In Guernica, Jane Ratcliffe interviews Robert Thurman, a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies at Columbia University, activist, and former Tibetan Buddhist monk. They discuss the prospects of a new world order founded in nonviolence:
Guernica: Can you imagine a planet where we have no weapons?
Robert Thurman: Yes, I can, but not immediately. The ultimate goal would be to have a true global democracy and true international order of law where the UN had the main police force and there was a democratic way in which the UN was run and these so called big powers which won WWII would no longer have this veto power over the UN. There would be things on the level of Russian perestroika where they gave up huge territories and allowed independent republics to emerge. India, China, U.S., we would give back the parts of New York State, the Black Hills, South Mexico to different Indians. We would honor all different treaties that we made in the past. You wouldn’t have these huge post-imperial energies make a world community impossible. You would have relatively disarmed countries with police forces, and you’d have a UN with a kind of police army. Then you have to implement a worldwide effort of finding the nonviolent elements in the different cultures.
Read more in Guernica.