"Introduction" and "Conclusion", in The man, the State and the war, Editorial Nova, Buenos Aires, 1959

Abstract

One may seek in political philosophy answers to the question: Where are the major causes of war to be found? The wide variety of answers is here ordered under the following three headings: within man, within the states and within the structure of the international system. From following these different approaches to the causes of war - categorized here as the three images of international relations - different paths lie ahead as to how to achieve greater peace in the world. The main goal of this book is not to construct a model for peace, but rather to examine the analytical terms of the images over which these models for peace are built upon. The main conclusion is that to understand international relations, a combination of the three images, more than just one of them, is required. The third image describes the framework for world politics but without the first and second images there can be no knowledge of the forces that determine politics; the first and second images describe the forces in world politics, but with the third image amiss, it is not possible to evaluate their importance or to predict their result.