Idea Of Social And International Peace example essay topic
The ideas of peace as a matter of moral obligation and the practical application of pacific methods in social and international affairs have developed at about the same rate. The growth and extension of the idea can therefore be fairly well traced in terms of its practical application in conciliation, mediation, arbitration, and the evolution of law and order in society. UNKNOWN TO THE ANCIENT WORLD The idea of universal and perpetual peace, which has taken such a wide and deep hold upon the thought of recent times, was unknown to the ancient world. The controlling principle among all the ancient peoples as to peace and war was that of family or race. Within a patriarchal group, a tribe, or collection of tribes within a common race, the idea of peace as useful and even obligatory was usually considerably developed. This is the case now among the un christianized peoples of the world.
Tribes, which fight like fiends with one another, manage, in spite of their ignorance, unrestraint and animalism, to keep up within themselves a fair amount of friendship and pacific life and cooperation. The forces, which operated among the ancient peoples in producing this measure of pacific life, were sense of kinship, contiguity of dwelling, interdependence and some realized community of interests. Beyond this sphere of race or family, war, pillage, conquests, enslavement, were considered not only permissible but also obligatory. Often the obligations of peace were felt only within very narrow limits, the tendency being, until Christianity began to operate, to reduce the feeling of obligation to the minimum of family relationship rather than to expand it to the limits of racial kinship. The religions of the ancient peoples, growing as they did largely out of the characters of the peoples and their environments, deepened and strengthened these conceptions.
The national gods were looked upon as protecting and favoring the home people, but as hostile to all others. Where strange gods were brought in and domesticated, the purpose was probably nearly always to secure the most help in war or the greatest security against hostile inroads from without. The principal use of gods was for war purposes. THE JEWISH CONCEPTION OF PEACE The same principle of race governed the Jewish people in the matter of peace and war.
The peace for which their psalmists and prophets sighed was peace upon Israel, the peace of Jerusalem, not the peace of the world, of nation with nation. War against heathen peoples was considered not only lawful but also obligatory. Love of other peoples and rational treatment of them was scarcely dreamed of amongst the Hebrews. Love of neighbor was as far as they got, and their theory of this was much better than their practice.
In their conception of God, in regard to some of his attributes, they rose, or were lifted, vastly higher than any other nation of their time. Their God, the one true and living God, was the creator of all nations and peoples, as well as of the heavens and of the earth. But it is curious that this conception of God never led them to see and feel the real kinship and oneness of humanity, as one might expect it would have done. They drew from it rather the selfish notion of great superiority over other peoples. They believed that this God, their God, meant them to bring all other nations under their sway, and that the Messiah whom he was to send would do this service for them. Not even their greatest prophets were able wholly to divest themselves of the racial narrowness of view.
They now and then, as in the case of Isaiah, Micah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, had glimpses of the larger peace of the world, but its true nature and method of attainment they failed to grasp. It was to come by their God rebuking the other nations and causing them to flow to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob. It was in the holy mountain of Israel that the lamb and the lion were to lie down together, and the cow and the bear to feed in friendship. The larger meaning, which we see in the prophetic peace passages, was in them, but it was not the prophets themselves who put it there, or who even understood that it was there. It was not until Jesus Christ had unfolded the idea of the universal brotherhood of men as the corollary of the Fatherhood of God that any Jew was able to see 'the middle wall of partition' broken down and to comprehend the true basis of a universal peace founded on the equal rights of all men and all nations. AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS The nearest approach to modern peace conceptions, outside of two or three of the Jewish prophets and rabbis, was found among the Greek philosophers and poets.
There was something of this nature in both Confucius and Buddha, but it is doubtful if the 'universal benevolence' of the one or the 'fraternity of humanity' of the other went beyond the great races to which they belonged. Their teachings certainly had no social effect in the relations of these peoples to others. Pride of race and contempt of other peoples have not been deeper anywhere else than in India and China. The reputed peaceful character of the Chinese, among whom the soldier has held a place very inferior to that of the scholar, has been due in part to sluggishness and immobility, and not largely to active love and benevolence, or even to pacific instincts. Greece, though a small country, came into close touch with a number of nations. Her sages therefore -- Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Diogenes, Theodor us and later ones -- had a larger and truer conception of humanity and a deeper perception of the need of peace than was found elsewhere.
But still the teachings of these sages had no discoverable effect on the relations of the Greek people to others. The Greek mind in general, in its pride of race, seemed incapable of grasping -- at any rate it was unwilling to grasp -- the idea of a common universal humanity. In the case of the sages themselves, this conception seems to have been rather a pleasurable picture of the imagination than a commanding ethical idea. 'The world is my country,' a saying attributed to Socrates, meant in the mouth of a Greek, at home or in exile, not that the citizens of other countries were his equals and brethren, but that he as a superior being had a right to stride abroad wherever he pleased, and that all others ought to accept and treat him as such. However, there was among the best of the Greeks, as among the most spiritual of the Hebrew prophets, some partially developed consciousness of the common humanity. Among Roman thinkers there was something of the larger peace conception found among the wise men of Greece.
But this was in large measure an imitation of Greek thought, and was therefore fruitless for good. The general idea of peace among the Romans, the pax Romana, was wholly a political conception, being expressive of the relations of the parts of the empire to one another and to the overlord at Rome. It was, however, not wholly without moral quality. It is impossible to keep this quality out of the relations of men, even though their conduct towards one another are in considerable measure dictated by a superior.
The adjudications -they can hardly be called arbitration's -- between various subject states of the Ronstan empire, made by the emperor or his subordinates, trained these peoples in self-restraint, in resort to reason, and in the use of pacific methods. Thus, in spite of the fact that the Roman Empire was a huge system of political slavery, a real contribution was made to the development of the peace idea through the practical use of pacific methods. ARBITRATION LITTLE KNOWN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD In general, in the ancient world, the use of pacific methods of settling disputes was as limited as the idea of peace. In the case of Rome, as we have just seen, it was purely internal and political. Rome never arbitrated with other nations, or acted as arbitrator for them.
When two contending states appealed to her, she ended the controversy as the judge did that about the oyster. She ate the oyster; she annexed the states. Among other peoples the use of conciliation or arbitration was purely a family or race affair. The herdsmen of Lot and of Abraham were to cease their strife because they were brethren. The herdsmen of either might fight those of an outsider as much as they liked, when it was safe or expedient to do so. The Amphictyonic councils among the Greeks were family tribunals, set up for the purpose of adjusting differences and preventing war among brethren, among peoples of kindred blood.
Greece as a whole, or even in parts, did not arbitrate with outside nations. The arbitration of the dispute between the two sons of Darius as to which should have the throne, referred to their uncle and decided by him, was still more of this domestic type. Beyond this limited racial sphere the idea of peace (except in the case of a few prophets and sages) and the practical application of peace methods never went, in pre-Christian times. There does not seem to have been any tendency, so far as can be traced, to anything of a wider and more universal nature, to anything of a truly international character. Even within this limited sphere the practical pacific effects of the sense of kinship were very small. The principle of kinship, though lying at the basis of the whole pacific development of human society, was not naturally strong enough to accomplish much anywhere until it was elevated, purified and strengthened by the revelation of the fact that it is not of merely earthly origin, but is rooted in the divine Fatherhood in which alone the oneness of humanity finds its rational explanation.
THE CONCEPTION GIVEN BY JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS The true and complete conception of peace, both as to its motives and its scope, was given to the world for the first time by Jesus Christ and his early followers. They taught such doctrines of God as the Father and of men everywhere as brothers and neighbors as naturally broke down among the Christians, after a little time, racial distinctions and international barriers. Perhaps practised would be a better word than taught. Love of God and of fellow men was their life. Jesus himself gave the idea of peace in its deepest and fullest sense. But he did more; he made it intensely vital by his life of self-sacrificing love.
His teaching came out of his life. The inspiration of his example, of his life and death, was worth a thousand Sermons-on-the Mount, unsurpassed as the mountain instruction was. The Sermon on the Mount does not seem to have been much used in the earliest Christian days, though after the New Testament books were written and collected it had a large place. In the earliest period it was entirely overshadowed by the Teacher himself. It was the inspiration of his personality, of his living example, the transfusing of his personal spirit into them, that made the early Christians, for a hundred years and more, the enthusiastic exemplars of a fraternity, which knew neither class nor race nor national boundaries. Followers of the Master in every land recognized their spiritual kin, and their human kin also, in every other land.
Their homes, their purses, their lives, were at each other's service. War between them, or between them and non-Christians, was unthinkable. It will be so again when the Christian Church once more becomes really Christian. International and inter-racial hatred between them was even more completely broken down than local dislike and friction.
Among themselves difficulties, of which there were many, were settled by conciliation or the arbitration of friends, not even the courts of law being often resorted to. Thus came into existence the conception of universal peace as the demand of universal brotherhood and universal love. HAD AT FIRST LITTLE SOCIAL EFFECT It is a disappointing fact that early Christianity, during the whole of this wonderful period, pure and fresh and masterful as it was, working its way with marvelous rapidity into all lands, had practically no pacific social effect beyond its own circles. Its current ran within itself.
The nations in their relations to each other were untouched by it. They despised each other and fought on as before. Where Rome ruled, the pax Romana was all the international peace that was known. Among other peoples the idea of race or family still controlled. The cause of this failure of Christianity to produce any pacific effect outside of its own borders, if failure it may be called, was that the kingdom of heaven was conceived as something beyond this world and its affairs, with which it was thought that Christians should have little to do. Terrestrial affairs were to be wound up soon, by the early return of the Lord.
No effort was made, therefore, to bring Christianity to bear upon existing political institutions. Perhaps none was possible under the circumstances of the times. From the opening of the fourth century, Christianity, when it had become popular and was in a position to begin to control general social and international relations, fell away from its previous spirit and practice. Christian men went to war alongside unchristian men. They fell into the narrow patriotism, which prevailed.
The high ideal of Jesus and his early followers gradually passed out of sight. Their doctrine of universal brotherhood gave way in practice to the old notion of race or family kinship and superiority, a principle which, narrowly and selfishly used, has probably caused almost half the mischief ever done. Thus the Christian practice of peace and opposition to the whole business of war, which seemed on the point of mastering the world, ceased in large measure. LONG PERIOD OF DARKNESS There follows a long period of darkness, extending to and overlapping the Reformation, in which humanity touched about as low depths of division and strife as it ever reached. The pax Romana, the peace of dominion, of political slavery, continued in measure until the fall of the empire. When this was destroyed during the fierce struggles of the barbarian invasions, Europe was broken up, and the efforts to restore the empire succeeded only for brief periods.
During the confusion, which followed, and the period of the feudal lordships, both public and private wars were well nigh incessant. This period includes the long struggle of the papacy for universal political dominion. It was the period of the 'holy wars,' when Christianity itself was perverted into an instrument of cruelty and bloodshed. It must not be inferred that during this long period of twelve hundred years Christianity, though stripped of its early purity and power, ceased to be operative toward the ultimate peace of the world. It was working away like leaven, cultivating the intellect, developing the instincts of freedom, and preparing the ground for the building of modern independent, self-governing nations.
Between Christians themselves, particularly those in private life, much of the early peace spirit and practice remained. The New Testament with its teaching of love and peace continued the same. They heard it read and expounded. The Saviour's life and example were often before them. Those who entered into official positions carried something of the Christian spirit with them.
The pax Romana of the empire was softened and considerably humanized through the influence of the popes and bishops. They served as arbitrators in disputes between subject kings and feudal lords. They even dictated peace to emperors themselves. Though they did this often in the interest of their own dominion, substituting a pax ecclesiastic a for the Roman imperial peace, nevertheless something of the real Christian spirit accompanied their work. During the interminable strifes of feudalism and the private wars of the Middle Ages, the bishops and church councils were about the only peace power which remained to check in any way the everlasting work of the sword. They proclaimed the 'Peace of God,' rendering sacred from bloodshed certain days and places.
They hurled their anathemas at those wild barons who persisted in the practice of private war and the wager of battle. They denounced the duel, as the Church has always done. It was chiefly through their influence that private war, the wager of battle and the cruel 'ordeal' were finally abolished -- the first great triumph in the direction of political peace. They offered their services as conciliators, and created peace associations and church courts of arbitration. The Christian Church in its worst days never lost entirely the great peace conceptions of the Master, and never failed to show in some measure his spirit of peace. During these dark times the instincts of pure humanity were at work also.
No one retaining any remnants of human feeling could remain untouched by the cruel and never-ending carnage and massacre, which characterized the first hundred years of the Reformation period, the sixteenth century. The very darkness of the period created the demand for light. The appalling contrast between the religion professed and the inhuman things daily done, between the demand of the human heart and the heartless deeds of the human hand, between the fraternal workings of trade and commerce, then first entering upon their grand modern development, and the unending disturbances and waste of wars, combined to bring about during the next century one of the greatest reactions known to history, the full force of which we have only in recent years begun to comprehend. FOUR GREAT PEACE EVENTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY The seventeenth century brought to the world the first unfolding of the idea of international peace in a large and comprehensive way. Unlike the Christian movement of the first and second centuries this evolution of the seventeenth century was not only religious and social, but also juridical and political.
Four events of the seventeenth century, occurring in four different countries, the outcome of the thinking and work of four eminent men, have been the talk of much of the civilized world ever since, and may be considered the four cornerstones of the structure of modern peace work. They were the entire outcome in different ways of the ripening of the time toward a larger feeling of brotherhood between peoples and nations, and a better social order. The first of them was the Great Design of Henry IV. of France, in the early years of the century, for the federation and peace of Christian Europe. The greatest in the line of French kings, Henry seems to have combined in his person the extraordinary contradictions of his time. A Protestant and a Catholic, rich and powerful, yet simple in manners and devoted to the interests of the common people, a warrior and a genuine friend of the peaceful arts of life, a Frenchman to the core, he was nevertheless the first interpreter to his country of the larger ideal of international life and cooperation then struggling to the birth. His Great Design was favorably received at more than one court in Europe.
His death by assassination at the hands of Ravaillac cut the whole scheme short. The Design, though having a noble purpose, was full of contradictions. If he had lived to make the attempt seriously to carry it out, it is almost certain that the means by which he proposed to execute it -- a great international army and the crushing of the House of Hapsburg -would have made the Design a worse wreck than that of the Holy Alliance two hundred years later. If we leave the means of execution out of sight, Henry's conception of Europe federated and in peace, about which his soul was said to have been deeply exercised, was a great one, and the vision has haunted the civilized world ever since.
It has been immensely fruitful in holding thought and aspiration to the idea of closer union and friendlier cooperation among the nations -- in other words, the federation of the world, the largest social conception of our time. In 1625, fifteen years after the death of Henry IV, Hugo Grotius, whose patron the French king had been, published his famous book, ' On the Rights of War and of Peace. ' This was the second of the four events. All his immense learning and his acquaintance with European affairs, gained through exile and diplomatic service, Grotius threw into an effort to lessen the cruelties and sufferings inflicted by war. He denounced in unmeasured terms the facility with which professedly Christian princes went to war, declaring their conduct to be a disgrace even to barbarians. He pleaded in a noble Christian spirit for the use of arbitration.
His book immediately had an immense effect in Europe. It was as if the suffering spirit of the entire continent had dictated his words. The work set men to thinking seriously on the nature of war, on the duty of mitigating its horrors, and of trying to prevent its recurrence. Gustavus Adolphus, during his campaigns, is said to have slept with a copy of it under his head. Grotius's work was the foundation of international law, which has developed greatly since his time, and has gradually been carrying the ideas of justice, respect and mutual service into international affairs. The third of the seventeenth century events to which I allude was the peace work of George Fox.
Fox was born the year before Grotius published his book, and began his ministry twenty-three years later. The English peacemaker went much farther than the great Dutchman. He revived the early Christian position, feebly uttered before his time by the Mennonites and Moravians that the spirit and teaching of Jesus leave no place whatever for war and the spirit out of which it springs. He incorporated this teaching as a fundamental in the doctrinal constitution of the Society of Friends.
He uttered this principle with such marvelous energy, moral thoroughness, constancy and suffering endurance, that the whole English-speaking world was compelled to listen. No small part of Europe also heard his voice. Nor has the utterance ever been forgotten. Its maintenance in an organized way by the Friends has kept the high ideal of absolute and universal peace constantly before the eye of civilization as a guiding light. Great as was the work of Henry IV. in starting Europe to thinking on the subject of world-federation, or of Grotius in laying the foundations of international law, greater still was that of George Fox, because he not only declared his principle, but gave it in trust for the future to a living organism of men. His work has been in creative power what that of Grotius would have been if he had left a society of say a hundred thousand international lawyers possessed of more or less of his own faith and enthusiasm.
The fourth of the seventeenth century events alluded to was William Penn's Holy Experiment in government on peace principles, inaugurated on this side of the Atlantic in 1682. With this must be coupled his Plan for the Peace of Europe, published eleven years later in England, a scheme free from the destructive contradictions of the Great Design of Henry IV. Penn's experiment in practical peace politics, the first of its kind in history, lasting more than half a century, has become almost an inherent part of the moral consciousness of the modern political world, and it is becoming every year more effective in creating a belief that war is always honorably avoidable if men sincerely wish it to be avoided. The works of these four men in the seventeenth century, unlike as they were, were not isolated and dissociated events. They all sprang, on their earthly side, from the same root. They were the expression of the growing sense of brotherhood, as yet scarcely conscious of itself, which Christianity had been silently creating, and of the developing consciousness of the inhumanity of war, felt even while men fought, gloried in combat, and lost their heads in the delirium of victory.
They were heaven-begotten efforts, certainly, but they had their place in the providential historic development of the Christian world. Their immediate effects on the world as a whole were not large, but one has only to study them in the light of subsequent history to see what powerful seed-forces they were. WORK OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The movement of thought and purpose, which these men of the seventeenth century interpreted with such insight and courage, went steadily on into the eighteenth century. It found a number of distinguished representatives in different fields.
The work of Grotius in international law was carried forward by Pufendorf, Vattel and others. The schemes of William Penn and Henry IV. were reproduced in France by the Abb'e de St. Pierre (1713) and Rousseau, and later in England by Bentham. Adam Smith and Turgot, toward the close of the century, drew from economics powerful arguments for international intercourse and friendship. Poetry also, in this fruitful era, came forward to support the growing demand for peace, and Lessing and Herder uttered the new thought in verse. Even before the seventeenth century had closed, philosophy, through Locke, Leibnitz and Montesquieu, had made its protest of reason against war. The last years of the eighteenth century gave us Kant's great tractate on ' Perpetual Peace,' in which was uttered for the first time the idea of a federation of the world in an international state built upon republican principles; and Kant's thought was vigorously sustained and developed by his followers, Fichte and Schelling.
For the most part the peace work of the eighteenth century was still theoretical and ideal. There was little attempt at the practical. The time had hardly come for it in any general way. Opinion was still too feeble and un integrated.
The Friends as a body continued their peace protest, but in a very traditional way, and many of them failed in the hour of testing. The colony of Pennsylvania abandoned the standard of Penn and fell away into the general condition of society round about. In the unfolding of ideas, theories and projects of peace the century was very prolific, but not until near its close did the movement veer much toward the practical. There were here and there some unimportant arbitration's, but they had little juridical character and passed almost unnoticed. They were mere temporary expedients of a personal rather than of a social character. The contentions and destructive conflicts of peoples and nations went on almost unrelieved.
Diplomacy itself, which is essentially an instrument of peace and originated as such, was swept away and turned into an instrument of promoting war and conquest. The eighteenth century, in spite of St. Pierre, Bentham and Kant, and the growing undercurrent of thought and aspiration represented by them, closed with Napoleon overshadowing Europe and war still on the throne. MOVEMENTS FOR LIBERTY AND FOR PEACE PROCEED TOGETHER It is a noteworthy historic fact, deserving mention in connection with the opening of the nineteenth century that the movement for the abolition of war and that for human liberty went hand in hand. Wherever the sense of liberty, civil or religious, became well developed, respect for the rights of other peoples appeared, and with it the feeling that war ought to cease and peace prevail. The two are really parts of the same movement, for slavery and war spring out of the same spirit. The demand for peace is a demand for justice, equal rights and universal liberty.
William Penn was as consecrated to liberty as to peace. He understood that without the former the latter is impossible. The author of 'Perpetual Peace' was so passionately devoted to liberty that when he heard that a copy of the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man' had arrived from France, he ran across the university campus at K", a thing which he had never been known to do before. On the 14th of May, 1790, the French assembly, which met in the interests of liberty, solemnly decreed the abolition of war. The founders of American liberty had a great fear of war and of standing armies, and left no place for war except as a last resort in the defense of liberty and rights. Many of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement -- Whittier, Garrison, Jay, Ballou, Wright, May and others -- were absolute peace men.
There is no record of a real peace man who has not been an uncompromising friend of liberty, though many friends of liberty have failed to see that they ought consistently to be uncompromising opponents of war. The liberty movement of the last two centuries, resulting in independent republics in the New World and constitutional governments in the Old, has seen the peace propaganda spring up and develop simultaneously and almost coterminously with it. The nation, which has taken the lead in, the development of liberty and the creation of institutions founded thereon have also led in the movement for the abolition of war, on both its sentimental and its practical side. EVOLUTION OF THE MOVEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The nineteenth century saw a remarkable evolution of the movement for peace along many lines. The movement not only became much more extended, but it also became thoroughly organized and strongly practical. It did not, however, lose any of its idealism.
It deepened and widened on its sentimental side quite as much as on its practical side. For every peace idealist whose name comes to us from the two previous centuries, the nineteenth furnishes scores. Noah Worcester, William Ladd, Jonathan Dimond, William E. Channing, Charles Sumner, Adin Ballou, Thomas C. Upham, Elihu Burrito, William Jay, John Bright, Richard Cobden, Henry Richard, Hodgson Pratt, Victor Hugo, Charles Le monnier, Frideric Pass, Bertha von Sutter, David Dudley Field, E.T. Moneta, Fredrik Baker, Sheldon Amos, Bluntschli, Leone Levi, Leo Tolstoy, John de Bloch, and Nicholas II., to mention no others, all were primarily peace idealists. Some of them were nothing else, and were nonetheless useful for that reason.
But the strong idealism, which characterized the century's peace efforts, did not prevent them from being singularly practical. In recent years the labors of the friends of peace, both in their individual and their organized capacity as societies and congresses, have consisted largely in efforts to secure the adoption of pacific methods of settling disputes. Their appeals to public sentiment have always had this end in view. The bare mention of the list of names just given -- and it could be increased indefinitely -- gives a vivid impression of the great expansion of peace thought and work as compared with former times. When the nineteenth century opened not a peace society existed.
There was no thought of organization. There had been no cooperation of thinkers and workers, if it can be said that there were any workers. The Friends had not gone beyond their own borders to cooperate with others. But after 1815 organization was effected and developed to such an extent that there are to-day peace associations and unions to the number of more than four hundred, in no less than fifteen countries, numbering many thousands of adherents, coming from all classes of society. Besides these, many other organizations -- church clubs, women's clubs, the temperance union, and business organization, working men's unions -- give peace a large place in their programs.
Between these numerous friends of peace in different countries a close bond has been formed. Peace congresses and conferences are a part of the settled order of the day. The International Peace Bureau at Berne, in existence now for more than a dozen years, has made the union permanent. In Kant's day statesmen were so far from giving peace any place in their thought that he delicately apologized to them in his 'Perpetual Peace' for venturing to suggest that his treatise might not do them any damage. To-day, only a little over a hundred years from his time, the largest peace organization in existence, the Inter-parliamentary Peace Union, with more than two thousand members, consists wholly of statesmen, who meet annually or biennially in European and American cities to promote the settlement of international differences by arbitration.
One can easily imagine Kant running again across the university campus at knowledge of this remarkable organization. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there had been no cases of international arbitration of any great importance. Since then the method has come into general use, more than two hundred important cases having been settled by this means. All the civilized nations have had recourse to arbitration, some of them many times.
Difficulties of almost every sort have been adjusted in this way. The legislatures of nearly all the civilized nations have passed strong resolutions favoring the employment of arbitration in the adjustment of disputes. In industrial controversies the principle of arbitration has made no less signal progress. The labor organizations and the socialist movements, representing millions of both men and women, are placing themselves everywhere against war and standing armies as instruments of tyranny and economic oppression.
International law as a means of preventing and mitigating war has also made great advance since the opening of the nineteenth century. It has given us the principle of neutrality, which prevents war from spreading and involving a whole group of nations, as was the case only a century ago. It has given us the Red Cross, which pitches its tents of mercy right in the midst of the blood-red field. It has carried the principles of right and justice a good way into the chaos of international affairs It operates over a wide field of international relations in time of peace, cultivating acquaintance, friendship and restraint of passion. In time of war it prevents, in considerable measure, cruelties and sufferings forming no necessary part of fighting and campaigning, but which formerly attended every war. THE PEACE MEA IN LITERATURE The peace idea has entered deeply into modern literature.
You could count on the fingers of two hands all the valuable works on peace, which appeared prior to the year 1800. Since then a body of special peace literature has grown up so extensive that it is doubtful if fifty duodecimo pages would hold the bare list of titles of books and pamphlets which have been published. This takes no account of the innumerable articles, which have appeared in recent years in the magazines and newspapers, nor of the treatment of the subject in general literature by authors like Tennyson, Whittier, Longfellow and many others of equal or less note. NATURAL FORCES AT WORK At no previous time in history have the natural peace forces -- association, trade, commerce, travel, and the like -- operated so powerfully as within the last fifty years. Modern methods of intercommunication have put all parts of the complex modern world into incessant touch with each other.
The daily rubbing, grinding and clashing of these parts occasionally result in a dreadful clash of war, which horrifies us, but the general effect is exactly the opposite. Men are thereby brought into fuller knowledge of one another, are trained in self-restraint, are made more patient and forbearing, and are led to see and feel their interdependence and their power of mutual service. Thus is worked out in a practical way the feeling of universal kinship and brotherhood, to take the place of, or rather to enlarge, the narrow idea of family kinship, which has controlled the world in the past. This practical enlargement of vision, of sympathy, of community of interests, is developing, or rather has already developed, among the masses of men a general fear and abhorrence of war which not even the most popular particular war long interferes with. The war between Japan and Russia, which has just come to an end, has been deeply deplored throughout the entire civilized world, and its close has been everywhere hailed with inexpressible delight. Just here in this abhorrence of war and love of settled order lies the largest practical gain which the cause of peace has made.
THE HAGUE CONFERENCE AND WHAT HAS FOLLOWED IT The Hague Conference, held in 1899, is, with its results, so far the largest practical expression of this long historic development of the peace idea. Its full significance is yet but imperfectly understood. This great Conference, which was directed by men of the highest attainment in diplomatic affairs, sat for ten weeks, and resulted in the drafting of a scheme for a permanent international court of arbitration. This Convention was ratified by twenty-two of the governments represented, and is now in full force. The setting up of this Court and the successful inauguration of its work mark the dose of a wonderful century in the development of the movement for international peace. It likewise marks the opening of a new page in the history, which, unless all signs fail, is sure to be more wonderful than the last.
Quickly following the inauguration of the International Court of Arbitration have come the numerous treaties of obligatory arbitration concluded among the nations of Europe and of South America. But the movement has already gone beyond these limited treaties, and the peace societies, the peace congresses, the Inter-parliamentary Union, business organizations, etc., are demanding the conclusion of a general arbitration treaty among all the civilized nations which shall bring the Hague Court into regular and if possible universal use in the adjustment of controversies, and thus establish finally the reign of law in international affairs. Further than this, the demand has arisen, and already taken a commanding place in the peace propaganda, for the creation of a regular parliament or congress of the nations for the orderly treatment of international problems. A second conference at The Hague has already been called, and its meeting is awaited with the greatest public interest, for it is expected that it will go much beyond the work of the first Hague Conference in the permanent organization of the peace of the world. Reasoning purely from the history already made, we may easily in imagination construct, on the foundations now well laid, the temple of international peace which another hundred years will see largely completed. All the forces, which have hitherto been working, are mightier today than ever before.
What made the Hague Conference will make others like it, probably in regular succession. What brought the Permanent Court of Arbitration into existence will cause the ultimate reference to it of all international controversies. What has made the remarkable movement in South America, led by Chile and the Argentine Republic, will work on until it has mastered the Continent. What created the present crude, but nonetheless real, world-society will enlarge and perfect it, until not a foot of the earth's surface and not a man of its inhabitants remain un socialized and unfederated with the rest. The international competitive system, which has grown largely out of selfishness, ambition and greed, is nearing its end. The great armaments springing therefrom, which are crushing the world with their burdensome ness and threatening to wreck civilization, have grown so intolerable that they cannot long survive.
Christianity, commerce, industry, labor, education, social culture, the common weal, in their recent development, are all against war. However discouraging present appearances may seem, its days are nearly numbered. It will die hard, but die it must. History has already written its death warrant on the wall, and whatever God has written in history is written.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND PEACE I ought not to close this paper before a religious gathering like this without saying one thing more. Jesus Christ has been behind the peace movement in all its phases. There was no such movement until he came. He set forth the great principle of the divine kinship of men, which inspired it. He exemplified this in an example, which has ever since been like a sun in the social heavens. He kept the spirit and hope of peace alive through all the dark centuries.
It was he who revived them in the seventeenth century, and strengthened and developed them during the eighteenth. Through his inspiration Christian men and ministers of the gospel gave us the organized peace movement of our time. During no inconsiderable periods of the past century disciples of his furnished its chief and practically only support. Until quite recently most of the distinguished advocates of peace were professedly Christian men and women. The record, which the peace movement has made, is fundamentally due to them. Profoundly grateful as we must be to the distinguished men and women beyond the pale of the Christian profession who in recent years have been among the chiefs apostles of the cause, yet fidelity to historic fact demands the recognition of the primacy of Christianity in the founding and developing of the work of peace.
I am sorry to have to say that, while through individual men Christianity has led the whole historic peace movement, the Church as a whole has been criminally unfaithful, and does not yet show any strong tendency to return to the original Christian position, or any high position, on the subject of peace. An increasing number of its ministers and members are, however, returning to that position. Tolstoy, whom the Orthodox Greek Church has excommunicated for his arraignment of her barren formality and her support of war, is not the only man of primitive Christian thought on the subject. It would be easy to find a good two hundred thousand of like principles in different parts of the earth. In the mission field a number of the great pioneers -- Livingstone, Titus Can, J. Hudson Taylor -renounced all dependence on carnal weapons even for self-defence. Many of their less known followers and co-workers share and practise their views.
The evolution of the peace movement ought to proceed much more rapidly within the Church than without. Is it doing so? One feels the sting of pain when one sees the Church and its ministry lashed by outsiders -- splendid men and women of peace - because so many professed Christians and so many preachers of the gospel uphold the system of war, or particular wars, which these outsiders see cannot live an hour in the light of the New Testament. In our endeavors to promote the development of the peace cause, we must begin our judgment at the house of God.
We must insist, with every artifice of appeal, that those who call themselves by Christ's name shall be true to Christ's spirit. We must keep in the forefront of all our work the great principle of human brotherhood, without which Christianity is not Christianity, but at best only a refined religion of self-righteousness. This principle of brotherhood is the great instrument with which we must work. It is only in its enlargement and ever wider practical application that the idea of social and international peace came into existence. It is the central pillar on which the new International Court of Arbitration must rest for its permanence and efficiency. There cannot be further development unless this principle is given a larger place.
It is far from triumphant today, even in Christian society. There is disloyalty to it in a thousand ways of which men are scarcely conscious. There is retrogression from it in certain high places. If history shows anything plainly, it shows that sense of kinship and brotherhood is the root from which all peace springs. This lesson of history must be taken more seriously to heart, and must be given the widest world-application by all those who seek to bring in the era of world-peace. While God by the ordinary course of his providences is working out the spirit of fraternity and peace by the great social and economic forces operating naturally in society, it is the Christian's high privilege to hasten the movement by following his Master in the life of self-sacrificing and universal love, which cannot possibly from self-interest kill human beings, but which gives life freely and un grudgingly to save men of all classes and conditions.
So far as lies in our power, we must not allow to be set up or kept up anywhere within the Church the walls between classes, races and nationalities which the Master leveled to the ground. We must declare our faith in the brotherhood of mankind and the sisterhood of nations in the face of the spurious patriotism, which in its pride of country and race rides roughshod over uncivilized races and weak peoples, and is always watching for an opening into which to drive its self-seeking power. At the point of development, which the peace movement has reached, this is the supreme service, which the Christian Church, in all its membership, is divinely commissioned to perform. If the Church, which is now a commanding institution in the civilized world, is willing to lose its life in this way with the Master, it shall find it again at no distant day in a world at peace at the feet of the Prince of Peace.
Publication Information: Book Title: Development of the Peace Idea, and Other Essays. Contributors: Benjamin F. Trueblood - author. Publisher: Plimpton Press. Place of Publication: 3 Boston. Publication Year: 192.
Page Number: 36. Lecture II - Historical Development of Peace Idea Source: Development of the Peace Idea, and Other Essays. Benjamin F. Trueblood - author. Place of Publication: Boston.
Publication Year: 1932. Page number: 36 Peace - fundamental doctrine of Christianity and of humanity in its essential constitution In the Ancient World- the tribes people lived in patriarchal group - the sense of kinship, interdependence and contiguity of dwelling kept them from war- religion confined their perception of peace among family and anything beyond their family is considered hostile thus religion influenced, defined, inspired, directed and stirred their perception of peace Among the Jews, Greeks & Romans- Superiority or selfish notion of greater ranking or degree over other people confined their conceptions of peace among their race and nation- The idea of common universal humanity was unattainable or non-existing Jesus and His followers- promoted God as the Father and men everywhere as brothers- the teaching "love of God and of Fellowmen" broke down racial distinction and international barriers- the conception of universal peace and the demand of universal brotherhood and love emerged Along the way, Christianity failed to influence political institutions. Pax Romana, or the idea of peace confined to race or family of the Roman Empire overshadowed the teaching of Jesus Christ During the long period of darkness- Roman empire fell- Barbaric invasions emerged- Europe was broken up- Feudal wars were happening incessantly- Struggle for papacy for political dominion Christianity ceased to be the ultimate peace operator of the world. However, between Christians themselves particularly those in private lives continued to practise the spirit of peace in accordance to Christ's teaching Those who centered into official positions such as popes and bishops carried something of the Christian spirit and influenced the Pax Romana of the empire.
The popes and bishops served as arbitrators in disputes between kings and feudal lords. They offered their services as conciliators and created peace association and church courts as arbitration. Through their influence, private war and wager of battles were abolished which became the first great triumph of political peace.! 7th Century European nations were engaged in furious wars involving religion, succession and the new world. Protestants persecuted Catholics Catholics persecuted Protestants Catholics and Protestant persecuted Jews and Quakers Henry IV of France and his adviser Duc de Sully - "Great Design"- Europe to be redivided among 15 Powers in such equal portions as would prevent any future uneven balance of Power - The 15 powers were to be represented in a Great Council, whose members were to be subject to re-election every 3 yrs.
- It will be the duty of the great Council to settle disputes of all sorts among the states and to deal with current affairs- He further proposed an international army and navy to enforce the decisions of the great councilHuigh de Groot / Hugo Grotius - De Jure Belli ac Pac is / On the Rights of War and Of Peace- Dutch jurist and humanist- Declared as "Father of international law" through his letter De Jure... - All law should be divided into what is divine and human- War is a mode of protecting rights and punishing wrongs. Although it is considered evil, it is needed to be regulated. A "just war" is a war to obtain a right Three methods of settling a dispute peacefully a. conference and negotiation among two rivals or contestants b. compromise - a settlement in which each side gives up some demands or concessions c. renounce rights than try to enforce them When it comes to bargaining and mediation, he holds that for any 3 methods, it is extremely important to select a judge with character and decency.
The method of achieving peace is to obtain some form of justice. "For justice brings peace of conscience, while injustice causes torment and anguish". George Fox - Society of Friends- developed a strong opinion about religion- rebelled against the state control of the church of England- formed a group called the "Friends of Truth" which became the "Society of Friends" and now being called, the "Quakers " The central dogma was that of the inner light, communicated directly to the individual soul of Christ They regarded all humans equal before God They refused to refer to people's ranks and titles They were the first group to denounce slavery and would not permit any of their member to own slaves William Penn - Pennsylvania / Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe- Father of American Liberty- Penn established an American sanctuary, which protected freedom of conscience. Almost everywhere else, colonists stole land from the Indians, but Penn traveled unarmed among the Indians and negotiated peaceful purchases. He insisted that women deserved equal rights with men.
He gave Pennsylvania a written constitution, which limited the power of government, provided a humane penal code, and guaranteed many fundamental liberties. In his Essay "Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe"- Proposed a permanent international tribunal set up by sovereigns of Europe, consisting of ninety representatives, chosen by system of proportional representation, meeting every year to discuss and settle all international differences not settled by diplomatic means. Decisions are to be made by ballot, with a minimum majority of three quarters of the votes Immanuel Kant - Zum Eigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) - to create a public opinion favorable to the abolition of war through a final organization of peace - a "federation of free republics"- 'republic' meaning any form of government embodying liberty and equality of its subject- 'federation' would involve a surrender of portion of power in return for participation in a wider, richer, more abundant life. - Practical contribution was the gradual abolition of the standing armies He lifted the discussion of war and peace above the level of politics and exalted it into a question of ethics and social conscience.
19th Century The call for more practical contribution to achieve peace was established through the remarkable evolution of peace movement. It became more extended, organized and strongly practical. Churches, clubs, unions, business organizations, labor unions and the like gave peace a large place in their programs. Through their interaction and collaboration, a close bond has been formed which gave birth to the Permanent International Peace Bureau- an international organization founded in 1891 in Bern, Switzerland- served as a central office through which peace activities of several countries could be coordinated- provided information on the peace movement and preparing for and implementing resolutions of the World Peace Congresses- regularly issued appeals for peace to any parties participating in or threatening war, however this tactic was rather unsuccessful With the establishment of the League of Nations and other international government after WWI, it became less important eventually suspending its activities. The Swiss court officially terminated the organization in 1959.
A further impetus towards a viable institutionalized way of promoting world peace was provided by the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907, which emphasized arbitration and juridical settlements of international disputes. - elaborate instruments for settling crises peacefully- preventing wars and codifying rules of warfare- Adopted the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and established the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which began work in 1902. - A series of attempts at preserving the peace through integration of independent states continued to unfold, from the - Treaty of Utrecht in 1713- The Congress of Vienna- The League of Nations in 1919- The United Nations in 1945 to be discussed further under the topic "International Organizations " Lecture 6 - Philippine Approach to Peace as seen through History. Pre-Spanish 1. Relations and peace were established with neighboring countries in Asia thru trade and commerce. (Trading posts were established in Sulu) 2. Even the spread of Islam was more cultural than military 3.
Filipino chieftains, by and large welcomed outsiders and did not wage conquests or wars 4. Barangay was the seed of democracy since the date had to consult and obtain the approval of the Council of Elders 5. Confederation of Barangay's for better protection against enemies and intermarriage arrangements 6. They resorted to Sanduguan or blood compact to befriend with members of another baran gay 7.
System of Written and Unwritten laws 8. Belief in or BathalaII. Spanish Era 1. Blood compact - Magellan made a blood compact with Huma bon of Cebu; Legaspi befriended 2 native kings in Bohol that paved the way to the conquest of Cebu.
Blood compact of Rajah Kol ambu and Magellan was the 1st blood compact between a Filipino and a Spaniard. Factors that lead to early colonization of the Philippines by Spain: a) Small size of the Philippines) Disunity of the people) Superior arms of Spain) Christianity) Kindness and generosity of Legaspi 2. Propaganda Movement - peaceful campaign for reforms organized by Filipinos in Madrid belonging to the middle class Aims: a) Equality between the Filipinos and the Spaniards before the law) Assimilation of the Philippines as a regular province of Spain) Restoration of Philippines' representation in the Spanish Cortes d) Secularization of parishes e) Individual liberties for the Filipinos The Southern Philippines conflict What is the nature of the southern conflict? How would you sum up the conflict in Mindanao?
Is it a longstanding economic grievance from years of governmental neglect? Is it the prejudice against the Muslim, which contributed to the roots of Muslim insurgency? Or is to the extent that they cannot identify themselves with Philippine statehood? Historical background- the archipelago first saw Islam in Aceh -13th century, spread ed through Southeast Asia, including the southern Philippines- Muslim of the southern Phils. Are the farthest of the muslim people from the birthplace of Islam but it didn't become a factor for its popularity in the south. A powerful sultanate emerged in Sulu, with influence from Sabah to Mindanao Spanish Period- In 1570, when the Spaniards came in, the muslim areas of the south remained quite diverse, with warfare between ethnic grounds- The Spanish dubbed the Muslims of the south "Moros" like "MOORS" of South Africa, who had once conquered much of Spain 1946, after the war against the Spanish and American forces- Moros see the Republic as the successor of imperial Spain- the idea logical gap between the Muslim south and the Spanish speaking Christian elites of the north was huge- the traditional leaders declared for the Republic at independence but new problems arouse.
- Migrants from the over-populated north shifted to the south. Moro territory was seen by officials as frontier land to be occupied and civilized - its vast agricultural lands and forest reserves were a major attraction- From 1900, around 90% were muslims, end of 20th century, 3/4 of the population were either migrants or their descendents Critical incident- Jabidah incident - 1968, 28 Muslim army recruits were killed by the armed forces - Date Udt og Mat alam, a former governor of Cotabato formed the Muslim Independence Movement- Ilaga militia gangs were formed to protect the Christians of the south- June 1971, Ilaga killed 70 Muslims in North Cotabato- President Marcos declared Martial law in 1972 due to ethno-religious differences- early 1970's, Nur Misuari, a former UP Polski professor together with Hashim Salamat, founded the MNLFMNLF- Moro National Liberation Front- to create Bangs a Moro (moro nation) - 20,000 to 30,000 members after its creation- Nur promoted Moro nationalism, influenced by the ideas of Marx and Koran- Claimed to stand against the 3 isms - feudalism, fascism, imperialism- The struggles was proclaimed a Jihad (holy war) Peace Method / Approach- 1976 Tripoli Agreement - to establish peace arrangement and later modifying the stance to accept autonomy instead of complete secession Hashim Salamat was determined to achieve independence so he formed the MILF in secret in 1970's and publicly announced the split in March 1984 MILF is supported by Libya's Gadd afi- 1990 - Aquino presidency - established regional autonomy (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) ARMM which included L anao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Taw i- taw i, Basilan, Malawi) Nur Misuari became the ARMM governor by popular vote but due to a series of corruption scandals, it became unpopular Further development- In 1991, Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword) splintered from the broader separatist struggle under the leadership of Janjalani, a veteran of the Afghanistan War- In 2000, Nur Misuari resumed guerilla activity - MILF continues to oscillate between war and peace with Manila. - In 2000, President Estrada launched a war campaign to destroy MILF camps, displacing 1 million Moros- The military campaigns has been questioned concerning human rights issues such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention Criminal - Abu Sayyaf f is a terrorist group, 'un islamic'- Pentagon Gang is rumored to have links to the MILF Current peace approach / methods - Aside from military campaigns, development initiatives have been tried- Philippines sent diplomatic missions to Middle East and ASEAN to lobby against any support at the Organisation of Islamic Conference- Visiting Forces agreement- Exercise Balikatan 02-1- Government has lobbied to consider NPA as an international terrorist organization What the core of the problem in Mindanao and the other muslim areas in the Phils.? - deep sense of alienation- historical development compounded over a lengthy period of time, by post independence accusations of discrimination, land loss demographic change and the emergence of private security gangs loosely based on primordial ties Lesson 7 - Diplomacy as a Contemporary Method towards achieving peace. Diplomacy - meaning 1. Etymology of the word "diplo-macy " Byzantine and Roman epochs, the word diploma meant a permission to use public transportation, a kind of passport. Later it was used to designate all solemn documents issued by official chancelleries, particularly those setting down arguments between sovereigns, these documents were called diplomat.
Gottfried Leibniz (1693) published in Hanover, a Codex Juris Gentium Diplomatic us containing documents related to international relations. Baron Jean C. de Dumont (1975) began to publish in Paris the famous Corps Universel Diplomat ique du Droit des Gens. The expression diplomatic corps began to be used in Vienna to designate the group of personnel serving in the foreign mission. 2.
It is any form of negotiation as opposed to violent instruments, and in particular to war; a technical instrument for the implementation of foreign policy II. Essential Elements of the Concept of Diplomacy- one instrument of foreign policy- for the establishment and development of peaceful contacts between government of different states- through the use of intermediaries (diplomatic agents) mutually recognized by the respective parties. Different Diplomatic Activities 1. Representation - acting in "behalf of"; simply affirm the presence of the commitment of the states that he or she is acting in behalf of 2.
Information - a vast activity whose limits are traced only by the interest or need of the sending state in finding out about certain aspects of the life of the receiving state. 3. Negotiation - contacts between states to arrange the resolution of common or reciprocal interests 4. Promotion - creates, promotes or increases a certain type of relations between the receiving state and sending state such as economic and cultural relations 5. Protection - defense of all the interests of states and its citizens in a given country 6. Extension abroad of public service - diplomatic mission and consulates are legally authorized to act lawfully on behalf of other public services in the performance of their citizen of certain fundamental public service such as civil registrar, notarial acts, electoral registration, issues of passports and other document sIV.
Forms of Diplomacy 1. Diplomatic Morphology A. Old Diplomacy (identify with secret diplomacy) - considers Europe to be the center of gravity of international politics- so-called great powers have the chief responsibility for the conduct of international politics- believes that the diplomatic service in all countries has common and identical standards of professional conduct- considers negotiation to be an isolated episode, but an ongoing process that must always be confidential in its diverse steps- functions of diplomatic agents were limited to those of representing their respective countries and informing them and occasionally to negotiating on specific matter. New Diplomacy (identify with open diplomacy) - considers the composition of international society has changed radically, center of gravity of international politics has been gradually deviating from Europe- diplomatic traditions have been altered by cultural diversity and ideological differences- impact of public opinion have considerably increased international conflicts and tensions- there are alternative methods of international contact through direct communication, activities of multilateral organs and institutions- has a richer and more diversified content, requiring better trained diplomatic agents. Relations among states include highly varied fields such as health, cultural exchanges, financial, economic co-operation and etc. Secret Diplomacy - agreements, understanding or arrangements between governments that are kept secret from the public - secrecy is a matter of degree, negotiations are often kept partially secret- discussions between diplomats may not be revealed but insights about the bas i demands and offers may.