a Christian general and pacifist debate

France, Europe are starting to rearm. Is it a good thing?

General Benoît Durieux: The situation is extremely worrying. It would be very presumptuous to affirm that the conflict in Ukraine will be limited to the borders of this country. In France, our defense system is, almost that of the 1990s. That is to say cut for external operations. However, the strategic environment has changed.

Hervé Dory: Europe was under the protection of the United States, which led us into conflicts that were not ours, like Iraq (in which the United Kingdom, Italy or Poland participated, but not France, editor’s note). The rebalancing, today, gives us the opportunity to resume our independence, to base European security which is not based on the attack, but on the defense.

So you agree with the current objective of European countries?

HD: Yes, but you have to find the right measure. I warn against the temptation of the overarms. When you have weapons, you end up using them. Often.

Comic You have to navigate between two pitfalls, just as dangerous. The first is to underestimate the threat by not being armed enough. An attacker can take the opportunity to attack. The second is to cause an arms race. We are far from the second pitfall. No Russian leader has something to fear the current European system. Our military tools have been reduced because European countries were based on the American warranty.

H. We must also ask the question of relations between states. Is force the only way of relationship? No. After the fatal experience of the Second World War developed a cooperation between nations: UN, World Health Organization … The idea was to create interdependencies so that the temptation to attack becomes too risky.

BD: These institutions are indeed excellent tools, but too weakened today. It’s true. Some still work, however. My organization, Pax Christi, works for example with UNESCO to install drinking water in the Central African Republic. Peace will also go through this type of project.

BD: Peace is when there is no contradiction of any kind, said Saint Augustine. In this sense, it is very rare. However, I think that it must be the normal state of society. But, because of my soldier’s job, I am not convinced that war is avoidable in human history. The periods when theories promoting universal and permanent peace emerge systematically preceding unlimited wars, such as the Enlightenment before the Revolution, or the attempt to put the war out of the world before the Second World War. I am peaceful but not pacifist.

HD: We must not be naive, but remember that each Christian carries peace in itself, that of Christ: “I leave you peace, I give you my peace. War is born only in the minds of men, says the constitutive act of UNESCO.

Should we prepare for war for peace?

HD: This thought rooted in us is bad. It is better to prepare peace to have peace. Of course, the heart of man is what it is. This is why we need a European defense. But we can also commit for social justice, dialogue, non-predation.

BD: I have a different position. Yes, we have to prepare the war to have peace. On the other hand, this does not exempt from practicing diplomacy. War is not the lack of dialogue, said Carl von Clausewitz (Prussian general, author of the famous treaty Of war, 1832, editor’s note) .

What can the Christian do to build peace, otherwise by making weapons?

HD: We can train in conflict management. Learn to manage our emotions, to communicate without attacking, as we currently do with Mr. Durieux. There are psychosocial skills, little learned, to manage our relationships with others.

BD: It would be good for the Christian to inquire about geopolitical subjects to know what he is talking about. He must then develop nuanced, rennic or bellicist opinions. It is the duty of the citizen, even more of the Christian who professes an embodied religion, who does not free himself from the world of men. You also have to try to understand why the opponent fights. Everyone has their reasons to fight. It is very rarely for oil! Once we have understood this, peace can be negotiated on the basis of common convictions.

Can the concept of just war enlighten us?

HD: In encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis criticizes the just war (formalized by Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas d’Aquin, editor’s note). Because of the far too destructive nature of current weapons, but also because this concept can be used as a screen to carry out unjustified wars.

BD: It is true that this notion has been instrumentalized. But a careful reading of the encyclical shows that the Pope does not say that a strictly defensive war would be unfair. Any defensive war is fair, said even Saint Augustine. In the past, the just war was not used so much to justify violence as to limit cases where a conflict could be engaged. And to establish war areas and peace areas, to protect them.

The wars cross the Bible. Would they be unsurpassable?

Hd The Bible does not show us a world of bisounours. But she also says that it is the Christian’s duty to welcome peace. It is a real personal and societal work. “Happy peace craftsmen because they will be called the son of God” (Mt 5, 9).

BD: We can prepare for combat without hating the opponent, however, which I have already done. Because I know that the person opposite does not blame me personally. This is often found in the Bible. While David holds Saul at his mercy, he forbids his soldiers to kill him. Out of respect for the opponent.

In any military ethics, this respect exists, and it is fundamental. I can love in Christ this brother in front of me against whom I am about to use a lethal weapon. In Bosnia, I prepared myself to face Serbs. I saw them again a year later. The situation had changed. We were able to drink together because we respected ourselves. War should not be to want to annihilate the opponent. But to make sure that he lay down the arms.