Alternative Views of War and Peace Between the World Wars

Hughes, Michael (2025) Alternative Views of War and Peace Between the World Wars. The International History Review. ISSN 0707-5332

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Abstract

The growth of pacifist and pacificist sentiment between the world wars was bound up with a sense that institutional and cultural change were needed to prevent repetition of the horrors of the Somme and Passchendaele. While debates about war and peace aroused strong passion, both sides typically articulated their views in a familiar religious or political vocabulary, focusing on the ethical challenges posed by war and the extent to which it was rooted in existing social and political structures. This article examines the ideas of three individuals who approached the subject in rather different ways. The British writer Aldous Huxley drew on his knowledge of Eastern religions to suggest that war was incompatible with the spiritual unity that underpinned human society. The Serbian émigré Dimitrije Mitrinović argued that international politics could only be understood in terms of deeper historical processes. The Russian artist Nikolai Berdiaev believed that his ideas about war and peace were shaped by spiritual guides who provided him with unique insights into international developments. While such ideas sounded eccentric to many of those who heard them, they nevertheless commanded varying degrees of interest and support, reflecting a wider disenchantment with the status quo.