Sue for Peace

By Deane Barker • •

This means to ask an opponent to stop a conflict and enter peace negotiations. It’s usually used to describe when a country has no other choice.

It’s a little confusing, because in modern usage “sue” means an adversarial legal action. However, the original definition of “sue” is “make a petition for” or “plead for.”

Why I Looked It Up

I had heard it for years, and I thought it meant some international legal situation. It was used several times in The Shortest History of India which prompted me to look it up.

Links from this – The Shortest History of India December 26, 2023
This book lived up to its title – it was a short, competent history of India. That said, it suffers from a problem of any book dealing with ancient history – it can be hard to transition between time periods and know what’s factual and what’s legend. Consider: There’s a period with everything is...