On the occasion of the 45th International Day of Peace we renew the call to: Defeat U.S. Imperialism, the Main Threat to World Peace! Build the Movement to Win a Just and Lasting Peace!

On the Occasion of the 45th International Day of Peace, Renew the Call to Defeat U.S. Imperialism, the Main Threat to World Peace! Build the Movement to Win a Just and Lasting Peace!

As the United Nations (UN) marks the 45th International Day of Peace, wars of aggression, occupation, and intervention span the globe, waged principally by the U.S. and its proxies to seize territory, resources, and markets. Peoples everywhere face the devastating impacts of war:  genocide, famine, poverty, and forced displacement. The UN's commemoration under the banner of "investing in peace" does not name the main enemy of peace in the world--U.S. imperialism and the monopoly capitalists the system protects. Instead, "investing in peace" offers the false solution that peace can be bought, without ending the root causes of war.

Every anti-people war today is a direct product of imperialism, and the only way to end these wars is to end imperialism. That begins by taking stock of the U.S.-led war strategy and building support for the just struggles against imperialist war and the economic system driving it. This statement aims to provide an overview of U.S.-led war developments in the last year, the resistance rising against it, and the forces fighting to win a just and lasting peace in the world.

The Current Situation of U.S.-Led War

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has used its role as the leading imperialist superpower to unleash war to expand markets and counter any threat to the profits of its ruling class. Now, facing the greatest crisis in its 250-year existence, with its share of the global economy reduced by nearly half since 1960, the U.S. is lashing out with devastating wars, conflicts, and aggression. The U.S. is waging war on three main fronts: against its self-declared enemies of Russia in Europe, Iran and the Axis of Resistance in West Asia, and China and the DPRK in the Asia-Pacific. Yet the arms of U.S.-led war reach every corner of the world, producing regional wars of aggression and other proxy wars. In Latin America for example, the U.S. is already waging intensified economic warfare and military interventions to reassert control over the resources, markets, and governments of a region it has long treated as its backyard. In Africa, it is working to counter the fast-growing strategic alliances between Russia and China, particularly with governments that reject U.S. and European military installations on their soil. Whether through sanctions, blockades, military buildups, or direct intervention, the U.S. acts to shore up its dominance and the profits of its ruling class as its hegemony erodes. As the crisis deepens, U.S.-led war grows more reckless.

West Asia

In West Asia, the U.S. continues to wage devastating wars. Zionist Israel, a de facto U.S. military base and attack dog in the region, continues its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, with at least 71,000 killed by official statistics and hundreds of thousands still buried under the rubble. A so-called ceasefire was signed in October 2025, but Israel has violated it more than 1,200 times, killing more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, restricting vital aid, and blocking all reconstruction by preventing heavy machinery from entering the Strip. The U.S. has refused to recognize a single violation. Instead, it rewarded this campaign of genocide by welcoming Netanyahu onto the "Board of Peace" and proposing a "development" project for Gaza, with power point slides of high-rises built over the dead bodies of Palestinians.

The U.S.' decades-long campaign of sanctions and economic warfare against Iran culminated in an all-out war at the end of February 2026, in which the U.S. and "Israel" deliberately bombed the main state in region opposing the unrestricted domination of West Asia by the U.S. and a staunch supporter of the national liberation struggles in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond. The operation "Epic Fury" unleashed by the U.S. and "Israel" killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hit at least 24 of Iran's 31 provinces, killing between 9,044–18,371 Iranians this year. Among the dead were more than 160 children killed on the first day of the war, when the U.S. bombed the Minab girls' school.

Lebanon has become a second front in the war, being intensely targeted by Zionist forces. A full Israeli ground invasion left the Israel in control of roughly 20 percent of Lebanese territory and drove over one million Lebanese from their homes. Israeli forces have since killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon and wounded over 12,000, damaging or destroying about 90,000 houses and leaving roughly 600,000 people still displaced. Even at the height of the campaign, a single day of strikes in May killed at least 31 people, including six children, as "Israel" issued around 50 displacement orders covering villages and the major city of Nabatieh.

The forces fighting for national liberation and in defense of their sovereignty continue to resist valiantly and have dealt massive blows to the U.S. war machine. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes against U.S. military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, destroying key military infrastructure and equipment in the region. It also closed the Strait of Hormuz, gaining massive economic leverage against the U.S. war machine. Hezbollah struck northern "Israel" in solidarity with Iran and continues to resist the Israeli ground invasion, which has not been able to advance since May. Ansar Allah took control of the Bab el-Mandab Strait and the entire western coast of Yemen by repelling new attacks by U.S.-backed Saudi Arabia, securing another economic chokepoint. Across Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, the many fronts of the Axis of Resistance combine to keep the region from being torn apart by Zionist expansionism and U.S. pillage.

Asia and the Pacific

Since declaring its "Pivot to Asia" in 2012 to counter China's rise, the U.S. has made the Asia-Pacific its main theater of militarization and war preparation. The "Island Chain Strategy" is the cornerstone of that effort, mapping out forward outposts, missile stations, and supply routes along China's periphery. Communities beside U.S. bases, radar systems, and weapons depots would be in the line of fire in any conflict and already bear the costs of the buildup.

In Korea, a large U.S. presence of over 28,000 troops and regular joint exercises keep threatening, and rehearsing, an invasion of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In March 2026, about 18,000 South Korean troops joined the Freedom Shield exercise alongside U.S. forces, even as the U.S. was launching its war on Iran. In March 2025, live-fire training ahead of Freedom Shield near Pocheon bombed a civilian area, injuring 43 people and badly damaging 163 buildings, including a church. The August 2026 Ulchi Freedom Shield also showed how the U.S. treats the exercises as a bargaining chip when hours before the drills began, Trump ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" them, linking his displeasure to South Korea's refusal to join U.S. action against Iran.

In the Philippines, Balikatan 2026, the largest annual U.S.-Philippine exercise, included island defense, air superiority, anti-ship missiles, and even the deployment of a mid-range Tomahawk missile, signaling preparations for a large-scale sea, air, cyber, and land conflict in the coming U.S. war on China. These preparations align with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy, in which the Philippines plays the role of a forward operating base, an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" from which to stage and launch that war. The war on Iran showed that the U.S. would not think twice about gambling with the safety of its Pacific allies when it suits its selfish interests, since these weapons and war games make host countries magnets of conflict and place bullseyes on them. To streamline its supply chains for AI and war production, the U.S. has also announced its intention to build a 4,000-acre industrial hub in the Luzon Economic Corridor. This is part of Pax Silica, a coalition formed to counter China's strength in tech manufacturing, particularly chips and the rare earths that go into them. For the Philippines, that means forking over sovereignty of its own resources and labor to peg them to U.S. interests,becoming a supplier for a rival bloc's supply chains and a possible target in any war the U.S. starts with China.

Across the Pacific islands, U.S. military exercises and installations in Hawaii, Guam, and other island nations occupied by the U.S. continue to grow and expand, even as severe natural disasters such as floods and typhoons cause widespread displacement and loss of livelihood. The military is first in line for funding and protection from the American government, while the people are left to find solutions on their own.

Also part of the U.S. strategy in the Pacific are the junior imperialist powers, particularly Japan and Australia, who are preparing for war in step with the U.S. Japan is in the midst of a rapid military buildup, looking to scrap its landmark peace constitution which only allows its military to operate in self defense, with prime minister Takaichi declaring that a Chinese attack or military blockade on Taiwan could constitute an "existential threat" to Japan’s survival. On the islands of Okinawa, close to Taiwan, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are deploying several, missile units, and military spending has doubled in the past three years. Together with the U.S., the Japanese government is strengthening military cooperation with Asian countries to contain China, and Japan had its largest-ever participation in Balikatan in 2026. Australia, meanwhile, added $4.6 billion for the AUKUS submarine construction yard at Osborne, bringing its total contribution to $8.5 billion, continuing to play its key role as a U.S. logistics hub for weapons and equipment, specially of the nuclear type.

In the midst of growing war preparations the peoples of Asia and the Pacific continue to fight for liberation from the U.S. grip, whether through the struggle for formal independence or against the puppet regimes that put their peoples' sovereignty up for sale to get a share of military development and war profits. In Korea, peace and progressive organizations continue to protest the joint exercises and demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops, an end to U.S. wartime control of the Korean military, and de-escalation of tensions with the DPRK, toward a formal end to the Korean War, which remains at a stalemate. In the Philippines, national democratic and people's organizations are mobilizing against Balikatan, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement sites, and the turning of the country into a staging ground for war on China, including by rejecting the use of their land for massive data center and AI hubs under Pax Silica. In Okinawa, Japan, and across the Pacific islands like Guam and Hawaii, communities are fighting the expansion of bases, missile deployments, and militarized land grabs. These struggles are part of the regional resistance refusing that the peoples of the Asia and the Pacific be used as pawns and cannon fodder in a war for U.S. profit.

Europe

In Europe, the U.S. still wields NATO as its main tool of war, even as the fight over spheres of influence between the U.S. and its European allies has opened rifts within the organization. The alliance remains the vehicle for the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and for the rearmament drive now sweeping the continent. More recently at its Ankara summit, NATO announced billions in arms deals in an open attempt to appease the Trump administration.

The Russia-Ukraine war has settled into a protracted war of attrition in the Donbas with no end in sight. As the U.S. pushes the EU to fund the West's proxy war, the bloc has approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine and rolled out its twentieth round of sanctions against Russia. Germany has agreed to cooperate with Ukraine on drone production, and Britain plans to deliver 120,000 drones to Kyiv. Spending and rearmament have accelerated across the continent under the U.S.-backed "Re-Arm Europe" campaign. Even as it relocates troops from Europe to the regions where it is waging direct wars, the U.S. is considering deploying additional nuclear weapons in European countries to reassure NATO allies, a move that pushes the region closer to nuclear war.

This drive toward militarism is mirrored by the electoral advance of the far right, with the full support of the Trump administration. From the Alternative for Germany's victory in Saxony-Anhalt to the broader rise of far-right parties in France, Italy and elsewhere, their share of the European vote has grown from roughly 5% in 1995 to over 23% today.

Yet the cracks within NATO show that the alliance is far less united than it was during the Cold War.  When Trump demanded U.S. control of Greenland and moved to impose escalating tariffs on Denmark until they sell the island, seven European leaders issued a joint statement of condemnation. Spain, meanwhile, blocked support for the U.S. operation against Iran, prompting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to declare that the alliance itself must be "re-examined." This opens the opportunity for a movement rooted in the working people of Europe to widen those cracks and demand an end to the war drive led by the U.S. and European imperialists. The growing peace movement of workers, migrants, and others continues to push back against NATO and the war preparations against Russia led by the G7 powers. Anti-war coalitions consistently mobilize against NATO summits, anti-migrant and fascist policies, and the deployment of new weapons on European soil.

Africa

Africa remains a target of massive resource plunder and proxy war by the U.S. at a time when China and Russia have significantly deepened their strategic alliances across the continent. The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) plays the counterrevolutionary, anti-people role once held by European colonial powers and Western-backed apartheid states. When U.S. and French forces were ejected from their bases in the Sahel states of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, Washington fell back on its age-old strategy of covertly arming and backing paramilitary forces to claw back influence, working hand in hand with European allies, particularly France. They also maneuvered to strike military deals with willing governments of other countries on the continent, such as Kenya.

In Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the genocidal proxy wars bear the handprints of the U.S., with the Pentagon and its allies at times arming opposing sides simultaneously. This is a deliberate strategy to stoke chaos and keep the flow of gold and other strategic minerals running into the hands of U.S. and allied multinational corporations.

In Sudan, around El Obeid in North Kordofan, escalating drone warfare on both sides has put hundreds of thousands of civilians in the crosshairs of a war that outside powers continue to arm. The war has resulted in a death toll estimated from 150,000 to 400,000, including at least 4,400 people killed inside El Fasher over three days in October 2025. It has displaced 9.3 million people inside the country and pushed another 4.4 million abroad. In the DRC, the Rwanda-backed M23 has continued its campaign of terror despite a so-called ceasefire brokered by the U.S. in December 2025, exposing the U.S.-brokered peace as meaningless, a stunt to bolster Trump's narrative as the "president of peace," while its true aim was to secure US access to critical minerals in the country. In 2025 the war recorded over 300 civilians killed by M23 in a single month and estimates of internal displacement range from five million to over seven million.

Besides stoking proxy wars within African nations the U.S. has also carried out over 200 airstrikes alongside the Somali government throughout 2025 and 2026. These operations, framed as collective self-defense, under the guise of fighting a “war on terror", target areas near Bulo Burti. For years, the U.S. has involved itself in Somali affairs and bears responsibility for pushing the nation into its current state. Rather than easing tensions, the U.S. has intentionally destabilized the country by supporting unpopular separatist movement in Somaliland, and propping up puppet comprador governments, in order to gain access to important shipping lanes in the Horn of Africa and establish another military base in the region.

Still, the people of Africa continue to sow the path of sovereignty and independence. Since ejecting U.S. and French troops and bases, the anti-U.S. governments of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have begun to integrate their markets, undo the bondage of French and U.S. finance capital, and start industrializing. This shows that the struggle against imperialist militaries is a struggle for genuine democracy and livelihood and following the tradition of the Pan-African and socialist revolutions of the 20th century continue to tread a future of Africa for Africans.

Latin America

Since the second Trump administration took power, the U.S. has intensified and added bare-faced military offensives on top of the hybrid warfare, sanctions, and psychological operations that marked its policy toward Latin America in past decades.  So-called “reconsideration” of military presence in the Western Hemisphere is a return to the gunboat diplomacy that characterized US colonization of foreign nations at the end of the 19th century. It represents the same Biden-Obama strategy but with more brute force, far more desperate implementation, and without even the facade of respecting US alliances.

The invasion of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with the aim is to install a compliant government in Venezuela, roll back Chinese and Russian influence, and bring down the Bolivarian revolution resulted in U.S. forces seizing President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores from a Caracas compound in an operation that killed more than 100 Venezuelan and Cuban soldiers on January 3 2026. Maduro now faces trumped up narcotrafficking charges in New York while being illegally held in a prison in Brooklyn.

After the invasion, the U.S. blocked all Venezuelan oil bound to Cuba, and Trump signed Executive Order 14380 in late January 2026, declaring Cuba an extraordinary threat and authorizing tariffs on imports from any country that directly or indirectly supplies oil to Cuba. By March, Cuba had received no oil imports in over three months, cutting its fuel supply by about 90%. Cuba produces only about 40% of the crude it needs, so the cutoff hit every part of Cuban's daily lives like transportation and refrigeration of food. The national grid collapsed three times in March alone, leaving millions in the complete dark. Blackouts of up to 20 hours have forced hospitals to suspend non-emergency operations, while fuel shortages limit ambulance services. More than 100,000 patients, including 11,000 children, are waiting for surgeries delayed by outages and with some being conducted with flashlights. 

The U.S. also continued to prop up right wing aligned governments in Latin America blatantly interfering in their election processes. Before Argentina's October 2025 midterms, the Trump administration tied a $20 billion currency swap and $20 billion in private bank loans to a strong result for Javier Milei. In Colombia, Ecuador and Peru the U.S. lauded the right wing victories and swiftly integrated these new administrations into the Shield of the Americas, a political coordination alliance created by the U.S. to further cement its role as master of these governments under the guise of combating narcotrafficking.

Amid interventions, invasions, and escalating economic warfare, the people's resistance against the new "Donroe Doctrine" has also intensified. The Cuban and Venezuelan people continue to defend their historic revolutions through their communes, militias, and popular organizations. In Puerto Rico, the movement against U.S. bases and foreign-backed mega projects such as Essencia continues to gain momentum, while in Argentina, thousands have mobilized against Milei's anti-worker labor reforms. In Bolivia, miners and Indigenous communities have mobilized en masse to resist the fullscale plunder of the country, braving the threats posed by the state of exception under President Rodrigo Paz. Peasant, Indigenous, and student movements across the region are also rejecting militarization, debt, and dependency, and continental solidarity with the pro-sovereignty positions of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela is growing.

To Win a Just Peace: Defeat U.S. Imperialism, Support National Liberation Struggles!

Taken together, these flash points show the vast reach of the U.S. war machine. But they also show that wherever this machine is present, the people are confronting it.

The oppressed nations look to cut the chains of imperialism shackled on them by their puppet administrations that suppress their liberation and give away their sovereignty. Independent countries defend their sovereignty against every form of imperialist intervention. All of them engaged in a common fight against imperialist war and for a just and lasting peace. 

As the UN commemorates its 45th Peace day we call on the anti war movement worldwide to continue to mobilize in support of national liberation struggles and those on the frontlines of the fight against U.S. militarism from Palestine, to Sudan, to Cuba and Iran to the imperialist heartlands uniting with all who suffer the impacts of war and militarism. The combined efforts of all sectors of society in all of these fronts, led by the most exploited classes and peoples most oppressed by militarization, make up the broad united front that can challenge US-led war to its core. Only by ending imperialism will the root causes of war and militarism be gone, and only this united front of all the world's peoples, winning their liberation one struggle at a time, can end imperialism.

Join the Resist U.S. Led War Movement and other organizations in mobilizations at the UN General Assembly to raise the demands of the people for a just and lasting peace against imperialism and all reaction.