Today is United Nations International Day of Peace. This will come as something of a contradiction to the residents of Falluja, Gaza, Chechnya, Nepal, Darfur as well as the other major conflict zones detailed on page 11 of today's paper, and many other places throughout the world besides.
Man's evident unwillingness and inability to live at peace with himself and his neighbours, to resolve differences without recourse to the ultimate arbiter of physical force continues to command attention in a way that striving for peace does not. Those nations that consciously eschew violence as an instrument of foreign policy either directly or in support of others - several Scandinavian countries come to mind - are often portrayed as essentially dull. And yet at a different level, individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela who met extreme provocation with non-violence or embraced their enemies with love remain among the most admired figures in human history.
It was Dr King who best articulated the challenge of the alternative to violence. "One day," he said, "we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." He thus challenged St Augustine's rather depressing assertion that "the purpose of all war is ultimately peace". The UN, for all its manifest faults and deficiencies, remains the main international organisation trying most consistently to promote world peace. For that reason alone, it deserves our support.
The International Day of Peace was established by a UN resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly, which happens today in New York. The General Assembly hoped member states would "devote a specific time to... promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways... to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples".
Turning such ideals into practical realities are not easy. The UN itself talks of the need to foster a culture of peace - "a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations".
In the absence of leadership from government, the best hope must lie in individual behaviour. For everything there is a season... a time for war, and a time for peace. The time for peace is not yet to hand.