Does Peace Take Care of Itself?

Abstract

Abstract This review-essay offers a critical analysis of F. H. Hinsley’s 1963 book, Power and the Pursuit of Peace: Theory and Practice in the History of Relations between States. Wight notes that peace could in principle be established through imperial dominance or agreements providing for a federation or confederation. The failures of these efforts—and recurrent wars—could ultimately lead to one power imposing “a durable hegemony” or even “a universal state.” In contrast, Hinsley embraces the Kantian argument that “peace will take care of itself,” thanks to “a fundamental historical trend … towards the containment and obsolescence of war.” In Hinsley’s view, the enhanced power of public opinion will promote peace in conjunction with “the increased administrative control of increasingly cautious and responsive state-machines over the means of violence.” Moreover, “growing cultural approximation … will make political unification unnecessary,” at least in the short term. In the end, Wight observes, Hinsley presents “only a short-term forecast” that disregards “how every known system of states hitherto has ended in political unification through an ascending series of wars.” Wight concludes that Hinsley’s work will not undermine the belief that “foreign policy should have some concern with bringing war under political control and strengthening the rudiments of international government.”

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