War on Peace

Abstract

The emergence of decolonization and national liberation movements in the Global South in the 1950s and 1960s exposed the limits of pacifism and nonviolent movement strategies. In a strange twist that escaped most cold warriors, it was the Third World liberationists’ language of freedom and liberation that made some peace advocates question their adherence to nonviolence. Sympathetic to the demands for independence in Asia and Africa, they condemned the violence with which colonial regimes and ruling elites backed by former colonial powers maintained control over indigenous populations. The level of violence from above called into question the precept of nonviolence as the best and only acceptable strategy. Nonviolence and pacifism became increasingly marginalized in the antiwar discourse as the 1960s drew to a close, contributing to the radicalization and ultimate fragmentation of the protest movements.