Pacifism’s Appeal

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Why Pacifism?

   • Jorg Kustermans, Tom Sauer, Dominiek Lootens, Barbara Segaert

   Pages 1-7

3. Contemporary Ethos of Pacifism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. War, Hostilities, Terrorism: A Pacifist Perspective

      • Cheyney Ryan

      Pages 11-40

   3. Pacifism as Re-appropriated Violence

      • Amanda Cawston

      Pages 41-60

4. Global Intellectual History of Pacifism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

      PDF

   2. The Pacifisms of the Peace Movement

      • Martin Ceadel

      Pages 63-80

   3. Tolstoy’s Pacifism and the Critique of State Violence

      • Iain Atack

      Pages 81-102

   4. Toward a Global Understanding of Pacifism: Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist Contributions

      • Meena Sharify-Funk

      Pages 103-135

   5. Judaism, Zionism and Pacifism: Past, Present, Future

      • Mark H. Gelber

      Pages 137-150

5. A Pacifist Global Order?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

      PDF

   2. Emancipation from Violence Through Global Law and Institutions: A Post-Deutschian Perspective

      • Heikki Patomäki

      Pages 153-178

   3. ‘Pacifism’, and China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ and ‘Peaceful Development’

      • Bart Dessein

      Pages 179-197

   4. Just Peacemaking as a Bridge to Ecumenical and Interfaith Solidarity for Peace

      • Nathan C. Funk

      Pages 199-227

   5. Conclusion: On the Appeal of Pacifism

      • Jorg Kustermans, Tom Sauer, Barbara Segaert

      Pages 229-242

6. Back Matter

   Pages 243-247

   PDF

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.

• pacifism
• moral intiution
• popular support
• involvement versus detachment
• hostilies
• terrorism
• Cheyney Ryan
• violence
• non-violent resistance
• alienation
• liberals
• radicals
• socialists
• feminists
• Tolstoy
• the state
• war
• Christianity
• non-resistance
• nonviolent social hermeneutics

• Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

  Jorg Kustermans, Tom Sauer

• University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

  Dominiek Lootens, Barbara Segaert

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.

Policies and ethics