According to this year’s 18th edition of the Global Peace Index from the international think-tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace, the world is at a crossroads. There are currently 56 armed conflicts in the world, involving 92 countries, the highest number since World War II. Conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have dominated media headlines, but there are 28 others taking place in Africa alone, most notably in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. The lack of international coverage of these conflicts not only undermines the credibility of the Western slogan “Black Lives Matter”, but also reflects the fact that armed conflict is now so commonplace that media reporting is inevitably selective.
Other findings in this year’s Global Peace Index were that 97 countries deteriorated in peacefulness, more than in any year since the index’s inception in 2008. Surprisingly, despite endemic warfare persisting elsewhere in the world, it was North America, which was identified as having the largest annual regional deterioration, driven by increases in violent crime and fear of violence. The index also estimated that 110 million people are now either refugees or internally displaced because of violent conflict, with 16 countries now hosting more than 500,000 refugees. Militarization recorded its largest yearly increase, with 108 countries becoming more militarized. This included the United States, whose military capabilities were estimated to be up to three times higher than those of China.
This depressing snapshot, giving the clear message that conflict is in the ascendancy worldwide, is compounded by the continuing trend toward polarization both within and between countries. New Cold War rhetoric, including anti-China polemics, have become the norm in the West, and the deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats in the US typify the polarization of internal politics in many Western countries.
The time is now right for a paradigm shift in international relations. In our global village, the need for harmony and peaceful coexistence between different nations, cultures and ideologies has never been more pressing. It is the only approach that provides an escape route from the bleak picture painted in the Global Peace Index
If the Institute for Economics and Peace is right, and we are indeed at a crossroads, a paradigm shift is needed to change how people view the world. This doesn’t require new thinking. It simply requires us to rediscover old thinking in the form of Confucianism, where harmony, rather than conflict, has long been seen as the basis of all human interaction. China, which has embraced this ancient philosophy for almost 3,000 years, can take the lead here, actively promoting the fundamental beliefs of Confucianism beyond its borders.
In Confucianism, harmony is the most highly valued human ideal. Being in harmony with other people and with nature is regarded as the secret of human happiness. A good starting point in promoting Confucian values would be to utilize the international language of music. For Confucianists, good music more than anything else captures the essence of harmony, even having the ability to move people’s hearts, improve their morals, and make them more gentle and kind. Confucianism very much sees the harmony of music as a model for social harmony. Just as music brings a plurality of sounds into harmony, the diverse elements of society need bringing together to create equilibrium in a connected, interdependent and harmonious whole.
In the Analects, Confucius embraces the ideal of harmony, maintaining that a sensible person should always respect different opinions and be able to work with different people in a harmonious way. This is true at all levels of human interaction — within the family, within the state, and “all under heaven”, meaning globally. The fourth-century BC Confucian philosopher Mencius focused on the last of these, seeing the realization of peace in the human world as the highest goal of political philosophy. He believed that the word for peace, ping, meant not only the avoidance of war, but also the active promotion of harmony in the world. In this context, harmony is not to be confused with merely repressing differences in order to achieve consensus. In the Analects, Confucius specifically advocated “harmony with distinctiveness”. This is at the heart of one of the greatest challenges in our modern world — for different peoples, states and cultures to achieve harmony by coexisting peacefully. In the Confucian view, this does not require the elimination of differences. On the contrary, the philosophy of “harmony with distinctiveness” is achieved through acknowledging, accepting and even celebrating the differences between diverse nations, cultures and beliefs. This ancient Confucian principle is the key to peace and prosperity in our modern world.
Many will see this as far too idealistic, but the world is in desperate need of some Confucian harmony. Educational establishments, the media and governments all have a role to play here. The prevailing zero-sum approach to international relations, characterized by polarized ideologies and the demonization of perceived enemies, is both dangerous and unsustainable. The time is now right for a paradigm shift in international relations. In our global village, the need for harmony and peaceful coexistence between different nations, cultures and ideologies has never been more pressing. It is the only approach that provides an escape route from the bleak picture painted in the Global Peace Index.
Author’s footnote: a more comprehensive and scholarly account of harmony in Confucianism can be found in one of my sources for this article, The Philosophy of Harmony in Classical Confucianism by Li Chenyang.
The author is a British historian and former principal of Sha Tin College, an international secondary school in Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
