“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Edward Thomas died on April 7th 1917 as a passing shell sucked the life out of his body, whilst leaving no wound. He had volunteered at 37 in order to confront his own demons – his fear of cowardice, and also perhaps to satisfy a death-wish: he is said to have often walked the lanes of Oxfordshire carrying a revolver.

His poem In Memoriam (above) is just four lines long. In a short space it moves from abundance to desolation, from the joy of beauty in spring to the emptiness of senseless annihilation. It is a memorial also to many of us who ask every Remembrance Sunday: “what is the point of war?” And also, “has there ever been a just war?”

We need to acknowledge the role religion has played in war. Following the Reformation of the 1530s, Europe was plunged into 120 years of conflict in which thousands died – the religious wars sparked by a lasting hatred of Protestant and Catholic. Such hatreds simmered on in Northern Ireland until the peace process bore fruit in the year 2000.

Part of the driving force of war is a sense of grievance and injustice….

Justice is one of the primary virtues of Greek philosophy, a central call of the prophets of the Old Testament (such as Isaiah), a major principle of Islam, and the perceived lack of it a simmering wound in the Middle East as the stateless people of Gaza continue to confront Israel. The Jewish people themselves have faced generations of injustice and the belief that, despite the best efforts of Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiesthenal, many of those guilty of genocide escaped punishment. In terms of problems we face this year, we can add to the Palestinian question the running tensions between Iran and the West, and the moral question: should a rogue state be allowed to have a nuclear bomb?

If we think this is an important issue, what too should we say about Afghanistan? Having entered a conflict which it seems impossible to win, we need to recognise that the key issue for western powers was not Afghanistan, but Pakistan. Pakistan shares a long, porous mountain border with Afghanistan. Pakistan is already radicalised by Islamic hatred of the west. And Pakistan already possesses the nuclear bomb, alongside India, where tensions periodically explode on their border. What we face still, despite military intervention, is the possibility of a nuclear bomb wielding Pakistan falling under Taliban control – with all that means for women’s rights as well as stability in the region.

Justice, however, always seems to have a number of dimensions. It is as if every side in recent years has used grievances as a spur to violent action. Recall Hitler’s reference to the Versailles treaty, with its huge compensation payments, and the calling in of reconstruction loans in the 1930s.

Immanuel Kant’s Essay on Perpetual Peace of 1795 presents a three-legged stool to deal with injustice and provide conditions for lasting peace.

1. Republican governments. Kant didn’t argue for democracy, but he did argue against monarchy. His argument against monarchy presage the role played by dictators of the last two centuries (Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini in Europe). Today he would support efforts to bring democracy and limited government (meaning government who’s powers are limited by constitutional checks and balances) to Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan.
2. Economic interdependence. Kant writes of the virtue of hospitality, of free migration and strong trade links. His thinking lies behind the creation of the European Union in 1958. He would have approved of the idea that 80% of US Government debt is held by the Chinese. Economic interdependence makes war between superpowers so much less likely.
3. A League of Nations committed to world peace, anticipating the League of Nations (1918-45) which came before the United Nations (1945 – ), Kant argued for a confederation of sovereign states co-operating under shared laws. He would have approved of UN intervention to protect peace, of aid programmes, and peace negotiators.

The question is applying Kant’s three principles to Iran, the Middle East or Afghanistan, how should our rulers today build a lasting and just peace?

Read more on Kant’s essay here. How do the breaking of Kant’s principles for lasting peace explain recent conflicts?