Dr Keith Suter on Making Peace in the World Today

members of the blue mountains peace collective

Dr Keith Suter (fourth from left) with members of the Blue Mountains Peace Collective.

Recognising how violence and war impact the health of the planet, the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative has become a member of the Blue Mountains Peace Collective. On Sunday 25th May, members of the Collective attended a presentation by Dr Keith Suter on Making Peace in the World Today at the Leura Uniting Church.

Key Points:

  • The Doomsday Clock, which estimates humanity’s proximity to extinction, has been moved to 89 seconds to midnight.
  • There are steps all of us can take to grow a global movement for peace.
  • By adopting a Planetary Health approach – one that recognises the interdependence of human health and the health of our social, economic and environmental systems – we can forge a more peaceful, secure future.

The ‘dis-integration’ of the world through an increase in violence and war is creating an existential threat to all life. This year marks the sober 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which killed up to 246,000 people. It remains the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. For months afterward, many people continued to die from the effects of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition.

Since then, every year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has set the Doomsday Clock: a metaphor for estimating humanity’s proximity to extinction. 

This year the Doomsday Clock was moved to 89 seconds to midnight – the closest the planet has ever been to catastrophe.

Dr Keith Suter (AM) from Global Directions, a member of the Club of Rome, former President of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, and well known media commentator, has written three doctorates: the first examined the international law of guerrilla warfare (University of Sydney), the second explored the social and economic consequences of the arms race (Deakin University) and the third doctorate analysed scenario planning (Sydney University). 

In the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Suter was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to international relations, and to the Uniting Church in Australia”.

Members of the Blue Mountains Peace Collective gathered to hear Dr Keith Suter

Members of the Leura Uniting Church and the Blue Mountains Peace Collective gathered to hear Dr Keith Suter on Sunday 25 May

At a community gathering in Leura, Dr Suter defined peace and the principles of working for peace, before outlining current global concerns and what we urgently need to do to stop the Doomsday Clock reaching midnight. In the question time following, he drew the link between climate change, environmental degradation and peace, and assured everyone that writing letters to politicians does have an impact!

You can watch Dr Suter’s full presentation in this video. Read further for a detailed outline of his talk.


Last month, the Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Laureates for Peace also hosted a webinar underscoring the inextricable link between Planetary Health, environmental sustainability and peace:

For peace to prevail in the long term, we must address these interconnected ecological determinants of human health. Climate change, environmental degradation, and health crises do not respect borders – they have the power to spark conflict, drive displacement, and deepen social inequities. By adopting a Planetary Health approach – one that recognizes the interdependence of human health and environmental systems – we can forge a more peaceful, secure future.

Below is an outline of Dr Keith Suter’s presentation:

MAKING PEACE IN THE WORLD TODAY – Dr Keith Suter

A resource for Twilight at Leura Uniting Church on Sunday 25th May 2025

INTRODUCTION: PEACE

What is “peace”?

  • More than simply the absence of war
  • It also involves co-operation and non-violent social change, aimed at creating more equitable and just structures in the communities and societies in which we live
  • Declaration of St James’ Palace June 1941:
    • The only true basis of enduring peace is the willing co-operation of free peoples in a world in which, relieved of the menace of aggression, all may enjoy economic and social security.

Principles of Working for Peace

  • Countries can win wars but lose the peace
  • “Violence” is not just about war alone: in the 20th Century more people were killed by their own governments than by foreign invaders
  • There has to be a change within each person
  • “Shalom”: wholeness
  • More than just about the scrapping of weapons: converting the weapons of war into the tools of peace: from swords into ploughs
  • Given the fallen nature of humankind, there will always be violence of some sort and so complete “peace” is not possible this side of the grave

Triangle of Peace

  • Disarmament
  • Conflict resolution
  • Search for justice

CURRENT CONCERNS

AUKUS: Australia, UK, USA

  • September 16 2021: AUKUS agreement is one of the most important foreign policy decisions in recent Australian history
  • Australian media tended to focus on submarines but the big picture is even more important; French submarine programme was over time and over budget
  • “China” was not mentioned in the three statements but was present throughout the media event
  • Are the decks being cleared for action against China? Variation of the “Thucydides Trap“? (Graham Allison); of 16 arms races in the last 500 years, 12 resulted in war
  • Risk of sleepwalking into a war with China
  • Taiwan could be the flashpoint to trigger a confrontation
  • In the recent general election neither of the two main parties questioned the viability of AUKUS

But New Cold War is Different from the Old One

  • The old Cold War (US-USSR, 1945-91) was mainly a military confrontation because the USSR was excluded from the world economy
  • New Cold War has China at the centre of the global economy (including via the Belt and Road Initiative: BRI)
  • How to oppose militarily a major trading partner?

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Basic Themes of Australian Foreign and Defence Policy

  • Fear of invasion
  • Fear that Australia cannot defend itself on its own; Australia is responsible for about 10 per cent of Earth’s surface
  • Need for a “great and powerful friend”
  • Payment of insurance premiums (beginning with the NSW troop deployments in UK’s 19th African conflicts) in the hope that the protector will come to Australia’s aid in a crisis
  • In short: Australia’s foreign and defence policy has been guided by the priorities of the senior ally (UK up to December 1941; now US e.g. Vietnam, “war on terror”, Afghanistan, Iraq)
  • There is little consistent public interest in this subject: people are anxious to be reassured that “something” is being done by “somebody” and then they turn their attention elsewhere, such as sport

Wider Context

  • Is China a threat to Australia? How should Australia respond to China-Taiwan tensions? Do we follow the US lead?
  • For the first time since 1788, Australia’s largest trading partner: isn’t part of the Western political/military alliance; isn’t part of the European cultural heritage; isn’t a developed country; isn’t a democracy: Yes: China is going to become the superpower, but it is doing things differently
  • How do we operate a fully-fledged nuclear-powered submarine fleet?
  • Can we trust the US? No country stays on top forever
  • “Armed neutrality”/ Swedish model: should Australia do more for its own defence and get rid of the US bases; reintroduce conscription; create compulsory forms of service in military and civilian corps, produce more of its own weapons; educate the general public to be more self-reliant?
  • “New Zealand” option: scrap much of the overseas military capability and reduce the US connection
  • Will “defence force modernisation” simply trigger local arms races and so would Australia be better off by not modernising and to seek to reassure the local region that it has no aggressive intentions?
  • Create a Ministry for Peace and do defence and foreign policy differently e.g. more economic and social co-operation?

Conclusion: there are plenty of alternatives to the current policy- but a lack of political will and public pressure to make changes.

Keith Suter

[email protected]

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