[The Editors' Verdict]Worrying More About Numbers Than Lives...The World’s Current Perspective on War

The crisis in the Middle East has reached its peak as Israel launched a preemptive strike targeting Iran's nuclear facilities and military bases, prompting immediate retaliation from Iran. This conflict in the Middle East, erupting before the three-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine has ended, is heightening the risk of a Fifth Middle East War and putting the entire world on edge.

It is a tragedy that, amid the constant clashes and the looming threat of war between nations, the world's greatest concern is not the loss of civilian lives.

South Korea, with its own experience of civil war, knows all too well that war leaves not only civilian casualties but also indelible scars on future generations. Yet, despite this knowledge, the immediate concern for fluctuations in international oil prices, stock markets, and exchange rates outweighs the value of distant, unknown lives?simply because these numbers have a direct impact on one’s bank account. Even the media, which reflects and shapes public interest, tends to focus more on the volatility of financial markets and measures to absorb shocks after reporting on military clashes, rather than on civilian casualties or international efforts toward ending the conflict.

The bigger problem is that as war drags on and becomes a part of daily life, global indifference grows and empathy fades. Without more active efforts to urge restraint from the parties involved, stopping the war becomes increasingly difficult.

In this context, the leaders of seven advanced nations that shape the international order?the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada?are set to hold a summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on June 16-17 (local time). In addition to the G7 leaders, the summit will be attended by the President of the European Commission and observer leaders from Australia, India, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Ukraine. President Lee Jaemyung has also been invited.

'War' is expected to be a key agenda item at the G7 summit. From the wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Iran, to the tariff war without gunfire triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump, the G7 has no choice but to come together to seek an end to these conflicts.

However, it is highly likely that the focus of the G7's discussions will be on minimizing their own economic losses, rather than finding ways to stop civilian casualties. As interests overlap, the calculations become more complex, and it becomes even harder to reach a unified position that could bring an end to the wars. As a result, mutual tariffs and country-by-country trade negotiations, in which the United States holds the upper hand, have made ending the conflicts even more difficult.

Elie Wiesel, a Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, said in his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." War is no longer the problem of a single nation. In a world where numbers are prioritized over human lives, simply "calling for restraint" achieves nothing. For centuries, we have already seen that such statements have no impact on ending wars. If the world remains silent, that silence will aid those who trivialize civilian suffering for the sake of their own national interests.

To prevent further civilian casualties from war, and to ensure that all parties exercise maximum restraint, the powerful G7 nations must take more active measures.