Trading Our Way out of War: Perpetual Peace without Politics
Proponents of perpetual peace have often identified politics as a problem standing in the way of peaceful relations between humans. They believed that, while politics exacerbates the differences separating nations, commerce brings human beings together. In this article, I trace the development of ar...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra
2018-09-01
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| Series: | Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/7088 |
| Summary: | Proponents of perpetual peace have often identified politics as a problem standing in the way of peaceful relations between humans. They believed that, while politics exacerbates the differences separating nations, commerce brings human beings together. In this article, I trace the development of arguments against politics and for commerce from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. I argue that thinkers espoused an idealized view of commerce as an activity that fostered the development of a peaceful international community, while gradually eliminating economic inequalities. I also highlight how these arguments still resonate with today’s debates on globalization. |
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| ISSN: | 0254-1106 2182-7435 |