Peace Studies

Throughout time, peace has always been amongst the highest value of humanity. Although many believe peace can be easily defined, they fail to recognize its other definitions. Peace is based on an explicit set of values: war is bad, peace is almost always preferable to war and violence, humans have the capacity to be compassionate, and humans also have the capacity to be cruel. In addition to these set of values, peace is most commonly defined as the absence of war. To study peace means to openly observe each characteristic of peace. Vandana Shiva’s Earth Democracy and David Barash’s Peace and Conflict Studies discusses peace as multidimensional concept that can be divided into several different categories including: negative peace, positive peace, inner peace, and outer peace. Typically, a person does not think of peace in the negative sense. Synonyms such as: concord, harmony, serenity, and tranquility are brought into conversation when a person discusses the meaning of peace. The most popular definition of peace is the absence of conflict. Furthermore, negative peace is the “absence of”, or the bare minimum. “Negative peace simple denotes the absence of war” (7). In contrast, “positive peace refers to a social condition in which exploitation is minimized or eliminated and in which there is neither overt violence…” (7). Along with positive and negative peace comes inner and outer peace. Inner peace refers to the mental state marked by the absence of unpleasant thoughts whereas outer peace refers to political or social peace. Outer peace focuses on the peace within a society. It is based on the nonappearance of violence. Barash explains, “One commonly understood meaning of violence is that it is physical and readily apparent through observable bodily injury and/or the infliction of pain. But it is important to recognize the existence of another form of violence, one that is indirect and insidious” (7). Structural violence is subtle and built into the

Cited: Barash, David P., and Charles Webel. Peace and Conflict Studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002. Print Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2005. Print.