“Give Peace a Chance”: The Journey from John Lennon's Dream to Modern Realpolitik

پژوهش نامه مبانی تعلیم و تربیت

Article 4, Volume 14, Issue 2 - Serial Number 28, March 2025, Pages 42-58   

Document Type: پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/fedu.2025.46537

Author

Tina Besley^*

Visiting Professor, School of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China.

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of peace movements and the concept of peace itself through the lens of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 "Give Peace a Chance" protest and its relationship to contemporary global politics. It argues that the idealistic vision of peace championed by Lennon and the anti-war movement has been fundamentally transformed by the realities of Pax Americana, where peace has become inseparable from U.S. hegemony and military power.  It is now conditional upon alignment with U.S. strategic interests, maintained through a complex system of approximately 750 military bases worldwide, economic sanctions, and proxy warfare. The simple anti-war message of "Give Peace a Chance" has given way to more complex calculations of "whose peace, on what terms, and at what cost?" This transformation reflects not just the naïveté of earlier peace movements, but a fundamental shift in how peace is conceptualized and pursued in an era where conflict has become integrated into systems of economic and political power.

Keywords

peace movements; pax americana; john lennon and yoko ono; global politics and hegemony; anti-war activism

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