RUSSIA does indeed have the longest land border in the world, as Edward A Cochrane says (Letters, February 16), and a tragic history of being repeatedly invaded from the West.

However, the trouble with the "buffer state" strategy is that logic inevitably drives these to be incorporated into the state they are seen as defending. Thus, Poland and the Baltic states were absorbed by the Soviet Union, as were the other countries of Eastern Europe. And we have the various partitions of Poland in the centuries before that. And we face the Ukrainian debacle today.

After hearing news of the successful detonation of the A bomb, Albert Einstein sighed and said: "Now everything is changed - except the way we think". He was profoundly right. It is folly to apply the logic of the pre-nuclear age, to a nuclear-armed world. The United Nations was formed in 1945 "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind" and "to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest". These were noble aims, and this is still an achievable ambition.

At one time war between the clans in Scotland was seen as normal and inevitable. Now, it is unthinkable. In the past, independence was fought for with armies of men killing each other. In the (near, I hope) future it will be won by democratic process, and no one will kill or be killed.

We have eliminated war as an acceptable means of solving disputes between nations within the European Union, which is a splendid achievement.

We can and must aspire to do this worldwide, as was the inspiration behind the creation of the United Nations in 1945. Mankind must put an end to war, because war is evil.

Brian Quail,

2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow.