Bertrand Russell on Essentials for a Stable World

Abstract

As scientist, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) made fundamental contributions in mathematics and philosophy. But Russell's long career was also notable for his active interest and engagement in public issues and political causes. Population issues are case in point: they were frequently addressed in those of his writings intended for wide readership, most extensively in his 1916 lectures collected in the book Principles of Social Reconstruction and in his Marriage and Morals, book first published in 1929. The article reproduced below in full is one of number of shorter pieces in which population problems are given prominence. It appeared in the August 3rd, 1952 issue of the magazine section of The New York Times under the title Three essentials for stable world. At that time, and for decades afterward, the antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West overshadowed all other issues as source of international tension. Although Russell was preoccupied with the danger of nuclear conflict inherent in that antagonism, in this essay he directs attention to major problems that would remain even if the East-West conflict were solved. Now that the time has come when, as conjectured by Russell, Russia has visibly ceased to have the power to be menace'' to world peace, this focus on long-term conditions for stability lends fresh interest to this 40-year-old article. Russell's ideas on the triple conditions for stable world are set out in bold strokes and without much elaboration or consideration of counterarguments. They are 'world government with monopoly of armed force, approximate equality as regards standards of life in different parts of the world, and a population either stationary or very slowly increasing.' As the turn of the millennium approaches, these conditions stand as far from being satisfied as ever; Russell's urging of the necessity to take active steps to bring them about now appears more relevant to the contemporary debate about how to create peaceful world than was the case in 1952. It is notable that Russell sees the essential conditions for stability as linked. In particular, he says, checking unduly rapid growth of population ' is dependent on raising the standard of living in the economically backward countries.