Does Peace Lead to War? Peace Settlements and Conflict in the Modern Age. - book review

Contemporary Review, August, 2002

Does Peace Lead to War? Peace Settlements and Conflict in the Modern Age. Matthew Hughes and Matthew S. Seligmann. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. US$29.95.242pages. ISBN0-7509-2514-0. This volume claims to be the first study into the ways in which peace settlements actually 'lead to war'.

The period under survey is from 1870 to 1975 and the peace settlements being studied are grouped geographically into three sections: Europe, the Near East and, finally, the Far East. The peace settlements surveyed in the first section include those ending the Franco-Prussian War and the two ending the Great War in Europe (Versailles and Brest-Litovsk). In the second section the authors look at the treaty ending the Ottoman Empire's involvement in the Great War and the 'settlement' between the Arabs and Israelis in 1948-9. In the third section, the Yalta Accords, the peace settlement in Korea and the Geneva Conference of 1954 are examined. The authors argue that 'peace settlements are a neglected thematic strand t hat link modem wars together. Peace settlements ... not only end wars [but] also cause them; indeed, the way in which a war ends will determine if there will be another conflict'. Peace settlements, they argue, 'are a core determinant engendering war'.