Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As other unilateral uses of force since 1945, and in particular after the end of the Cold War, the war of aggression against Ukraine has been proof that the United Nations system of collective security does not work when a permanent member of the Security Council is involved in a conflict or dispute. In the absence of effective international constraints, the risk of escalation – emotional as well as military – is high, and the dynamics of a confrontation may quickly get out of control.

At this juncture, political leaders should pay attention to the wisdom and statesmanship of President Kennedy and heed the warnings in his epochal "Peace Speech," in the midst of the Cold War, at American University in Washington on 10 June 1963.* Addressing the risk of emotional escalation, indeed of a kind of mass hysteria we see today surrounding the Ukraine war, he reminded the world of the importance to avoid the vilifaction of an entire people: "No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements – in science and space, (...) in culture and in acts of courage."

On the risk of a military escalation – towards all-out nuclear war – President Kennedy said: "Above all, (...) nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy – or of a collective death-wish for the world."

One can only hope that both of these sober, lucid warnings from one of the great leaders of the 20^th century will be taken seriously by those in power today, in a moment when war hysteria seems to erase the foundations of a rational approach to conflict by diplomacy. 

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* John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963, at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, jfklibrary.org.