved through struggle.The strategies of various countries are restricted by social systems and political lines, and they are different.Some countries, like China, sincerely want to contain wars; some countries only contain wars that are not good for themselves, while preparing for wars that are beneficial to them.In particular, power only prevents wars that are not beneficial to itself. When wars are profitable, there is no need to prevent them. They can even use the slogan of preventing wars as an excuse to launch wars.Restricting wars is often not for the purpose of maintaining peace, but for some political or strategic needs.The superpower's strategy of limited war is a product of this need, a strategy of waging war in its favor, not of maintaining peace at all.Therefore, the essence of peace under the guardianship of power is that hegemonic countries guard their interests in the world. When a certain country or region violates the interests of hegemonic countries, hegemonic countries will destroy peace and launch wars.In this regard, we must be soberly aware that the struggle for and maintenance of hegemony by the fundamentalist forces of the superpowers can only be the cause of war, not the guarantee of peace.The Iraq war proved once again that human peace is too important, but it cannot be completely handed over to the hegemony of the powerful.

Therefore, if China wants to develop peacefully, it must clearly understand the existing ways of war and peace, that is, to understand today's war and peace.Only by having a clear understanding of the existing ways of war and peace can China effectively avoid wars and better take the path of peaceful development.The main manifestations of the existing ways of war and peace are: First, after the Cold War, peace and development have become a worldwide trend, but local conflicts and wars have not ceased.There are still many contradictions in the world. It is neither peace without war nor war without peace. Peace is a way of life in which contradictions and conflicts are controlled to a certain extent. Human beings are learning to adapt to this peaceful way of existence.

Second, the international community in today's world has indeed not yet found a stable peace model. However, the world today has a mechanism to control competition between countries to avoid conflicts and crises.In this regard, a large number of inventors of international politics have prescribed countless prescriptions, and some mechanisms have been established or are being tested.Such as regular summit meetings, various trade agreements, frequent diplomatic negotiations, disarmament and arms control, the United Nations security mechanism, the emerging Sino-US strategic dialogue mechanism, and a large number of various official or non-governmental exchanges, etc.

Third, countries in the world today, especially some developing countries, have adopted a realistic attitude towards peace, mainly to prevent and contain wars, and to limit wars once they inevitably occur.Although it is not a permanent solution, under today's historical conditions, it has the effect of maintaining peace after all.This kind of prevention of war and limitation of the spread, scale and means of war can be regarded as a fragile way of peaceful existence. Fourth, contemporary peace is not only a period of preparation for war, but also a period of containment of war. In a certain sense, containment of war has become a more important aspect. This is one of the main characteristics of contemporary peace.

Fifth, peace and stability under conditions of nuclear deterrence encourage major powers not to be enemies of each other.In today's world, we cannot talk about war preparation without talking about nuclear weapons, and we cannot talk about building peace without talking about nuclear deterrence.Because the existence of nuclear weapons is an objective fact.Whether human beings like it or not, only by learning to coexist peacefully with their competitors can they learn to live with nuclear weapons and effectively build a peaceful and stable way under the conditions of nuclear deterrence. There is a characteristic of nuclear deterrence strategic thinking: Once a nuclear-armed country feels that its security is seriously threatened, it will immediately think of the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons.However, when thinking of using nuclear weapons for deterrence, the problem of nuclear weapons "misfire" is also taken into consideration: conflicts of interests among countries, which interests are worth paying for launching a nuclear war, and the casualties of millions or even tens of millions of people? cost?It is this problem that makes nuclear-armed countries likely to seek peaceful solutions, which is why nuclear-armed countries are more willing to choose peaceful solutions to conflicts than non-nuclear countries.In this sense, the deterrent use of nuclear weapons is the most realistic security guarantee for contemporary peace.The guiding ideology of China's nuclear strategy is: no first use of nuclear weapons, no use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the complete and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons.This is China's important nuclear strategic defense idea, and so far, no nuclear-armed country in the world has been able to do this.

In short, whether it was during the Cold War or the post-Cold War era until today's globalization era, the best way for world peace to exist is the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" advocated and implemented by China and the concept of building a harmonious world. It is a true embodiment of the trend and has been generally accepted and recognized by peace-loving people all over the world.This is the true path of peace built by mankind.If China wants to develop peacefully, it must actively maintain and make full use of these existing peaceful methods, which is very important for China to realize its great rejuvenation.