If, in the face of growing German and Japanese military power, the other major nations of the world at the time had each decided to respond alone for fear of losing their individual national identities, there is little doubt that the outcome of World War II would have been quite different. The power to divide is the power to defeat. It is one thing when an adversary or enemy determines to divide us from one another; it is quite another thing if we decide to do it to ourselves.
Following World War II, the victorious nations decided to work together through the newly-formed United Nations and other cooperative ventures and alliances. Even more dramatically, they decided to helped the nations they had defeated to rebuild and eventually become part of the greater family of nations. These decisions, achieved through long and difficult negotiations and compromises, were not perfect nor did they achieve everything dreamed for them. But they did give the human family a means by which to resolve differences and to face common threats and challenges.
It's hard to believe anyone would intentionally throw all that away. Yet in our time, the nations that were at the heart of that vision of a family of nations seem intent on dismantling what the previous generations had created. Old and new fears and threats are somehow driving us back behind the ancient barricades that have led to disaster throughout human history. Why are we doing this to ourselves?
The global enemies we all face...war, injustice, climate change, oppression, population migration, the list goes on...all demand global responses. Fear of them drives us apart, because it somehow seems easier to face them alone than to have to deal with others. But none of them can be solved alone, because borders and barriers mean nothing to them, especially in our century. No nation can put a tariff so high on the enemies of us all that they cannot be exported to within its boundaries.
Rather then being driven apart by our common fears, we must dare to be brought together by our common hopes. It takes hard work, risk-taking, and yes, even some degree of vulnerability, to get there, but we really have no choice. None.
