Have you ever wished that there was World Peace but then at the same time had a sinking worry about your security? World Peace and global tranquility could in theory cause our military to become bored and ill-prepared. Besides, the Military-Industrial Complex is integrated with the United States Economy and in many ways we rely on investment into military to fuel research and development for many things. World Peace for many reasons could actually be bad for the economy if no one wanted to purchase or develop weapons and armor anymore. Yet we all deep down desire peace. The idea that we could live in a world where we are free of the threat of war is a noble one. If we didn’t have to worry about war then we could focus on building the strength of our education systems and innovate technology that would benefit consumers directly. Well, we can have World Peace and still satiate the hunger of the Military-Industrial Complex. The answer is simple. We could encourage countries to build up their militaries while at the same time ban war in general.
Now you may be thinking, “If we ban war, what is the point of different countries having a military?” Well the benefits of having a military in a time of total Peace are many. If you don’t have to worry about war, you can use your military for a large number of uses, including: Dealing with riots and unrest, Coping with large natural and unnatural disasters that may require large coordination and security, the economy would still benefit from having research and development into physics and chemistry for the creation of new military technologies, the military of many countries could be used to enforce and sustain World Peace without having to form a large one-world military that could be abused for undesirable purposes, and there would still be militaries that could be utilized in order to protect Earth in the face of some greater off-world threat.
Basically, the Military-Industrial Complex doesn’t need countries to be actually fighting in order for money to be made. There just needs to be a demand for weapons and armor and the advancement of technology that makes old weapons and armor obsolete. The amount of weapons that are actually used in wars each year is far smaller than the amount of weapons and armor that is created and sold. Preparedness is the key for most countries, so they stockpile weapons and train their militaries on how to use them. But in a state of World Peace where no country is at war with each other, some countries may choose to not purchase weapons because they may not see the advantage in doing so, but for the most part countries will want to maintain their military might “just in case” something goes wrong.
You see, the global capitalist system doesn’t really consist of capital (money). Money is just an idea, that has no real value. What the global capitalist system is actually made of is the MOVEMENT of capital. This may seem counter-intuitive but the reality is that the more that money is moved from person to person in the system, the healthier that system becomes. Banks don’t actually make their money from sitting on it. They lend it out to people on a massive scale in order to issue debt and and grow the money supply. That’s why so much is created and wasted in today’s economy. If people were satisfied, and no longer had a desire to purchase new things, or else if people became too self-sufficient by growing their own food or building long-lasting products, the global capitalist system would come to screeching halt. Well in many ways the Military-Industrial Complex is similar to the global capitalist economy. It feeds on the movement of ideas and money and the consumption of surplus as well as new and advanced armaments in order maintain jobs and salaries in the Complex. So one way to see an end to war is to basically give up on disarmament. This may sound crazy at first, but if you think about it long enough it will make sense. If the world stopped trying to disarm and instead decided to ban war and encourage the armament of countries then there would be an increase in the budgets that previously warring countries had for military goods, due to the fact that they would not have to spend money to replace lost, damaged, or destroyed items from the battlefield. Also the amount of money it takes to support an active army overseas is much higher than maintaining a military within your own borders.
Now that we know that the Military-Industrial Complex could still completely function and in many ways could prosper in a time of World Peace. We come to the question: “How could we ban war?” The answer is quite simple. We could basically make it illegal for any country to be at war with another country. And any country that did not stop being at war that was currently at war would be given a simple ultimatum. Any warring country would basically be told that if they didn’t stop their war then all the countries that were currently at war would have to face simultaneous economic and political sanctions from every other country on the planet. And the warring countries would also have to face the entire military might of every other country on Earth. Unfortunately, this ultimatum may cause world war. This is a real risk. But at the same time if we think about how the global capitalist economy is going, there is a real chance of world war anyway.
-Tyler