Violence, Pacifism, and the Use of Force

2021 ◽  
pp. 450-466
Author(s):  
G. Scott Davis
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Fellowship Of Reconciliation ◽  
Second World

This chapter lays out the historical development of Niebuhr’s thought on war and peace in the context of American history and religious thought. It argues that in his early thought he accepts the received wisdom concerning early Christian non-violence, a position that led him to join the “Fellowship of Reconciliation” in 1928. With the Japanese incursions into China in the early 1930s, however, his position began to shift in ways captured in his early exchange with his brother, H. Richard Niebuhr. By the time he delivered the Gifford Lectures, at the very beginning of the Second World War, he has rejected pacifism and begun to develop the positions associated with ‘Christian Realism’. This extended into the early period of nuclear deterrence, though with increasing qualification. By the early 1960s, the perceived lack of restraint led Paul Ramsey to turn to the Catholic just war tradition to articulate a Reformation doctrine of principled love that could clarify which uses of force were acceptable and which had to be rejected. The tradition of Niebuhr persists, however, in such thinkers as John Carlson, whose Christian realist account of war and peace draws directly from Niebuhr and his legacy.

scholarly journals Bastards, brothers, and unjust warriors: Enmity and ethics in Just War Cinema

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Finlay
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
World War ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second World

AbstractHow do members of the general public come to regard some uses of violence as legitimate and others as illegitimate? And how do they learn to use widely recognised normative principles in doing so such as those encapsulated in the laws of war and debated by just war theorists? This article argues that popular cinema is likely to be a major source of influence especially through a subgenre that I call ‘Just War Cinema’. Since the 1950s, many films have addressed the moral drama at the centre of contemporary Just War Theory through the figure of the enemy in the Second World War, offering often explicit and sophisticated treatments of the relationship between thejus ad bellumand thejus in bellothat anticipate or echo the arguments of philosophers. But whereas Cold War-era films may have supported Just War Theory’s ambitions to shape public understanding, a strongly revisionary tendency in Just War Cinema since the late 1990s is just as likely to thwart them. The potential of Just War Cinema to vitiate efforts to shape wider attitudes is a matter that both moral philosophers and those concerned with disseminating the law of war ought to pay close attention to.

Philosophical Ideas of Yanaihara Tadao:Nationalism, Pacifism and the Concept of the “Just War”

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-197
Author(s):  
Anna D. Bertova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
World War ◽  
Postwar Japan ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The One ◽  
Second World

Prominent Japanese economist, specialist in colonial politics, a professor of Im­perial Tokyo University, Yanaihara Tadao (1893‒1961) was one of a few people who dared to oppose the aggressive policy of Japanese government before and during the Second World War. He developed his own view of patriotism and na­tionalism, regarding as a true patriot a person who wished for the moral develop­ment of his or her country and fought the injustice. In the years leading up to the war he stated the necessity of pacifism, calling every war evil in the ultimate, divine sense, developing at the same time the concept of the «just war» (gisen­ron), which can be considered good seen from the point of view of this, imper­fect life. Yanaihara’s theory of pacifism is, on one hand, the continuation of the one proposed by his spiritual teacher, the founder of the Non-Church movement, Uchimura Kanzo (1861‒1930); one the other hand, being a person of different historical period, directly witnessing the boundless spread of Japanese militarism and enormous hardships brought by the war, Yanaihara introduced a number of corrections to the idealistic theory of his teacher and proposed quite a specific explanation of the international situation and the state of affairs in Japan. Yanai­hara’s philosophical concepts influenced greatly both his contemporaries and successors of the pacifist ideas in postwar Japan, and contributed to the dis­cussion about interrelations of pacifism and patriotism, and also patriotism and religion.

scholarly journals A Total War of the Mind: The French Theory of la guerre révolutionnaire, 1954–1958

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P.M. Finch
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
French People ◽  
French Theory ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Second World

French theorists of guerre révolutionnaire conceptualized contemporary conflict in the 1950s as a particular form of total war. Located in the idea of global subversive war which provided intellectual rationalization for the army’s experiences in colonial wars after 1945, the theorists argued that the collapse in the distinction between war and peace rendered war permanent and constant, so that France’s colonial wars were a symptom of a broader conflict necessitating the ideological mobilization of the French people. This article contends that much of the inspiration for these ideas can be found in intellectual developments preceding the Second World War.

BBC2 and World Cinema

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-360
Author(s):  
Ieuan Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
World War ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
General Rules ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Ready Availability ◽  
Second World

This article examines the origins of BBC2's reputation as a purveyor of films from around the world, exploring the significance and impact of the strand World Cinema (1965–74) and assessing the range and diversity of its offer. Foreign-language titles had been broadcast by the Corporation since before the Second World War, due partly to their ready availability at a time when Hollywood films were ‘off limits’, given the hostility of American (and British) film companies towards the new rival medium of television. During this early period, however, these continental films were not popular, undoubtedly due to the fact that subtitles were very difficult to read on small, low-definition television screens. BBC2, with its commitment to minority tastes and interests and its use of both the higher-definition 625-line UHF system and colour, was perfectly placed to revive and foster interest in world cinema. For those who urged broadcasters to adopt and maintain an enlightened film policy, World Cinema became exemplary, as a rare exception to the general rules in early television of editing for content or length, block buying (the practice of buying the rights to a mixed package of films in order to acquire certain gems) and haphazard scheduling. For a generation of cinephiles, World Cinema was a formative and educative experience. Particular attention is paid here to the first five years of World Cinema, which saw the strand give attention to a variety of ‘New Waves’ and relay experiences from behind the Iron Curtain and further afield.

scholarly journals PATRIOTIC AND HEROIC MOTIVES IN THE POETRY OF ALEXANDR TVARDOVSKY AND KEYSAR AMINPUR

Keruen ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (68) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Yahyapur ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Chief Editor ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
Second World

Connections and interrelations come up in the global literary process directly and indirectly. The present article is devoted to the literary parallels in the creative work of the famous Russian poet, a participant of the Second World War, chief editor of the literary magazine «Nowy Mir» Alexandr Tvardovsky and the popular Iran poet Keysar Aminpur. War and peace problems – are persistent in any national literature throughout the centuries. These problems have reflected in the life, fate and creative work of the Russian poet. They are also predominant in the poetry of K. Aminpur. Longing for home, dreams about piece in the world during ongoing military actions– are common concepts in the poetry of Tvardovsky and Aminpur, where people striving for peace have been drawn into the conflict. Patriotic and heroic motives in the poetry of the Russian and the Iran poets, ways of reflection in style, language and composition of the poems are different due to literary process particularities in the USSR and Iran in the last quarter of the XX-th century. At the same time, there are common points allowing us to compare poetry of A. Tvardovsky and K. Aminpur. Motives of patriotism and heroics are being analyzed from the prospective of nature. Homeland and smaller motherland landscape concepts are inseparable in the poetry of the both poets.

scholarly journals Observations of Comets, Minor Planets and Meteors in Japan

1988 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 87-89
Author(s):  
Ichiro Hasegawa
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Minor Planets ◽  
World War ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Second World

In the early period of this century, some comets were discovered by Japanese amateur astronomers. Just fifty years ago, in 1937, Minoru Honda began to search for systematically comets with his 15-cm reflector. He observed Comet Encke without an ephemeris in November, 1937, and made his firts discovery of a comet in 1940. This comet was also discovered independently by Shigeki Okabayashi (Comet Okabayashi-Honda, 1940e). Subsequently, Honda discovered Comet Friend-Reese-Honda (1941a) in 1941. Unfortunately, Okabayashi was killed at the Second World War in 1945.After the end of the war, Honda discovered ten comets during 1947 and 1968. In 1968, he discovered three comets in a year. He has been an active observer of comets and novae. Stimulated by Honda’s success, Tsutomu Seki began his comet hunting in 1950, and his long and patient efforts were rewarded with the discovery of Comet Seki, 1961f. Seki later discovered six comets, and rediscovered six short-period comets before 1981. In that year, Seizo Goto, a well-known telescope maker in Japan, donated a 60-cm reflector. Since then, with the Goto telescope, Seki has made many astronomic observations of comets and minor planets. He has rediscovered some periodic comets and has discovered many minor planets every year.

For Christ and Country

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-131
Author(s):  
James D. Strasburg
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
World War ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
The World ◽  
Evangelical Protestants ◽  
Armed Intervention ◽  
Second World

The Second World War marked a landmark moment of transition for both ecumenical and evangelical Protestants in the United States. The arrival of war in December 1941 emboldened both groups of Protestants to make the case not only for armed intervention abroad but also for spiritual intercession. The pacifist isolationism of Protestant ecumenists faded as they embraced the Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr and called for a new “American Century” of Protestant and democratic values. Meanwhile, fueled by an apocalyptic militarism, American fundmenatlists sought to use the war to reclaim a more prominent role in American politics and foreign affairs. As both groups of American Protestants mobilized “for Christ and country,” they also began to outline competing missions to remake the world, and above all Germany, out of the ruins of war.

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