John Morris, candidate for The Peace Party in the Guildford West Division of the new West Surrey unitary authority, has been reminded recently of the publication four years ago of the recommendations for states to develop and remove the threats of nuclear annihilation, in particular, and of war, in general. The publication by the International Peace Bureau and the International Trade Union Confederation is entitled “For Our Shared Future – Common Security 2022”.

The Six Principles of Common Security described in the Report are:

1. All people have the right to human security: freedom from fear and freedom from want.

2. Building trust between nations and peoples is fundamental to peaceful and sustainable human existence.

3. There can be no common security without nuclear disarmament, strong limitations on conventional weapons and reduced military expenditure.

4. Global and regional cooperation, multilateralism and the rule of law are crucial to tackling many of the world’s challenges.

5. Dialogue, conflict prevention and confidence-building measures must replace aggression and military force as a means of resolving disputes.

6. Better regulation, international law and responsible governance also need to be extended to cover new military technologies, such as in the realms of cyberspace, outer space and “artificial intelligence”.

Members of the Peace Party at the time felt that Principle 3 was not strong enough and have suggested its modification to:

“There can be no common security without complete disarmament – the total elimination of all weapons and military expenditure.”

Members also felt that consideration should also be given to the addition to Principle 5 of “completely” to qualify “must replace” and to add, following the work of Gene Sharp, “develop, and integrate into government, methods of non-violent action in resolving conflict”. Thus, Number 5 would read:

“Dialogue, conflict prevention and confidence-building measures must completely replace aggression and military force as a means of resolving disputes but, instead, develop, and integrate into government, methods of non-violent action in resolving conflict.”