ABSTRACT
The Marxists have been among the most significant and persistent challengers of the idea that a peaceful and just world will result from an evolutionary development of economic or moral relations. At the same time Marxists themselves are advocates of a ‘universalist’ perspective and a universal history which also ends in world peace and a society in which everyone contributes according to ability and receives according to need. But in order to progress to this end, they say, the people of the world must go through a period of radical social change and whatever revolutions or wars are necessary to bring it about, and the cause of these struggles is precisely the social relations and developments which so many people have believed would encourage peace — relations of commerce and trade, the development of manufacturing and industry.
