In 1950, on Stalin’s initiative, the World Peace Council was created. The organization’s declared official aim was to fight against a new world war and against imperialist aggression, in the name of universal disarmament and national independence. The Council was financed by the Soviet Union for the most part (around 90 percent), and its long-serving chairman (1966–1990), Romesh Chandra, was awarded the USSR’s highest honor—the Order of Lenin.
It is hard to believe that this puppet “council” contributed anything to peace. Bloody local wars continued, as did the insane arms race. The difference was that the world order that existed at the time made international affairs more or less predictable. And the Council itself was simply Soviet PR—look, they were saying, how peace-loving we are.
Today there is no world order at all; no one can guarantee anything. Yet Trump—who threatens to attack Greenland (Denmark) and Iran—is now creating his own “Peace Council” for the sake of PR.
Apart from the purely symbolic, “moral” satisfaction of being seen next to Trump, the leaders of the states included in this Council—including Pashinyan—gain nothing else from it. Naturally, they will have no real function either. It is hard to imagine Kazakhstan, Kosovo, or Indonesia taking on, for example, the task of establishing peace in Gaza.
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Let me put it even more bluntly: in February 2022, Russia—violating every international norm—attacked Ukraine, and the war, now in its fourth year, has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Are all the leaders of the roughly twenty countries that have signed the Peace Council’s charter ready to sign a statement that acknowledges this fact?
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
