Peace in the Middle East?

Today’s title is not meant to be a come on. It is a serious question. How can peace come to the Middle East?  I have a few ideas bouncing around in my head. Here they are:

1. Regional leadership for regional solution
2. Replace oil as the prime source of global energy
3. Global Council on Religions

First, from time to time multiple nations are polled for providing their leadership to regional disputes. The Saudis have often been enlisted to find peaceful methods to calm hot tempers in the region. They have often constructed successful teams of emissaries which spread to many nations in the region. Each enlisted promises of peace and the means to make it happen.  Keeping that peace for more than 10 or 15 years has been a recurrent problem, however.

Calming the region is the first step needed to building a longer lasting peace. The Middle East has always been a hotbed of disagreement. Often over trade, always over religion, and long remembered slights and insults, real or imaginary, have fueled flare ups repeatedly.

Regaining calm in the region is the first step to solving the issues which continue to perplex successive generations. Historians can well document the chronological record. Theologians can also provide an outline of understanding long held disputes among the several belief systems in the region. Perhaps both historians and theologians should join forces for a fresh look into the root causes of the area’s routine upsets. Just a fresh look at it, please, not a major re-enactment of the themes that cause the trouble in the first place.  Please, not that!

Then a compendium of leaders from around the region should gather for serious talks aimed at settling old scores and building a fresh future for them all to enjoy and prosper from. I wonder if such a council of leadership could be formed and kept productively employed to build a future of peace? Who among world leaders might bring this off? If not American leadership, whose? If not the UN’s, whose? If not the Middle East stake holders, whose?  Someone, please step up to the challenge!

Second, energy needs are global. Filling the needs of any region affects the price of energy throughout the globe almost instantly. That’s the nature of world markets. Energy is a commodity regardless of its sources. Thus commodity pricing results.

Other energy types and sources need full development to complement and eventually displace oil as the primary energy means. Doing this will reduce the geopolitical importance of the Middle East. At least that’s my hope! Diversifying the energy markets globally would help defuse the strategic value of specific energy sources in key regions thus reducing military adventurism to control those energy sites. In the Middle East we could hope for peace from that strategy alone.

Of course removing oil as a key revenue producer for the region would cause other economic problems in the region, but those upsets are more easily solved. War over oil is never an easy problem to solve! History has taught us that lesson indelibly.

Other energy sources peaceful nations ought to develop are:

• Geothermal; Iceland does, why not more nations who have this energy source readily available?
• Wind energy is growing in many parts of the globe. We need more of this development. In subareas of the globe energy demand could be partially filled with this source, lessening the demand for oil.
• Solar energy comes in many guises. The scientists and engineers are working on this and have built many installations to produce reliable energy streams. More needs to be done. More can be done. So do it!
• Photovoltaic energy technology. This is a burgeoning field constantly growing and reducing unit costs to build and install. If more homes and buildings (office, commercial or retail) were outfitted with solar panels, oil consumption would drop considerably.
• Nuclear energy should continue to be explored for clean fuel streams and full use of spent fuel components so eons of danger from wastes are eliminated. This can be done and is well along the development trail. The quest should be continued until the solution is found and implemented.
• Other forms of energy from chemistry and physics research are possible. Such research progresses as we speak. More and faster gains are needed. Keep at it!

Replacing oil as the primary energy source is a given. Oil supplies are finite. We will have to replace oil eventually as an energy source. So why not dedicate ourselves to that as a goal right now? But first we need to conserve energy so supplies are used intelligently. Second we must dedicate ourselves to using alternate energy types until they become major supply components of our energy demand and supply cycle.

Third, the Council of Trent occurred in the years 1545 to 1563. It was a major meeting of the minds in the Roman Catholic Church. They came to many sweeping changes in the church which altered history around the globe. I am suggesting another Council of Religion, this time involving all religions practiced around the globe. The new Council will work for several years until they have agreed on a means of moving forward in history in a peaceful fashion. All religions ought to be able to work together. They share many of the same beliefs, same core creeds, and similar historical documents of foundational belief. The Bible, Torah and Koran share much. Build on that for better understanding among the billions of faithful to individual religions.

Forge a new peace among religions so the world’s people can live in peace. This will take hard work and a commitment of many years to achieve the desired results. The outcome is worth the investment of time and effort.

A meeting of the minds is not impossible. It begins with everyone wanting peace and realizing that it can be acquired if we work hard enough and long enough.

Who will pick up this challenge?

June 30, 2014