Peace and Conflict Studies

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Peace and Conflict Studies

• September 9th

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Journal Writing

• Journal prompt (topic) How do you define peace?
  What is your greatest memory of a peaceful
  moment or experience?
• You will have about 7 minutes to write your
  thoughts about this topic.

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Groups for PART I

• Amelia (Hyun Jung Lim), She Hee Park (Paula), Sun
  Kil Chang, Alena
• Dong Gyu Kang, Kristina, Billy
• Erika, An Jeong Su, Choi In Young
• Christine, Hyung Suk Park, Kim Hee Tae, Jeon Hee
  Won
• Kim Ji Youn, Yvonne Fatima Flores, Joon Sang Hoon
• Roh Kyeong Ran, Lee Kyeong Jin (Trisha), Nabil
  Kassi
• Elya, Su Min (Sue), Lee Chung Eun, Hee Tae Kim 

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Thinking about peace

• With your groups, first introduce yourselves.
  This will be a more relaxed style discussion than
  others we will have in class.
• You will have about 20 minutes to discuss any of
  the questions I give you. Talk about as many as
  you can in 20 minutes.
• Each member should participate in the discussion,
  sharing your thoughts, ideas, or personal
  experiences.
• Ill be walking around to help you or answer any
  questions you may have.

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Peace

• What comes to your mind when you think about this
  word?

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What does peace mean?

• Many different definitions exist, but most
  importantly, we recognize peace by its absence.
• Some social definitions of peace
• freedom from civil clamor (protest) and
  confusion
• State of public quiet
• State of security or order within a community

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Some other definitions of peace

• Mental or spiritual condition marked by freedom
  from upsetting or oppressive thoughts or
  emotions
• Like inner peace (peace of mind)
• Harmony in human or personal relations
• Good relationship between people within society
• A state of mutual between governments absence
  of war
• Political peace between nations absence of war

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Shades of Peace

• Peace is not a black or white concept, but has
  many shades of grey and degrees

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Different Cultures, Different Concepts of Peace

• Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu (founder of Taoism)
  referred to military action as against the
  natural way and used images like water and wind
  to represent peace.
• Confucius thought peace was the greatest human
  goal and peace came from social harmony.
• His Golden Rule Treat your subordinates as you
  would like to be treated by your superiors.

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• Bhagavad Gita (Indian Text) tells about a
  terrible civil war and the main character, a
  warrior named Arjuna, doesnt want to fight
  because many of his loved ones are on the
  opposing side.
• The god Krishna tells him he must fight out of
  duty.
• War and violence are seen as duty

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Judeo-Christian Concepts

• Old Testament (Judaism) God was shown as
  inclined to start wars and many Israelites were
  warriors.
• Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions have
  war as an important part in their history.
• Irony in Christianity/Catholicism much warlike
  history (Crusades from 11 13th centuries) but
  the main message is peace, love, and nonviolence.
  

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Negative Peace

• Negative peace absence of war, no organized or
  active military violence is taking place
• Also known as the realist or realpolitik
  perspective on peace.
• Some examples of negative peace
• A cease-fire (like in the case of South and North
  Korea)
• The Cold War between US and USSR because the
  peace was based on Mutually Assured
  Destruction(MAD) when both sides have serious
  weapons and if used by both, would completely
  destroy both sides.

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Positive Peace

• Positive peace social condition where
  exploitation is eliminated or minimized and there
  is no violence, including no structural violence.
  
• When positive peace exists, there is social order
  and harmony and there is a focus on peace
  building and creating a system that has equality
  for all.
• Difficult to form positive peace within society
• For the individual, positive peace can be seen in
  the old philosophies of both Jesus and Buddha,
  have ideas of "inner peace", calmness and
  meditation.

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Negative Peace and Structural Violence

• Structural Violence is a serious form of social
  oppression.
• Its unlike direct violence, which can be seen by
  bodily injury (its very visible to the eye)
• Structural violence is built into the structure
  or system of social, cultural, and economic
  institutions.

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Examples of Structural Violence

• Starvation
• Extreme Poverty
• Slavery
• Suffering from preventable diseases
• No access to education
• FGM (Feminine Genital Mutilation)
• Often these kinds of structural violence go
  unacknowledged

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Achieving Positive Peace

• Most cultures have political and social goals
  that are closer to positive peace than negative
  peace.
• Peace in languages
• Arabic Salaam ? Peace is welcome used to
  say hello and goodbye
• Hebrew Shalom ? same as Arabic (but a deeper
  meaning)
• Sanskrit "Shanti" ? "peace. "Om Shanti" is
  used more as a parting salutation as a way of
  sending one off with well wishes.

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• Chinese Ping used as a noun and a persons
  name?
• "Yu" can mean "universal" or "universe
• "Ping" can mean "peace" or "peaceful.
• So "Yuping" can mean "universal peace.
• Russian Mir ? world, peace, village
• Origin The village community formed the word
  for the peasants, where they tried to keep a
  peaceful society. Over time, the meaning of mir
  changed, depending on the political structure of
  the empire, and came to mean different things to
  different people.

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Peace in other language?

• Korean? Any peaceful implications in
• annyeong haseyo ??????
• Other ideas?

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Common Goal
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The Peace War Continuum

• Peace and war are at two ends of a continuum,
  with an unclear or ambiguous transition between
  the two

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Some examples

• Page 11 has many examples of this transition
  where the first intentions were peaceful, but
  became violent (war)
• US involvement in Vietnam
• No declaration of war in the War on Terrorism
• No official end of the North / South Korean war
  (just a cease fire)
• Many wars never declared officially
• Some of these conflicts may be considered for
  your research paper

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Group Discussion

• With your groups, select a leader, recorder, and
  reporter. You should change your leader,
  recorder and reporter every time you have a group
  discussion.
• You will have about 20 minutes to discuss the
  questions at the end of chapter 1.
• Each member should participate in the discussion,
  sharing your thoughts, ideas, or personal
  experiences.
• Ill ask some groups to share their thoughts on
  some questions after the discussion.
• Ill be walking around to help you or answer any
  questions you may have.

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Questions Opinion Based

• Do you think peace is pure or perfect, or are
  there degrees of peace? Think about inner and
  outer peace.
• Are peace and war, nonviolence and violence,
  mutually exclusive? (incompatible, one cant
  exist with the other and vice versa)
• Think of some examples (if any exist), that
  conflict or violence inescapable or necessary?
• If peace on Earth possible? Why or why not?
  Give reasons to support your thoughts.

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Research Paper Guidelines

• Go over these again at home and please feel free
  to ask me any questions.
• You can schedule a time with me or come to my
  office hours, but please let me know if you plan
  to come to my office hours so I can make time for
  you.

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Groups for PART I

• Group 1, October 14th (Chapter 3) Amelia (Hyun
  Jung Lim), She Hee Park (Paula), Sun Kil Chang,
  Alena
• Group 2, October 16th (Reasons for Wars pages 91
  - 118) Dong Gyu Kang, Kristina, Billy
• Group 3, October 28th (Reasons for Wars pages
  119 147) Erika, An Jeong Su, Choi In Young
• Group 4, October 30th (Chapter 4) Christine,
  Hyung Suk Park, Kim Hee Tae, Jeon Hee Won
• Group 5, November 4th (Chapter 9) Kim Ji Youn,
  Yvonne Fatima Flores, Joon Sang Hoon
• Group 6, November 6th (Building Negative Peace)
  Roh Kyeong Ran, Lee Kyeong Jin (Trisha), Nabil
  Kassi
• Group 7, November 11th (Chapter 11) Elya, Su
  Min (Sue), Lee Chung Eun, Hee Tae Kim