Moving toward a more stable world order (abolishing the death penalty)

We now live in a pluralistic global community with relatively easy access to weapons of mass destruction. One of the defining characteristics of a government is that it has a monopoly on the use of coercive power. Governments need enough coercive power to be able to maintain order and security, but the problem then becomes one of also placing limits on the use of that governmental power. As a result of technology, military power has now reached an ironic state of affairs in which that military power cannot be used without the risk of self destruction. For 30 years we had a foreign policy of mutual assured destruction. An exchange of nuclear weapons would also create a “nuclear winter” which would destroy the foundations of most of life on earth.

“If a government does not use its monopoly of coercive power to execute a single individual, it may be more reluctant to consider massive killing and destruction, including self-destruction.”

One of the ways to address the issue of the need for a more stable world order would be to first work toward the global abolishment of capital punishment. If a government does not use its monopoly of coercive power to execute a single individual, it may be more reluctant to consider massive killing and destruction, including self-destruction. Even the global elimination of capital punishment would not be easy as the death penalty is the greatest tool of autocratic and totalitarian governments. The global elimination of the death penalty would also require a liberal interpretation of Sharia Law in those Muslim countries have Sharia Guarantee Causes in their Constitutions.

Unfortunately, the five countries that use capital punishment the most consistently have included the United States. China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran are among the company that we keep and they all point to the United States to help justify their use of the death penalty. This is one more major reason to abolish the death penalty in the United States. 135 out of 192 countries have already abolished the death penalty. A country can not be a member of the European Union if they have the death penalty. World opinion and collaborative policies based on that opinion can be affective in moving toward a more stable world order.