The Virtues of Peace

This show draws attention to ideas and personalities - the virtues and moral energies - of the Peace Through Law movement that, unfortunately, remains largely unknown to the public. Our show was launched on the historic day of May 18, 2020. Prior to the U.S. entry into World War I (April 6, 1917), May 18 was widely celebrated in the U.S. as "Peace Day" as it marked the opening day of the 1899 Hague Peace Conference — a watershed moment of the Peace through Law Movement. It was at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference when the process of building international institutions aimed at the non-violent resolution of conflicts began. This accomplishment was a direct outgrowth of the Peace through Law Movement and the advocacy of individuals, many of them women such as Cora di Brazzà and Bertha von Suttner, who did not have a formal political voice, but were footsoldiers of the movement. Cora di Brazzà (1860-1944) believed that the cornerstone of Peace was not an international institution such as an international Court of Law (though that was indeed necessary). Rather, like Plato, Cora di Brazzà believed that a certain kind of "harmony of the soul" was primary. For her, "Peace through Law" begins with promulgating and obeying an "inner law." As she put it, "one begins with the germ," i.e., with the individual conscience and developing a habit for respecting the Golden Rule and other "Rules of Harmony." Accordingly, Cora di Brazzà developed a sophisticated system of Peace Education in line with this understanding of peace. You can learn about that system and other ideas/personalities involved in the "Peace Through Law" movement in this podcast.