Swords into ploughshares. Spears into pruning hooks. Three thousand-odd years ago, when civilization was rough and passions raw, an extraordinary visionary saw peace dawning. His words, recorded in the Biblical book of Isaiah, transcend religious denomination and national affiliation. They belong to all mankind: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation. ... The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid."
If prophecy implies prediction, Isaiah's has fared badly. The swords are sharper than ever. In March, as nations struggled to negotiate a global treaty to ban the deadliest of them, Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, snapped, "Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?"
Probably there is no one who thinks that. Still, the treaty was negotiated, and adopted in July. In October, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of nongovernmental organizations, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts on behalf of nuclear disarmament.