PLACES OF PEACE: UTOPIA AND A WORLD WITHOUT WAR

Peace is an ideal that features prominently in utopian thought. The ideas from this source sometimes provide a basis for experiments where ways of living in peace can be put into practice, typically as alternative communities. This paper reviews utopianism as a framework for both ideas and practice. Although there is little evidence that utopian ideas 'succeed' in a formal sense, the process of placing mainstream society in front of a mirror has a value in itself. The main message of utopians is that society can be better than it is and that dreaming of a world without war cannot simply be dismissed as unrealistic.
War has been a constant in human history. Yet so, too, is the pursuit of peace. The two are polar opposites but inextricably linked. It is rare to conjecture one [...]