Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in New York, has an article in the latest Sojourners, that is available online. Some highlights below

In the Face of War, Sojourners Magazine/January 2005

In a U.S.-dominated world bent on seeing how far the logic of a neo-liberal economy can be the logic of society itself, this is a huge arena critical to the reconciliation of structured enemies.

peacemaking’s attention to the forces of the global economy and to threats to global and local life systems is mandatory.

Just as “pacifism” is wrongly taken by some to mean “passive non-resistance,” so “just war” is wrongly taken to be about justifying war.

The peace ethic of non-pacifist churches has focused too long on deadly force and its threat (when and where deadly force is justified and how it might justly be conducted). This makes the exception to the norm – controlled violence – the agenda itself!

For Christian pacifist paradigms, following Jesus as “premeditated reconciliation” would be more accurate than “nonviolence.”

Pacifist practices are not just a firewall for containing conflict. They are the evangelical practices these traditions see as a whole way of life. Just peacemaking is the hard task of developing these as civic practices and not only ecclesial ones.