Understanding Peace and Violence

Holistic Understanding of Peace and Violence

• Peace is understood in a social sense as a lack of conflict
• Peace is understood in a social sense as freedom from violence between individuals or groups
• Leaders, governments, and social institutions make efforts in peacemaking and diplomacy.
• These efforts encourage behavioral restraints so rights, freedom, and dignity are not trampled on.
• Establishing social order and cooperation aims to reduce conflicts and increase economic interactivity and prosperity.
• Psychological peace is considered important in establishing behavioral peace
• Peaceful behavior results from a peaceful inner disposition that is peace of mind or serenity.
• A peaceful person can contribute abundantly in resolving issues and spreading peace in society

Secular Views and Shift in Concept of Peace

• Peace was defined as the absence of war or direct violence (Hugo Grotius).
• Raymond Aron said that peace means more or less lasting suspension of violent modes of rivalry between political units
• In the 1960s, there was a shift of attention to violence, moving from direct violence to structural violence (indirect violence leads to death)
• Structural violence, unlike direct violence, may not be readily observed.
• The effect is the same, as structural violence causes suffering and death to a large population
• Structural violence manifests in extreme poverty, starvation, poor health services, and discrimination against minorities
• The presence of these conditions leads to conflicts and unpeaceful living in communities.
• Peace theorists emphasize economic stability, social and cultural respect, and environmental justice to eradicate conflicts and violence.

Pillars of Peace

• The Institute for Economics & Peace assembled Positive Peace research since 2008.
• Eight factors contribute to high levels of peace in society:
• Well-functioning government
• Sound business environment
• Equitable distribution of resources
• Acceptance of the rights of others
• Good relations with neighbors
• Free flow of information
• High level of human capital
• Low levels of corruption
• High levels of peace can help countries to be more resilient to external shocks, economic, geopolitical or natural disasters
• Peace exists where people interact non-violently and manage conflict positively with attention to legitimate needs and interests.

Levels of Peace

• Personal Peace: a state of calm, serenity, and tranquility of mind arising from the absence of sufferings or mental disturbances.
• Domestic Peace: peace that comes from mutual respect among family members and mutual assistance within the family and household
• Interpersonal Peace: involves accepting differences and diversity among people, resolving disagreements/conflicts non-violently through dialogue, respect, justice, tolerance, and cooperation

Violence in Human Life

• Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as intentional use of physical force or power that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.
• Violence takes more than 1.5 million lives annually:
  • Just over 50% of lives are due to suicide
  • 35% are due to homicide
  • Just over 12% of lives are a direct result of war
• Betty Reardon defined violence as humanly inflicted harm
• Violence can be categorized as direct (physical violence) and indirect (structural violence).
• Violence Types:
  • Organized violence: war between states or within a state
  • Unorganized violence: violence by individuals or groups like wife battering, rape, child abuse, and street crime
  • Direct Violence/Physical Violence: behavioural violence like war, bullying, domestic violence
  • Indirect Violence (Structural Violence): unconscious violence from unjust social and economic structures like poverty and deprivation
  • Cultural Violence: devaluing and destruction of human identities and ways of life through sexism, ethnocentrism, racism, colonial ideologies, and moral exclusion.
  • Self-directed violence: violence where the perpetrator and victim are the same, such as self-abuse and suicide. -Interpersonal violence: violence between individuals, subdivided into family and intimate partner violence, and community violence Collective violence: is violence that is committed by larger groups of individuals and can be subdivided into social, political and economic violence
• Personal, family factors, society, culture play a role in whether violence is encouraged
• Problems of violence include direct costs of health, slowing economy etc
• Criminal Justice approaches violence as enforcing laws
• Human Rights approaches states to respect violence and fulfil obligations.

Education for Peace

• Peace education list includes Knowledge, skills, and values
• Knowledge includes holistic concepts of peace, conflict, disarmament, transformations, sustainable development among other things.
• Skills include how to resolve issues, as well as thinking clearly to make decisions that affect others
• Values include caring for others, respect and tolerance to ensure equality to all

Spirituality, Faith & Cultures

• World's religions are resources for peace building UNESCO states that wars begin in the minds of men and women, so defenses must be constructed there
• UN declaration is a series of values, attitudes and modes of behaviors so humans may reject violence