The theme of this year’s UN world peace day on September 21, 2022 –racism-is puzzling. True, racism continues to dominate hate speech and targeted violence in the US and Europe. True too, it exists all over the world, including in my own country India, where it is directed against fellow citizens in the south as well as foreigners.

But the most critical global event of 2022 is Russia’s irredentist invasion of Ukraine. It has highlighted the capacity of a European war to cause food, energy and financial crises across the world. It has also struck at the core of the UN structure. What faith can we have in an organization’s ability to wage peace when a key governing member has itself launched a war?

The question is not new of course. For most of its history, the UN has been plagued by members of its security council going to war. Even so, this might be an opportune moment to ask for something more radical than expansion of the permanent five: that any member of veto-wielding states that is engaged in war should be suspended from exercising its vote. That way at least the UN’s mediation will not be pre-empted.

As an Indian I am naturally concerned by China’s increasingly overt irredentism, including in disputed territories which we control. As security analysts say, we need to be far more proactive on defending our borders and in international forums.

I am equally concerned about rising xenophobia against minorities in so many UN member-states. Speaking to President Putin at the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit, Prime Minister Modi remarked that ‘this is not an era of war’. His welcome remark would have been even more welcome had he added that this is not an era of communal violence either. India is more today hate-riddled than it has been since the aftermath of partition seventy-five years ago. Given that groups supporting the Modi administration lead the hate bandwagon, he could effectively halt it.

Chauvinism might be a more inclusive term for this year’s peace day. It covers communalism and racism. It is a fundamental element in Russian and Chinese irredentism.