Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay
difficulties inseparable from any attempt to apply a uniform method
of treatment to peculiarities and conditions so conflicting and
various as these. Those who have been more conscientious have not
been very successful in solving them. Indeed, so constantly is
military technique changing that it is difficult to prophesy wherein
will lie, a few years hence, the essence of a state’s defensive power
or what part the modern navy will play in this defence. No careful
thinker would suggest, in the face of dangers threatening from the
East,[97] a complete disarmament. The simplest of many suggestions
made—but this on the basis of universal conscription—seems to be
that the number of years or months of compulsory military service
should be reduced to some fixed period. But this does not touch the
difficulty of colonial empires[98] like Britain which might to a
certain extent disarm, like their neighbours, in Europe, but would
be compelled to keep an army for the defence of their colonies
elsewhere. It is, in the meantime, inevitable that Europe should keep
up a high standard of armament—this is, (and even if we had European
federation, would remain) an absolute necessity as a protection
against the yellow races, and in Europe itself there are at present
elements hostile to the cause of peace. Alsace-Lorraine, Polish
Prussia, Russian Poland and Finland are still, to a considerable
degree, sources of discontent and dissatisfaction. But in Russia
itself lies the great obstacle to a future European peace or
European federation: we can scarcely picture Russia as a reliable
member of such a union. That Russia should disarm is scarcely
feasible, in view of its own interest: it has always to face the
danger of rebellion in Poland and anarchy at home. But that Europe
should disarm, before Russia has attained a higher civilisation, a
consciousness of its great future as a north-eastern, inter-oceanic
empire, and a government more favourable to the diffusion of liberty,
is still less practicable.[99] We have here to fall back upon
federation again. It is not impossible that, in the course of time,
this problem may be solved and that the contribution to the federal
troops of a European union may be regulated upon some equitable basis
the form of which we cannot now well prophesy.
[97] Even St. Pierre was alive to this danger (_Projet_,
Art. VIII: in the English translation of 1714, p. 160):—“The
_European_ Union shall endeavour to obtain in _Asia_, a
_permanent_ society like that of _Europe_, that Peace may be
maintain’d There also; and especially that it may have no cause
to fear any _Asiatic_ Sovereign, either as to its tranquillity,
or its Commerce in _Asia_.”
[98] Bentham’s suggestion would be useful here! See above, p. 79,
_note_.
[99] The best thing for Europe might be that Russia (perhaps
including China) should be regarded as a serious danger by all
the civilised powers of the West. _That_ would bring us nearer to
the United States of Europe _and_ America (for the United States,
America, is Russia’s neighbour on the East) than anything else.
European federation would likewise meet all difficulties where
a risk might be likely to occur of one nation intervening to
protect another. As we have said (above, p. 64, _note_) nations
are now-a-days slow to intervene in the interests of humanity:
they are in general constrained to do so only by strong motives
of self-interest, and when these are not at hand they are said to
refrain from respect for another’s right of independent action.
Actually a state which is actuated by less selfish impulses is apt to
lose considerably more than it gains, and the feeling of the people
expresses itself strongly against any quixotic or sentimental policy.
It is not impossible that the Powers may have yet to intervene to
protect Turkey against Russia. Such a step might well be dictated
purely by a proper care for the security of Europe; but wars of this
kind seem not likely to play an important part in the near future.
We have said that the causes of difference which may be expected
to disturb the peace of Europe are now fewer. A modern sovereign
no longer spends his leisure time in the excitement of slaying or
seeing slain. He could not, if he would. His honour and his vanity
are protected by other means: they play no longer an important part
in the affairs of nations. The causes of war can no more be either
trifling or personal. Some crises there are, which are ever likely to
be fatal to peace. There present themselves, in the lives of nations,
ideal ends for which everything must be sacrificed: there are rights
which must at all cost be defended. The question of civil war we
may neglect: liberty and wise government are the only medicine for
social discontent, and much may be hoped from that in the future.
But now, looking beyond the state to the great family of civilised
nations, we may say that the one certain cause of war between them
or of rebellion within a future federated union will be a menace to
the sovereign rights, the independence and existence of any member
of that federation. Other causes of quarrel offer a more hopeful
prospect. Some questions have been seen to be specially fitted for
the legal procedure of a tribunal of arbitration, others to be such
as a federal court would quickly settle. The preservation of the
balance of power which Frederick the Great regarded as the talisman
of peace in Europe—a judgment surely not borne out by experience—is
happily one of the causes of war which are of the past. Wars of
colonisation, such as would be an attempt on the part of Russia to
conquer India, seem scarcely likely to recur except between higher
and lower races. The cost is now-a-days too great. Political wars,
wars for national union and unity, of which there were so many
during the past century, seem at present not to be near at hand; and
the integration of European nations—what may be called the great
mission of war—is, for the moment, practically complete; for it is
highly improbable that either Alsace-Lorraine or Poland—still less
Finland—will be the cause of a war of this kind.
Our hope lies in a federated Europe. Its troops would serve to
preserve law and order in the country from which they were drawn and
to protect its colonies abroad; but their higher function would
be to keep peace in Europe, to protect the weaker members of the
Federation and to enforce the decision of the majority, either, if
necessary, by actual war, or by the mere threatening demonstrations
of fleets, such as have before proved effectual.
We have carefully considered what has been attempted by peace
workers, and we have now to take note that all the results of the
last fifty years are not to be attributed to their conscientious
but often ill-directed labour. The diminution of the causes of war
is to be traced less to the efforts of the Peace Society, (except
indirectly, in so far as they have influenced the minds of the
masses) than to the increasing power of the people themselves.
The various classes of society are opposed to violent methods of
settlement, not in the main from a conviction as to the wrongfulness
of war or from any fanatical enthusiasm for a brotherhood of nations,
but from self-interest. War is death to the industrial interests of
a nation. It is vain to talk, in the language of past centuries,
of trade between civilised countries being advanced and markets
opened up or enlarged by this means.[100] Kings give up the dream
of military glory and accept instead the certainty of peaceful
labour and industrial progress, and all this (for we may believe
that to some monarchs it is much) from no enthusiastic appreciation
of the efforts of Peace Societies, from no careful examination of
the New Testament nor inspired interpretation of its teaching. It
is self-interest, the prosperity of the country—patriotism, if you
will—that seems better than war.
[100] Trade in barbarous or savage countries is still increased
by war, especially on the French and German plan which leaves no
open door to other nations. Here the trade follows the flag. And
war, of course, among civilised races causes small nations to
disappear and their tariffs with them. _This_ is beneficial to
trade, but to a degree so trifling that it may here be neglected.
_What may be expected from Federation._
Federation and federation alone can help out the programme
of the Peace Society. It cannot be pretended that it will do
everything. To state the worst at once, it will not prevent war.
Even the federations of the states of Germany and America, bound
together by ties of blood and language and, in the latter case, of
sentiment, were not strong enough within to keep out dissension and
disunion.[101] Wars would not cease, but they would become much less
frequent. “Why is there no longer war between England and Scotland?
Why did Prussian and Hanoverian fight side by side in 1870, though
they had fought against each other only four years before?... If
we wish to know how war is to cease, we should ask ourselves how it
_has_ ceased” (Professor D. G. Ritchie, _op. cit._, p. 169). Wars
between different grades of civilisation are bound to exist as long
as civilisation itself exists. The history of culture and of progress
has been more or less a history of war. A calm acceptance of this
position may mean to certain short-sighted, enthusiastic theorists
an impossible sacrifice of the ideal; but, the sacrifice once made,
we stand on a better footing with regard to at least one class of
arguments against a federation of the world. Such a union will lead,
it is said, to an equality in culture, a sameness of interests fatal
to progress; all struggle and conflict will be cast out of the
state itself; national characteristics and individuality will be
obliterated; the lamb and the wolf will lie down together: stagnation
will result, intellectual progress will be at an end, politics will
be no more, history will stand still. This is a sweeping assertion,
an alarming prophecy. But a little thought will assure us that there
is small cause for apprehension. There can be no such standstill,
no millennium in human affairs. A gradual smoothing down of sharply
accentuated national characteristics there might be: this is a result
which a freer, more friendly intercourse between nations would be
very likely to produce. But conflicting interests, keen rivalry
in their pursuit, difference of culture and natural aptitude, and
all or much of the individuality which language and literature,
historical and religious traditions, even climatic and physical
conditions produce are bound to survive until the coming of some more
overwhelming and far-spreading revolution than this. It would not
be well if it were otherwise, if those “unconscious and invisible
peculiarities” in which Fichte sees the hand of God and the guarantee
of a nation’s future dignity, virtue and merit should be swept away.
(_Reden an die deutsche Nation_,[102] 1807.) Nor is stagnation to be
feared. “Strife,” said the old philosopher, “is the father of all
things.” There can be no lasting peace in the processes of nature and
existence. It has been in the constant rivalry between classes within
themselves, and in the struggle for existence with other races that
great nations have reached the highwater mark of their development.
A perpetual peace in international relations we may—nay, surely
will—one day have, but eternity will not see the end to the feverish
unrest within the state and the jealous competition and distrust
between individuals, groups and classes of society. Here there must
ever be perpetual war.
[101] Cf. also the civil war of 1847 in Switzerland.
[102] See _Werke_, VII., p. 467.