Understanding Quality Peace


Book Description

This book provides an analytical framework for understanding how the concept of quality peace can be used to evaluate post-conflict peacebuilding, using social science, statistics, and case studies. Including contributions from more than 20 researchers and practitioners, it argues that the quality of the peace in a post-conflict state relates to the extent to which peace accords are implemented, the agreed-upon mechanism for the non-violent resolution of the conflict, and the available social space for civil and political actors. To arrive at the concept of 'quality peace', the authors evaluate the existing literature and identify a lack of a satisfactory means of measuring outcomes, and consequently how these might be researched comparatively. The volume problematizes the 'quality peace' concept as a way to understand the origins of armed conflict as well as problems deriving from the conflict dynamics and the need for social, political, and economic changes in the post-conflict periods. The book emphasizes five dimensions as crucial for quality peace in a post-accord society. Negotiations and agreements not only aim at avoiding the return of war but also seek to: (1) promote reconciliation, (2) develop mechanisms for resolving future disputes, (3) provide for reliable security, (4) open economic opportunities for marginalized segments of the population, and (5) generate space for civil society. These five dimensions together provide for quality peace after war. They are studied in the context of internal armed conflicts in which multiple parties have signed a peace agreement. This book will be of great interest to students of peace and conflict studies, civil wars, global governance, security studies, and International Relations in general.




Quality Peace


Book Description

In Quality Peace, leading peace researcher Peter Wallensteen offers a broad analysis of peacebuilding, isolating what does and not work when settling conflicts. The book uses statistical analysis to compare two war outcomes-negotiated settlement and victory- in the post-Cold War era. Wallensteen finds that if peace is to last, three conditions must be met: a losing party must retain its dignity; security and the rule of law must be ensured for all; and the time horizon for the settlement must be long enough to ensure a sense of normalcy. Wallensteen breaks down the components of all of these conditions and applies them to interstate conflicts, civil wars in which rebels are aiming to take over the entire state, and separatist rebellions. He also delves into the issue of world order and the significance of major power relations for local peace efforts. Thus, the work provides a remarkable understanding of how different types of war outcomes deal with post-war conditions. Sharply argued and comprehensive, Quality Peace will invigorate peace research and stimulate peace practice, becoming an authoritative work in the field.




Understanding Conflict Resolution


Book Description

Understanding Conflict Resolution is a comprehensive introduction to the study of peace and conflict studies. It explores both the historical roots of the study of conflict management, as well as the contemporary settings and the tools available to states, regional and global organizations where these core ideas apply. Drawing on cutting-edge research and examples from around the world, the fifth edition includes: Three new chapters on the key threats and hopes emerging post-2010: one-sided violence, including genocide and terrorism;gendering international affairs; and climate challenges stemming from global warming and the danger of nuclear war Brand new case studies focusing on contemporary events and issues: ISIS; Brexit; Nuclear Arms Race; Refugees as a weapon of war. Learning features such as graphs, data sets, a glossary, annotated further reading lists, and access to a companion website full of online resources. This is an essential text for all students, lecturers and researchers of peace and conflict resolution in international relations, global politics and political science.




Peter Wallensteen: A Pioneer in Making Peace Researchable


Book Description

This book provides a broad overview of what peace research is all about by an author who has been involved in the field for more than half a century. Among other things it gives a unique review of how peace research emerged in Sweden as the author was a key actor in the most crucial events during this formative period. The book also portrays how the discipline has grown from an initial focus on “alternatives to war” to the comprehensive study of the many dimensions of a “lasting and positive peace”. The author's own work covers causes of war, sanctions, conflict resolution, conflict data, mediation, and quality peace. They demonstrate the range of topics that have to be understood for a peace with quality. This is exemplified by some of the author's writings specifically selected for this volume plus a few ones original to it. Some accounts of the author's involvements in actual peace processes in the 1990s are also included. This publication offers a substantial contribution to understanding the evolution of peace research as a field and is an important reading for scholars, policy makers, journalists, students and any aspiring peace researcher as well as for the public at large. • Peter Wallensteen is a global pioneer of peace research due to his involvement in the creation of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University ¬– a major center in the field. He served as Head of Department from 1972 to 1999. • Peter Wallensteen set up and directed the well-known Uppsala Conflict Data Program, UCDP, the global resource for the study of armed conflicts and peace negotiations, 1978-2015. • Peter Wallensteen was the first holder of the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, 1985-2012. • He was also the first holder of the position as the Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research Professor of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA, 2006-2018.




Understanding Peace Research


Book Description

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of different methods and sources of information-gathering for peace and conflict students and researchers, as well as the challenges presented by such work. Research on conflict-ridden societies carries special challenges for the collection and evaluation of information about the conflict and its actors. First, due to the nature of information emerging, incentives to misrepresent and propaganda is common. News coverage is sometimes poor and reporting is often incomplete, selective and biased. Second, the sensitivity of the topic and the questions posed in peace and conflict research means that access to and the security of informants can be a problem. Peace and conflict research as a discipline encompasses a number of different approaches for obtaining empirical information which serve as a basis for analyzing various research topics. This book provides a comprehensive overview of different methods and sources of information-gathering for students and researchers, as well as the challenges presented by such work. It offers: tools for evaluating sources and information suggestions on where different types of information can be found advice on using different types of sources, including news reports and written narratives practical guidelines for constructing large-scale datasets insights and guidelines for comparative fieldwork, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and surveys reflection and discussion on important ethical concerns in peace research This book will be of much interest for students and researchers of peace and conflict studies, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies, development studies, security studies and IR, as well as for NGO workers/researchers. Kristine Höglund is Associate Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. She has a PhD in Peace and Conflict Research from Uppsala University Sweden (2004). She is author of Peacemaking in the Shadow of Violence. Magnus Öberg is Associate Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Peace Research (since 2006). He has a PhD in Peace and Conflict Research from Uppsala University (2003) and is co-editor of Resources, Governance, and Civil Conflict (Routledge, 2008).




The Peace Continuum


Book Description

The idea of studying peace has gained considerable traction in the past few years after languishing in the shadows of conflict for decades but how should it be studied? The Peace Continuum offers a parallax view of how we think about peace and the complexities that surround the concept (i.e., the book explores the topic from different positions at the same time). Toward this end, we review existing literature and provide insights into how peace should be conceptualized - particularly as something more interesting than the absence of conflict. We provide an approach that can help scholars overcome what we see as the initial shock that comes with unpacking the 'zero' in the war-peace model of conflict studies. Additionally, we provide a framework for understanding how peace and conflict have/have not been related to one another in the literature. To reveal how the Peace Continuum could be applied, we put forward three alternative ways that peace could be studied. With this approach, the book is less trying to control the emerging peace research agenda than it is trying to assist in/encourage thinking about the topic that we all have some opinion on but that has yet to be measured and analyzed in a way comparable to political conflict and violence. Indeed, we attempt to help facilitate a veritable explosion of approaches and efforts to study peace.




Measuring Peace


Book Description

How can we know if the peace that has been established following a civil war is a stable peace? More than half of all countries that experienced civil war since World War II have suffered a relapse into violent conflict, in some cases more than once. Meanwhile the international community expends billions of dollars and deploys tens of thousands of personnel each year in support of efforts to build peace in countries emerging from violent conflict. This book argues that efforts to build peace are hampered by the lack of effective means of assessing progress towards the achievement of a consolidated peace. Rarely, if ever, do peacebuilding organizations and governments seek to ascertain the quality of the peace that they are helping to build and the contribution that their engagement is making (or not) to the consolidation of peace. More rigorous assessments of the robustness of peace are needed. These assessments require clarity about the characteristics of, and the requirements for, a stable peace. This in turn requires knowledge of the local culture, local history, and the specific conflict dynamics at work in a given conflict situation. Better assessment can inform peacebuilding actors in the reconfiguration and reprioritization of their operations in cases where conditions on the ground have deteriorated or improved. To build a stable peace, it is argued here, it is important to take the measure of peace.




Understanding Peace


Book Description

Understanding Peace: A Comprehensive Introduction fills the need for an original, contemporary examination of peace that is challenging, informative, and empowering. This well-researched, fully documented, and highly accessible textbook moves beyond fixation on war to highlight the human capacity for nonviolent cooperation in everyday life and in conflict situations. After deconstructing numerous ideas about war and explaining its heavy costs to humans, animals, and the environment, discussion turns to evidence for the existence of peaceful societies. Further topics include the role of nonviolence in history, the nature of violence and aggression, and the theory and practice of nonviolence. The book offers two new moral arguments against war, and concludes by defining peace carefully from different angles and then describing conditions for creating a culture of peace. Understanding Peace brings a fresh philosophical perspective to discussions of peace, and also addresses down-to-earth issues about effecting constructive change in a complex world. The particular strength of Understanding Peace lies in its commitment to reflecting on and integrating material from many fields of knowledge. This approach will appeal to a diverse audience of students and scholars in peace studies, philosophy, and the social sciences, as well as to general-interest readers.




Patterns of Sustaining Peace


Book Description

This book explores how to establish peace in societies recovering from large-scale, armed conflicts by introducing the sustaining peace scale as a continuous measure for peacebuilding success. Drawing on an extensive data collection of peacebuilding episodes over almost three decades, the author analyses the impact of four peacebuilding practices - international commitment, power-sharing, security sector reform and transitional justice. Having established the framework, the author applies it to the peacebuilding processes in Sierra Leone and South Africa. An important contribution to the literature on successful peacebuilding, this book will be essential reading for peacebuilding scholars and practitioners.




Peace in Political Unsettlement


Book Description

International peacebuilding has reached an impasse. Its lofty ambitions have resulted in at best middling success, punctuated by moments of outright failure. The discrediting of the term ‘liberal peacebuilding’ has seen it evolve to respond to the numerous critiques. Notions such as ‘inclusive peace’ merge the liberal paradigm with critical notions of context, and the need to refine practices to take account of ‘the local’ or ‘complexity’. However, how this would translate into clear guidance for the practice of peacebuilding is unclear. Paradoxically, contemporary peacebuilding policy has reached an unprecedented level of vagueness. Peace in political unsettlement provides an alternative response rooted in a new discourse, which aims to speak both to the experience of working in peace process settings. It maps a new understanding of peace processes as institutionalising formalised political unsettlement and points out new ways of engaging with it. The book points to the ways in which peace processes institutionalise forms of disagreement, creating ongoing processes to manage it, rather than resolve it. It suggests a modest approach of providing ‘hooks’ to future processes, maximising the use of creative non-solutions, and practices of disrelation, are discussed as pathways for pragmatic post-war transitions. It is only by understanding the nature and techniques of formalised political unsettlement that new constructive ways of engaging with it can be found.