Pacifism : Still the Issue

Abstract

The 12th ILECS conference (International Law and Ethics Conference Series) is devoted to the issue of Pacifism,once much more popular theme than today. In times when we rethink the issue of the war, from its criminalization through its instrumentalization in humanitarian interventions to its usage in “asymmetric” and anti-terrorist warfare and its role in the attempt to legalize torture, pacifism might seem to be quite obsolete and redundant. Could it mean that pacifism is not an issue anymore? Or, as we found in the theme of world governance in one of the previous ILECS conferences, it is one of those issues which are always with us, looming from the mist of unstable reality, as a promise, or false promise, or as a refuge or escape? Or could it be a long awaited, even a final, solution guarding us from pitfalls and predicaments of our uncertain and non-transparent future full of threatening conflicts? We do not expect all these questions to be answered, but perhaps it is proper time to raise them again.