The Problem Stated: Forms of Conflict (1962)

Abstract

International life is inevitably a dynamic condition of unrelenting competition among nations for trade and commerce, for prestige and status, and for the winning of allegiances and the promotion of ideologies. Deliberate attempts to outmaneuvre and to defeat in constant battle for position, prestige, and power are a normal feature of relations among states. A condition of stable peaceful relations is not likely to be an undisturbed day-by-day international relationship, nor one in which there is general acceptance of any existing international structure. Competition, even in a theoretically perfect condition of peaceful relationships, would tend to be pushed at least to the limits beyond which peace would be destroyed. Such aggressive competition follows automatically from the existence of independent and sovereign states.

This text was originally published by John W. Burton as Chap. 1: “The Problem Stated: Forms of Conflict” in: Peace Theory: Preconditions of Disarmament, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962): pp. 3-23. Permission to publish was granted by the heirs of John Burton who retained the copyright for the work.