United Nations: An Evolutionary View, The

Montessori Life, Spring 2004 by Selman, Ruth Corey

Let us envision utopia, and thus bring it into existence. There is no reasonable alternative.

-Willis Harman, Higher Creativity

After years of marginalization, the United Nations has emerged as the world's active Peace mentor, a position for which it was designed by its founders in 1945. To understand its place in history, however, we need to explore the United Nations' predecessors and discover their influence.

Since the beginning of recorded time, the world has endured 10,000 wars. Empires rose and fell in violent thunderous battles. Yet through all the mayhem, peace and dreams of peace grew in tandem with the charging troops. Art, music, poetry, meditation, and hope kept the dream alive. But for a thousand years no government or head of state moved toward its implementation. For 10 centuries the dream lived on in the prayers of all major religions and in the affirmations of seers and prophets, but never reached the hearts of those in power.

Finally, in 1864, a spark of interest occurred with the Geneva Convention, the first examination of war itself, the first attempt at a humane introspective view. The Convention set forth a series of rules regulating the treatment of prisoners of war, eschewed torture, and obliged warring nations to treat their captives with respect for their humanity. The Geneva Convention acknowledged war's brutality. No small achievement considering that for the previous thousand years war identified the supremacy and glory of the state, its very life depending on victory after victory. The Convention today still commands respect, and is often referred to in critical situations today.

The Convention also inspired the first international peace conference 30 years later. Hosted by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Czar Nicholas II of Russia, the conference invited 25 other nations to meet at the Hague in 1899.

The agenda included an update and refinement of the Geneva Convention. The fourth point on the agenda constituted an evolutionary leap-the peaceful resolution of conflicts between nations without resorting to war-a first attempt at articulating the dream of peace by government heads. But no organization resulted. The nations met again in 1907. However, their good intentions lasted only 15 years. An unfortunate assassination in Sarajevo exploded their handshakes. The war that ensued, WWI, played havoc with all their declarations as nation after nation became embroiled in the War to End all Wars.

After the smoke of battle cleared, reviewing its ghastly cost in life and civilization, nations moved toward a second attempt at international conflict resolution. President F. Woodrow Wilson called for an organization of nations that he dubbed The League of Nations: a step beyond the Peace Conference of 1899, in that it developed a charter and bore the force of an organized entity. However, the U. S. Congress recoiled from further involvement with other nations. The League of Nations lasted 25 years. Its rejection by the isolationist U. S. Congress led to its ultimate demise. Although frequently referred to as a colossal failure, the League of Nations deserves history's appreciation as a second human attempt up the evolutionary ladder of peacemaking.

The vengeful Versailles Treaty and the rise of Fascism led to WWII, a cataclysmic omen for the destruction of the human race. Once again, while the bombs were still falling, a U. S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, initiated the formation of a world peace organization and gave it the name-United Nations.

The idea that states must join together to solve their problems in a friendly, just fashion surfaced again in 1945, this time welcomed by the world community, and hailed as the new Magna Carta. Never before in United States history has a document received unanimous ratification within such a short period-six months after presentation. Now in its 58th year, the U. N. Charter represents a critical leap in human consciousness.

However, as recent history attests, the Charter has not always been adhered to. Unilateral actions have been taken ignoring its tenets. Nations have formed powerful partisan coalition networks making negotiation difficult. But hope for eventual peace in the world rests in the acceptance of the idea that humans can convene and talk-as a preferred alternative to war. In the universal psychic sense, we are witnessing an evolutionary quantum change. What the world media makes of the "successes" and "failures" of the United Nations today is another story. So much depends on what we as educators and Montessorians make of it. The U. N. Charter echoes our own principles of a peaceful society:

* Freedom of Movement

* Order and Security, Freedom from Want

* Independence and Power of Choice

* Limits and Laws that are Humane

* System of Justice for All; a World Peace Table that endures.

However we define Peace, the United Nations represents the latest incarnation of our eternal dream.

Peace, Mir, Pax, Shalom, etc.

RUTH COREY SELMAN has been the AMS NGO/DPI representative to the United Nations since 1987. She has 30 year's experience as founder, teacher, and director of Montessori schools, and as presenter at AMS and other educational conferences and forums. In 2001, she was honored as AMS's Living Legacy. Ruth is also the AMS Program Director for the Youth Visits the UN Project.