The “peace through strength” thing isn’t working out well. World conflicts are morphing into durable, lasting, and escalating war. Peace through strength thinking supports this process as only nations which believe in their military superiority voluntarily enter war.
Peace-through-strength, or paraphrased, “peace or we will militarily destroy you”, is not a new, or peaceful, idea. It traces back to at least the Roman Empire. Ronald Reagan utilized the idea during the 1980 presidential campaign, Donald Trump did the same in the recent presidential campaign. But the countervailing logic is clear, preparation for war, will lead a nation into war. Albert Einstein wrote: “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war”. There is a logic which, in preparation for war, actually leads a nation into war.
During 2026, the U.S. will spend roughly $1 trillion on military expenditures. This is 3 times the military budget of China, and over five times that of Russia. The Administration is seeking a 2027 fiscal year military budget of $1.5 trillion. Expenditures of this magnitude, in support of the “peace through strength” agenda, cannot but lead to the militarization of society, and ultimately war.
People are literally born and bred into a sizable demographic whose mission it is to fight and prepare for war. Additionally, U.S. military outsized dominance provides space for members of Congress to thump their chest and wave the flag in an effort to rally support for threats against foreign governments. In the ultimate insult to the soldier, some members of Congress will exploit the tragic death of military personnel for more war. The hubris, the bellicose statements, are based on the assumption of U.S. military dominance, a dominance developed on the principle of peace through strength.
This ongoing narrative of U.S.military superiority affects the spirit and consciousness of its people. It lifts military violence to a state ever-present in our minds, and with this, corresponding justifications for military violence.
The justifications for war include: “its human nature; “its always been that way”; “they are evil, we are good”; “it is our Manifest Destiny to make people more like us”. A small minority of people challenge these assumptions: some within the clergy, some within the general population, and a few historical figures, notably Jesus of Nazareth, who opposed all physical violence.
We have become brain-washed, propagandized to an extent that we believe war is a necessary ingredient of life. But it is not. It is a tactical maneuver by some in power, to maintain power. But the average person, the ones who fight the wars, do not need, or desire, war.
U.S. military dominance developed on the “peace through strength” concept, flourishes within the U.S.’ capitalist context. Marketeers exploit the concept for the sale of goods and services. Violent entertainment and video games, free of restraint because capitalism encourages the sale of almost anything, desensitizes the population to the pain of violence. The immense profits available to individual firms which engage in arms production encourages support from this sector of the economy; capitalism’s worship of survival-of-the-fittest competition supports the warrior ethos; the self-interested behavior which capitalism inspires, where individual material welfare is valued more greatly than communal welfare, or stated differently, the value of the humane becomes diminished relative to the value of individual excessive consumption desires, taken to its logical conclusions, also leads to war, as people become willing to sacrifice human life for material consumptive desires.
Peace through strength will never lead to peace. It is logically inconsistent: the spiritual, social, and material preparations for war, alters our state of consciousness, it directs our thoughts towards war while providing justifications for its use. Peace through the commitment to peace, coordinated among nations, is the only possible direction which can lead to peace. This will involve a coordinated commitment to deescalation, smaller military budgets, more dialogue, and serious democratic restraints on military action.
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