World Peace

Will $500 Billion Make America Feel Secure?

US_Defense_Spending_1962_2013Charles Kurzman, “Will $500 Billion Make America Feel Secure?” April 10, 2013. “On the subject of national security, two unexpected calms lie hidden amid the headlines of conflict. One calm is in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats pretend to debate the national security budget. … This secret bipartisanship masks another unexpected calm: the receding scale of global conflict.” More…

Farewell to World Peace?

Charles Kurzman and Neil Englehart, “Farewell to World Peace?” Christian Science Monitor, August 29, 2008. “When Russian troops attacked Georgia this month, rolling tanks into Tskhinvali and bombing Gori, it was not just a tragedy for the Caucasus. It also marked the demise of more than four years of no war between nations, the longest period in modern history.” More…

Welcome to World Peace

Neil Englehart and Charles Kurzman, “Welcome to World Peace,” Social Forces, June 2006. “Hard as it may be to believe, given constant headlines about conflict in Iraq and elsewhere, we live in a time of world piece. The ancient scourge of war has disappeared, at least in the sense of governments fighting one another with armies. As of this writing in early 2006, there are no wars between states, and there have been none since 2003, when the United States and its allies removed Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, and India and Pakistan instituted a ceasefire.” More…

Charles Kurzman and Neil Englehart, “Welcome to World Peace,” Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 2006. “World peace was not supposed to look like this. It was supposed to be more – well, more peaceful. But a remarkable global phenomenon is being obscured by headlines about bombs and conflict in the Middle East. The ancient scourge of war has disappeared, at least in the sense of one government’s army doing battle with another. Last week marked 1,000 consecutive days with no wars between nations anywhere in the world, since the night in November 2003 when India and Pakistan instituted a cease-fire. This is the longest episode of interstate peace in more than half a century.” More…