At the very beginning of my second semester of college, I wandered down to the bookstore in Alfred, NY during a break between classes and found a copy of Einstein on Peace, a collection of writings edited and with introductions by Einstein's literary executors, Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden. At the time I found this book, I had many questions and not a whole lot of answers regarding the international system. Please recall the times. This was January of 1984, less than a year after Ronald Reagan's infamous "Star Wars" speech in which he called the Soviet Union "the focus of evil in the modern world". The Cold War was heating up again. It seemed that we were on the brink of tragedy.
Einstein's writings of peace were like nothing I had ever read. Beginning with a manifesto he signed during the First World War, in protest to one signed by hundreds of German intellectuals defending German aggression, including the violation of Belgian neutrality, and continuing through his work with the League of Nations, his advocacy for collective security against the Nazis, his work advocating for American research into atomic energy, right up to the night of his death, when he wrote on the intractability of the Israeli-Arab conflict - Einstein wrote with a combination of logic, passion, and naivete that is still astounding.
The main point Einstein made that stuck with me was the need for subordinating national sovereignty to supranational law in the face of the threat of global annihilation from nuclear weapons. In many ways, Einstein's writings continue to have resonance as the most serious threats facing us - global warming, international finance and banking, the ongoing threat of piracy, terrorism - go beyond borders and cannot be dealt with by individual countries. With the evolution of various supranational organizations, from the European Union, the International Criminal Court, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization we are seeing the dawning of what seems to be the first steps toward global political coordination.
I think that we are still centuries away from real supranationalism, but should we survive the worst of the immediate near future, I believe Einstein's vision will have more truth and more perspicacity than that of his critics.
Virtual Tin Cup
