Swords to ploughshares, or swords to plowshares, is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications. The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah: The ploughshare is often used to symbolize creative tools that benefit humankind, as opposed to destructive tools of war, symbolized by the sword, a similar sharp metal tool with an arguably opposite use. In addition to the original Biblical Messianic intent, the expression "beat swords into ploughshares" has been used by disparate social and political groups. An ongoing example as of 2013 is the dismantling of nuclear weapons and the use of their contents as fuel in civilian electric power stations, the Megatons to Megawatts Program. Nuclear fission development, originally accelerated for World War II weapons needs, has been applied to many civilian purposes since its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including electricity and radiopharmaceutical production.
Biblical references
This analogy is used several times in the Old Testament or Tanakh, in both directions, such as in the following verses: An expression of this concept can be seen in a bronze statue in the United Nations garden called Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares, a gift from the Soviet Union sculpted by Evgeniy Vuchetich, representing the figure of a man hammering a sword into the shape of a ploughshare.
Practical applications
After World War II, military surplusAFVs were sometimes converted into bulldozers, agricultural, and logging tractors, as seen in the American television seriesAxe Men. Two are currently preserved at the Swords and Ploughshares Museum in Canada. French farmers sometimes used modified versions of the obsolete FT-17 tank, and similar vehicles, based on the T-34 tank, remain in widespread use in the former USSR. Robert Crawford, a British agricultural engineer and collector of classic tractors, owns a Sherman tank that was adapted to plough Lincolnshire's fields in response to the shortage of crawler tractors.
Swedish aid organization IM Swedish Development Partner launched Humanium Metal, using metal from illegal handguns to create everyday objects. The first product announced was headphones by Yevo.
The Global Positioning System was originally developed to enable more accurate strikes with long-range weapons by the United States, but its purpose was later expanded to include civilian applications such as personal navigation assistants.
Twelve-term US Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul wrote a book entitled Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity, in which he discusses growing up during World War II and living his life through war after war.
