“If you prepare for war you get it; so maybe for once we prepare for peace”
Woodrow Wilson, 1919
Paris, 1919. World leaders from all of WWI’s victorious countries gather to determine punishments for the defeated countries, especially Germany. Most of the leaders at the conference are in favour of harsh punishments. But one stands out from the pack. American President Woodrow Wilson does not want to inflict brutal consequences on Germany. Instead, he wants to create a League of Nations, and in turn create peace.
Despite Wilson’s wisdom, many of his ideas were overlooked. In fact, in the last century, we have come no closer to preparing for peace and only continue to prepare for war. These are 3 ways in which the World has prepared for war, and not peace, in the last century.
The Cold War: 1947-1991
The Cold War is a prime example of how the world could have prepared for peace, but instead prepared for war. Following WWII, the world was dominated by two empires. The communist USSR, and the democratic USA. As both empires sought influence throughout the World, American citizens became increasingly anxious about communism and the Soviets. Ask any American citizen in the 1950s what their greatest fear was and they would be likely to mention communism. In fact, the fear of communism is what gave us famous novels such as Orwell’s 1984. But how did the countries prepare for war if no actual fighting occurred? Well at the time, both empires were very concerned about one thing, the threat of a nuclear bomb. American citizens had to practice proper procedures for if a bomb was dropped and many people even built bomb shelters under their houses.
In order to protect themselves, both countries built up their nuclear arsenals to ensure something called Mutually Assured Destruction. This meant that if the USSR dropped a nuclear bomb on the USA, the Americans would answer by dropping one on the Soviets, or vice versa. For this reason, neither country would bomb the other one because it would only end in their own demise. In fact, at the height of this nuclear arms race, the US and the Soviets had over 70 000 nuclear warheads combined. 
But this was not necessary. There would have been a simple way to prepare for peace instead of war. If both empires had destroyed their warheads instead of building them up, then the threat would have ended. It is like a warped version of Mutually Assured Destruction. Instead of both empires not dropping bombs because they know that they will be destroyed, neither empire would drop a nuclear bomb because they wouldn’t have any. The Cold War is a prime example of how we prepared for war, when we could have prepared for peace.
Bush Invades Iraq: 2003
In 2003, US president George Bush
decided to invade Iraq, which ultimately started the Iraq War. His ultimate motive was to overthrow Saddam Hussein as he stated that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Even though military action may have been justified, a poll of Americans showed that 63% wanted Bush to take a diplomatic approach. In fact many countries including France, New Zealand, and Germany did not want the Americans to invade Iraq as they feared that it would only increase the risk of terrorism. Many people point to the September 11, 2001 attacks as the real reason why Bush was so eager to invade Iraq. So many people believed that this invasion was not justified that protests broke out across the World. An impressive 3 million people congregated in Rome to protest the war. Although the government claims that they wanted to bring freedom to the Iraqi people, this came with many consequences.
Many believe that the risk of terrorism has greatly increased since the invasion and with recent attacks in France, Germany, Belgium, and other countries across Europe, this appears to be true. This invasion is a prime example of a time where the world prepared for war instead of peace. There could have been a much more diplomatic way of helping the Iraqi people than waging war on their country and government. The Americans could have at least waited until they found hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before beginning their invasion. I’m not arguing that Husain shouldn’t have been removed from power, he was a brutal dictator. I just think that there could have been a much better way to go about doing it, such as creating sanctions to help the Iraqi people. War is the option of last resort, and the Americans did not exhaust all other options before resorting to it.
Trump’s travel ban: 2017
In December, 2017, the Supreme Court passed a version of president Donald Trump’s travel ban. This ban restricts people from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia, and Yemen from entering the USA.
The Trump administration argues that the ban will increase security. In simpler words, Trump believes that by restricting people from these countries from entering the USA, it will lower the risk of terrorism. This seems counterintuitive, however, as this will only anger terrorists and give them further reason to hate the USA.
Instead of wasting their time doing this, the US could be preparing for peace by letting refugees into the country and improving foreign aid to help those in need. Although many Americans believe that letting refugees into America will increase the odds of terrorism, this is not the case. Over 50 000 refugees have been let into Canada since 2016 without a single terrorist attack. If the US tried to fix the problem like Canada, they would take a large step towards preparing for peace.
Conclusion:
Although Woodrow Wilson spoke with wisdom, his idea about preparing for peace was looked upon with blind eyes. The World continues to prepare for war, and shows no signs of stopping in the immediate future.