The Study of War as a Contribution to Peace

The present essay was given as a lecture at Guilford College, North Carolina, on September 3, 1981. It is the latest stage in a journey which he began as a schoolboy during World War II, when he declared himself a pacifist, yet retained the confidence of teachers who supported the war effort. His first written attempt to express his Quaker convictions appeared in Pendle Hill Bulletin 119 (February. 1954) as "Footnotes to Pacifism." Subsequent insight into the complexities of war and dangers of facile generalization were reflected in two academic case studies and in Prophets and Reconcilers, his Swarthmore Lecture of 1974 at London Yearly Meeting.

"The journey continues," he writes, "I am not shaken in my pacifist convictions in spite of all the exposure to the other side--and it can be very seductive. But I believe that one of the great weaknesses of so many pacifists is that they do not take enough trouble to learn to know and understand those with whom they disagree. In this respect I want to be a bridge-builder, but I also want to nudge the world on a little bit toward the abandonment of war as a method of settling disputes."