Abstract
It is argued that the Peach-Koehler force on a disclination in a nematic liquid crystal is, unlike its namesake for a dislocation in a solid, not a fictitious configurational force, but a real force which, for equilibrium, must be balanced by an external force applied to the singular line. Formally this is a consequence of the near identity of the Ericksen stress and the appropriate energy-momentum tensor.

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