This volume examines the possibility – or need – of a revitalization of pacifism as a world-political practice. It takes as its point of departure the observation that although ‘just war thinking’ has long been dominant in Western debates about war and peace, recent events have served to temper enthusiasm about the doctrine. Pacifism has been much less prominent a stance in recent decades, but there is the impression that it may be staging a return. Just war thinking has to a large extent failed. Outright bellicism remains as undesirable as ever. Pacifism presents itself again as a possible alternative. Once upon a time the peace movement was popular, and pacifism with it. Pacifism appealed to people. It stirred hearts and minds. It inspired political action and institutional designs. This volume examines whether pacifism can claim its ground again and how it should be redefined in light of today’s world-political circumstances.

Jorg Kustermans teaches international politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His scholarship is situated at the intersection of international theory and social theory and has dealt with such questions as state personhood, republican security, the nature of social practices, and the relation of boredom and war. Tom Sauer is Associate Professor in International Politics at the Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. He is co-editor of Nuclear Terrorism: Countering the Threat, and author of Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: The Role of Missile Defense and Nuclear Inertia: US Nuclear Weapons Policy after the Cold War. Dominiek Lootens is Deputy Academic Director at University Centre Saint Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium, Vice-President Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling, International Advisor International Thomas Merton Society, and Co-Editor of Where Are We? Pastoral Environments and Care for Migrants: Intercultural and Interreligious Perspectives. Barbara Segaert is scientific coordinator at the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium, where she develops academic programmes on various topics of contemporary relevance to society. She was co-editor of Genocides: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Risk and Resilience. This volume examines the possibility - or need - of a revitalization of pacifism as a world-political practice. It takes as its point of departure the observation that although 'just war thinking' has long been dominant in Western debates about war and peace, recent events have served to temper enthusiasm about the doctrine. Pacifism has been much less prominent a stance in recent decades, but there is the impression that it may be staging a return. Just war thinking has to a large extent failed. Outright bellicism remains as undesirable as ever. Pacifism presents itself again as a possible alternative. Once upon a time the peace movement was popular, and pacifism with it. Pacifism appealed to people. It stirred hearts and minds. It inspired political action and institutional designs. This volume examines whether pacifism can claim its ground again and how it should be redefined in light of today's world-political circumstances.

Called "a pioneer work of the first importance" by Staughton Lynd, this book traces the history of pacifism in America from colonial times to the start of World War I. The author describes how the immigrant peace sects-Quaker, Mennonite, and Dunker -faced the challenges of a hostile environment. The peace societies that sprang up after 1815 form the subject of the next section, with particular attention focused upon the American Peace Society and Garrison's New England Non-Resistance Society. A series of chapters on the reactions of these sects and societies to the Civil War, the neglect of pacifism in the postwar period, and the beginnings of a renewal in the years before the outbreak of war in Europe bring the book to a close. The emphasis on the institutional aspects of the movement is balanced throughout by a rich mine of accounts about the experiences of individual pacifists. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Pacifists who fought against the Second World War faced insurmountable odds—but their resistance, philosophy, and strategies fostered a tradition of activism that shaped America right up to the present day. In this provocative and deeply researched work of history, Akst takes readers into the wild, heady, and uncertain times of America on the brink of a world war, following four fascinating resisters -- four figures who would subsequently become famous political thinkers and activists -- and their daring exploits: David Dellinger, Dorothy Day, Dwight MacDonald, and Bayard Rustin. The lives of these diverse anti-war advocates--a principled and passionate seminary student, a Catholic anarchist, a high-brow intellectual leftist, and an African-American pacifist and agitator--create the perfect prism through which to see World War II from a new angle, that of the opposition, as well as to show how great and lasting their achievements were. The resisters did not stop the war, of course, but their impact would be felt for decades. Many of them went on to lead the civil-rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the two most important social stands of the second half of the twentieth century. The various World War II resisters pioneered non-violent protest in America, popularized Gandhian principles, and desegregated the first prison mess halls. Theirs is a story that has never been told.

In a world riven with conflict, violence and war, this book proposes a philosophical defense of pacifism. It argues that there is a moral presumption against war and unless that presumption is defeated, war is unjustified. Leading philosopher of non-violence Robert Holmes contends that neither just war theory nor the rationales for recent wars (Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars) defeat that presumption, hence that war in the modern world is morally unjustified. A detailed, comprehensive and elegantly argued text which guides both students and scholars through the main debates (Just War Theory and double effect to name a few) clearly but without oversimplifying the complexities of the issues or historical examples.

Looks at how four pacifist organizations, the AFSC, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, have given up the ideals of nonviolence to support leftist dictatorships and libera