Peace - a positive condition of justice
by Marian Pallister
'Peace is more than the absence of war.' This is a phrase which I confess is often on my lips and in my writing, and since the beginning of 2026, with its extraordinary events unfolding with such kaleidoscopic speed and intensity, I also hear and see it almost daily from politicians and pundits.
I refuse, however, to dismiss it as a worn-out cliché. Inger Skjelsbæk, a Norwegian gender studies scholar, professor of gender studies at the Centre for Gender Research in Oslo, and from 2015 to 2019 an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo, has said that 'Understanding wars and conflicts is [also] a question of understanding individuals in cultures and sociopolitical contexts as opposed to only organisations and social groups.' For me, that’s a posh academic way of saying that the effects of wars and conflicts are more than just the violence and then the peace treaties. It’s about the impact on men, women and children in their daily lives in the world that is theirs.
People often ask what leads me to strive for peace and justice. In a previous life, working as a journalist, I was sent both to live fields of conflict and to post war situations – the refugee camps, the countries where the debris of war still affected the daily lives of innocent and vulnerable people, the hidden arenas where folk were trying to pick up the pieces after bloodshed.
I know and respect many who did and do similar work. But while I knew how important it is to raise awareness of these situations through writing about them, I concluded that there were other avenues I should explore to seek peace that isn’t just the absence of war. A convoluted route led me to help create Pax Christi Scotland. We are a member organisation of Pax Christi International, and we try very hard to work to achieve a nonviolent world, both in Scotland and internationally.
The phrase 'Peace is more than the absence of war' is attributed to many. A number of newspaper columnists wrote something very similar in the years before and during the Second World War. I am particularly drawn to a version by Dorothy Thompson, whose 1945 column that appeared in several newspapers read:
'Peace is not the mere absence of war. It is a positive condition of justice. It is the sister of charity and mercy. It is the offspring of honesty and truth. It is the triumph of principle.' (1)
That’s perhaps a quote that President Trump should have made into a sampler for the Oval Office wall.
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Marian Pallister is chair of Pax Christi Scotland. For many decades she was a journalist and experienced conflicts and natural disasters in many parts of the world. She subsequently lectured in journalism at Napier University in Edinburgh, and then tutored in communications skills and creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She has written ten books, mainly on social history, and feels her experiences have led to peace work and striving for a nonviolent world.