Si vis pacem, para bellum

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Si vis pacem, para bellum (Classical Latin: [si: wi:s 'pa:k?: 'para 'b?ll?:]) is a Latin adage translated as "If you want peace, prepare for war". It is adapted from a statement found in Book 3 of Latin author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus's tract De Re Militari (4th or 5th century), although the idea which it conveys also appears in earlier works such as Plato's Nomoi (Laws) and the Chinese Shi Ji. The phrase is used above all to affirm that one of the most effective means to ensure peace for a people is to always be armed and ready to defend itself, but it can also mean, in a more subtle way, that an expedient way to keep a people united and in harmony, and therefore being able to govern it better, is to have (or even create) an enemy outside the state, or within it (see also divide et impera), relying on what the roman historian Sallustius defined metus hostilis «fear of the enemy».

Video Si vis pacem, para bellum

Notable uses

Whatever the source, the adage has become a living vocabulary item itself, used in the production of different ideas in a number of languages.

Si vis bellum para pacem

For example, historian de Bourrienne made reference to the foreign policy of Napoleon Bonaparte:

Everyone knows the adage... Had Bonaparte been a Latin scholar he would probably have reversed it and said, Si vis bellum para pacem.

In other words, a leader who is planning a war should put other nations off guard by cultivating peace. Conversely, another interpretation could be that preparing for peace may lead another party to wage war.

Si vis pacem para pactum

The idea of ensuring peace by deterring warlike powers through armaments took an ominous turn in the 20th century with the increased militarism of Nazi Germany and other Axis Powers. Suggesting that perhaps merely being prepared for war is not enough and that it is necessary to wage war in order to deter war. In the United States, the National Arbitration and Peace Congress of 1907, presided over by Andrew Carnegie, had addressed this issue years earlier:

These vast armaments on land and water are being defended as a means, not to wage war, but to prevent war.... there is a safer way ... it requires only the consent and the good-will of the governments. Today they say .... If you want peace, prepare for war. This Congress says in behalf of the people: Si vis pacem, para pactum, if you want peace, agree to keep the peace.

Si vis pacem fac bellum

"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 ex-patriate in Switzerland. Citing Woodrow Wilson's "The world must be safe for democracy" speech before Congress on April 2, 1917, Grelling says:

when all other means fail, ... the liberation of the world from military domination can in the extreme case only take place by battle. ... in place of si vis pacem para bellum a similarly sounding principle ... may become a necessity: Si vis pacem, fac bellum.

Si vis pacem para pacem

"If you want peace, prepare for peace." The great wars of the 19th and 20th centuries were opposed by the philosophy of pacifism, which in the 19th century was associated with early socialism, even though the socialism of the 20th often lacked pacifistic tendencies, preaching violent revolution instead. The pacifism that opposed the world wars traced a lineage to Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin, an early French socialist and one of the founders of Saint-Simonianism. As early as April 2, 1841, he had said in a letter to General Saint-Cyr Nugues:

Le fameux dicton ... me semble beaucoup moins vrai, pour le XIX^e siècle, que Si vis pacem, para pacem.

The famous dictum ... to me seems much less true, for the 19th century, than Si vis pacem, para pacem.

with reference to Algeria. By way of elucidation Enfantin goes on to say that war could have been avoided if a proper study of Algeria had been made.

The parabellum

The main clause of the adage was used as a motto by German arms maker Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), and is the source of the term Parabellum as applied to firearms and ammunition (especially the 9mm Parabellum cartridge). The term is an opposed parallel to the English use of "peacemaker" to mean the Colt Single Action Army handgun.

Maps Si vis pacem, para bellum

Mottos

Various military organizations use or used this phrase as a motto:

MSSG-31 (now known as CLB-31), part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Okinawa, Japan.
Alpha Company of the United States Marine Corps School of Infantry (SOI) - West, based out of Camp Pendleton, California.
US Navy Destroyer Squadron 1 Commodore
The United States Naval Academy class of 1996
The Royal Navy
The Norwegian Military Academy
RAF Spadeadam
The 96th Communication Squadron, based at Eglin AFB
The 1/414th Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Sill
The 302nd Security Forces Squadron, Peterson AFB, Colorado
The 24th Marine Regiment
The Lohatla Army Battle School, South Africa
The 155th Air Refueling Wing Nebraska Air National Guard Logistics Readiness Squadron, Nebraska
The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Chicago (consists of University of Illinois at Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology).
The 4th Company, 1-12th Mech. Bde, Szczecin - Poland
The Weaponry Fund of the Republic of Lithuania Under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania
The Electronic Attack Squadron 139, NAS Whidbey Island, Washington
The Drug Enforcement Administration Basic Agent Class 197 Quantico
Echo Battery 2d Bn/10th Marine Artillery Regiment, 2d MARDIV Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
The 57th Munitions Squadron, based at Nellis AFB, NV

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In popular culture

The title of a 1971 pamphlet by The Angry Brigade
"If You Want Peace... Prepare For War" is the title of a Children of Bodom song from their 2006 album Are You Dead Yet?
The motto of The European Federation's Enforcer Corps in Ubisoft's, Tom Clancy's EndWar
The design for several T-shirts of WWE wrestler Triple H
The title of the eighth episode of the first season of the TV show Star Trek: Discovery
"If you want peace, prepare for war" is repeated in the chorus of "Cenotaph" from the album "Equals" by The Alarm
"Para Bellum" is an event in the video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege from Ubisoft
Used by Captain Renard in the episode Cat and Mouse (Grimm) of the TV series Grimm (TV series)
Used by Frank Castle in the final issue of Punisher: Year One, and during a scene of The Punisher; both times, Castle states he learned the motto at the training camp (Marine Corps in the first case, Special Forces in the second), and both times he's using the phrase to justify his aggressive proactive war against crime.