Si vis pacem, para bellum
Sī vīs pācem, parā bellum (Classical Latin: [siː wiːs ˈpaːkẽː ˈparaː ˈbɛllũː]) is a Latin adage translated as "If you want peace, prepare for war".
The phrase Si vis pacem, para bellum is adapted from a statement found in Latin author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus's tract Dē Rē Mīlitārī (fourth or fifth century AD), in which the actual phrasing is Igitur quī dēsīderat pācem, præparet bellum ("Therefore let him who desires peace prepare for war.").[1][2] The idea which it conveys also appears in earlier works such as Plato's Nomoi (Laws)[3][4] and the Chinese Shi Ji.[better source needed][5]The phrase presents the insight that the conditions of peace are often preserved by a readiness to make war when necessitated.
Whatever the source, the adage has become a living vocabulary item itself, used in the production of different ideas in a number of languages. For example, in 1790 during his first annual address to a joint session of Congress, George Washington stated "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."[6]
For example, historian Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne made reference to the foreign policy of Napoleon Bonaparte:[7]
In the United States, the National Arbitration and Peace Congress of 1907, presided over by Andrew Carnegie said:
"If you want peace, make war". The solution does not cover the case of the nation that does not desire peace. Imperial Germany went to war in 1914 and was castigated by Richard Grelling, a German-Jewish pacifist, in J'Accuse (1915). In 1918 Grelling wrote again, this time as an expatriate in Switzerland. Citing Woodrow Wilson's "The world must be safe for democracy" speech before Congress on April 2, 1917, Grelling says:[9]
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