Abolishing The Military

by Joseph Llewellyn, Griffin Manawaroa Leonard, Richard Jackson

In an era of escalating global conflicts, this book challenges the conventional belief that nation-states need military forces to ensure their security and contribute to international peace. As academic discourse on non-violent methods of national defence and global peace promotion gains momentum, there is growing evidence supporting the viability of such policy approaches. Far from being a matter of solely academic concern, this debate parallels increasing public awareness that militaries are struggling to deal effectively with (and may actually exacerbate) contemporary threats and challenges such as terrorism, climate change and inequality.

Abolishing the Military: Arguments and Alternatives critically examines several widely held assumptions regarding the necessity of a military force for Aotearoa New Zealand. In doing so, it demonstrates that these assumptions often rest on shaky foundations or evidence. Moreover, the book explores alternative non-violent strategies for national defence and international peace promotion, offering a fresh perspective on global security in the twenty-first century.

Paperback

Published November 1, 2023

Reviews

[John Workman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just fantastic. Well researched, well organized, compact and inspirational. This is a proper attempt at modern political philosophy as the arguments made against the NZDF in this book in many ways reflect an abstract critique of militarization as a method of political problem solving but instead of getting caught up in these abstractions gives us a concrete example with numerous historical accounts as to why, in a very fundamental way, violence begets violence. May the pacifist movements only grow stronger and more persuasive with each book written like this one. Even though the book briefly showcases non-violent internal conflict resolution I would like to see a similar set of arguments made for police abolition as well, even if this book applies to that topic as well.

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique approach to geo-politics