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The Moral Demand of Peace on the GlobalCapitalist OrderAdebola Babatunde EkanolaPublished online: 22 Sep 2006.

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The Moral Demand of Peaceon the Global Capitalist OrderADEBOLA BABATUNDE EKANOLA

Traditionally, social peace is variously conceived of as the absence of

aggression or violence, the minimization or resolution of conflict, or the

balance of force or terror within a family, clan, community, nation, or the

world at large. Society is regarded as peaceful when there is no incidence

of or a sufficient will to employ violence to achieve desired objectives.

But social peace is now defined more positively regarding qualities a

society must have to be rightly described as peaceful, and not merely in

terms of what must be absent. Thus, apart from the absence of violence,

whether manifest or latent, there are other conditions that must exist for

society to be peaceful.

One of these is subjective whereas others are objective. The objective

aspect of peace includes physical security, some measure of material

prosperity, an effective and generally accepted political structure, and har-

monious relationship between members of society. The subjective aspect

of social peace is the emotional well being of members of society. It

appears, however, that a generally acceptable political structure and prosper-

ous economy are more the preconditions for peace or factors that predispose

society toward peace than integral aspects of it, whereas the other factors

identified earlier constitute the core of social peace. Thus, social peace

would consist in the physical security, emotional well being, and the harmo-

nious relationship of members of society, whereas a functional government

and economic prosperity are factors that facilitate the attainment of the core

aspects of social peace.

Bertrand Russell and George Santayana are examples of scholars

convinced that global peace requires some form of world government.

Jacques Maritain, in addition, holds that global peace requires some

minimum measure of economic well being that can only be guaranteed

within the context of a global political order. These opinions underlie the

formation of the United Nations, a global institution committed to the

pursuit of an enduring global peace and security through the promotion of

Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 18:281–288

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN 1040-2659 print; 1469-9982 online

DOI: 10.1080/10402650600692458

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the economic and social advancement of all peoples, and the evolution of a

global political structure that would recognize the inherent dignity and

inalienable rights of everyone in the human family. But despite spirited

efforts, the vision of an enduring global peace, understood as a stable

condition characterized by the physical security, emotional well being, and

the harmonious relationship of all humans has remained an illusion.

Several factors—ranging from the inherent nature of humankind,

economic scarcity, and political deprivations to a complex of these

factors—have been identified as responsible for the continued occurrence

of war and the elusive nature of a lasting global peace. For our present

purpose, however, we focus on how adverse socioeconomic conditions

hinder the attainment of global peace. We shall try to establish that a

reason why an enduring global peace remains elusive is that prevailing con-

ditions in the global capitalist economy are inimical to it.

One of the basic features of the global economy is its domination by

transnational corporations (TNCs), the activities of which span several

countries, with the most powerful of them having significant influence in

virtually all the countries of the world. It is also characterized by the inter-

dependence of national economies on one another and the central coordi-

nation of their relationships by international organizations such as the

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. When a country,

especially a developing country, attempts to integrate the national

economy into the global economy through the process of liberalizing

national economies, privatizing public enterprises and deregulating the

market, the fundamental objective is to strategically place the economy so

that it would be able to attract and benefit from the activities of TNCs and

the interdependence between countries. Essentially, it is to encourage

TNCs to locate their production units in their territory, establish trade

relations with other countries and, in the process, benefit from their high

level of technology in terms of improved national productivity, efficiency,

and finally, revenue and employment generation.

We must note, however, that in their characteristic quest for profit max-

imization— through the reduction of the costs of production—capital-

ist business organizations developed organically integrated circuits of

production in different countries, with each country undertaking only a

part of the production process. This changed the pattern of global trade

from complementary and inter-product trading to adversarial and competi-

tive intra-product trading. This production and trade strategy positively

affected the development of only a few countries that were hitherto underde-

veloped, as they emerged as Newly Industrialized Economies or Countries

(NIEs). They benefited immensely from the technological transfer, capital

inflow, job creation, and a general improvement in the standard of living

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that came in the wake of the relocation and integration strategy of the

Western entrepreneurs. These include Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong,

South Korea, Mexico, and Brazil. Others only derived marginal benefits

from the strategy, as many countries previously known as the producer of

certain products now have to compete with others, forcing many of them

to produce according to global standards of price and quality.

Unfortunately, many of the indigenous and middle-scale manufactur-

ing and service-providing organizations in developing countries are unable

to effectively compete with TNCs, based on the global standards of price

and quality. The latter have an advantage in terms of superior technology,

access to raw materials and highly skilled labor, and more efficient distri-

bution network. Eventually, these indigenous industries are either forced

into bankruptcy and collapse or are bought by transnational firms. This

confirms Oswaldo de Rivero’s description of the global capitalist order as

a global Darwinian jungle in which the species fittest to compete for

survival actually survive, reproduce, and prosper. Industries that are forced

into bankruptcy eject their workforce into the already saturated unemploy-

ment market.

In contrast, those that are bought undergo basic restructuring that

includes introducing more sophisticated and labor-saving techniques of pro-

duction, and replacing a substantial part of the unskilled and semi-skilled

workers with fewer highly skilled workers. Thus, the influx of transnational

investment into a developing economy tends to produce a rise in the level of

unemployment, contrary to the popular belief that it guarantees more

employment for people. This has negative implications on social develop-

ment, understood as the progressive amelioration of poverty, reduction of

unemployment and inequality, as well as realization of human personality

and dignity.

To provide alternative employment for the large mass of workers that

are rendered redundant, there is a renewed effort by the governments of some

developing countries to develop their agricultural sector. A problem with this

initiative, however, is the global decline in the demand for agricultural

products, resulting from the dematerialization of production. This has

lowered the prices of agricultural products to unprofitable levels, which

will likely continue to decline for the next ten years and, perhaps, even

further into the century. Farmers in developing countries cannot compete

effectively with farmers in the industrialized countries of the world

because the latter have direct access to the latest equipment and technologi-

cal innovations, and can offer more agricultural products of a higher quality

in the global market at prices the former cannot possibly match.

The activities of some of these TNCs also generate grievous environ-

mental problems, which hinder the health and economic prosperity of the

local people where their operations are located. The case of the

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Niger-Delta region of Nigeria, where the activities of several transnational

oil corporations are concentrated, is instructive. Here, the local people

face a lot of problems and suffering as a result of the damage to aquatic

life and water pollution due to periodic oil spills; economic trees and

crops are also damaged. These further complicate the problem of unemploy-

ment as the traditional sources of livelihood of the indigenes (fishing and

farming) are destroyed by pollution and a high rate of sea incursion.

It is unmistakable that these areas are undeveloped despite the presence of

transnational oil corporations. These organizations employ only a few of

the indigenous of these areas whereas most of the population remains

unemployed, with the loss of their traditional sources of income to

environmental pollution and degradation, as a result of mining activities.

Unfortunately, the usual responses of the oil corporations and their

government collaborators to any demand by the indigenous to either adopt

environmentally friendly techniques or compensate for the destruction of

their environment have ranged from total neglect of the demands to the

use of brute force and the incitement of one tribal group against the other.

This corroborates the claim by critics of the global capitalist order that

TNCs are usually unconcerned about the social and environmental

problems generated by their activities.

TNCs also generate, as well as complicate, existing environmental

problems by encouraging a pattern of consumption that is not environmen-

tally friendly. As consumer patterns are globalized, rubbish is also globalized

as loads of nuclear, chemical, and other toxic wastes and diverse items

discarded in the industrialized countries are systematically shipped to

global refuse dumps in the underdeveloped countries to complicate their

environmental and health problems. They use their influence and money to

hinder regulations designed to conserve and protect the environment

because of their high cost implications. This they find relatively easy to do

in many of the developing countries, given the desperation to attract

foreign investments and secure transnational business. Thus, it might be

rightly stated that economic globalization promotes the adoption of a

system that is basically unsustainable, structurally violent, and based on

global injustices.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the global capitalist order, through

the operations of its major players, the TNCs, significantly impairs the

well being of people, especially in the developing world. We have high-

lighted how economic problems, particularly unemployment, loss of

traditional income sources, the bankruptcy of national businesses and

different environmental problems are engendered within the global capitalist

economy. What remains now is to try to show how, precisely, economic

deprivations generate violence and inhibit peace.

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To begin with, unemployment inhibits peace as it impinges upon the

emotional well being of people. Obviously, no one would be happy to be

unemployed, especially in the developing countries where there is no

social welfare scheme to provide the unemployed with basic existential

needs. When unemployment persists, it is natural for despair, frustration,

resentment, anger, and other negative psychological states to set in,

hindering harmonious social relationship and predisposing people to

violence. This has been confirmed in recent times, with the identification

of unemployment as a primary cause of poverty, political instability,

mental health problems, and diminished health standards in many develop-

ing countries.

Similarly, the economic model of criminal behavior suggests that people

tend to move into and out of anti-social activities, like theft and corrup-

tion, in relation to their access to legitimate employment, probability of

being caught if they engage in crime, and the depth of imposed penalty.

With specific reference to violence, the frustration-aggression hypothesis

holds that a frustrating event increases the probability that the thwarted

organism will act aggressively soon afterward. This hypothesis is corrobo-

rated by evidence from a number of countries, mostly developing,

showing that crime and different forms of violence are positively correlated

with unemployment and other types of economic and political deprivations.

There is also mounting evidence that the rapid depletion of natural

resources, much of which is associated with capitalist operations, is

causally related to violent conflicts throughout the world. This is especially

so where there is a high rate of unemployment and people do not consider

that they have benefited significantly from the processes that brought

about the depletion. Frustrated further by the worsening condition of

hopeless and miserable poverty, some affected people organize themselves

first into pressure groups to press for palliatives and compensations from

both the organizations identified as directly responsible for their plights

and their governments. But, given the profit maximization objective of

these organizations and the irresponsible nature of their governments, such

demands are often ignored, compelling some of the people to resort to

militant approaches and seek redress for the violation of their economic

rights.

Indeed, virtually all the countries that are ravaged by war and other

forms of violent confrontations in recent times are characterized by

economic deprivation. The case of Rwanda is quite instructive. The crash

of the price of coffee in the global market, which is Rwanda’s most

important export crop, providing 79 percent of their export revenue,

worsened their economic condition and forced the country to embark upon

a structural adjustment program. Coupled with other factors like population

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explosion, this further strained living conditions and accentuated the histori-

cal cleavage between the Hutu and the Tutsi people in the country. These

eventually culminated in the genocide. Similarly, there is an opinion that

the conflict between Palestine and Israel, which is often identified as under-

lying a good number of the terrorists attacks witnessed in different countries

in recent times, has its genesis in the frustrating economic and political stran-

gulation of the people of Palestine by Israel.

To achieve global peace, the factors that predispose people to violence

must be effectively controlled. This requires the active cooperation

and full participation of TNCs for two principal reasons. First, they now

have so much political influence and economic power at their disposal that

they determine the economic and political reality, not only in particular

countries, but the entire global order. Thus, much of the existing social

problems would remain intractable without their active participation in

cooperation with governments, nongovernmental agencies, and every

responsible member of society. Second, it is obvious that in significant

ways, TNCs cause or complicate some of the global problems that

generate violent conflicts in different parts of the world. Given that a success-

ful control of an effect requires a good understanding and control of its causal

factors, it is crucial that TNCs, as causal agents of social problems, become

actively involved in the effort to resolve the problems created or

compounded by them.

To achieve immediate results, it would be productive to persuade

corporations to be responsive to the diverse social problems confronting

humanity, especially those generated by their actions that impair global

peace by predisposing people to violence. This may be achieved by

following the “good ethics is good business principle.” Alternatively,

efforts might be made to enforce legislations that would compel TNCs to

take up some social responsibilities.

For a more enduring impact, we need widespread recognition that there

is a moral demand on individuals and corporate bodies to give adequate

attention to the interest of others and society as a whole ahead of, or at

least on par with, our own interest. Thus, what follows is the outline of

three arguments designed to convince transnationals that they should

attend to the problems of unemployment, environmental degradation and

other related issues that impinge on the prospects of global peace.

First, TNCs succeed in their ventures partly because society provides a

stable and conducive social environment required for their growth and

prosperity. They also derive from society various resources that they

utilize for their operations. We can reasonably maintain that the

emergence and tremendous expansion of TNCs in the post–World War II

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era was made possible by the relative peace of the period. Between 1960 and

1989, the number of these corporations increased from 7,000 to 37,000.

Contemporary global reality is such, however, that factors like unemploy-

ment, financial speculation, currency fluctuation, poverty, and environmental

disasters, which predispose people to violence, are becoming rifer, especially

in developing countries, with dire consequences on global peace and

stability. Unless these factors are positively addressed, the global society

would become increasingly unfavorable for the prosperity of TNCs.

Consequently, TNCs should attend to the problems that threaten social

stability and peace in order to guarantee the stable order required for their

continued existence and prosperity. At least, the principle of enlightened

self-interest or prudence requires TNCs to promote those social conditions

that are favorable to the pursuit of their preservation and flourishing.

Second, TNCs operate in societies from which they derive various

facilities, resources, and benefits for their profit maximization ventures.

Different institutions within society provide these facilities and resources

that are favorable to the TNCs. As such, they should be grateful to society

for providing things that are beneficial to them. The duty of gratitude that

TNCs have toward society requires them to repay society by thanking

them for their benefits. A good way to fulfill this obligation is to contribute

positively to the maintenance and promotion of social stability and peace.

Third, human beings are integral components of both society and

TNCs. They are members of society and owners of TNCs. Whether as

ordinary members of society or as owners of businesses, we all have a

moral duty of beneficence, which requires us to help others in need,

especially when the cost would not be too burdensome. By this duty,

owners of TNCs have a moral obligation to use part of their vast resources

to help alleviate some of the most pressing global problems, even if they

are not affected by these problems or causally related to them. A simple

way TNCs can help people in need is to enhance the resolution of their

social problems. Conversely, the duty of non-maleficience suggests that

TNCs should not create social problems or aggravate already existing

ones. For instance, if TNCs must employ labor-saving techniques that

would render multitudes jobless, they should at least ensure that the

people laid off are promptly paid their dues and are not in any way

hindered from accessing alternative vocations, like farming and fishing;

for instance, by avoiding those techniques and activities that further

degrade their lands and pollute their waters.

Peace is a universal value required for the continued existence and

flourishing of humanity. But various environmental and socioeconomic

problems render the prospects of social development, peace, and conse-

quently, the continued existence of humanity in a flourishing and stable

condition, increasingly precarious. To guarantee social development and

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enhance society, we must make honest and consistent efforts to understand

and correct the social conditions that impede attaining peace. One of these

is the condition of economic deprivation, engendered or complicated in

developing countries by the values and operations of the global market

economy.

TNCs impair economic and social conditions in developing societies

and these, in turn, generate material and psychological factors that hinder

social peace. They have a moral responsibility to contribute to the establish-

ment of social peace by helping to resolve the social and environmental

problems that hinder peace and predispose people to violence. Failure to

take up this responsibility would make the global society increasingly unsui-

table for their operations and profit maximization objectives.

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Adebola B. Ekanola teaches Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has special interest in

Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Peace and War. He has published several

articles in these areas in national and international journals. E-mail: debekanl@yahoo.com

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