ABSTRACT
Pacifism is conventionally defined in somewhat negative terms, as the refusal to participate in war or preparations for war, most often for moral reasons of one sort or another. Furthermore, pacifism is often depicted in absolutist terms, as the view, for instance, that ‘it is always wrong to go to war’ (Norman 1991, 166) or that ‘participation in and support for war is always impermissible’ (Ceadel 1989, 5).
