Thoughts on War and Peace: An Inquiry Into the Conceptions Prevailing in Foreign Politics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Thoughts on War and Peace: An Inquiry Into the Conceptions Prevailing in Foreign Politics

Public attention in the last few years has been pointedly drawn to the creation of a League of Nations. How ever attractive the setting up of an international body may appear to us, especially at this juncture in the world's history, we should not shrink from facing the fact that the problem of war and peace cannot be solved within the actual system in foreign politics.

The present work endeavours to show that the first step towards a new order of things in international relations is to remove from our political thought the existing conceptions of war and peace - that is to say, all conceptions which make the political life of a nation contradictory to the ideals of humanity. Only after such a radical change of mind can we build up something solid in international politics.

In exposing the artificial character of the proposals advanced on behalf of a League of Nations, I have had in View more their development in the future than their possible results at present. That any League of Nations is better than none cannot be gainsaid; but there should be a wider understanding about the meaning of such a vast enterprise. If we do not do the work thoroughly, we shall have to undo it sooner or later; and we shall relapse into our former position on account of the very fact that we have not changed our values in foreign politics.

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