Book Reviews : Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan. By TOM SLICK. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1958. Pp. x, 181. $2.95.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300246
• Date: 01 June 1960
• Published date: 01 June 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

555
Permanent Peace: A Check and Balance Plan. By TOM SLICK. (Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1958. Pp. x, 181. $2.95.)
Never before in human history has a world-wide holocaust of war been more
threatening nor have the prospects for a &dquo;real and constant&dquo; peace appeared more
attractive than now. &dquo;This paradox occurs because the very enormity of the
threat itself makes it more likely that some remedy to the danger will be sought
and found....&dquo; Upon such a thesis the author, a layman, has written this book
in order to stir laymen of the world to action.
Much, in fact most, of the book is not new. Short chapters re-evaluating the
machinery for peace, earlier peace plans, total war or total peace, ideas about col-
lective security, the rule of law, limiting national sovereignty, are not original in
content and are often somewhat amateurish and awkward in context; but these
subjects, simply and forcefully presented, without technical jargon, can be more
readily grasped at the grass-roots level. Perhaps these are the qualities needed to
arouse the masses to act.
In one original chapter, the heart of his book, using some suggestions by Gren-
ville Clark and Louis Sohn, World Peace Through World War as a foundation,
Mr. Slick fills in details of a unique plan for the reduction of national armaments
and the creation of international military forces. Checks and balances must pre-
vail while international peace forces are developed simultaneously with the reduc-
tion of national forces. At any given time, the formula reads, there shall be inter-
national police forces, provided by equitable quotas, under the direct command of
the United Nations, equal to 10 per cent of the total armed strength of the world.
Second, there shall be...