In a guest article for the Dutch daily Financieel Dagblad (FD), I argue that the world should invest in international institutions to avoid a weapons race, as a lesson from the past.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 was to a large extent the consequence of distrust among states and their belief that tensions could be resolved through military means. ‘In the years prior to the war, governments invested rapidly in their armies, but neglected sufficient investments in international cooperation’, I write in the FD newspaper.
The Hague Peace Conferences in 1899 and 1907 were an attempt to create an international system for peace and security.
‘Like at the begin of the twentieth century in The Hague, investments in international institutions are necessary: frameworks for the development of new weapons, regular fora for exchange, mechanisms to resolve disputes. In a time of rapidly growing armaments and the weakening of existing institutions, the international community should not repeat the mistakes of 1914.’