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Ask the Peacebuilder: What is "Peace"? |
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Editor's Note: This month, we start a new feature called "Ask the
Peacebuilder." Marianne Perez, part of
New Yorkers for a Department of Peace, will share information about
peacebuilding and answer your questions about the field. Feel free to leave a comment on the article so we can have a conversation. Just
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
and we’ll consider your topic for this section.
What is "Peace"? This is just a test piece.
A very simple working definition for peace is how effectively we are able to transform conflict before it escalates into violence. This is a variation on the definition from Johan Galtung, the founder of the field of peace studies, which holds peace as the measure of two or more parties' ability to transform conflict nonviolently and creatively. If we want a more holistic and expanded view, the United Nations offers us a deeper definition and we'll discuss that also.
These are POSITIVE definitions of peace.
Traditionally, we think of peace in NEGATIVE terms. That is, we define peace in terms of what it is not: peace is the absence of war/violence. Certainly many people in the general public still understand peace this way--you may have encountered some while campaigning for a Department of Peace.
The absence of overt war in fact more closely describes what I would consider to be a Cold War—the status that existed between the US and the USSR for most of the late 20th century.
(For further reading see: http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/4_2natp.pdf)
Now, we tend to think of war and peace in terms of international relations, things that happen between nation states. It is this connotation of peace that often provokes the question "Why do we need a Department of Peace? Isn't that what we have the Department of State for?"
Peace is not usually understood as being something that exists at home, within our country and our communities. Words that often replace peace in the domestic sphere include violence prevention, conflict resolution, and justice.
Current thinking in the field of peace studies posits that peace is a state of being that can be cultivated within ourselves, our communities, our societies, our civilizations and our world. Peace happens at all levels.
Now if we go back to our definition of peace being how effectively we are able to transform conflict before it escalates into violence we can see that peace is:
- How I communicate with my boss when we disagree on how to carry out a project—do I bad mouth her behind her back and ignore her requests, or do I engage her in a constructive dialogue?
- How schools deal with bullying and school violence—do they suspend/expel perpetrators or do they teach the students and faculty conflict mediation skills?
- How communities allocate land use—does the group with the most money/ power make the decision or are all parties consulted and agree on mutually beneficial outcome?
- How society addresses violence against women—does it permit and condone it or does it legislate against it and provide the resources to enforce that legislation?
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