13th September 2023
Is peace simply the opposite of war?
Recently I took part in a peace vigil outside the DSEI arms fair being held at London’s ExCel centre. Setting aside for a moment the morals of using weapons, there is something deeply uncomfortable about the idea of an arms fair: the idea that just as one can a book fair, or an Ideal Homes exhibition, or a horticultural show, one can have a ‘jolly day out’ walking round stands full of weapons, admiring staged demonstrations, picking up samples and goody bags, whilst enjoying alcoholic and other beverages. There is equally something very disturbing about people making profits out of buying and selling products designed to inflict fear, maim and kill.
But on the other hand are weapons a necessary evil, things that do have at some point to be bought and sold? Would we have wanted the Ukrainians to be weaponless when the Russians invaded? Perhaps weapons are a necessary evil if we want peace not war?
The following is not based on academic research, but simply a reflection of wha has been going through my mind.
Is peace the opposite of war or vice versa? I think that peace is the opposite of war but that the reverse proposition is flawed. Peace is not simply an absence of war. It is far more.
Peace is justice and equality.
Peace is freedom.
Peace is contentment and fulfilment.
Peace is about the individual and the community.
Peace is about the present and the future.
This is a rigorous set of imperatives to meet. But does peace exist anywhere in the world? Here in the UK we are not at war, but do we enjoy the peace described above? I think not.
Justice is unevenly delivered. For those with money to pay for lawyers and the cost of court cases, there can be justice. Indeed for those with money to serve injunctions, injustice can be perpetuated. Justice is uneven delivered depending on one’s colour, race or faith. Activists seeking the right to protest can find their actions constrained by injunctions served on them by big corporations and institutions – and to compound the injustice, may then be billed for the injunction!
Equality is patchy – again depending on your wealth. The more you have, the more the system will work in your favour. If you can afford to go to a good school (whether by living in the right catchment area or paying fees) you will get better qualifications and better employment opportunities. If you can afford a better house – especially one you own rather than rent – you will be healthier, learn better and again have better employment opportunities. If you are homeless, the chances of being as healthy, of getting good qualifications and a job are much less. If you grow up in a household with two parents, if you grow up in a household where everyone is literate, if you grow up in a household where everyone has a job, then you too will have better educational outcomes and better employment opportunities. Then there are postcode lotteries that affect your access to schools and health care. There are geographical north-south divides that shape your opportunities.
Freedom often depends upon access to money. To be free to travel, you need to be able to pay for transport. To be free to take a holiday you need a higher enough wage – and/ or holiday pay – to cover your costs of living whilst on holiday. To be free to change career, you need sufficient money to cover re-training costs plus what is need to cover living costs whilst you study. To be free to live where ever you want, you need sufficient funds to match the great variation of costs across the country, from region to region, area to area.
Contentment and fulfilment will vary from person to person, and some may find them for a very low outlay, but for others the cost may be prohibitive. One may find fulfilment in hillwalking, but another in skiing. Neither ambition is inherently better but the latter may financially be unobtainable. If one’s contentment depends upon swimming, fulfilment may depend upon whether your local authority still runs to swimming pools or whether your local water company keeps your rivers clean.
Because of the inequalities so far highlighted, you can see that some individuals in the UK may achieve lives of relative peace, but that as a community, our achievements are limited.
Again, sadly, whilst we may have relative peace for now, the ongoing likelihood of such peace is in the balance. With underfunded health, social care and educational provision, the inequalities of access becoming increasingly dependent on money, seems likely to increase. And with the lack of investment in renewable energy, energy efficient infrastructure and in infrastructure (including things such as tree planting) to mitigate the effects of the already changing climate, many people’s hope for future contentment also looks bleak. Such is the state of peace in the UK. But what about more vulnerable countries?
What about Mali where rival militias tax or destroy rural communities? And where climate change is causing the loss of agriculture land with the expansion of the Sahara?
What about North and South Sudan and Uganda where control of the water in the Sudd wetlands and the White Nile, is leading to disagreement and conflict?
What about Pakistan where climate change is both melting glaciers and intensifying the wet and dry seasons, making agriculture less viable, and where rising sea levels are reducing the amount of available farm land? With limited opportunities to make a future at home, where can these farmers and their families go to seek a fulfilled life? Seeking refugee in Europe is increasingly difficult.
What about the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the race to mine copper and cobalt to make batteries, is driving many local people off their land, whilst at the same time polluting land and water supplies?
Across the world there are many instances where one can see that peace is not present. These are potential hotspots which could lead to internal or cross border warfare. My contention is that if the money that would be spent on the wars that are likely to erupt, was instead spent on removing the obstacles to peace, we would not need to be investing in the arms trade. Where war is already happening, I do see that a different response is needed, but that is still needs to be one that establishes peace on both sides of the conflict.
I can well imagine that rather than building up resources for future war, building up the resources for peace would be financially cheaper. This peace building would involve establishing justice and systems of maintaining justice – both internally within countries and between them. It would involve removing existing inequalities and rebalancing fairly access to resources and opportunities. It would involve valuing contentment and fulfilment as more important than GDP. It would involve valuing equally the needs of individuals and the needs of communities.
Not an easy task but one that is biblically mandated, perhaps, as in this passage from Micah.
And many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
For all the peoples walk,
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
for ever and ever. Micah 4:2-5
Here there is justice, for God arbitrates between nations and between peoples. Here there is equality such that everyone can sit under their own vines and their own fig trees. Here freedom is suggested for weapons have been turned into gardening tools, and no one makes anyone afraid. Here is (religious) freedom where people walk with their own gods. Here is contentment and fulfilment for all are taught the ways of God.
The Green Tau 