How, and by what means, is peace constituted? In the first two decades of the twentieth century, a leading pacifist, Alfred H. Fried, set this fundamental question at the heart of the pacifist programme. Causal pacifism was the key term: "If we wish to eliminate an effect, we must first remove its cause. And if we wish to set a new and desirable effect in its place, we must substitute the cause with another which is capable of creating the desired effect" (Fried 1918, 10). This sounds abstract in terms of its methodology, but was posed as something quite specific: If war is the outcome of international anarchy, which still prevails in relations between states, this anarchy itself must be abolished in order to remove its effect, which is war. Moreover, in place of anarchy, a ‚social order' must be established whose effect is to allow conflicts in general to be managed in a non-violent reliable manner. In other words -in the political sense of the term -peace is created.The doctrine of causal or cause/effect pacifism is therefore rooted in an attempt to think systematically about the prerequisites and conditions for peace. In an analytical sense, then, it was comparable with the current endeavours to develop a peace theory which is appropriate for the modern age, including a programme of constructive conflict management that is compatible with this theory (Senghaas 1995; Czempiel 1998).Irrespective of whether or not this specific term was used by individual authors, causal pacifism was a key academic and practical issue in the classical pacifism debate. It is one of the great tragedies of the twentieth century that this concept declined in popularity among pacifist movements and finally became a non-issue. In a twentieth century marked by violence, war, genocide and mutual threats of destruction within the framework of deterrence, antimilitarism -for quite understandable reasonscame to dominate the pacifist agenda and shape its thinking and action. Yet there remained what the Slovenian peace researcher Vlasta Jalusic once described as an ‚empty hole': for while antimilitarism seeks to dismantle the structures and mentalities which cause aggression, violence and war, causal pacifism, by contrast, aims to create structures and mentalities that promote lasting peace. In short, causal pacifism and comparable approaches could therefore also be described as ‚constructive pacifism' -a pacifism that is geared to the construction and architecture of peace.
A New World OrderThe classical doctrine of causal pacifism was intended -as formulated explicitly by Alfred Fried in 1918 -to establish "a new world order" (Fried 1918, 42): a new form of global governance. This intention was not rooted in an eschatological goal but in manageable approaches which were "inspired by a purposeful spirit of peace" (Fried, ibid.). This new world order was defined as the outcome of the "sociation of states", a process which was already under way and which would culminate in a "contrat social", or social contract, between states. This would lea...
