The constructivist and Mennonite prediction: an increasingly peaceful future

Will there be another world war?


No one knows for sure.


Constructivist theorists, including Mennonites, would argue that the chance of another world war gets smaller and smaller as time passes. We share the good news that we are less and less likely to be ensnared by another world war.


A constructivist would say that with the passing of time, more and more people are realizing that war is a bad idea. War kills people and causes destruction. We have better ways to solve our problems than war that don't involve killing and destruction. We have diplomacy, cooperation, and building up the peaceful sectors of society, all tools that are preferable to war when nations deal with conflicts. Our progress on this peacebuilding makes the horrors of war's killing and destruction unnecessary. If we can solve our problems by choosing peace, why would we choose war?


Mennonites are very progressive within constructivism. Mennonite Central Committee began with the purpose of getting Mennonites away from war, and once we were safe its mission changed to one of peacebuilding, or building choices other than war to solve our problems and demonstrating ways of being peaceful. We've been doing this work for decades and have worked in consort with all other constructivists and peacebuilders. We may have been sufficiently successful to help the world avoid another world war.


The constructivist prediction is very different from the so-called "realist" prediction of an imminent world war.

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