Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion reformulates the central question of the book, how a politics of peace became a major international current in the early 1970s. It briefly summaries the findings of the previous chapters, tracing the trajectory of the international discourse on peace from the idealism of transnational peace advocacy groups to the practical pragmatism in the highest echelons of power politics. It reiterates the central thesis that peace, while on the surface a disarmingly simple and direct notion, became a major political weapon in the Cold War battles between the two superpowers, as well as between grassroots peace activists and political leaders. Nongovernmental peace advocates eventually succeeded in convincing political leaders of the benefits of peaceful cooperation, but along the way they lost the support of grassroots activists, who became highly polarized, and whose more radical wings turned toward violence by the end of the 1960s.