«Repensar la paz»: Francisco de Vitoria y la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia, base para una nueva arquitectura de seguridad global y desarrollo

Twenty years after Jesus Ballesteros’s work, Repensar la paz (Rethinking Peace), this article reviews the causes of wars worldwide, as well as the foundations for peace. It first examines the strategic and military doctrine behind current conflicts and the growing dissolution of the post-war international order. With such geopolitical axioms based on force, a nuclear confrontation will be inevitable. The second part outlines a superior alternative for multipolar security and development, based in the Social Doctrine of the Church, expanded by the legacy of Francisco de Vitoria, the father of international law. The article concludes with Vitoria’s concept of a just peace, its influence on the Peace of Westphalia, and the relevance of the encyclical Pacem in Terris in the face of the nuclear threat.