ABSTRACT: It is necessary to transfer the administration of the security arrangements of individual nations to supernational bodies. It is necessary to fight worldwide problems by transferring resources from the arms race to primary needs, and to make democracy the founding principle of collective life at all levels, from local level to international relations. If we want to change the course of international affairs, it is increasingly necessary to create a new, transnational and cross-party political instrument. And the only candidate is the Radical Party.

(The Party New, n.2, July 1991)

In the last eighteen months two events have profoundly altered prevalent opinions on international politics: the end of the Cold War, and the war to liberate Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion. Preoccupations and approaches that were previously confined to a minority of visionaries and Utopians are now common even amongst more moderate experts, to the extent that there is now widespread consensus regarding the diagnosis and the cure for the problems of the world. So far, however, no-one has managed to point to a doctor capable of administrating the medicine required.

The collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the beginning of the transformation of the Soviet system, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the agreements on disarmament in Europe (Euromissiles and conventional arms) have rapidly made the enormous waste of resources on the arms race in Europe (500-600 billion dollars a year) obsolete and pointless. The Soviet Union and the ex-Communist regimes have realized that excessive military spending is one of the main causes of their social and economic problems. In the United States, on the other hand, the historic opportunity to transfer resources to the reduction of the public debt and to welfare expenditure has immediately been perceived -- the term "peace dividend", in fact, was coined during Congress discussions on the budget for the 1991 fiscal year.

Both in the United States and in Europe, however, the first cuts in military spending were carried out with very little courage and without an overall view of final objectives and alternative uses. This was the general climate in August 1990, when the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place. In the following èmonths, with the war and the liberation of the Emirate, a number of important facts became clear to everyone: the need for a collective security system capable of protecting small and relatively vulnerable countries; the absurdity of the transfer of military technology to developing countries; the link between authoritarian regimes and militarization (Iraq, at the bottom of the UNDP ratings in terms of the personal freedom of its citizens, had managed all the same to accumulate the fourth-largest arsenal in the world); the link between military spending, debt and underdevelopment; the true nature of the global threat posed by environmental problems; and the responsibility of political leaders, in the Nor

th as in the South, for the perpetuation of this absurd state of affairs.

As a consequence, in the first few months of this year a number of parliamentary assemblies voted in favour of various forms of restriction on trade in conventional arms, and against the proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction. In some cases, as in the resolution passed by the Italian Parliament on 14 May, it was recognized that it is also necessary to offer incentives to developing countries who give up the perpetual arms race -- incentives in the form of financial aid and reduction of the foreign debt. All this would be accompanied by a sort of right of interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, in the sense, that is, of making aid dependent on respect for human rights and reduction of military expenditure in the beneficiary countries. However, the documents which outline this great plan for international reform most effectively are probably the second UNDP report on human development and the Stockholm Initiative, extracts from which are reproduced on the following pages. èBo

th of these documents contain proposals to transfer the administration of the security arrangements of individual nations to supernational bodies, to fight worldwide problems by transferring resources from the arms race to primary needs, and to make democracy the founding principle of collective life at all levels, from local level to international relations.

One big question remains: who will turn such logical and practicable ideas into political action? The very governments which, in the North as in the South, have brought about the state of affairs that everyone now believes to be untenable?

If we want to change the course of world affairs and follow the arguments of reason and science, it is increasingly necessary to create a new, transnational and cross-party political instrument. And the only candidate is the Radical Party.