China Media Research, 18(3), July 2022 ISSN: 1556-889X 15 War and Peace: Breaking the Cycle Peter D. Hershock 1 East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, USA Abstract: Just war theory is predicated on a realist interpretation of the causes of war and the possibility of moral defense for state-orchestrated violence. Making use of Buddhist resources, this short paper uses the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a gate for reflecting on the deeper origins of war in our everyday ways of life, on its marriage of bodily and temporal violence, and on its dysfunctional, cyclic alternation with peace and on how to break it. [Peter D. Hershock. War and Peace: Breaking the Cycle. China Media Research 2022; 18(3): 15-22]. 3 Keywords: Buddhism, culture, just war, peace, time, virtuosity The roots of war are in the way we live our daily lives -- the way we develop our industries, build up our society, and consume goods. – Thich Nhat Hanh For many of us, it was hard to believe that Vladimir Putin ordered a military assault on Ukraine. We had come to believe that, while war in Europe might not be impossible, it had become so historically unlikely that Putin’s bellicose rhetoric had to be just that—rhetoric, nothing real, nothing to worry about. We were wrong. Disbelief has turned to outrage, to anguish, and to the tongue-bitten condemnations of those compelled to reduce risk profiles as they plead for democratic solidarity and support for Ukrainian freedom. Calls reverberate globally for trade sanctions, freezing oligarch assets, making arms gifts, and refusing Russian oil. Disinformation squalls roar through the internet causing digitally convulsing vortices of desire, determination, and dread. In Ukraine, courageous resistance pairs with the flight of women and children into uncertain foreign refuge. Bullets rain. Aerial ordinance thunders. Bodies shred and buildings shatter. It's wrong. But how do we right it? The geopolitical wisdom is to halt the violence by negotiating a ceasefire, and to then broker diplomatic alternatives to the toxic preemptions of military intervention. The realist practicality of this intuition is undeniable. But halting the fast violence of war does not necessarily end the everyday practices of slow violence 1 Peter D. Hershock is Director of the Asian Studies Development Program and Coordinator of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center. His research makes use of Buddhist resources to address contemporary issues of global concern.