Principles of Peaceful Coexistence More Relevant Today

Beijing hosted an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence on June 28, 2024. The event served not only as a celebration of historical achievements but also as a focal point for nations and peoples worldwide to orient themselves amid significant global transformation.

The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, proposed 70 years ago to contribute to building of a just post-war international order and proper handling of state-to-state relations, remain essential to the world. These principles include mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

These principles later influenced the consensus reached at the 1955 Bandung Conference, at which representatives from 29 Asian and African nations, comprising over half of the world’s population, gathered. Through intense discussions and negotiations, they agreed upon a 10-point declaration promoting world peace and cooperation, which incorporated the Five Principles and key principles of the U.N. Charter.

As conflicts rage across the world, nations find themselves at another inflection point. The concerns that brought representatives from 29 countries together at Bandung, namely the reluctance of Western powers after World War II to meaningfully consult them on issues impacting Asiaand Africa, are recurring one way or another.

The Beijing event contributed to a necessary global dialogue, drawing on the strengths of historic alignments to shape the institutions and ethos of an emerging multipolar world.

As the unipolar world of the so-called “Pax Americana” gives way to the re-emergence of global multipolarity, a new international architecture is needed to ensure prosperity and peace. Over the past three decades, the financialized global capitalist system has failed to meet the needs of a significant portion of the world’s population. Even in many of the wealthiest nations, most people have seen a relative decline in their living standards. Moreover, environmental degradation has led to existential threats, and social inequality within countries has intensified. Uneven development remains the primary source of international instability.

In particular, hegemonism, power politics, and unilateral bullying continue to undermine peace, stability and development of the world, and human life and dignity are, more often than not, ignored under the law of the jungle.

Additionally, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence poses new risks and dangers, unless the technology is regulated and governed comprehensively on a global scale.

Addressing these challenges requires aligned and coordinated efforts across nations. Actions must be taken through common agreements in which all countries, adhering to the spirit of the Five Principles, consider each other’s interests and concerns. Attempts to enforce actions through unilateral moves, buttressed by kinetic interventions or threats, are no solutions and are likely to backfire, with unilateral sanctions as a case in point.

Effective coordinated action on shared global or cross-border challenges requires social stability as a foundation. To achieve this, it is essential to respect each nation’s need to govern themselves in ways that are legitimate and appropriate to their unique histories and circumstances.

Coordinated economic development, which ensures that the benefits of economic progress are shared fairly among all participants, is crucial for maintaining social stability. When development is uneven, with global centers exploiting and extracting resources from peripheral nations, it fosters resentment and instability in many regions worldwide.

The principles of peaceful coexistence recognize the intrinsic symbiotic relationship between fair and equitable development, social stability, and transnational peace. This is why, in the face of significant global challenges, the Five Principles remain as relevant today as ever. We witnessed these principles taking institutional form when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its Summit this month in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The SCO Summit endorsed the Initiative on World Unity for a Just Peace, Harmony and Development, which is grounded in the inseparable relationship between fair and equitable economic development across nations on the one hand, and peace, stability and security on the other. As academic, peace activist and campaigner Johan Galtung once observed, one “will never reach peace through security, but one will reach security through peace.”

The fabric and ethos of the SCO dictate a set of relationships that aim to foster a mutually supportive environment, where the actions of one contribute to the conditions of the whole, and where the actions of others bolster the security and stability of one. These collaborations are fundamentally shaped not by an orientation toward an external threat or enemy, but by recognizing that social and economic development, stability, and security are best achieved through common endeavors.

Once again, the echoes of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence can be heard.

The Five Principles, embodied in the institutions and practices of the SCO and others, point to ways of international cooperation that are more fitting to today’s challenges. Rather than seeking to form alliances defined by external threats or enemies, this model of multipolar engagement is focused on the shared interests of the participants, without any reference to stymying or facing off against third parties.

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear,” said Antonio Gramsci in the 1930s, as he observed the rise of Fascism in Europe. Just as Europe in the 1930s saw economic crises drive political upheavals, ultimately leading to transcontinental wars, today, we also confront disruption as the “old world” of American unipolarity gives way and a new multipolar world is being born.

Multipolarity necessitates new institutions and methods to affirm and enhance existing multilateral frameworks, such as the U.N., to improve their functionality. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence must form a key part of these efforts.

Warwick Powell is an adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology and a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute.