Trading Our Way out of War: Perpetual Peace without Politics
Proponents of perpetual peace have often identified politics as a problem standing in the way of peaceful relations between humans. They believed that, while politics exacerbates the differences separating nations, commerce brings human beings together. In this article, I trace the development of ar...
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| Format: | article |
| Language: | eng |
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2018
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| Online Access: | http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2182-74352018000200001 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Oai: | oai:scielo:S2182-74352018000200001 |
| Summary: | Proponents of perpetual peace have often identified politics as a problem standing in the way of peaceful relations between humans. They believed that, while politics exacerbates the differences separating nations, commerce brings human beings together. In this article, I trace the development of arguments against politics and for commerce from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. I argue that thinkers espoused an idealized view of commerce as an activity that fostered the development of a peaceful international community, while gradually eliminating economic inequalities. I also highlight how these arguments still resonate with today's debates on globalization. |
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