In recent times many of us have been in despair at the state of International relations, almost at the point of giving up hope.

We feel this way because we see no action that is simple and effective enough to offer real hope of ending the madness all around us - the madness of global wars that we have been living through for the past hundred years.

But what if there were a simple solution?

There is a simple solution – the passage of a simple resolution in the United Nations' General Assembly called - "Two-Percent-And-No-First-Strike".

The resolution would be a resolution on membership requirement.

Once adopted, no member nation in the United Nations would be allowed to use more than 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for its military budget, nor to use weapons of mass destruction on a first-strike basis.

Any nation that wanted to allocate more than 2% would be required to give the excess to the United Nations to form a permanent international peace keeping force controlled by the the General Assembly.

Because it is a membership requirement, the UN Security Council, according to the UN bylaw, can not claim jurisdiction and thus will not be able to veto it. Any member nation can introduce this resolution at the General Assembly floor to be voted upon.

Because it is so simple, it needs no debate, thus no delay.

Because over half of the member nations already are compliant, it could win easy passage.

Because every nation's security and sovereignty will be enhanced, even guaranteed, by this initiative, it will subject the few nations who do oppose it to pressure of public opinion - the new "Other Superpower" that came into being when the UN denied legality of the war against Iraq in 2003.

The resolution is fair because every nation has the same percentage limit.

It will not cause practical hardship because even the most militarized nation today can meet its existing personnel payroll with a 2% budget.

It is not unnatural because no nation is asked, nor required, to destroy any of the weapons it already has.

It is effective in the short term because no nation can wage a war within a 2% GDP military budget.

It is effective in the long term because over $500 billion will be saved every year from destructive uses.

Its instant result will be that all invading troops will have to be withdrawn right away.

For the third world nations, it will offer the first chance that they can pursue their own peace without outside interference.

For the first world nations, it will offer the first chance that true democracy can be practiced.

For the world, it will offer both the people and the planet the first chance to heal since the end of WWII.

Had the United Nations adopted exactly this same membership requirement at its inception in 1946, we would have had a world in peace since then, as the Preembles of the United Nations so powerfully prayed then:

"WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith .... have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations."

Without this simple membership requirement, the United Nations was rendered powerless to prevent wars by the powerful nations. And now, with the continuous crisis of war, humanity has lost hope for peace.

Recently the world's 8 most industrialized nations, after their most secretive meeting in June, 2004, announced their intention to form a permanent international peace keeping force without the companion pledge of no first strike.

They also declared that they re-define the Middle East to include North Africa, the only other region of proven oil fields.

These actions both serve to prove the importance of the proposed 2% initiative, and the placement of a permanent international peace keeping force under the control of all the nations instead of just the 8 strongest economic nations.

If democracy is good for national governance on the principle of one person one vote, how is democracy not good for world governance.

The passage of the "Two-Percent-And-No-First-Strike" initiative is easy, but the real work begins afterwards: To ensure that our own respective governments will abide by it.

The good thing is that our work will then be done within a simple and enforceable legal framework. But even more critically, it will be done with hope in our hearts because everyone can understand such a simple solution.

ENDS

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