“A Peace Epidemic”?

“A PEACE EPIDEMIC.” “Oh, What a Peaceful World.” “Peace Is Busting Out All Over.” These were among the newspaper headlines that have startled readers during the last year or two. Around the world, the change in the news from gloom and doom to optimism was astonishing. What was happening?

Remarkably, not long ago a number of major conflicts all came to an end or reduced in intensity within just a few months. In Africa, peace ‘broke out’ in Angola. In Central Asia, the Soviet Union pulled its forces out of Afghanistan. In Central America, fighting subsided between the Nicaraguan government and the Contra rebels. In Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese agreed to withdraw from Kampuchea. The “peace epidemic” even reached the Middle East when the bloodthirsty war between Iran and Iraq finally ground to a halt.

Perhaps even more noteworthy was the new atmosphere between the superpowers. After 40 years of cold war, it was difficult to believe the conciliatory gestures, the expressions about mutual interests, and the concrete moves toward peace between the Soviet Union and the United States. Moreover, according to The Economist, Europe has now marked the longest continuous period without war in all its recorded history. Truly, peace is in the news.

What does it mean? Are politicians on the brink of delivering “peace for our time”? Fifty-one years ago, these words were uttered by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain. They proved to be cruelly ironic when, a short time later, the second world war broke out. Are they now going to come true at long last?