|
| |
The following text outlines the genesis of the term peace from early history into the present:
"The existence of peace as a norm,
then, demands non-war. It also demands more. Peace is also: "source,
creator, supporter, multiplier and protector of all that is good in heaven and
earth..." Not only is peace necessary for the preservation of the existence of
humanity, it is also a requirement for its development. This is how classic Judaism defines
peace, with an explicit reference to the internal workings of a society.
In the Old Testament, the term Salom was first an eschatological term used to define the conformity between God and man. In as far as
it is possible to determine in real political terms at all, this concept of peace encompassed existence preservation by providing external security but also the requirement for
human existence to be able to develop in the form of health, satiety and
well-being.
Indeed, this connection can be traced even further back and is found in
Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations. If one reads the hymns that were produced for the accession of the Pharaoh to the throne, not as a description of the current state of affairs - which would certainly be wrong - but as the formulation of political
norms, then they display the same links between external security and the necessity for society to allow people to develop by removing despotic
rule, oppression and exploitation.
According to the Sumerian hymn of the Lipitistar von
Isin, the king is responsible for security (...) by defeating the enemy, by ensuring
wheat, fat and milk are given, and for spreading justice and for "letting the just exist for ever". External security was always seen as subjugation and often killing of the
enemy, in line with the ideas of the day.
This also applies to the Old Testament, from which Isaiah 2, 2-5 and Micha 4, 1-3 are always
if almost always incompletely quoted: They shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, nor learn war anymore“. |
|
"Dolf Sternberger made a distinction between a political and a eschatological definition of peace. The most splendid description of eschatological peace is the vision of the prophet Isaiah (11, 6-7) when we hear about wolves and lambs lying
together, cows and bears grazing together, lions eating straw like
oxen. Here peace is finally no longer the period between wars but the happy consequence of the total reformation of the
world. In contrast, Sternberger doubts that politics is capable of the same
feat; because he doubts that eschatological results can be achieved using political means (...). Eschatological
peace, according to Sternberger, is based on uniting, Communio, political peace, in contrast, on agreement,
Communicatio. Eschatological peace can only be achieved by reclamation, political
peace, on the other hand, can only be achieved by agreement. Not wanting to stray from image provided for us by the prophet Isaiah: While politics cannot change the nature of the
wolves, bears and lions, it can restrict them, limit them to certain areas and chain them if need
be. Where politics, on the other hand, attempts to convert and go against nature, it is doomed to failure or it becomes
totalitarian."
[Taken from: Iring Fetscher/Herfried Münkler (Hrsg.), Politikwissenschaft. Politikwissenschaft, Begriffe - Analysen - Theorien, Ein Grundkurs, Reinbek 1985, p 288] |
|
The precondition for this peace is given in the previous
sentence: He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples“. The condition for this peace is the total defeat of the
enemies of Israel. It is given through the power of the ruler, from whom the granting of internal justice is also
dependent.
It was not until the New Testament that we find a radical opposing position with the call to love thy
enemy. This, however, has to be understood within the scope of the New Testament's definition of
peace, which rather than being political was even more eschatological than that of the Old Testament. Strictly
speaking, this definition has absolutely no relationship to earthly existence and was related exclusively to the relationship between man and
God.
In contrast, the Greek term Eirene clearly demonstrates the relationship between providing security and
wealth, prosperity, health and stability. Islam also linked external security - by
subjugation of the enemy - with ordered opportunity for internal development into the its understanding of
peace. When Confucianism said that making sure that there was enough food, enough soldiers and enough trust were the three principles for good
government, it was also linking the preservation humanity to the ability for it
to develop, albeit without mentioning the term peace.
Augustinus makes the interlocking of both these understandings of peace clear before the beginning of the Middle
Ages. He regards peace as the „tranquillity of order“ (tranquillitas
ordinis), which serves in organizing the opportunity for people to develop as well as securing their existence against external
attack.
With the beginning of the Middle Ages and especially modern
times, the integrated understanding of peace fell by the wayside. Peace was now
reduced, particularly under the influence of international law, to the relationships between
societies, while the conditions for human development in the internal area of society was
separated. During the development of the territorial state and in the absolutism
period, these conditions for development played only a minor role, and it
wouldn't be until the Enlightenment period and finally the French Revolution
that their political significance was raised considerably.
Admittedly, the
existence development norm was encompassed by other concepts such as prosperity
(as material distributive justice) and democracy (as participation distributive
justice). To this end, the norm of peace was increasingly reserved for the relationships between societies and therefore reduced to a role of existence
preservation.
It was very late in the day, following the Second World War, before peace once again began to encompass the development of people's existence as
increasing interdependence began to close the gap between states. To this end, the development of people's existence as a norm began to expand its scope considerably and now drew in people from other political
entities."
[Taken from: Ernst-Otto Czempiel: Friedensstrategien, Systemwandel durch Internationale Organisationen, Demokratisierung und Wirtschaft, Paderborn 1986, p. 44-46]
|
Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is a
virtue, an attitude, a tendency to good, trust and justice – Spinoza |
[Back to top of page]
|
