Shift to a Non-Provocative Defense Posture

(This is section 20 of the World Beyond War white paper A Global Security System: An Alternative to War. Continue to preceding | following section.)

A first step toward demilitarizing security could be non-provocative defense, which is to reconceive and re-configure training, logistics, doctrine, and weaponry so that a nation’s military is seen by its neighbors to be unsuitable for offense but clearly able to mount a credible defense of its borders. It is a form of defense that rules out armed attacks against other states.

Non-provocative defense implies a truly defensive military posture. It includes radically reducing or eliminating long-range weapons such as Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, long-range attack aircraft, carrier fleets and heavy ships, militarized drones, nuclear submarine fleets, overseas bases, and possibly tank armies. In a mature Alternative Global Security System, a militarized non-provocative defense posture would be gradually phased out as it became unnecessary.

Another defensive posture that will be necessary is a system of defense against futuristic attacks including cyber-attacks on the energy grid, power plants, communications, financial transactions and defense against dual-use technologies such as nanotechnology and robotics. Ramping up the cyber capabilities of Interpol would be a first line of defense in this case and another element of an Alternative Global Security System.^note2

Also, non-provocative defense would not rule out a nation having long-range aircraft and ships configured for humanitarian relief. Shifting to non-provocative defense weakens the War System while making possible the creation of a humanitarian disaster relief force that strengthens the peace system.

(See the related post – “Debunking Old Myths about War: We go to war to ensure our defense”)

(Continue to preceding | following section.)

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Notes:
2. Interpol is the International Criminal Police Organization, set up in 1923, as an NGO facilitating international police cooperation.(return to main article)