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About this quote

What does it mean?
Measures to make war impossible might be worse than war itself.
In plain terms
Trying to ban war completely could cause more harm than war.
What can you take from it?
Reduce war risks pragmatically rather than seeking impossible utopias.

Where it applies

  • international relations
  • defense policy
  • deterrence

Putting it to work

  • aim for risk reduction
  • avoid extreme solutions
  • balance ideals with reality

Questions to consider

  • Is perfect peace worth high costs?
  • What is a realistic goal for peace?

Another view

Some absolute prohibitions might prevent necessary conflicts or justice.

More from Friedrich Hayek

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  2. The most effective way of making people accept the validity of the values they are to serve is to persuade them that they are really the same as those which th…

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  3. What we need and can hope to achieve is not more power in the hands of irresponsible international economic authorities but, on the contrary, a superior politi…

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