As the World Marks the End of World War II, How Do We Prevent the Rise of a New Fascism?

May 8, 2025 (EIRNS)—As the leaders of nearly 30 countries gather in Moscow to commemorate Victory Day over the forces of Nazism in what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War, the world stands at the precipice of a new war, a nuclear war that could eliminate the entire human species.

The military skirmishes, saber-rattling, and water tensions between India and Pakistan following a terrorist attack that left dozens dead, should lead us to pose a question: In what sort of political geometry is it possible for a handful of extremists to cause the potential outbreak of warfare between two nuclear-armed countries with a combined population of nearly 1.7 billion people? Who built the bomb whose fuse has possibly just been lit?

The continued destruction of Palestinian life, directed by an Israeli prime minister more interested in achieving and maintaining power, than in achieving good things for his country and its historical standing, is a call to conscience for the entire world. The lead editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz encourages Israelis to speak out. Even the Financial Times urges the West not to be complicit in a situation where months have passed since any food or aid entered Gaza.

While progress is being made toward resolving the Ukraine conflict, it is by no means certain that efforts to end the fighting will succeed. Are the European NATO nations forming a “Coalition of the Willing” to arm Ukraine “as long as it takes” in a position to prevent peace from breaking out?

Meanwhile, military planners in Anglo-American NATO see China as the primary threat in the future, and are driving conflict where no conflict is necessary.

Under what sort of paradigm, in which configuration of political space, can these conflicts be overcome? Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture propose a means of answering that question.

Pope Leo XIV, elected on May 8 by the College of Cardinals, greeted those assembled in St. Peter’s Square with his first words as Pope: “Peace be with you!” Remarking that “this was the first greeting of the risen Christ,” Leo XIV said that he wants “this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families and all people, wherever they are; and all the peoples, and all the earth: Peace be with you.”

Achieving peace means achieving a world order that addresses the causes of conflicts, and the aspirations of the human species, a future of economic, scientific, cultural, and moral development. The LaRouche Oasis Plan concept and its extended developments serve as an example.

Join the International Peace Coalition today, May 9, for an intense discussion of the prospect of peace on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the defeat (but not the elimination) of fascism.