Pacifism Research Articles

Gender, War, and Religion: Feminist Perspectives on Pathways to Just Peace

Starting with clashes between Western and Ukrainian feminists, this article discusses basic questions from an intersectional perspective on the relation between gender, war and religion. In the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, how should a gender-sensitive peace ethics look? Among feminists, as in religious communities, we find radical pacifist positions next to and sometimes conflicting with approaches that draw on traditions of “just war” and/or “just peace.” After discussing the different approaches in Christian tradition, including Eastern traditions, and describing the imperialist nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the author highlights the importance of engaging feminist theories of war and militarism in the analysis and how they resonate with practices on the ground in Ukraine. The feminist lens demands attention for the full reality of war, for women’s multilayered agency in war, and for the genderedness of discourses and practices surrounding war heroism and war traumas. Based on such considerations and arguments, the article proposes five “principles” for a feminist political theology on war and peace, as a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate. Markers on a feminist-theological pathway to just peace may include: reconsidering the notion of sacrifice; fearlessly bringing theology into religious diplomacy; nothing for Ukraine without the voices of Ukrainian women; embracing a paradigm of human security instead of state security; and the remaining challenge to imagine a common future with the enemy beyond the current evil of destruction.

‘This Unfortunate Man’: Imperial German naval captain and lifelong pacifist Heinz Kraschutzki

Heinz Kraschutzki grew up wishing to join the Imperial German Navy’s officer ranks. Yet after his service in the First World War he first joined the communist Bremerhaven Soldiers’ Council before becoming a radical pacifist until his death. Using archive materials, this article highlights his extraordinary life, giving special attention to how a stateless ex-kapitänleutnant was freed from a Spanish prison by the British government, and examining the relationship he developed with his officer classmates (Crew comrades). Generally, ‘Crews’ produced bonds of friendship, but they also had the power to isolate or defame. This article also gives insights into the political cosmos of German naval officers.

Přemysl Pitter (1895 – 1976) – European Humanist And Child Rescuer

The Czechs have given the world many important personalities, including pedagogues. In addition to the well-known Jan Amos Komenský (1592 – 1670), we can also name Gustav Adolf Lindner (1828 – 1887). But for a long time another important pedagogue personality of the 20th century, Přemysl Pitter, remained unknown to the world. In today’s world of intolerance it’s worthwhile to pay attention to the activities of a man who cherished the values by which he lived his life: “Without love, without human compassion with one another, nothing will stand” (Pitter 1974). These are the words of the humanist Přemysl Pitter, a Czech Protestant-oriented thinker, educator, writer, publicist, radical pacifist, and social worker. He founded the famous Prague educational institute “Milíč Houseˮ during the Second World War, and despite strict prohibitions, he visited and supplied the Jews during that time. After the war, he applied for confiscated castles around Prague, where he took care of impoverished German, Jewish, Polish, Czech, and other children. There was no word of him for many years. But why was his birth declared a UNESCO anniversary? Why did he receive one of the highest state awards of the Czech Republic from President Václav Havel? This text addresses such questions.

Two Stops with Přemysl Pitter (1895–1976)

The Czechs have given the world many important personalities, including pedagogues. In addition to the well-known Jan Amos Komensky (1592–1670), we can also name Gustav Adolf Lindner (1828–1887). But for a long time another important pedagogue personality of the 20th century, Přemysl Pitter, remained unknown to the world. In today’s world of intolerance it’s worthwhile to pay attention to the activities of a man who cherished the values by which he lived his life: “Without love, without human compassion with one another, nothing will stand”2. These are the words of the humanist Přemysl Pitter, a Czech Protestant-oriented thinker, educator, writer, publicist, radical pacifist, and social worker. He founded the famous Prague educational institute “MiličHouse” during the Second World War, and despite strict prohibitions, he visited and supplied the Jews during that time. After the war, he applied for confiscated castles around Prague, where he took care of impoverished German, Jewish, Polish, Czech, and other children. After the establishment of the communist regime, he was forced to flee the country. There was no word of him for many years. But why was his birth declared a UNESCO anniversary? Why did he receive one of the highest state awards of the Czech Republic from President Vaclav Havel? This text addresses such questions. The journey through the life of this exceptional man is like a limited service bus route, consisting of only two stops: and these two stops I present here.

Book Review: Lisa Sowle Cahill, Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Book Review: Lisa Sowle Cahill, <i>Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding</i>

Direito e violência: um estudo sobre o pensamento de Walter Benjamin

Resumo: O artigo propõe uma análise das condições de possibilidade da crítica da violência nas sociedades contemporâneas. Utiliza-se, para alcançar esse objetivo, da filosofia do jovem Walter Benjamin. Dois aspectos serão especialmente destacados. O primeiro refere-se à necessidade de ir além das críticas feitas pelos pacifistas, em direção a uma crítica da estrutura social e jurídica. O segundo aspecto a ser destacado, é que a Gewalt – termo benjaminiano que designa, ao mesmo tempo, violência e poder – nunca é totalmente absorvida para o interior de uma determinada ordem. As condições de possibilidade de uma destituição da ordem existente estão, portanto, contidas na dinâmica dialética desse conceito. Palavras-Chave: Violência. Poder. Direito. Crítica. Walter Benjamin.

Helen Southworth. Fresca. A Life in the Making. A Biographer’s Quest for a Forgotten Bloomsbury Polymath

The subject of Southworth’s book is Francesca (Fresca) Allinson (1902–1945), a puppeteer, choral conductor, writer and creator of folksongs, whose life was cut short by drowning. She grew up in a gifted and thoroughly non-conformist family. Her brother Adrian, a painter, studied at the Slade school. Her father worked as a doctor at his practice in London, obtaining and practising his own unorthodox convictions about hygiene and diet. As a radical pacifist Fresca helped provide alternative communities for conscientious objectors (COs). Her fictional autobiography A Childhood was published in 1937, by the Hogarth Press, the publishing house of Leonard and Virginia Woolf.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding. By Lisa SowleCahill. Pp. xiv, 380. Minneapolis, MN, Fortress, 2019, $23.09.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding. By Lisa SowleCahill. Pp. xiv, 380. Minneapolis, MN, Fortress, 2019, $23.09.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War and Peacebuilding by Lisa Sowle

Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War and Peacebuilding by Lisa Sowle

An Iraqi Poet and the Peace Partisans: Transnational Pacifism and the Poetry of Badr Shākir Al-Sayyāb

An Iraqi Poet and the Peace Partisans: Transnational Pacifism and the Poetry of Badr Shākir Al-Sayyāb

Japanese pacifi st and ecological posters U.G. Satō and others

Although Japanese designers are identified by their visually interesting and perfectly printed and invariably eye-catching advertising posters, it is worth remembering that they pay no less attention to those glorifying a “to be” instead of a “to have” attitude. In the modern consumeristic world of advanced technologies, anti-war and ecological posters remain ideologically at the other extreme of the world of advertising, although one could state defiantly that they “advertise” peace and an untainted environment. After all, Lex Drewinski, an eminent Polish designer who was also interested in this subject, once stated: “I’m advertising a dove of peace.” The Japanese manifest a pacifist and pro-ecological attitude in the poster in a mode that remains attractive and, even more importantly, understandable for all nations in the world. This feature ought to be emphasized, as Japanese posters are not always understandable for people of Western culture. Agata Szydlowska pointed out that: “Raised in the western cultural circle, we are used to dealing with posters whose meaning is an outcome of text and image (…) Therefore, it becomes even more challenging for us to accept and understand that the representation on the Japanese poster often says nothing, remaining an empty sign, and certainly cannot be interpreted employing the tools developed in contact with the European poster. The poster creators of Japanese origin often draw the recipient into the process of arranging emptiness; they offer an “empty vessel” that can be filled with meaning: “The Japanese wanting to express specific content at the same time leave the door open, so that this content can be exchanged according to the demand.” [...]

Japanese pacifi st and ecological posters U.G. Satō and others

Japanese pacifi st and ecological posters U.G. Satō and others

International Grant-Making in Times of Political Unrest: the Case of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Interwar Germany

In the past two decades, the embeddedness of potential grantees in complex local webs of both political and welfare relationships challenged the work of international grant-makers, particularly in the context of the war on terrorism. These concerns are no novelty as organized philanthropy has historically worked in countries with undefined political constellations where recipient organizations pursue a wide range of goals. The relationship between the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) and its local representatives in interwar Germany serves here as a historical case study to better understand the political realities influencing foundations’ selection of local partners. This case shows that the radical pacifist stand of CEIP’s German representatives soon became an obstacle to the work of foundation officers, who consequently sought the collaboration of more pragmatic and politically connected voices. Overall, the study underscores the power dynamics at the center of philanthropic relationships and the different degree of autonomy of advisors, representatives, and grantees in these relationships.

Book Review: Cahill, Lisa Sowle: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Book Review: Cahill, Lisa Sowle: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Lisa Sowle Cahill. Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

Lisa Sowle Cahill. <i>Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding</i>

The Local Is Global: Philadelphia's Weatherwomen Bring the War Home to Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT Local and state histories need not be parochial. This article examines the intersection of Pennsylvania with swirling global revolutionary winds in the 1960s and 1970s, especially the Weathermen (later called the Weather Underground). It further studies how Philadelphia produced a radical pacifist, direct action, prefigurative political impulse within the New Left. Led in the Keystone State by Philadelphia-educated women, or Weatherwomen, the movement intersected with global revolutionary actions. The Weathermen, a splinter group of the Students for a Democratic Society, were the products of a relatively sophisticated and systematic set of transnational revolutionary ideas. Philosophically led by the young French radical Regis Debray and Latin American revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, these globally minded radicals built and promoted a revolutionary program aimed to topple Western liberal capitalism.

Performing Pacifism

Performing Pacifism

Weltinnenpolitik – ein Friedenskonzept?

Weizsäcker’s Weltinnenpolitik approach relies on the political philosophies of Hobbes, Kant, and - in some aspects - Elias. The concept is characterized by state centrism, sparks of violence in the service to peace, and a deep rootedness in the tradition of European modernity. With regard to peace, each component is contested: the first by the focus on the individuals, the second by radical pacifism, and the third especially by decolonial perspectives. In light of these objections, the concept should not be given up but optimized, because it is restricting the states’ freedom to use military force.

Las raíces de la protesta. Algunas lecciones de Catonsville, 50 años después

El 17 de mayo 2018 se cumplieron 50 años del caso de “los nueve de Catonsville”, un acto de protesta que tuvo lugar en Estados Unidos y que se convirtió inmediatamente en una referencia del movimiento pacifista en todo el mundo. La efeméride puede ser también una oportunidad no sólo para conmemorar ese hecho (en el sentido de celebrarlo o recordarlo), sino para rememorarlo, y poder así re–aprender del mismo, de sus contradicciones y sus límites.