Recently, I noted that two uncles of mine named Daniel and Stanley also have a passion for international relations. When they visited us on a Sunday several weeks ago, they engaged my eldest brother Joe Kagigite and I in a lively discussion about current world affairs such as the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Yes, international relations fascinates me. That's why I have devoured books about how the idea of nation-states came to be, how various nations have established systems of governance and how European nations colonized uncivilized people in Asia, Africa and America.
In my readings, I noted that China was not among the nations colonized by Europeans. And the reason why China was not colonized was because its people were civilized and advanced. It's the Chinese who invented paper and gunpowder.
For me, the most fascinating part in the history of international relations is the Cold War which existed between the two superpowers that emerged after World War 2. The superpowers were the United States and the Soviet Union.
What the two superpowers aspired to do during the Cold War was spreading their ideologies to as many nations as they could. The United States believed in capitalism while the Soviet Union believed in communism.
To prove that their system of governance was superior to the other, the two superpowers engaged in a space race. The Soviet Union became the first nation to send a man to space while the United States became the first nation to land a man on the moon.
In his first inaugural address in 1981 when the Cold War was raging on, President Ronald Reagan confidently told his fellow Americans:
We must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have.Of course the point that Reagan was making was that the United States would win the Cold War. And he turned out to be right, for the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the world's lone superpower.
The decline of the Cold War led to the liberation of nations in eastern Europe that had been dominated by the Soviet Union since the end of World War 2. I heard that after one European nation was freed from Soviet domination, its leader said the nation needed more American generals, starting with General Electric and General Motors.
While reflecting on what I have studied about international relations, I have discerned a striking resemblance between the relations that exist among nations and the relations that exist among individuals. Just as nations fight against each other, so do people engage in disputes of one form or another. And just as advanced nations have domineered over poor nations, so do strong people tend to bully the weaker ones.
From what I have narrated earlier in this story, we can conclude that if we don't want others to bully us, we must be mentally strong just as the Chinese people were for them to avoid colonialism by Europeans. But if we become complacent about being timid and confused, we are bound to attract bullies wherever we go.
Hey, wait a minute! A lesson I have gleaned from my studies of international relations is that love and kindness always prevails over cruelty and selfishness. All the tyrannical dictators I have read about finally succumbed to defeat and even humiliation.
Take for instance Hitler, perhaps the most evil tyrant in history due to the suffering he caused to millions of innocent Jews. Hitler ended up committing suicide after his nation was defeated in World War 2. So, to avoid a Hitler-like ending, let us strive to be kind and compassionate as we go about our daily lives. Ciao!
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on lessons I have gleaned from international relations, you might also enjoy another one on "The Thuita Doctrine" which I wrote more than six years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
