Have you ever stopped to think for a second about the world of today if our nations practiced peaceful coexistence, developing diplomatic international relations and a better prospect for the survival of our planet?
It was decades ago, during the Cold War, when this concept of peaceful coexistence came to life. It was created and developed by the Soviet Union in the hopes of alluding for a pacific convivence between the socialist states and the capitalist bloc; however, the countless attempts to solve differences between the two systems have resulted to war, event which has always been costly, essentially for a specific and big portion of our society: the common people.
Although many of my beliefs do not align with those of the former Soviet Union, in this subject in particular, I would have to agree with them, given that in my point of view, the principle of peaceful coexistence is the only realistic policy to aim for in the actuality, when the world consists of hundreds of nations with different ideologies, systems, and moreover, conflicts.
Events like the recent attacks of Russia against Ukraine can act as ideal illustrations of this, where no one is asking for a peace settlement between the nations, but instead just a relative freedom from the tensions, which is a position many countries tried to look for whilst the conflict. This is because peace was, is, and always will be an integral component of our international community; something that we will never stop pursuing despite the increasingly fragmented environments created by the tensions between our head governments.
In brief, peaceful coexistence could enhance relations among nations and allow for the increasing of meaningful lives and sustainable societies. It is clear that it is not a frame of mind that we will find in a couple of years, but if our governments could actually put an effort into it, things could start to change.
By Carolina León, Step 9 Yellow
