Heinrich A. Rommen
As long as the great powers accept the moral duty of changing an unjust status quo even if it means sacrifice to them, just so long will there be peace.
The State in Catholic Thought, by Heinrich A. Rommen, introduction by Bruce Frohnen (Cluny Media, 770 pages)
There is no possible evasion of the general principle that power and wealth are the measure of public responsibility for the common weal. As long as the great powers, in accordance with the moral will to justice and in accordance with the acceptance of the duties of liberality and natural equity, take over the responsibility to preserve peace and to compromise in conflicts of interest, a responsibility which Providence has laid on their shoulders, just so long shall we have peace. As long as the great powers accept the moral duty of changing an unjust status quo even if it means sacrifice to them, just so long will there be peace. A formulation of these moral duties in legal machinery, in international institutions of conciliation and arbitration, will indeed facilitate the exercise of these responsibilities and moral duties, will promote common uniting interests against dissolving particular interests, will be able to crystallize an international public opinion that makes the individual citizen aware of his double allegiance to the national and international common good.
Yes, legal institutions may well do all this, if the first and basic presuppositions are realized. If they are not realized, the legal institutions which have in themselves no supreme authority and which work only by the intervention of the moral will of persons or groups of persons, will collapse just as surely as did the League of Nations as soon as the great states became divided into status quo powers and revisionist powers and when one of the latter, Italy, » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/10/basis-international-peace-heinrich-rommen.html