Global Refugee Crisis as a Threat to Peace: Insights and Outlook

Abstract

The world has been witnessing a rising number of forcibly displaced persons in the backdrop of the Ukraine War and several intrastate and inter-state conflicts. Widespread and large-scale displacements have created a new global catastrophe that threatens peace everywhere in the world. It is true that peace, whether perceived as a means or an end, is the greatest pursuit of human society. Although the world has seen remarkable progress of human civilization and enormous economic and technological changes in the past decades, it is marked by enduring conflicts, disputes, war and violence. Ironically, the world remains a place where people have been pursuing self-seeking goals in highly individualistic cultures. States remain hostage to power politics with an abiding focus on geopolitical and economic interests. The refugee crisis in the world demonstrates limitations of the global order based on distribution of power and capitalism. Refugee crisis is a trend not a blip. Precisely, it is the outcome of conflicts and persecution at intrastate, inter-state, regional and global levels. The United Nations through its manifold activities – security, development, cultural and environmental- has been contributing to peace, but the crisis persists. In this context, the paper is an attempt to understand the relations between the refugee crisis and peace in order to find ways of mitigating the sufferings and traumas of refugees worldwide. The paper argues that the ongoing global refugee crisis has assumed a formidable challenge to peace in the world that needs an urgent attention from the global community before it gets too late. It strives to remind the global community about the need for repatriation of growing number of refugees in the world.