War and peace

1 October 2022Review

 Verso, 2022; 400pp; £20

It is challenging and frustrating to read in this book about the efforts nations have put into making war more palatable.

For most people, the idea of a ‘humane’ war is a contradiction in terms, particularly now as we watch Putin’s aggressive war in Ukraine unfold. Samuel Moyn quotes the Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz: ‘The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously.’

Clausewitz also warned that laws on the…

9 June 2022Resource

Paul Rogers gives an update on the Ukraine crisis, in the context of the legacy of the Cold War's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; the impact of human activity on the global ecosystem; the growth of hypercapitalism and resulting poverty and insecurity; the competition for energy resources and strategic minerals; biological warfare programmes; and paramilitary actions against centres of power.

Paul calls for a radical re-thinking of western perceptions of security that…

15 March 2022Blog

Transcript of a Zoom talk by Paul Rogers for Peace News on 10 March 2022

The talk can be watched here.

This is an awful subject to try and talk about. What I’d like to try and do, is try and look back and see how we’ve got to here, why it has happened, what has happened and where we are two weeks into this war, and what might happen next and what might be the best sort of outcome we could look for.

I won’t go into any detail in any one area because there is an awful…

10 March 2022Resource

Paul Rogers gives an overview of the crisis and how we got here. Paul calls for a radical re-thinking of western perceptions of security that embraces a willingness to address the core issues of global insecurity.

Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of Peace Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University, northern England and an honorary fellow at the Joint Service Command and Staff College. His latest book is the fourth edition of 'Losing…

1 August 2019Review

Amberley Publishing, 2019; 296pp; £9.99

RT Howard is a writer specialising in intelligence and ‘defence’. His latest book looks at ‘individuals who were responsible for starting, conducting or extending an unnecessary war or show of force.’

Echoing the broad tenets of ‘Just War’ theory, four examples of what constitutes an ‘unnecessary war’ are provided: the decision to pursue military force rather than diplomacy or negotiations; the use of excessive force; ‘war undertaken for no obvious reason’; and futile wars.

1 April 2019News in Brief

Indians and Pakistanis used social media to try to prevent war at the end of February.

After a Pakistan-based Kashmiri insurgent group blew up an army convoy in Indian-occupied Kashmir on 14 February, Indian fighter jets crossed into Pakistani airspace on 27 February, prompting a retaliatory strike later the same day by Pakistani jets.

Two Indian planes were shot down and the situation was very tense.

US news agency CNN analysed the response to these events…

1 April 2019News in Brief

On 27 February, Bike for Peace launched its 2019 ride from Westminster Hall in the houses of parliament, London.

The tour will go onto France, India, China, Australia, New Zealand and the US. It will promote the need for a nuclear-weapons-free world, the value of cycling as a mode of transport, and the importance of the UN for nuclear disarmament.

A Norwegian group, Bike for Peace was established in 1978 by Tore Naerland, a 90 percent blind peace campaigner who rides on…

1 April 2019News

Seven more schools to join network

Imagine a network of schools across Wales actively embedding a peaceful ethos and applying peace-related learning activities to their everyday lives.

This is what the Wales Peace Schools Scheme is aiming to achieve. The project is a legacy of the Heritage Lottery-funded ‘Wales for Peace’ project which ran during the period of the centenary of the First World War.

The Peace Schools scheme has now been integrated into the global learning programme of the Welsh Centre for…

1 February 2019Feature

Responses from peace activists to the BBC’s 2018 Reith Lectures on war

Noted historian Margaret MacMillan took war as her theme in five Reith Lectures she delivered for the BBC in mid-2018.

The overall title of the lecture series was ‘The Mark of Cain’, referring to the story in the Hebrew Bible of the first murderer. Cain, the oldest child of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel, then denied his crime. According to scripture, God cursed Cain and put a mark on him – the Hebrew is not clear whether this was a physical mark on his body or some kind…

1 February 2019Feature

Responses from peace activists to the BBC's 2018 Reith Lectures on war

Noted historian Margaret MacMillan took war as her theme in five Reith Lectures she delivered for the BBC in mid-2018.

The overall title of the lecture series was ‘The Mark of Cain’, referring to the story in the Hebrew Bible of the first murderer. Cain, the oldest child of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel, then denied his crime. According to scripture, God cursed Cain and put a mark on him – the Hebrew is not clear whether this was a physical mark on his body or some kind…

1 February 2019Feature

Responses from peace activists to the BBC’s 2018 Reith Lectures on war

Noted historian Margaret MacMillan took war as her theme in five Reith Lectures she delivered for the BBC in mid-2018.

The overall title of the lecture series was ‘The Mark of Cain’, referring to the story in the Hebrew Bible of the first murderer. Cain, the oldest child of Adam and Eve, murdered his brother Abel, then denied his crime. According to scripture, God cursed Cain and put a mark on him – the Hebrew is not clear whether this was a physical mark on his body or some kind…

1 December 2018Feature

New artwork by Emily Johns

Lino etching: Emily Johns Displayed during Peace News’ The World is My Country exhibition in November at Hastings Arts Forum, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. It is one of the occasional pictures that I have made of my family history and how my personal stories intersect with the century…

2 November 2018Blog

If British peacemakers of the early twentieth century had been listened to, we could have avoided the rise of many destructive movements.

Each year, around Remembrance Day, people all over the UK uphold the memory of those who have died in war. Some people wear red poppies to remember allied soldiers. Others wear white poppies to remember civilians and soldiers killed in war and to express their hope for a culture of peace.

This year, the St John Ambulance volunteer first aid group announced it would…

1 October 2018Comment

Nationalism's days are numbered, says Bruce Kent

It is now well over a hundred years since czar Nicholas II of Russia invited other states to come to The Hague, in the Netherlands, in 1899, to discuss possibilities for world peace. It is almost 20 years since thousands of individuals and peace groups came also to The Hague, in 1999, for an event to plan progress in the direction that the first Hague pointed to. I still have the booklet with ideas that came from that centenary meeting.

In 1999, we believed that we could challenge…

1 June 2018Comment

Is the US president opening Pandora's box?

US president Donald Trump has taken steps towards war with China and Iran, even as he seeks peace with North Korea. But things may not be quite what they seem.

At the beginning of May, the Trump administration declared trade war on China.

The US gave China a punishing list of economic demands, including a reduction in the US-China trade imbalance by $200bn by June 2020. (This would require the Chinese government to effectively take over the economy, when the US has been…