THE 
American-Scandinavian 
Review 
Volume X 
September, 1922 
Number 9 
The Peace Movement After the War 
By Hjalmar Branting 
Lecture Given at the University of Christiania, June 19, in Fulfillment of Obligation 
as Nobel Prize Winner 
In the statutes of Nobel’s testament it is said regarding' the 
Peace Prize that it is to be awarded to men and women who have been 
active in promoting the brotherhood of nations, the abolition or reduc¬ 
tion of standing armies, and the arrangement of peace congresses. 
The brotherhood of nations is here put at the head; that is in itself 
the great goal. The other points are ways and means of reaching 
this goal and are, in their nature, expressions of the efforts and ideals 
that were in the foreground at the time when the testament was 
framed. In its wording it is colored by a certain historical epoch. 
But the brotherhood of nations is a part of the deepest longing in 
human nature. It has been the ideal of some of the most highly 
developed minds for thousands of years; and yet, in spite of the 
progress of our civilization, probably no one at present wQuld venture 
to stand forth and say with any confidence that this goal was likely 
to be realized within a near future. If we did not know it before, the 
World War has shown us only too well what chasms and abysses 
separate the nations, and it has moreover deepened and widened these 
chasms, while the arduous work of building bridges across the torn 
surfaces of the earth is yet in its beginning. But however distantly 
the high goal may sometimes seem to beckon, however baffled we feel 
in being thrown back from that illusion which perhaps not a few of us 
cherished, the illusion that hereafter war between highly civilized 
nations would be impossible, just as according to the royal word which 
still stands firm and immutable it is impossible between Scandinavian 
brethren, there is no other way for those who do not wish to despair 
of humanity than to resume—even after the relapse into barbarism 
