Peace concerns everyone and everyone must be committed to pursuing it. Pacifism, on the other hand, is an approach that can be ideally shared but must come to terms with reality.
We are writing this brief because, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, we believe there is a need for clarity.
Our idea of peace can only pass through international recognition of the ‘right to resistance’ of invaded peoples, in this case the Ukrainian people. The invasion of a sovereign country, beyond the complexities that the Russian-Ukrainian situation brings, is unacceptable. The attacked people have a right to resistance that must be helped, even militarily.
Our idea of peace, secondly, also passes through criticism of what is happening beyond Ukraine. If sovereign countries have the right to defend themselves against possible aggression, and there is no doubt that the Ukrainian case has drawn a clear line in the history of the world, it is unacceptable that the opportunity should be taken to militarise the world, especially considering the looming nuclear risk.
Our idea of peace must confront reality and broaden our outlook. Indeed, if we do not want the war in Ukraine to become a global war, we have a historical responsibility to think about the future of the world in terms of ‘cooperative competition’ and not just total militarisation. It is right that regional or macro-regional armies should be formed or improved (Europe without defence and a common army is not sustainable), but as the history of recent years teaches us, the project of military expansion that is taking shape seems to be going in the wrong direction.
