John Maynard Keynes Architect of the Postwar Peace

Abstract

John Maynard Keynes was the architect of the post-World War II peace.¹ He perceived the interactions of politics, economics, and war. He understood that the preservation of peace required full employment, prosperity and economic development, the minimization of social stress, and the creation of institutions for collective action. Failing that, restoration of authoritarian state systems, war, and revolution would be once again on the table as during the inter-war years. Keynes understood that democratic institutions were an integral part of the peace process; but he understood perhaps better than anyone else in his generation how fragile democracy was in the face of economic disaster and the aggressive nature of peoples and governments.