Ecological fit and irenic force

– By Gary G. Nelson
The structure and dynamics of the ecology instruct us on how the forms of complexity exist and persist and how their parts fit the forms…
The peace rebellion

– By Sophie Cherel
Is there a will and a way to peace? What exactly is that will, and how shall we find our way? What work shall we engage in to make humans less murderous creatures and advance a civilizing process?…
La paz es educación para confiar / Peace is educating to trust

– By María Cristina Peñuela Mora
For me, peace is like happiness: we all want it and it is made up of simple things; it is the desire for good things to happen to all of us. One of the things that I enjoy very much is reading, because it allows me to study, know, and understand this world a little better…
Poem: Narcissus bellicosus

– By Nigel S. Thompson
Poem: Narcissus bellicosus…
Deterrence and its discontents

– By David Barash
In one of his most famous lines, Captain Ahab urged: “Strike, strike through the mask!” Admittedly, said captain isn’t the finest role model one can imagine, but I’ve long thought that his demand is precisely what good skeptics are called to do…
Violence: A view from anthropology

– By Douglas P. Fry
Anthropology, the study of humankind, offers an important set of perspectives on human violence and peace. The discipline looks across cultures—it is culturally comparative..
Aspirer à un principe inférieur

– By Mark-Alec Mellor
Dans les cultures qui mettent en scène le chaos dans leurs récits fondateurs, le désordre primordial n’est pas violent, mais dénué de forme, son énergie ne suivant aucune trajectoire. Lorsque l’ordre émerge, c’est au prix d’un conflit : un chaoskampf de forces rivales qui luttent pour avoir l’ascendant.
Interview: Lawrence Rosenwald

– Lawrence Rosenwald & Mark-Alec Mellor
Many thinkers, from Pascal to Marx to Foucault, have called the idea of human nature into question. Is the concept of any use to us in our efforts to create a more peaceful world?…
Aspiring to a lower principle

– By Mark-Alec Mellor
Among cultures that feature chaos in their creation stories, the primordial disorder is not violent, but formless, with all its energy undirected. When order emerges, it comes at the price of conflict: a chaoskampf of rival forces fighting for ascendency…
Editorial: Winter Issue 2023

– By the Editor
We offer you, our valued readers, the inaugural issue of The Irenaut, a magazine devoted to understanding peace as an active principle, an energy, rather than a state to be defined in contradistinction to conflict or war…