Pacifism And Conscientious Objection Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Pacifism is the belief that humanity can live peaceably whilst rejecting warfare as a means of settling disputes. It is the belief that violence is morally wrong, and that conflicting interests can be mediated through exclusively nonviolent means. Conscientious objection to military service is the natural outworking of opposition to war and violence.

The History Of Pacifism

Pacifism has a long history dating back at least to the first century and the teachings of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, followers are exhorted to be peacemakers, not killing or resisting “one who does evil” but rather turning the other cheek and loving their enemies (Matthew 5). The early church followed this instruction until becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thereafter, mainstream Christian theologians, including Augustine and Aquinas, recognized the right of rulers to go to war but constrained the parameters for appropriate initiation and implementation of warfare. Just war theory prescribes the circumstances in which countries can go to war, jus ad bellum, and the conduct that is acceptable in war, jus in bello. This tradition provides the foundation for subsequent international treaties on warfare, including the United Nations (UN) Charter. This theory is anathema to pacifists, however, who contend that all war is wrong.

Anabaptists and Mennonites have upheld the Christian tradition of pacifism since the sixteenth century; they advocated separation from the world and nonviolence. In subsequent centuries, Quakers and the Brethren have joined these groups, arguing and campaigning for nonviolence and against war. The Quaker peace testimony, the denomination’s response to war, has been influential in American and British society and includes active participation in peace and reconciliation initiatives throughout the world. Quakers worldwide and the American Friends Service Committee, for example, established the Quaker Peace Network Africa in 2000, dedicated to preventing violent conflict across the continent.

These earlier initiatives informed the establishment of the peace societies that emerged in the nineteenth century. These campaigns centered on five interdependent and interrelated concepts: peace could be advanced and defended by arbitration, treaties and clauses in treaties, international authority, codifying international law, and disarmament. Throughout the nineteenth century, pacifism made faltering progress, with the first International Peace Congress convening in London in 1843, and an Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1892. Both shared the goal to advocate for peace, but progress was frustrated by the prevalence of war throughout the century.

Christian organizations were joined by socialist antimilitarists in the second half of the nineteenth century, as the latter group declared that war was a vehicle of organized capital that was opposed to the interest of labor. Nevertheless, organized labor overwhelmingly responded to appeals to country, rather than class, in abandoning pacifism during World War I (1914–1918).

Conscription then led the peace movement to support conscientious objection. In addition, the horrific death toll during the conflict led to international calls for an end to war. President Woodrow Wilson then produced the Fourteen Point Plan, calling for the elimination of conflict; the League of Nations was also formed to maintain international peace. Pacifism thus experienced a renaissance and many nations agreed to renounce war as an instrument of policy and to settle disputes through exclusively peaceful means under the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928). In India, the independence leader Mohandas Gandhi demonstrated the efficacy of nonviolent resistance to British rule. Inspired by the pacifist teachings of Leo Tolstoy and world religions, Gandhi taught a doctrine of ahisma, nonviolence, that was later adopted by Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.

However, unsuccessful policies of appeasement and the advent of another world war challenged pacifist values as leading advocates, including the English philosopher Bertrand Russell and the German physicist Albert Einstein, supported the war. After World War II (1939–1945), pacifists increasingly concerned themselves with disarmament and played a leading role in campaigns for nuclear disarmament across Europe and the United States. They became actively involved in the antiwar protests against the Vietnam War (1959–1975), and more recently the Iraq War (2003–).

Absolutist And Pragmatic Pacifism

Although all pacifists oppose war and advocate peace, there is considerable disagreement over the practical implications of such a stance. It is probably most helpful to consider pacifism as a continuum with absolutists at one end and pragmatists at the other. Absolutists consider all forms of war and violence as wrong and unjustifiable. At the extreme, this may entail acceptance of violence and injustice suffered while practicing nonresistance, as exemplified by Mennonites and Amish communities. Other absolutists, including Gandhi and King, differentiate between pacifism and passiveness and advocate the use of nonviolent forms of resistance to overcome injustice.

Pragmatists prefer flexibility in their approach to war and violence. Some may oppose specific conflicts but acquiesce or support others—defensive wars in particular. While pragmatists adhere to the general principle of nonviolence, they are prepared to countenance war or violence where the consequences of nonresistance would result in a greater harm; for example, appeasement resulted in much of Europe being subjugated under fascism during World War II. Pragmatists, unlike absolutists, adhere to pacifist principles of nonviolence for themselves but do not insist on them for the rest of society.

Conscientious Objection

Conscientious objection to military service is founded on a consistent opposition to all wars based on moral or religious reasoning. Alternatively, it can be prompted by specific objection to a particular war. The historic peace churches—comprising Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren—have resisted military service throughout the major conflicts of European and American history including the Revolutionar y War (1776–1783), U.S. Civil War (1861–1865), both World Wars, the Korean War (1950–1953), and Vietnam. In the earlier two conflicts, such conscientious objectors could buy themselves out of military service and were required to provide taxes, goods, and services to support the various war efforts. Many refused to do so and were imprisoned or pressed into service. By World War I, the historic peace churches were joined by other religious groups opposed to violence as well as socialists and humanists. In America and Britain, conscientious objectors were required to prove their opposition to all war and if convincing, were able to take part in alternative nonmilitary service. Absolutist objectors, who refused to participate in the war effort in any capacity, were court-martialed and imprisoned. By World War II, civilian public service programs were in place as an alternative to military service for objectors.

Until 1965, conscientious objectors were only excused from the draft if they could prove their belief in God. After 1970, this was extended to include moral and ethical objections, with conscription ending in 1973. Thereafter, regular servicemen and servicewomen have conducted U.S. military operations.

Bibliography:

Brock, Peter. Freedom from Violence: Sectarian Nonresistance from the Middle Ages to the Great War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Twentieth-century Pacifism, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970.
Varieties of Pacifism: A Survey from Antiquity to the Outset of the Twentieth Century. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1998.
Field, G. C. Pacifism and Conscientious Objection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1945.
Gandhi, Mohandas. Non-violence in Peace and War, 1942–1949. New York: Garland Press, 1972.
Murry, J. Middleton. The Pledge of Peace. London: Herbert Joseph, 1936.
Russell, Bertrand. Which Way to Peace. London: M. Joseph, 1936.
Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars. New York: Basic Books, 1977.
Washington, James, ed. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin
Luther King Jr. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986.

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