The Future of Pacifism

Abstract

In this chapter the future of pacifism is contemplated. Five alternative futurescapes are sketched, each a possible scenario for the future. In three of them wars between belligerents continue to take place as either limited conflicts or as a new world war. In the fourth a supranational world order is adopted or imposed, which enforces peace using military might where necessary. In the fifth futurescape there emerges a sense of world family that puts violence toward other members of that family beyond the pale of consideration. Pacifism would have a role to play in the first four futurescapes. In the fifth, however, the advocacy of pacifism as a repudiation of war would lose its point, for the renunciation of war would already be essentially universal.