This is an important new study of Chinese discourses on war and peace from the end of the First World War to the death of Mao Zedong. Exploring these discourses and how they changed over this period, Elisabeth Forster focusses, in particular, on jus ad bellum and the question of whether it was just to start a war. She proceeds from the observation that, while many of China's successive and competing governments claimed that China was inherently peaceful, the peacefulness claim contrasts with the many wars China has waged or threatened. She examines the logic of China's peacefulness claim, whether China developed a unique discourse on war and peace or was part of broader global conversations, and what we can learn from China about the global project to create world peace in the twentieth century and, especially, about that project's failure.
‘Forster takes seriously what most dismiss as propaganda: that Chinese civilization is inherently peaceful and has never waged war. Treating these as conceptual problems, her sophisticated - and genuinely entertaining - analysis shows how ‘war’ and ‘peace’ are globally contested, with profound implications for just war theory and our understanding of China.’
William Callahan - Singapore Management University
‘Elisabeth Forster’s fascinating book explores a tricky conundrum in China’s twentieth-century history: can a nation consistently willing to wage or threaten war reasonably call itself peace-loving? Drawing on philosophical discourses about just and unjust war, Forster’s sharp and eloquent analysis demonstrates that China’s approach to conflict exemplifies the failure of a global project to keep the peace.’
Margaret Hillenbrand - University of Oxford
‘Drawing on extensive archival research and marked by incisive, often wry observation, this study recovers the arguments and the personalities that shaped a global ‘polyphonic conversation’ on war and peace in modern China. Ranging across philosophy, international relations, and military history, Peaceful China? not only synthesizes diverse perspectives but also stakes out a distinctive voice of its own.’
Leigh K. Jenco - London School of Economics and Political Science
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