"The longing for peace is rooted in the hearts of all men. But the striving, which at present has become so insistent, cannot lay claim to such an ambition as leading the way to eternal peace, or solving all disputes among nations"
About this Quote
Peace gets framed here as both instinct and illusion: a craving that feels innate, and a political project that routinely overpromises. Myrdal opens with a disarming concession - “rooted in the hearts of all men” - not because she’s selling sentiment, but because she’s disarming her opponents. If even hard-nosed diplomats accept that the desire for peace is real, then the critique that follows can’t be dismissed as cynicism. The turn comes on “But”: the modern “striving” for peace has become “insistent,” almost pushy, a moral campaign that risks confusing urgency with possibility.
The subtext is a warning against the seductive marketing of grand solutions. In the Cold War era that shaped Myrdal’s diplomatic life - when nuclear deterrence, disarmament talks, and international institutions carried near-messianic expectations - “eternal peace” wasn’t just naive; it was dangerous. Promising to “solve all disputes among nations” invites disappointment, backlash, and the kind of absolutist thinking that can justify coercion in the name of harmony.
Her intent isn’t to mock peace activism so much as to discipline it: to insist on limits, trade-offs, and the stubborn persistence of conflict even among “reasonable” states. Rhetorically, she uses a careful narrowing of claims: from peace as a human longing, to peace as a policy agenda, to peace as an impossible end-state. The power of the quote is that it refuses the comfort of permanence. Peace, in Myrdal’s view, is work - not salvation.
The subtext is a warning against the seductive marketing of grand solutions. In the Cold War era that shaped Myrdal’s diplomatic life - when nuclear deterrence, disarmament talks, and international institutions carried near-messianic expectations - “eternal peace” wasn’t just naive; it was dangerous. Promising to “solve all disputes among nations” invites disappointment, backlash, and the kind of absolutist thinking that can justify coercion in the name of harmony.
Her intent isn’t to mock peace activism so much as to discipline it: to insist on limits, trade-offs, and the stubborn persistence of conflict even among “reasonable” states. Rhetorically, she uses a careful narrowing of claims: from peace as a human longing, to peace as a policy agenda, to peace as an impossible end-state. The power of the quote is that it refuses the comfort of permanence. Peace, in Myrdal’s view, is work - not salvation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Alva Myrdal, Nobel Lecture (Nobel Peace Prize 1982), Oslo, 1982 — full lecture text published on the official Nobel Prize website. |
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