Abstract
THE admirable broadsheet “European Order and World Order” issued by Political and Economic Planning (P E P), a summary of which appears on p. 948 of this issue, should go far to clarify the confusion which has resulted from the use in current discussions of such terms as ‘war aims’ and ‘peace aims’. The terms on which the belligerent powers will make peace can scarcely be usefully discussed until the outcome of the war is known. On the other hand, neutrals as well as belligerents will have to consider far-reaching measures for reconstruction and for establishing a new international order. This post-war question of reconstruction requires immediate discussion and study if a settlement which is both technically possible and politically acceptable is to be found. No international conference can be expected to do more than put into final form and ratify measures which have already been worked out by experts and approved by the political advisers of all the countries concerned. Moreover, it is neither necessary nor desirable that the reconstruction problem should be tackled simultaneously with that of establishing peace. Indeed the former is visualized usually as a long-term problem for which appropriate machinery must be kept in being over a term of years rather than weeks. The fact that P E P has thought it worth while to issue a broadsheet upon these problems indicates that they are already receiving serious, if unofficial, attention. It is at least encouraging that so many new minds are being brought to bear upon them and so many new ideas are being sifted and taking shape. The scientific and constructive approach outlined by Political and Economic Planning claims the closest attention by scientific workers, and may well help them to see in what direction their own contribution can most effectively be made.
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The Settlement of Europe. Nature 144, 934 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144934a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144934a0