1. Introduction

The end of last century had the characteristic of being a transition from an era of war between sovereign nation-states, to an era of ecumenical, pluralistic and relatively peaceful coexistence under a new world order of freedom. Some, more optimistic observers, have hailed this momentous event as the decisive triumph of democratic liberalism... However, the transition is marked by a disastrous increase in criminality which is fast becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Far from moving towards the "End of History", we are moving into an "Age of Crime". This historical turning point became evident to the author about twenty years ago while serving in Poland as Ambassador for Brazil. All over the world, but particularly in the area of the former Soviet empire, the ominous change is strikingly noticeable. Also among many developing countries of Latin America.

It is clear that, while the coercive and repressive power of the state through a paternalistic and interventionist authority is weakening everywhere - murder, robbery, drug trafficking and terrorism are increasing as a consequence. For example, as early as 1981 in Warsaw, it became evident that the streets of the city were no longer safe at night. For the first time embassies were burglarized, cars stolen, women raped, planes hijacked and drugs sold freely among the youth. The news of horrendous crimes were published in newspapers. Explicit violence was shown in cinemas and on television. Lawlessness was clearly on the rise but police slowly withdrew from open presence for fear of appearing repressive. Increasing impunity became a logical follow-up to a growing consciousness of the need for respect of human rights. Yet, the absence of effective laws and law-enforcement institutions always entails the spreading of crime, the proliferation of international crime syndicates, gang strife, as well as social and political corruption.

Symptoms of the decline of the Leviathan were duplicated since then, in practically all countries that emerged from the dissolution of the former Soviet empire. Even in China, where the Communist Party maintains its dictatorial powers, the corollary of the reduction of totalitarian political, economic and ideological pressure is evidenced by thousands of capital executions of assorted common criminals. In most Third World countries, governments are intent on curbing the growing violation of penal codes, but individual and disorganized violence seem to be an inevitable outcome of the new state of affairs. Plain, common crime supersedes the public and organized violence of war, with private transgression replacing the totalitarian oppression and collective conflicts that have made the XXth century the bloodiest in history. Two hundred million victims were the toll inflicted by the "Age of War". But how many millions will die in the explosion of criminality that seems an inevitable outcome of the process of transition to a new freedom – until a new spontaneous order is established?

2. Social Pathology

The fact of the matter is that deprived of the constraints of disciplinary regimentation provided by armies - which are tightly organized institutions for collective murder at a national level - natural human aggressiveness switches to unethical, libertine behaviour and urban banditry by small groups, gangs and international crime syndicates. Consequently, widespread crime is the new challenge to the legal coercive and policing powers of governments. If, following Max Weber, the state is the institution that holds the monopoly of legitimate violence, the global victory of the forces of freedom in the annus mirabilis of 1989 may tragically result in a decline of law and order. The reduction of the legal coercive power of governments can only benefit delinquency, if it is not realized, as soon as possible, that democracy and freedom may only survive in an atmosphere of strict and solid Rule of Law. As James Madison said, "if men were angels, no government would be necessary". Since we are not angels, the Rule of Law is after all the only acceptable reason for the existence of governments.

In his famous novel, A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess evokes the atmosphere of violence which plagues every big city. Even Tokyo is no more immune to this challenge. Anthropological, ethological and psychological science have established aggression, destructiveness and selfishness as humankind's innate characteristics. "Original sin" is within us. Culture and education exist to restrain us and punish borderline excesses. Since "man is the wolf of man" following Plautus' famous formula - homo hominis lupus as described by Thomas Hobbes - the great Leviathan was conceived by a sort of implicit Social Contract as a means to preserve collective security, to remove the fear of the summum malum which is violent death, and to guarantee to each individual citizen his right to life, liberty and property. In other words, the purpose of the State is to secure order amidst violent competition amongst humans. These are Hobbes' relevant words: "I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death... And therefore if any two men desire the same thing... they become enemies and in the way to their end... endeavour to destroy or subdue one another... Hereby it is manifest that, during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man - bellum omnium contra omnes".

Some philosophers along the line of Montaigne, Rousseau, Beccaria, Owen, Dewey and the Fabian socialists in general, have however created a romantic myth around the idea of the "Goodness of Man". They were keen on discovering alibis to absolve the wrongdoer of his guilt, frequently disguised as utilitarianism. The heinous results of criminal impunity, hence of growing crime, can be attributed to this sort of Pelagian "ideology", which is indeed heretical. In Brazil, due to too lenient penal statutes and a collapse of police and correctional services, favourable conditions have been created for criminals to relapse. There is much sympathy with the "poor things" who have robbed, kidnapped, killed or maimed among rich and poor. Meanwhile, capitalism, bourgeois society, military dictatorships, poverty, economic depression, police brutality, childhood traumas, racism, inadequate educational systems in the ghettos, or other external causes are invoked as excuses. Human rights are always conjured, but the rights of the victim to his life, liberty and property are likely to be forgotten. It is readily proven that lenient penal codes, a disorganized police force, the timidity of elected governments and an improperly established judicial administration invariably coincide with the explosive increase in criminality. Statistics indicate homicide among youngsters to be the second highest cause of death worldwide, after accidents. Thirty thousand a year die violently in the United States of America; nearly the same number in the city of São Paulo alone, with a population of 15 million. At the time of writing, probably no country offers a more appalling example of the deterioration of political and social life, to a point where criminal anarchy threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society, than Colombia. Following the partisan struggle between Liberals and Conservatives in the 1940s, Ia Violencia degenerated into a new type of bloodshed which cost approximately 200 000 lives. The process further decayed from the 1960s to the 1970s, since brutal political delinquency merged with simple criminality. Guerrilla movements were financed by the drug trade. They also evolved into an extension of the cocaine drug lords, to a point where it is now difficult to distinguish a drug gang from a group of politically motivated assassins. Similar to the Mafia and Camorra of Southern Italy in the 19th century, political and economic enthusiasm easily degenerated into "liberation" by other means. By taking one short step further in this process, pure, vicious robbery ensued. Private criminal violence logically evolved from secretive, restrained political violence in the name of “liberation”, including “liberation theology”...

3. The Brazilian Example

The transitional pattern is amply demonstrated by the situation in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Constant revolts in prisons; 400 000 sentenced criminals, including seasoned murderers with two-dozen or more killings in their record, walking freely down the streets - when such a magnitude of crime occurs in large metropolitan areas, it becomes clear that a truly social and moral pathology has taken root in contemporary society. As military rule deteriorated in the early 1980s, the number of homicides, robberies, kidnappings, prison rebellions, heinous crimes against children, death-squad murders, lynching and vigilante activities, increased by leaps and bounds. According to one calculation by a "think-tank" called the Atlantic Institute, approximately 70 000 assassinations have been committed in the ten years between 1985 and 199, in the area of Greater Rio (with some eight million inhabitants). This is more than Brazilian losses during the Paraguayan War in the XIXth century, those suffered by the USA during the Vietnam war, or caused by the Sendero Luminoso in Peru, or as a result of the "dirty war" (guerra sucia) in Argentina, after Peron died.

Humankind, today, lives in a strongly urbanized civilization. In Brazil, urbanization increased from 30 per cent to 70 per cent in less than 50 years, bringing to the large industrial concentrations of Southern Brazil a mass of destitute migrant farmers from the poorest regions of the North-eastern parts of the country. Hardly educated in civic discipline, the uprooted masses settled in densely populated slums (favelas) on the hillsides around Rio, which had become prey to drug-dealing desperadoes. Excessive crowding has been confirmed by ethology as a cause of pathological behaviour among animals. In 1981, when the present cycle of criminality started to cause anxiety to both government officials and scholars, demographic density was blamed. Poverty and the pressure of multitudes are salient features of life in Calcutta, and yet, this largest of Indian cities has a remarkably low crime rate This proves that sociological explanations for the phenomenon have to be sought elsewhere. The incidence of economic and social factors in the explosion of lawlessness that has become the scourge of Rio and to a lesser extent Sao Paulo, cannot be denied. Inflation, unemployment, the ineptitude of municipal and state administrations, intense rural migration, the perverse contaminating effect of violence in movies and television, a breakdown in the penitentiary system, popular hostility towards the police, corrupt politics, alienation of the youth, the "consumerist culture", and last but not least drugs, are no doubt magnifying factors or circumstantial causes. But other aspects of the problem must be advanced. No alibis are to be invoked.

The failure of the state occurs when politicians engrossed solely in their own demagoguery, do not provide the people with that basic obligation of governments under the Rule of Law, namely the preservation of public order. The word “Police” has its roots in the Greek politeia, "policy", from polis, an organized city, and the Latin politia, meaning "government, administration". All civilized states have to be to a certain extent, "police states". The two adjectives are almost synonymous. When the power of the state recedes and social ethics fall to an all-time low, humankind's aggressive nature retakes its rights and "private" warfare among individuals is resumed. In other words, the issue is the "privatization" of ferocity. Hence, the need for a broader, elevated concept of police power.

Part of modern social pathology is of an ideological nature. After the withdrawal of the Brazilian military from direct government, local administrations in Rio were taken over by demagogues such as Mr Leonel Brizola, a populist leader from Southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) who claimed to be the heir of Getuho Vargas. Vargas was the former dictator (1930-1945) who turned into a popular president in the early 1950s, until he committed suicide rather than surrender his power in 1954. Brizola led the nationalist left-wing movement against the military from his electoral base in Rio. But he only aggravated misrule until he and his supporters were soundly beaten at the polls in 1994. Claims are made that Marxist intellectuals who were kept in custody by the military during their hard-line rule (1969-1980), converted criminals with whom they shared lodging in prison, persuading them that private property is pure "theft". It is legitimate after all to expropriate from the rich that which is nothing but the product of bourgeois exploitation. Many Catholic priests also played a relevant role in this turn of events, by misinterpreting “Liberation Theology” as a mandate for Marxist-Leninist revolution.

4. Initiatives

What initiatives are being taken to combat crime in this country? The answer is very few and those that are implemented are halfhearted and blundering. Early in 1995, the inauguration of a new Federal government in Brasilia and a new State government in Rio and S.Paulo, both controlled by the same political party, raised hopes for an assertive effort against urban criminality. The Brazilian armed forces were called in to help, but were ill-prepared for the task. Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet-bloc, the armed forces in several countries have taken the necessary steps to adapt their strategy, tactics and armament to the new international situation. This was not the case in Brazil where much more needs to be done. The effect of the "New World Order" upon Brazil is obvious. Its armed forces have lost their two main "enemies": Argentina and Communism. Argentina has become a partner and ally in the context of Mercosur, the Economic Treaty of the Southern Cone. Communism just evaporated. This did not seem to prevent a scandalous waste of money on pet projects such as six new conventional submarines for the Navy, plus a nuclear one; the Air Force attack plane AM-X; and the Army "Osorio" heavy tank. Besides, if Amazonia is now considered to be the most vulnerable strategic area by military experts, none of these weapons can play any practical role in a densely forested environment. What is relevant in the Amazon rain forest is the use of jungle hide-outs, small planes and hidden airstrips by trans-national criminal syndicates for the manufacture and distribution of drugs. In Rio, Army, Navy and Air Force units were asked only once to assist the police. They patrolled the hillsides, cordoned off all escape routes, seized heavy weapons held by petty criminals, arrested some offenders who were soon to be released again by the courts, and made a general aerial survey of the areas afflicted by crime. For a period, the show of force seemed to produce results and the favellas were brought under control. But soon criminals investigated other outlets for their activities. As a result there was a spate of bank robberies, while kidnapping of rich, or not so rich, businessmen assumed epidemic proportions. Frustrated in its efforts, the Army withdrew back to its barracks. Except for a long-overdue general survey of the situation and a serious attempt at sanitizing both civilian and military state police from the most obvious forms of corruption, little else was accomplished.

Of course, in Brazil, many civilians, generals and other officers have objected to the use of the armed forces in such low-status tasks as infiltrating the favelas. They consider these operations as a disfigurement of their lofty national mission. But what other alternatives are there to enhance their raison d'être? The problem of Brazil, from the viewpoint of national security is not of an external nature any more. It is internal problem. Apart from the rhetoric of "Pelagian" tolerance and irrespective of objective political and social factors that have influenced the present abysmal situation on the crime front, Brazil needs a complete new outlook on its defence establishment. It needs above all else greater police power.

Among other remedies that have been suggested to correct the present situation, one seems to be of paramount importance: a complete overhaul of the police. At present the police organization in the many states of the Union is in a quandary. There are several "police forces": a "civil" police, a state "military police", a "municipal police" and, of course, the Federal Police. All these law-enforcement agencies would function better under centralized federal supervision and, if possible, Army command. There is a need for a unified police force for the same reasons that there is a need for unified military leadership in war. An ideal model would be that of such institutions as the Canadian Royal Mounted Poliice, the Spanish Guardia Civil, the Italian Carabinieri and the Chilean Carabineros. These forces have a tradition and prestige sorely lacking in their Brazilian counterpart. As long as any police force is deprived of the loyal support and confidence of rulers, sufficient equipment, popular support, and adequate pay, no effective fight against crime can be contemplated. Cooperation offered by the Federal Police to the various international organizations engaged in fighting crime syndicates and drug cartels, is absolutely necessary.

Brazil also urgently needs a new penal code - the existing, archaic one has been discussed in Congress at an extremely slow pace. Another requirement is the elimination of the clauses in the 1988 Constitution that give excessive protection to criminals, particularly to young ones. Minors often form the backbone of criminal gangs, feeling secure against police enforcement on account of legal impunity below age 16. The absurd situation that has brought disrepute to Brazil and protests from international human rights organizations, ignorant of the real nature of the problem, results from the legal and intellectual pretence of classifying murderous teenagers as "abandoned children". As they cannot be legally incriminated or kept out of trouble by legal means, the easy way out for brutal and ignorant police officers is simply to kill them right away, whenever possible. The widespread use of vigilantes and spontaneous lynching in the small towns of the interior and the crowded suburbs of Rio and S. Paulo, is a symptom of a serious and deep malaise. Opinion polls have consistently shown that a silent majority of the population is in favour of the death-penalty for relapsed and hardened convicts. Their condemnation to hard labour is also a must, once constitutional restrictions on "forced labour" in prisons are removed. Another priority is a complete overhaul of the penitentiary system, under Federal control. Presently, overcrowded urban prisons and reformatories are breeding grounds for the worst offenders. Tentative efforts are being made to transfer hardened criminals to specially constructed, no-escape penitentiaries, far removed from urban centers.

Above all, a new spirit in the governing elite is required, to counteract left-wing intellectuals who control the media and have turned such gangs as the Comando Vermeiho - a ring of drug-trafficking ex-convicts who dominate the favelas with military weapons - into heroic bands of "Robin Hoods" engaged in class warfare against the capitalist bourgeoisie. A change of heart is also an absolute requisite to overcome the present dismal condition of police corruption and lawlessness. All classes have in fact had to pay heavily for the deterioration of the deceitful welfare state, incapable anymore of maintaining the normal Rule of Law. A kind of social pathology is responsible for the present predicament, whereby no harsh official measures are taken to combat crime. Everything is left as it is. Meanwhile the situation deteriorates further, while the government ignores the social evils of corruption and violence and neglects to punish law-breakers wherever they reside.

In November 1995, a large part of the population of Rio de Janeiro, the cariocas, demonstrated that they had had enough of crime. A mass protest took place in the main thoroughfare of the central business district, with approximately 100 000 people gathering under the slogan Reage, Rio! ("React, Riol"). They have indeed had enough of being murdered along the beach of world-famous Ipanema by teen-aged hooligans, with a dozen felonies on their records; or kidnapped for ransom by former police officers turned gangsters; or killed while sleeping in their own beds by a stray bullet from a nearby favela, as happened to a woman in her 12th floor Copacabana apartment; or machine-gunned by favelados simply because they missed the correct turn-off to the airport, as befell a group of out-of-town football fans returning home; or listening on Television to endless unfulfilled promises of politicians at election time that they will "clean the city of crime". The crowd marched, shouted, sang, prayed, disturbed the traffic, protested against everybody and everything, and then went home. The State Governor, the Mayor, the Police Chief and the generals were all sceptical. But there is hope that the people themselves will force the federal, the state and the municipal governments to finally come to their senses and give the combating of crime higher priority on the political agenda. As a matter of fact, in the last three years the rate of crime has been slowly falling, just as it has happened in New York under Mayor Giuliani.

What must be considered is truly dramatic. Public opinion must be focused on the fact that social morality, civic responsibility and a strong communal ethos in a free society are absolute pre-conditions for the adequate and efficient functioning of a market economy under a liberal democratic system. At present, it seems that the proliferation of capitalism and economic growth in the world are progressing at a faster rate than the strengthening of collective morality under the Rule of Law. What conservative pessimists see as the outcome is uncontrollable permissiveness and social disintegration. But the challenge to freedom and order has to be faced.

The new situation calls also for a complete reassessment of the role of the Brazilian armed forces. Their traditional purpose of engaging in politics "through other means" - as Clausewitz suggested - must be replaced by a compelling invitation to act as an instrument of international law enforcement. Coordination of global action against crime through an organized force of order, seems to be an increasing international concern. In Brazil itself, this was prefigured by the maintenance of law and order by the Army in Rio de Janeiro at the time of the ECO-92 Conference; in Salvador of Bahia during the Ibero-American Conference of 1993; and by the replacement of border guards in several areas of the Brazilian frontier while some units of the Federal Police were striking.

5. Conclusion

What has become evident in the post-Cold War world is that the individual is the central figure under International Public Law, while the sovereign National-State slowly recedes into well-deserved oblivion. Freedom in liberal-democratic societies entails full individual responsibility. This is one of the most revolutionary transformations in modern history, which announces new ideal forms of future global coexistence. Since the limited scope of this essay does not allow for the development of this thesis, some of its consequences are indicated.

It must be realized that the world is in a period of rapid historical transition from an "Age of War" to an "Age of Crime". Criminality in all its ominous aspects is expected to be the major challenge to the "New World Order". General wars will be replaced by international "police action", following the pattern recently observed in Irak, Bosnia and Kossovo. Global peacekeeping will probably be concentrated in the hands of a single Superpower, assisted by its allies after action has been legitimized by the UN Security Council. Collective military violence though, should only be used to punish international criminals; or to re-establish order in places like Somalia, the Congo, Sierra Leoa or Burundi when anarchy prevails. The natural calling of the US to the role of a "universal sheriff" is fostered by the archetypal popular myth of the "good guy" striking down the "villain" in a fair contest. The Manichaeistic motif of confrontation between Good and Evil will be transferred to world affairs. The US will presumably be unwillingly coerced into assuming this role, irrespective of the isolationist inclinations that still prevail in the collective American consciousness. All the inhabitants of the world must appreciate that new global conditions hold not only for good, but also for evil. In short, a unified crime-preventing authority is needed. This is the only type of "world government" that is required amidst the conditions of global peace and freedom expected to prevail in the modern age. As the Irish politician John Philpot Curran grandly proclaimed in 1790, "the condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt". Therefore, at the national and the international level, the new price of liberty for all is to be vigilant in the war against global crime