Abolishing War By WinstonLangley. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner, 2024. 267 pages. $35.00 (paperback). ISBN: 978‐1962551250
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Proposing to "Abolish War," after a century in which every effort has failed, may seem a vain and even naïve endeavor, more pre-World War One than-quite possibly-pre-World War Three.Yet it is necessary and invigorating to be offered a new prospectus which aims for the objective even if it is bound to fall short, and that is what Professor Winston Langley is putting forward.Langley is a prolific writer on international relations who has focused on models of global order with a strong emphasis on human rights and criticism of what he presents as the a-moral world system based on sovereign nation-states.His last book, While the US Sleeps: Squandered Opportunities and Looming Threats to Societies (2021), is an assertion of the values that the United States should espouse and a critique of its fatal blindness.He has taught for over 40 years at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science and International Relations.The central thrust of his argument is clear: The United Nations at its outset challenged the deficits of the prevailing Westphalian Order that had led to World War II, and it created a new spirit of governance that may be called the Counter-Westphalian Order (a term that as far as I can tell Langley has invented).This was represented by the norms of the UN Charter, by many of the practices of its agencies, and as time went on by the rising voice of the Global South, through the Non-Aligned Movement and other forums.Although this was always resisted by the major power-holders in their "privileged" bastion of the Security Council, it put them on the defensive.The ending of the Cold War offered a golden opportunity for those power-holders to mend their ways and embrace a new vision for the future.This is described as embodying "a phase-out of the veto in the UNSC, security for the planet and its people, the elimination of nuclear weapons, the demilitarization of international security, the adaptation of norms such as sovereignty and self-determination, and a radically improved financing of UN programs" (62).However, the expectation of radical change was soon dashed (Langley catalogues the adverse actions of the United States at some length, but does not consider in detail other contrary world trends and actors at that time or subsequently).The leaders of the UN Security Council have "virtually abandoned the UN norm of common security," adopting instead "a naked balance of power system" (105) that repeats the errors of the past.The Counter-Westphalian Order (CWO) has been rendered ineffective.
Source: Peace & Change
DOI: 10.1111/pech.12730
Author: John Gittings
Institution: SOAS University of London
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4405294597