What Causes War

WARNING:  The author of this post is suffering from ten hours of jet lag and may not make sense to normal people...

The U.S. Institute of Peace and the United Nations have been trying for years to settle conflicts without war.  Delegations of peacemakers fly around the world from one hot spot to another, and rarely seem successful.  An under-recognized problem, in my opinion, is jet lag.

I'm speaking from my current experience with jet lag.  Ten hours of time zone difference have made me cranky.  I see problems that I've seen before, and they really tick me off.  I see people who don't do what is expected of them, and I get really irritated.  Normally I'm a fairly even-tempered problem solver.  I expect to be that way again.  But stay away from me for a while, or I might bite your head off.

There are, perhaps, people who can zip around the globe and not be affected by jet lag, but I'm afraid that we don't have enough of such people.  That's why Pax Americana didn't work.  We tried sending diplomats to far flung places, bringing them right back to report.  They came back grumpy, as we could tell from WikiLeaks.

Here's my proposal:  Orient world concerns north-to-south rather than west-to-east.  Have the United States pay lots more attention to Central America, South America, and even frequently forgotten Canada.  Mexico's problems with drugs is largely derived from demand for the stuff in the United States.  Let's help Mexico by giving serious attention to drug problems here.  And if we really cared, couldn't we help Haiti out of its misery? The autocrat in Venezuela operates with impunity, and his imitator in Ecuador would cause more trouble if he could.  Guantanamo continues to be a sore sport, and isolating Cuba hasn't accomplished what we had hoped.  Let's not forget that there are fragile democracies in Central and South America that need strengthening.  The BRIC nation of Brazil is our southern neighbor, showing impressive growth and potential for greater economic ties.  And if we had respectful conversations with our northern neighbor, we might even learn some things about good governance.

The European Union has to take the lead in bringing African nations to their dynamic potential.  Much that was messed up in Africa was done by European colonial powers.  Sure, the EU is distracted by its own problems, but Europe has the know-how to help tamp down the corruption of autocratic regimes.

Let's have Russia do what it wants to do, take responsibility for what it calls the Near Abroad.  That would include, but not be limited to, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mrfbtistan.  But not Afganistan.  Russia says, "Been there, done that."

Australia has every right to be concerned about tensions building in the South China Sea.  Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and China have issues to work out among themselves.

My North-South plan for global interactions has people flying mostly up and down adjacent time zones.  The United States wouldn't have to have budget-breaking numbers of troops when our foreign policy focuses on the Americas.  To my mind this looks pretty good, but my jet-lagged brain does see some faults that may appear larger when the fog clears.  For one thing, I don't know what to do about the Middle East. Oh, well. No plan is perfect.