A continuing thrust

Although it certainly must sound over-optimistic to say at this moment in history that an era of peace seems to be dawning, nevertheless the turns which some of the most serious local and regional conflicts have taken lately surely must give people everywhere reason for at least some optimism that a thrust towards the resolution of protracted conflicts seems to be prevailing around the globe.

To illustrate, we could mention for example the Irish Republican Army's recent decision to enforce an unconditional termination of its bloody 25-year-long war against British rule in Northern Ireland. "Recognizing the potential of the situation and in order to advance the democratic peace process," as an IRA statement said, the militant organization called a cease-fire effective as of Aug. 31.

"It will be a complete cessation of military operations and all our units have been instructed accordingly," the IRA said in a statement released in Belfast at the end of August.

More recently, and a little closer to home, the threat of war on the Korean peninsula appears for now to have been averted by the very real prospect a nuclear deal between Pyongyang and Washington will be concluded soon.

After three weeks of negotiations in Geneva, the U.S. ambassador-at-large Robert Gallucci was reported yesterday to be returning to Washington to seek his government's approval to sign the deal, which in effect will lift the specter of a nuclear war from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman at the North Korean embassy in Bangkok reportedly told the South Korean Yonhap news agency that "we have reached the accord with the United States because it is compatible with our interests".

While on the topic of conflict resolutions, we could of course also mention the end of the stand-off between Washington and the military junta in Haiti with Gen. Cedras' flight from the country and Jean-Bertrand Aristide's reinstatement in Port-au-Prince.

But perhaps the most significant of all the recent developments from the global point of view is the prospect of peace between Jordan and Israel. Jordanian and Israeli negotiators were reported to be meeting yesterday to put the final touches on a peace pact, which is scheduled to be signed on Oct. 26, exactly a week from now, to end almost half a century of war between the two countries.

So important is this event that U.S. President Bill Clinton is reportedly planning to attend the ceremony, making him the first ever American president to visit the Middle East since Jimmy Carter's trip to the region in 1976 to witness the signing of a similar accord between Egypt and Israel.

Admittedly, encouraging signs like these have occurred before, as was attested for example by the resolution of the Cambodian conflict a few years ago. And to be sure, the discord among nations, or groups within nations, is far from over. Hunger and strife continue to plague parts of the globe. It will take a good deal more pragmatism and goodwill for mankind to even come close to the attainment of the peaceful, prosperous world that everybody professes to be striving for.

The encouraging thing is that the thrust appears to be persisting, if not accelerating. It seems inevitable that sooner or later people will finally arrive at the realization that cooperation is the only way to achieve the ideals that are common to all mankind. The emergence of regional economic and trade blocks and cooperation schemes may not be the kind of solution everybody is happy with these days. But at least they represent a manner of reasoning that could one day prove to have a significant effect on the face of our planet.