A world waiting to be born: Charting a liberatory anti-war praxis

Abstract

War is cruel. Its purpose is to cause suffering. American wars create survivors and victims who confront us with the penetrating gaze of those who demand justice. Their presence implores Americans to make ourselves responsible for the pain we have caused them. Meeting the obligation demanded of us by the millions of individuals we have caused to suffer requires developing a liberatory anti-war praxis informed by distinct ethical and political commitments. While neither exhaustive nor exclusive of other potentially complementary orientations and activities, I ground liberatory anti-war praxis in: (1) Commitment to praxis as a route to liberation; (2) Perpetual unsettledness toward the cruelties of war; (3) Ethical sensitivity to the victims of empire; (4) Dedication to facilitating liberatory peace; (5) Engagement with questions of pacifism, nonviolence, and liberatory self-defense. I locate liberatory anti-war praxis in the pacifist tradition, however anti-war praxis need not commit to absolute nonviolence. Each context is unique, and it is the prerogative of those suffering cruelty to pursue their own strategies and tactics of liberation.