BRACERS Record Detail for 23116

To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.

Collection code
RA1
Class no.
720
Box no.
6.05
Recipient(s)
Dehn, Emil
Sender(s)
BR
Date
1963/02/26
Form of letter
TL(CAR)
Pieces
1
Notes and topics

"I understand your feelings concerning the ethical prohibition on the taking of life. Wherever it is possible to enforce international law without the resort to violence, I should favour this. I am not a pacifist, however, and hold the view that a world government would have to resort to force to prevent a serious breach of international law if the disastrous arms race in which individual states indulge is not to lead to nuclear annihilation for mankind. There are innumerable economic pressures and diplomatic pressures which a world government could effectively impose upon a state which sought to break the peace and these should be applied first. Nonetheless, only a monopoly of force in possession of such a world authority will prevent re-occurrence of the nightmare world we presently inhabit. This assumes, of course, that we shall somehow emerge from it. I develop this point of view in my book Has Man a Future?"

Permission
Everyone
Record no.
23116
Record created
Aug 16, 1991
Record last modified
Feb 10, 2015
Created/last modified by
duncana