There is no such thing as being undecided about war. It’s a binary choice. If you’re not for it, you have to be against it.

The essays in this book offer evidence and arguments for peace. The writers advance peace not merely as a moral ideal but as an eminently practical objective. Too often peace activists have thought it sufficient merely to call for peace and to denounce war, without investigating the economic, social, political, and psychological conditions of peace. They may oppose this or that war, without considering what causes wars-for example, fallacies about clashes of civilizations, economic conflict, protectionism, and the zero-sum worldview-and then addressing those causes.

Peace is not an impractical fantasy, nor is it something for which one must sacrifice prosperity or progress or freedom. In fact, peace, freedom, prosperity, and progress go hand in hand.

The essays in this book appeal to the mind. They are anchored in sound history, economic reality, empirical psychology, political science, and hard-headed logic, as well as art and the aesthetic imagination. If the heart is to be engaged on behalf of peace, it should be engaged through the mind.