Abstract
Through what and how is peace constituted today? This elementary question was put at the centre of pacifist programme study by Alfred H. Fried, one of Germany’s leading pacifists during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The slogan was ‘causative pacifism’: “He who wishes to eliminate an effect must first eliminate its cause. And he who wishes to see a new desired effect instead of another must replace that cause by one that can produce the desired effect.” This sounds methodologically abstract, but was meant quite literally. If war is the consequence of an ‘international anarchy’ still prevailing in relations between states, then this anarchy has to be eliminated in order to eliminate its consequence, war. Anarchy must therefore be replaced by a ‘social order’, as a result of which conflicts can be reliably managed without force, so that, in the political meaning of the concept, peace is established.
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Notes
- 1.
This text was translated by Ewald Osers from the German book: Zum irdischen Frieden. Erkenntnisse und Vermutungen (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2004) and published as: On Perpetual Peace: A Timely Assessment (New York—Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007); 15–53. Permission to republish this text was granted on by Berghahn Books.
- 2.
Alfred H. Fried, Probleme der Friedenstechnik, Leipzig (1918): 10.
- 3.
Ernst-Otto Czempiel: Friedensstrategien (Opladen, 1998); ibid.: Kluge Macht. Außenpolitik für das 21. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1999); Dieter Senghaas (ed.): Den Frieden denken (Frankfurt/M., 1995, with a comprehensive bibliography).
- 4.
Fried, Probleme der Friedenstechnik, op. cit.: 42.
- 5.
Ibid.: 12.
- 6.
Klaus-Jürgen Gantzel and Torsten Schwinghammer: Die Kriege nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg 1945–1992. Daten und Tendenzen (Münster, 1995); Mary Kaldor: Neue und alte Kriege (Frankfurt/M., 2000); Herfried Münkler: Die neuen Kriege (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 2002). For an analysis of background conditions see the fundamental study by Günther Bächler: Violence through Environmental Discrimination (Dordrecht, 1999).
- 7.
See Karl W. Deutsch: Tides Among Nations (New York, 1979); Ralf Dahrendorf: Der moderne soziale Konflikt (Stuttgart, 1992).
- 8.
The following reflections continue observations on the history of modern European development, as documented in Dieter Senghaas: The European Experience. A Historical Critique of Development Theory (Leamington Spa/Dover, NH 1985).
- 9.
See “Dokumente des Treffens der Konferenz über die Menschliche Dimension der KSZE in Kopenhagen vom 29.06.1990”, which, after the world-political upheaval of 1989/90, summed up the fundamental principles of the rule of law as it was achieved or developed in European constitutional history; published in Dieter Senghaas: Friedensprojekt Europa (Frankfurt/M., 1992): 191–210.
- 10.
See John Burton: Conflict. Resolution and Prevention (London, 1990).
- 11.
See Norbert Elias: Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation (Frankfurt/M., 1976), vol. 2.
- 12.
Sigmund Freud perceptively (in his famous answer to Albert Einstein’s question) in: Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud: “Warum Krieg”, in: Briefwechsel (Zürich, 1996): 43ff..; see also Dieter Senghaas: Aggressivität und kollektive Gewalt (Stuttgart, 1972, 2nd ed.): 53ff.
- 13.
Thus defined by Ralf Dahrendorf, in: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Ordnung (Munich, 2003): 45; see also Christian Graf von Krockow: “Die Tugenden der Friedensfähigkeit”, in: Senghaas (ed.): Den Frieden denken, pp. 419–441.
- 14.
See Karl W. Deutsch: Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge, 1966, 2nd ed.), as well as idem: Tides Among Nations.
- 15.
See Dieter Senghaas: The Clash within Civilisations. Coming to Terms with Cultural Conflicts (London—New York, 2002).
- 16.
As Rainer Tetzlaff has argued, especially with an eye to black Africa, there arises a “Hexagon of Decivilisation as a result of state disintegration”. See his essay “Staats- und Zivilisationsverfall. Wird Afrika anschlußfähig an die globalisierte Welt?”, in: Hans Küng and Dieter Senghaas (eds): Friedenspolitik. Ethische Grundlagen internationaler Beziehungen (Munich, 2003): 1–383. The hexagon of decivilisation has the following components: (1) fragmentation/privatisation of force; (2) rule of force, lawlessness; (3) overexploitation economy and self-help/affect explosion; (4) dictatorship, will imposition, enslavement; (5) self-granting of privileges/social polarisation; (6) war and terrorism/exclusion of enemy groups.
- 17.
See Wolfgang Reinhard: Geschichte der Staatsgewalt. Eine vergleichende Verfassungsgeschichte Europas von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Munich, 1999); Paolo Prodi: Eine Geschichte der Gerechtigkeit. Vom Recht Gottes zum modernen Rechtsstaat (Munich, 2003).
- 18.
This approach can be readily measured by indices. See Ulrich Menzel and Dieter Senghaas: Europas Entwicklung und die Dritte Welt. Eine Bestandsaufnahme (Frankfurt/M., 1986), chapter 6.
- 19.
See Hans-Dieter Evers and Tilman Schiel: Strategische Gruppen. Vergleichende Studien zu Staat, Bürokratie und Klassenbildung in der Dritten Welt (Berlin, 1988); Günter Schubert et al. (eds): Demokratie und konfliktfähige Gruppen in Entwicklungsländern (Münster, 1993).
- 20.
A formulation by Claus Offe: Der Tunnel am Ende des Lichts. Erkundungen der politischen Transformation im Neuen Osten (Frankfurt/M., 1994). For an analysis of real socialism, largely in agreement with the one here presented, see Wolfgang Engler: Die zivilisatorische Lücke. Versuch über den Staatssozialismus (Frankfurt/M., 1992).
- 21.
On the ideologies of high mythology see Ernst Topitsch: Vom Ursprung und Ende der Metaphysik (Vienna, 1958).
- 22.
See Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit: Occidentalism. The West in the Eyes of its Enemies (New York, 2004).
- 23.
See Gunnar Heinsohn: Lexikon der Völkermorde (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1998); Mihran Dahag and Kristin Platt (eds): Genozid und Moderne, vol. 1 (Opladen, 1998).
- 24.
See Chapter 5 of the book, from which this text was taken (see footnote 1 above).
- 25.
See Dieter Senghaas: “Die Konstitution der Welt. Eine Analyse in friedenspohtischer Absicht”, in: Leviathan, 31, 1 (2003): 117–152.
- 26.
Fried: Probleme der Friedenstechnik, p. 29.
- 27.
See Richard Falk et al. (eds): The Constitutional Foundations of World Peace (Albany, 1993); and explicitly Michael Zürn and Bernhard Zangl: “Weltpolizei oder Weltinterventionsgericht? Zur Zivilisierung der Konfliktbearbeitung”, in: Internationale Politik, 54, 8: 17–24; Dieter Senghaa: “Recht auf Nothilfe”, in: Reinhard Merkel (ed.): Der Kosovo-Krieg und das Völkerrecht (Frankfurt/M., 2000): 99–1 14.
- 28.
See Heike Gading: Der Schutz grundlegender Menschenrechte durch militärische Maßnahmen des Sicherheitsrates—das Ende staatlicher Souveränität? (Berlin, 1996); Martin Lailach: Die Wahrung des Weltfriedens und der internationalen Sicherheit als Aufgabe des Sicherheitsrates der Vereinten Nationen (Berlin, 1998).
- 29.
A suggestion for such casuistry is found in Dieter Senghaas: Wohin driftet die Welt? Über die Zukunft friedlicher Koexistenz (Frankfurt/M., 1994), chapter 6.
- 30.
International lawyers, usually focused on the political character of the Security Council, have mostly not been too inventive with regard to appropriate reform; mostly they put forward a critique of proposals viewed as utopian or illusionist. See, however, Mohammed Bedjaoui: The New World Order and the Security Council. Testing the Legality of its Acts (The Hague, 1995); Bernd Martenczuk: Rechtsbindung und Rechtskontrolle des Weltsicherheitsrates (Berlin, 1996).
- 31.
Fried: Probleme der Friedenstechnik: 46–47.
- 32.
See chapter 8 of the book from which this ext was taken.
- 33.
See Daniele Archibugi and David Held (eds): Cosmopolitan Democracy. An Agenda for a New World Order (Cambridge, 1995); David Held: Democracy and the Global Order. From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Cambridge, 1995).
- 34.
See Norbert Brieskorn (ed.): Globale Solidarität (Stuttgart, 1997).
- 35.
See Norberto Bobbio: Das Zeitalter der Menschenrechte. Ist Toleranz durchsetzbar? (Berlin, 1998); Michael Walzer: Über Toleranz. Von der Zivilisierung der Differenz (Hamburg, 1998).
- 36.
This definition of peace is elucidated and deduced in Dieter and Eva Senghaas: “Si vis pacem, para pacem. Überlegungen zu einem zeitgemäßen Friedenskonzept”, in: Leviathan, 20, 2 (1992): 230–251 (reprinted in: Berthold Meyer (ed.): Eine Welt oder Chaos? (Frankfurt/M.: 1996): 245–275.
- 37.
Kenneth Boulding: Stable Peace (Austin, 1978).
- 38.
See Chapter 5 of the book from which this text was taken.
- 39.
This guiding perspective for Europe as a whole is developed in a differentiated manner in Senghaas: Friedensprojekt Europa.
- 40.
A complex conceptualisation is found in Otfried Höffe: Demokratie im Zeitalter der Globalisierung (Munich 2002, 2nd ed.); Dirk Messner and Franz Nuscheler: “Global Governance. Herausforderung an der Schwelle zum 21. Jahrhundert”, in: Dieter Senghaas (ed.): Frieden machen (Frankfurt/M., 1997): 337–361; Paul Kennedy: Dirk Messner and Franz Nuscheler (eds.): Global Trends and Global Governance (London, 2002); critically Ulrich Brand et al.: Global Governance. Alternative zur neoliberalen Globalisierung? (Münster, 2000).
- 41.
Thus explicitly Jürgen Habermas: Die postnationale Konstellation (Frankfurt/M., 1998), chapter 4.
- 42.
Michael Zürn: Regieren jenseits des Nationalstaates. Globalisierung und Denationalisierung als Chance, (Frankfurt/M., 1998).
- 43.
Michael Zürn: “Vom Nationalstaat lernen. Das zivilisatorische Hexagon in der Weltinnenpolitik”, in: Ulrich Menzel (ed.): Vom Ewigen Frieden und vom Wohlstand der Nationen (Frankfurt/M., 2000): 19–44. Also of interest in this context are the imperatives of a 'catch-up civilisation' of Europe, articulated by Emanuel Richter, who visualised a ‘republican Europe’. See this author’s: Das republikanische Europa. Aspekte einer nachholenden Zivilisierung (Opladen, 1999). Christine Landfried’s reflections on the utilisation of the rich experience of difference in Europe fora policy creation at European level can also be assigned to the concept of a multi-level hexagon. See that author's: Das politische Europa. Differenz als Potential der Europäischen Union (Baden–Baden, 2002).
- 44.
The diverse plans are discussed in Senghaas (ed.): Frieden machen.
- 45.
Thus Alfred H. Fried, explicitly, in Friedenskatechismus, published in 1894, reprinted in excerpt in Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Pazifismus in Deutschland (Frankfurt/M., 1988): 73.
- 46.
See Ekkehart Krippendorf: “Ist Außenpolitik Außenpolitik?”, in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, vol. 3 (1963): 243–266; Thomas Risse (ed.): Bringing Transnational Relations Back In. Non-State Actors, Domestic Structures and International Institutions (Cambridge, 1995).
- 47.
See Jörg Calließ (ed.): Barfuß auf diplomatischem Parkett. Die Nichtregierungsorganisationen in der Weltpolitik (Loccum, 1998); Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink: Activists Beyond Borders. Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, 1998); Norbert Ropers: “Konfliktbearbeitung in der Weltbürgerinnengesellschaft. Friedensförderung durch Nichtregierungsorganisationen”, in Ulrich Menzel (ed.): Vom Ewigen Frieden: 70–101; rather critically Elmar Altvater et al. (eds): Vernetzt und verstrickt Nichtregierungsorganisationen als gesellschaftliche Produktivkraft (Munster, 1999, 2nd ed.).
- 48.
See Christine Merkel (ed.): Friedenspolitik der Zivilgesellschaft (Munster, 1998).
- 49.
The security governance’ concept is fundamentally argued in Elke Krahmann: Multilevel Networks in European Foreign Policy (Aldershot, 2002). For experience reports on peace consolidation see Mir A. Ferdowsi and Volker Matthies (eds): Den Frieden gewinnen. Zur Konsolidierung von Friedensprozessen in Nachkriegsgesellschaften (Bonn, 2003).
- 50.
See John Paul Lederach: Building Peace. Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Tokyo, 1994).
- 51.
For a comprehensive presentation of the problem see Ulrich Schneckener: Auswege aus dem Bürgerkrieg (Frankfurt/M., 2002).
- 52.
The state of affairs emerges from a fascinating observation by Karl W. Deutsch, one of the most important peace researchers of the second half of the twentieth century. He defined power ‘as the ability to afford not to learn’; quoted from: The Nerves of Government. Models of Political Communication and Control (New York, 1966, 2nd ed.): 111.
- 53.
On this set of problems see the fundamental article by Rainer Schmalz-Bruns: “Deliberative” Supranationalismus. Demokratisches Regieren jenseits des Nationalstaates”, in: Zeitschrift für internationale Beziehungen, 6, 2 (1999): 185–244.
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Senghaas, D. (2013). Developing the Definitions of Perpetual Peace (‘para pacem’): Through What and How is Peace Constituted Today? (2004/2007). In: Dieter Senghaas. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol 6. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34114-4_5
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