Oromia Peace Institute

In the popular imagination, nationalism is often a trumpet call to arms. It is the defiant flag planted on a hill, the rousing speech before a charge, the unwavering commitment to defend the homeland against any threat. This image is powerful, historic, and, in moments of existential crisis, essential. But it is tragically incomplete. If nationalism is understood only as the capacity to declare and wage war, it becomes a self-consuming, ultimately destructive force. A mature, responsible, and enduring nationalism possesses a dual mandate: it must be as skilled and courageous in declaring peace as it is in declaring war.

The declaration of war, while a grave and somber act, is conceptually simple. It draws a line, identifies an enemy, and mobilizes collective energy toward a single, overriding goal: victory. It simplifies complex realities into a binary of us versus them. The spirit it summons—of sacrifice, unity, and resilience—can forge a powerful sense of national identity. We rightly honor those who answer this call.

However, a nationalism that knows only this mode is like a nation that knows only how to build fortresses but not homes. It becomes trapped in a perpetual posture of defiance, seeing threats where there could be partners and conflicts where there could be resolutions. It mistakes perpetual mobilization for strength, and truculence for sovereignty.

The far more difficult, and more profound, test of national strength is the declaration of peace. This is not surrender or weakness, but a strategic, moral, and political choice of the highest order. It requires a different, more complex form of courage.

Declaring peace demands several acts of advanced statecraft that war does not:

1. The Courage of Complex Truth: War simplifies; peace complicates. Declaring peace means moving beyond the clear narrative of hero and villain to grapple with tangled histories, mutual grievances, and the ambiguous gray areas of responsibility. It requires a nationalism secure enough to acknowledge national flaws and wounds without fearing the dissolution of identity.
2. The Strength of Empathy: War dehumanizes the enemy; peace requires re-humanizing them. It involves understanding the fears, narratives, and aspirations of the “other,” not to justify past wrongs, but to build a future where those wrongs are not repeated. This empathy is not a betrayal of one’s own people, but an expansion of security, recognizing that a neighbor’s stability is integral to one’s own.
3. The Wisdom of Long-Term Vision: War is fought for an end-state: victory. Peace is built for a process: sustainable coexistence. It asks a nation to trade the immediate, cathartic goal of conquest for the gradual, unglamorous work of diplomacy, institution-building, economic cooperation, and societal healing. It invests in a future dividend of safety and prosperity that may not be reaped for a generation.
4. The Sovereignty of Choice: Perhaps most importantly, a sovereign declaration of peace is the ultimate sign of national confidence. It is a choice made from a position of calculated strength and self-assuredness, not from fear or exhaustion. It asserts that the nation’s destiny is determined by its own wise choices, not eternally dictated by the actions of its adversaries.

Throughout our lives and our history, circumstances change. There are moments when the only path to preserve the life, liberty, and dignity of a people is to stand and fight. But there are also pivotal junctures—after a victory, in a stalemate, or when a cycle of violence becomes clearly futile—where the greatest service to the nation is to lay down arms, extend a hand, and build.

A nationalism that cannot declare peace is a nationalism doomed to endless conflict. It confuses the nation with the army and the citizen with the soldier. True patriotism loves the homeland enough to fight for it, but also loves its people enough to secure for them the blessings of tranquility, normalcy, and productive life.

Ultimately, the goal of any national project should be to create a space where citizens can thrive in safety and freedom. Sometimes war is the necessary, terrible means to that end. But whenever possible, peace is the superior end itself. Therefore, let us champion a complete nationalism—one with the ferocity to defend the borders when breached, and the profound wisdom to open the gates when the time for healing and building has come. For in the long arc of a nation’s life, its legacy will be defined not only by the wars it won, but by the peaces it had the courage to make.