Do Not Take Peace For Granted
Alice Temnick for AdamSmithWorks
Adam Smith wrote about international relations, national defense and military strategy in both The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. Smith believed in the critical importance of nations’ good relations (diplomacy), strong communication and mutually beneficial trade as institutions necessary for the growth and prosperity.
Adam Smith wrote about international relations, national defense and military strategy in both The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. Smith believed in the critical importance of nations’ good relations (diplomacy), strong communication and mutually beneficial trade as institutions necessary for the growth and prosperity.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine dominates international headlines with stories of incomprehensible human suffering as well as accounts of heroic valor. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith discusses the limits to our capacity for empathy (sympathy) across borders as he describes the sorrow we might feel in learning about a devastating earthquake abroad. Our fellow feeling is strong for family, friends and even for our nation, but is limited for people across the world.
[The state or sovereignty] is, by nature, most strongly recommended to us. Not only we ourselves, but all the objects of our kindest affections, our children, our parents, our relations, our friends, our benefactors, all those whom we naturally love and revere the most, are commonly comprehended within it; and their prosperity and safety depend in some measure upon its prosperity and safety. TMS VI.ii.2.2
Smith wrote about international relations, national defense and military strategy in both The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith believed in the critical importance of nations’ good relations (diplomacy), strong communication and mutually beneficial trade as institutions necessary for the growth and prosperity.
Below are a few links to resources that might be helpful to help you understand what Smith's thoughts might be on the current conflict and wars more generally.
"Do not take peace for granted: Adam Smith’s warning on the relation between commerce and war," by Maria Pia Paganelli and Reinhard Shumacher.
This piece was published on the Developing Economics blog on December 1, 2018 and is based on an academic journal article by the same authors published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics a few months before. From the abstract of the paper:
"Do not take peace for granted: Adam Smith’s warning on the relation between commerce and war," by Maria Pia Paganelli and Reinhard Shumacher.
This piece was published on the Developing Economics blog on December 1, 2018 and is based on an academic journal article by the same authors published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics a few months before. From the abstract of the paper:
Adam Smith, one of the earliest defenders of trade, worries that commerce may instigate some perverse incentives, encouraging wars. The wealth that commerce generates decreases the relative cost of wars, increases the ability to finance wars through debts, which decreases their perceived cost, and increases the willingness of commercial interests to use wars to extend their markets, increasing the number and prolonging the length of wars. Smith, therefore, cannot assume that trade would yield a peaceful world. While defending and promoting trade, Smith warns us not to take peace for granted.
Adam Smith observes that the true costs of war remain hidden
In The ABC of Finance; Or, The Money and Labor Questions Familiarly Explained to Common People, in Short and Easy Lessons. Simon Newcomb writes of Adam Smith views on Publick Debts from chapter 3 of The Wealth of Nations.
In The ABC of Finance; Or, The Money and Labor Questions Familiarly Explained to Common People, in Short and Easy Lessons. Simon Newcomb writes of Adam Smith views on Publick Debts from chapter 3 of The Wealth of Nations.
In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory, from a longer continuance of the war.
"Adam Smith and International Relations," by Edwin van de Haar
This AdamSmithWorks post from February 3, 2020 highlights Adam Smith's analysis of international politics which is based on his fundamental beliefs about human nature.
Smith’s ideas on international relations should be understood as an integral part of his moral philosophy, especially his views on human nature. He is no supporter of utopian schemes aimed at a peaceful world. In an anarchic world of states, sovereigns always have the prime task to provide defense, because only then their citizens can turn to economic and other interests. Diplomacy, international law, the balance of power, and sometimes war, contributed to that end. Free trade was great, but had no peace-fostering effects. Adam Smith’s insight into the world’s realities made sure he also made realistic analyses about questions of war, peace and international order.
Want to Read More?
Edwin van de Haar's Adam Smith and Military Intervention | Adam Smith Works
Adam Smith, Lectures on Jurisprudence, Part V: Of the Laws of Nations
Richard Tuck (1999), The Rights of War and Peace. Political Thought and International Order from Grotius to Kant, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
For teachers:
TMS Reading Guide: Part III | Adam Smith Works
TMS Reading Guide: Part III | Adam Smith Works