From War To Peace

The world's first peace organizations emerged in the 19th century and since that time, anti-war activism has progressed rapidly. This illuminating book presents a realistic analysis of the extent to which the war system has infiltrated all aspects of Western culture and how it works to perpetuate war rather than promote peace. Additionally, the text describes the historically recent and still evolving parallel system of peace institutions. The values and ideas that have grown out of peace activism offer a very real opportunity to outlaw war in the coming century just as slavery was abolished in the 19th century. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

In this collection, a dozen scholars of international affairs consider the 20th century's recurring failure to construct a peaceful and stable international order in the wake of war. They reflect on the difficulties faced by governments as they sought to secure a world order.

US foreign policy is undergoing a dire transformation, forever changing America’s place in the world. Institutions of diplomacy and development are bleeding out after deep budget cuts; the diplomats who make America’s deals and protect its citizens around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We’re becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth—Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them—acclaimed investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience as a former State Department official affords a personal look at some of the last standard bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan. Drawing on recently unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with whistle-blowers, a warlord, and policymakers—including every living former secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson—and now updated with revealing firsthand accounts from inside Donald Trump’s confrontations with diplomats during his impeachment and candid testimonials from officials in Joe Biden’s inner circle, War on Peace makes a powerful case for an endangered profession. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, shortsightedness, and outright malice—but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.

Reproduction of the original: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoi

What are the fundamental causes of war, and why does war seem so firmly rooted in human experience? After tracing the answers to these questions to biblical accounts of the genesis of the sexes and to Plato's conception of the united self, Professor Chanteur explores the failures of modern political theory to come to terms with the warlike nature of the human species. Examining the thought of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche, La Boetie, Rousseau, Kant, and Marx, she finds that while there is of course a strong tradition of deploring war, many have also seen it as inevitable or even useful. Ultimately, she argues, the hope for peace lies in rediscovering a neglected aspect of human ontology: Human beings are both men and women. It is the failed dialogue between these two aspects of the complete human species that leads to the fear and suspicion of the "other" that so typifies the warlike instinct. Combining political theory, gender analysis, and human psychology, From War to Peace constitutes a brilliant contribution to all these fields and is essential reading for scholars of war, peace, and human society.

As an Official Army Photographer, "Mac" Fleming’s assignment was to take motion pictures of significant wartime events for the US Army. In the pouch intended to carry his first-aid kit on his belt, he instead carried a small personal camera, which he used to take pictures of the people and places that interested him, capturing in his field notes details of the life he observed. From these records, Fleming has assembled this absorbing private chronicle of war and peace. Assigned to the European Theater in February 1945, he filmed the action from the battle for the Remagen Bridge across the Rhine, to the fighting in the Hartz Mountains, on to the linkup with the Russian forces at the Elbe River. After the armistice, Fleming helped document how the Allied Expeditionary Force established a military government in Germany to cope with masses of POWs, establish control of the country, deal with the atrocities committed by the German army, and help thousands of newly released slave laborers return home to Poland, France, and Russia. He also recorded how the army provided rest, recreation, and rehabilitation to the remaining US soldiers and sent them home by truck, train, and ship. Awaiting shipment home, Fleming explored postwar German town and country life and toured some famous castles and historic spots. The foreword by historian James H. Madison describes the important role of photography in war and the special contribution of Fleming’s photographic diary.

Holland analyses foreign policy debates in the Anglosphere (US, UK and Australia) during the Syrian Civil War.

This timely book describes the services that are now delivered by private contractors and the threat this trend poses to core public values of human rights, democratic accountability, and transparency. --