VISIONS OF PEACE

BOOK REVIEWS

VISIONS OF PEACE: ASIA AND THE WEST Takashi Shogimen and Vicki A. Spencer (ed.) Surrey: Ashgate, 2014 ix + 195 pages, hard cover, $109.95

The theme of this edited book is that “non-Western perspectives on peace are marginalized” and that “by pluralizing our conception of peace, the potential thus exists to expand our imaginations beyond the impotence of existing international arrangements” (p.3). The nine contributors portray the conception of peace straddling the East and the West through a crosscultural and historiographical perspective. They intend to broaden our “visions of peace” which, according to the editors, have been monopolized by western thoughts, and notably by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The author of Chapter 1 introduces a Greek vision of peace by tracing the etymology of eirene—“the goodness of peace” when the word begins with a capital letter and “peace” when it is set in lower case. It is a vision that juxtaposes people’s understanding of peace in contemporary Europe. Chapter 2 enriches the previous analytical approach with perspectives from theology and history, and demonstrates transformations of idea in Christian pacifism—which evolves from total opposition to war in the first three centuries of the common era to a more belligerent stance after the time of Constantine the Great. Next, a group of three chapters places emphasis on the conception of peace in three Asian countries, namely India, China, and Japan. Chapter 3 presents an account of two schools of pacifism in Hinduism: the spiritualists prioritize penance and sacrifice, whereas the realists favour coercive methods, including a “just war” . Chapter 4 discusses Confucianism—which has been the key ideology in shaping Chinese pacifism for more than two millennia. To the contributor, Confucianism encourages equally-apportioned shares between the parties to a dispute, in order to avoid conflicts often arising from inequality. While the Japanese conception of peace, as is explained in Chapter 5, is bound to its Confucian origin, it was regarded in the eighteenth century as conservative and thus reformulated on the basis of Japan’s unique political culture. The last four chapters draw the reader’s attention back to Europe. Chapter 6 discusses the idea of peace in medieval Europe from the perspec tives of Dante Alighieri and John Wyclif. Although the former proposed an

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON WORLD PEACE VOL. XXXII NO. 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

BOOK REVIEWS

idealistic global governance of the Roman Empire while the latter opposed the idea of a “just war”, both expressed pessimism at the prospect of lasting peace in view of the expansionist strategies deployed by medieval nation states. Chapter 7 moves to the European Enlightenment and shows how advances in civilization and law have changed the dynamics of war and peace. Chapter 8 advocates Johann Gottfried Herder’s vision of peace, which involves changing people’s fundamental attitudes towards both war and out-groups. The contributor of this Chapter goes so far as to suggest that Herder’s idea can be an inspiration to improve the U N ’s peace initia tives. Chapter 9 compares Immanuel Kant’s plan of peace to that of Jeremy Bentham. The contributor of the Chapter concludes that, unlike Kant who devised the plan for peace only among western nations, Bentham acknowl edged the importance of cultural differences among nations, arguing that such an acknowledgement should maximize the utility of all people and render peace-building more desirable to all countries. There are two reasons why this book merits careful consideration. The first points to the book’s focus on the study of peace. In fact, research into peace has been eclipsed by studies on how to reduce conflict and war— the so-called “negative peace”—whereas “positive peace”—the process of cooperation and integration—tends to be too little discussed. Suffice it to say that, over the last fifty years, “negative peace” has been a dominant theme in the two leading journals in peace studies—the Journal of Peace Research and the Journal of Conflict Resolution. The book by Shogimen and Spencer bridges this research divide by probing the origins of both positive and negative peace across different civilizations. The second reason derives from the contributors’ endeavours, which bring to light several valuable yet hitherto-ignored visions of peace. Some of these visions have left their legacy with respect to how we apprehend peace today: the Greek eirene stands as the inception of pacifism in the West when it implies inter-state relations; meanwhile, China’s Confucianism has inspired peace among its neighbouring nations in the East when promoting harmony. The book can therefore serve as an introduction to readers who are interested in understanding the major visions of peace in the world. Notwithstanding its quality, variety, and novelty, however, the book is unsatisfying. First, Shogimen and Spencer have fallen short of their objec tive of promoting non-Western perspectives on peace, since only three out


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BOOK REVIEWS

of the nine chapters can be described as non-Western perspectives. Other visions of peace which originate beyond the European continent, such as Africa, Latin America, and Oceania, are not mentioned. The visions of peace in these civilizations are nonetheless what Western readers might be most curious to learn about. Secondly, while the chapters of the book have capably addressed the historical, religious, and cultural aspects of peace, they nevertheless remain descriptive and lacking in critical depth. For example, the contributor of Chapter 4 borrows abundant historical accounts to reconstruct the Confucian vision of peace. If the Confucian vision of peace is explained, by no means does the contributor analyze why such a vision facilitates peace-building and to what extent the vision fails to achieve its objectives. Lastly, the reader might appreciate a concluding chapter which synthesizes the preceding chapters while clarifying the future agenda in peace studies. Such a work can serve as a follow-up study for the “Vision of Peace” series. Tony C. Lee Research Associate, Center for International Affairs and Exchanges University o f Ilan, 1, Sec. 1, Shen-Lung Road, I-Lan, 26047, TAIWAN E-mail: [email protected]

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