University of Nairobi

College of Education and External Studies

MASTERS IN PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Conflict Analysis and Resolution

LECTURE II: Peace and Peace Theory and Research

TO STUDENTS:
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1) Why Peace Theory Independent of the Violence Theory
We begin by noting that it is difficult to define what peace
is. As we noted in Lecture I even Johannes Galtung,
perhaps the one scholar who has been instrumental in the
development of peace theory,
has suggested that the best way to define peace is to
define violence, its antithesis.
This kind of thinking is perhaps informed by the fact that
we live in such a violent world that peace seems difficult,
if not impossible, to achieve. War and violence seem the
norm.
Some "peace thinkers" have even abandoned any single
and all-encompassing definition of peace; and have
promoted the idea of many peaces. They argue that since
no singular, correct definition of peace can exist, peace
should be perceived as a plurality.[3]
Whatever the difficulty, we need to have a definition of
peace that is independent of violence. This would help us
establish an intellectual climate in which peace research
and studies might prosper.

Meaning of Peace

Peace researchers have proposed 6 meanings of peace:

a) Peace as the absence of war, that is, absence of direct
violence
b) Peace as justice and development (absence of
structural violence)
c) Peace as respect and tolerance between people
d) Peace as gaia, (balance in and with the ecosystem)
e) Inner peace (spiritual peace); and
f) Peace as wholesome, making whole, i.e. a feeling
of total satisfaction with life and anything around
one.
Conceptions of Peace
Several conceptions of peace have been proposed:
a) The first is based on rational reasoning that peace is a
natural condition, whereas war is not.
The fact is that peace is a set of human social goals
that most human being desire to have.
(Even a suicide bomber who when asked to state his
greatest wish before he killed himself he said it was to be
peacefully at home with his family)
There is so much literature on war and conflict that
this premise calls for researchers to now generate
and present enough information so that a rational
group of decision makers will seek to avoid war and
conflict.
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b) Second, the view that war is sinful is held by a variety

of religious traditions worldwide. In fact, all major
religions preach peace as their main philosophy and
linking it to godliness

Judeo-Christian religions preach:thou shall not kill;

Christ is the prince of peace;
Islam means peace;
Jainism goes to great lengths to avoid harming any
living creatures, including insects.
(Regrettably, the most vocal religious groups Quakers,
Mennonites and other Christian peace churches, Jains from
India and Buddhists) are small and have limited political
clout; while many of the larger groups have now and again
been involved in sponsoring violence)
c) Third is pacifism: the view that peace is to be a prime
force in human behaviour. In various countries that have
compulsory military service, objectors of conscience
may be allowed to skip military service and do their
national service in other non-violent areas.

d) Another view worth considering is the one from the

Great Lakes Region of Africa, where the word for peace
is kindoki which refers to a harmonious balance
between human beings, the rest of the natural world,
and the cosmos.
This vision is a much broader view of peace than a mere
"absence of war" or even a "presence of justice"
standard.

e) These thinkers also critique the idea of peace as a

hopeful or eventual end. They recognize that

peace does not necessarily have to be something

humans might achieve "some day."
peace exists in the present and that we can create
and expand it in small ways in our everyday lives,
and that
peace changes constantly.

This view makes peace permeable and imperfect rather

than static and utopian.[5]
2. Negative and Positive Peace
We have distinguished and considered the two essential
sides of violence - personal and structural/cultural, as
basic. Hence when we define peace as being the absence
of violence, we also need to note its two sides, namely:
peace as the absence of personal violence, and
peace as the absence of structural violence.
Let us consider each in turn.
a) Peace as the absence of personal violence: normally
referred to as negative peace.
Such peace might even be possible under the tyrant
who oversees a non-violent empire but does not
foster a sense of peace. For example, consider the
situation in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
While there was no visible violence in the whole
society, fear and acquiescence from brainwashed
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citizens (where children spied on their parents, and

listening devises everywhere, etc) was the order of
the day.
Think also of the problem of the "happy slave", who

when told he is free, retorts that he "does not want to

be free".
b) Peace as the absence of structural violence: normally
referred to as positive peace = social justice.
i)

Mahatma Gandhi suggested

that if an oppressive society lacks violence, the
society is nonetheless not peaceful, because of the
injustice of the oppression.
justice needed to be an inherent and necessary
aspect;
hence , peace requires not only the absence of
violence but also the presence of justice.

ii)

During the 1950s and 60s, when Martin Luther King Jr.
and the civil rights movement carried out various
non-violent activities aimed at ending segregation
and racial persecution, he stated

peace was more than just the absence of violence;

while there was not open combat between blacks and

whites, there was an unjust system in place in which
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the government deprived African Americans of equal

rights; and

while some opponents criticized the activists for

"disturbing the peace", Martin Luther King observed
that "true peace is not merely the absence of tension:
it is the presence of justice."

c) But why the terms negative peace for absence of

personal violence, while the lack of structural/cultural
violence is seen as positive peace?
Basically because the absence of personal peace does not
lead to a positively defined condition;
Whereas,
The absence of structural violence that we call positive
peace and also social justice is a positively defined
condition
that
amounts
to
the
egalitarian
(i.e.
unrestricted) distribution of RESOURCES and POWER in
society whose implementation would automatically lead
to the reduction or elimination of personal violence. In
such an environment hostility and further violence could
no longer flourish.

3)

Peace, Peace Research and Development

a) Conceived this way, peace carries an extra and new

meaning beyond what we have discussed previously.
i)
ii)

Peace is much more than the control and/or reduction

of overt use of violence.
It also includes what is generally referred to as
vertical development.

b) In other words, peace theory becomes connected not

only to conflict theory but also equally with
development theory.
c) Hence peace research defined as research into the
conditions past, present and future of realizing
peace, will be concerned with both
i)

research into the negative peace; and also

ii)

the development research, concerned with positive

peace;

but both having highly important overlaps.

d) Peace research needs to emphasize both sides as both
personal peace and the general societal peace (social
justice) are important and interlinked.
i)

Peace between and among individuals and among

their societies must be based on a more equitable
distribution of available resources; and also

ii)

Through ensuring sustainable development through

intelligent and unselfish nurturing of these resources.

iii)

At the personal and also societal level, it is also

important more important even to consider the
distribution of actual power as this determines how
the resources are distributed whether it is at the
family or the state level.

3. The Search for Peace in a Violent World

As already noted,
We live in a violent world.
Many people do not think or believe that peace on
earth is possible; and
Facts seem to support their pessimistic viewpoint.
So as to suggest an alternative viewpoint, there is the
need to establish showcase projects with innovative, highimpact strategies for anticipating and managing intense
group conflict and violence that afflicts societies
throughout the world.
This is made even more urgent because those
organizations involved in conflict resolution unlike many
other traditional development fields
operate in complex multi-contexts situations and
often with limited time to manage conflicts.
They are also so heavily overwhelmed by the sheer
enormity and urgency of the work at hand (for
example, in saving lives) that they have little time to
study and record their experiences

4. Barriers to Innovative Peace Initiatives

a) Lack of Empathy
Warring groups or gangs have no sense of their
enemy/opponents as humans who are entitled to rights
and happiness, as they consider themselves.
This lack of basic compassion and a feeling of superiority
complex and a holier-than-thou attitude, whether
committed by or directed to an individual or a group is
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basically the root cause of prejudice and discrimination.

Prejudice and discrimination are key building blocks of
many forms of conflict.
This inability to see oneself in another hardens the heart
and blocks the ability to hearing another side of the story,
a perspective outside one's own. Your story becomes the
only story.
This dehumanization of the other, this stripping the other
of his/her human rights (even to think and hold ideas)
also allows groups to "justify" violence and killing. For
example,
Slavery was justified by designating the blacks as not
quite human. After all, they dressed differently, if at
all; spoke no comprehensible language; and did not
even know God.
Abuse of religion is considered a serious matter by
some of its adherents to an extent that they are
prepared to kill for this, although other so equally
qualified adherents think otherwise.
b) Culture of Violence
Consider
Societies torn by civil war; or
Cities and communities wracked by gangsters (whether
fighting among themselves or harassing the members of
society at night or at will); or
Families terrorized by their own members.
They all create "bunker" mentalities among themselves
characterized by
personal trauma,
perpetual fear, and
belief that one is powerless to change the situation.
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Historical precedent of
"solving" conflict through violence and
the mistaken belief that there is no other way
perpetuates an endless cycle of "justified" revenge.
c) Group-based inequities
Discrimination that has been made systemic that is,
universal and structural leads to significant imbalances
in rights, resources and the spoils of society. This type of
unfairness leads to three inter-related phenomena:
i) It lays the foundation for resentment on the part of
the oppressed against the oppressor, and the urge to
do something about it;
ii) It encourages the oppressor to think of the oppressed
as lazy and incapable of rising to the situation; and
iii) Creates a mentality of scarcity even in plenty - that
encourages the dominant group to perpetuate the
status quo.
d) Corrupt or inept government and public systems
Failures of the system to render justice, equal services or
timely remediation lead citizens to
i)

take issues into their own hands and hence commit

violence on others, including the innocent, in
kangaroo courts; or

ii)

may come to believe that discriminatory beliefs and

practices are the order of the day, and hence
participate in perpetuating them.

It is in such situations that unscrupulous leaders exploit

prejudices of the population to incite or perpetuate
violence that serves their political or personal gain.

5. The Alternative Strategy: Giving Peace a Chance

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Realizing that
violence only breeds violence, and that
peace cannot be sustained through force,
there is the need to propose well-tried strategies of peace
building that reject war and violence, even as a last
resort.
a)

Humanize the "other"

Getting warring factions to see their enemies as similar to

themselves is the core component of peace, making true
dialogue and collaboration possible. This also demands
that the disenfranchised groups be empowered
i)

to see themselves as belonging and hence also

entitled; and also

ii)

to generate their own agenda and solutions to their

issues.

b)

Create alternate systems

New systems in which people have confidence and with

which they are comfortable are needed. It might be
necessary to do these reforms simultaneously.
These may include
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

New court and justice structures including community

based tribunals,
New governance structures, including decentralization
of control of power and resources,
New system to document government abuses to
counterbalance the failures of what went on previously,
Alternative education programs that empower the
marginalized to comprehend and hence help in
operationalizing the above.

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c)

Explore original wounds

Digging into individual traumas, historic ill-treatment of

groups, dynamics of prejudice, and exposing injustice can
all lead to a kind of healing that releases bitterness and
long-held beliefs.
This is what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
like that of South Africa and the one proposed locally are
supposed to achieve.
d)

Create communities of peace/resistance

Communities
trained with specific conflict-resolution tools,
acquainted with the mutual benefit of cooperation,
and
armed with tactics to defuse heated situations,
are more likely to find ways to avoid violent conflict.
e) Build non-violent pathways to rights, equality and
assets
Options must exist for bettering one's circumstances
outside of violent means. Hence the need for legitimate
employment opportunities to avoid drifting into criminal
acts (case of Mungikis).
It is also important to show by legally-accepted collective
state/community action that violence (discrimination,
prejudice, etc), corruption and embezzlement, etc does
not pay.
The end of Cold War has seen Africa implode and be
engulfed by large scale and violent conflicts that have
been characterized by massive violation of human rights
and perpetration of crime against humanity. Examples:
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Rwanda, DRC, Sierra Leone and currently Darfur, and even

more recently in our own country.
Yet despite this seemingly intractable cycle of violence
and conflict, there has been a parallel attempt to
galvanize lasting and sustainable peace.
The search has not only been on attempting to prevent,
manage and resolve the current problems and addressing
their consequences but more on tackling the root and
structural causes of the conflicts.
The result of all this has been the realization that violence
has no place in putting Africa on a path of sustainable
development. People and nations have to swallow their
pride and accept that there is no way to peace, and that
peace is the only way.

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