At the beginning of this course, we were asked to define Peace and I stated that Peace was the mutual acceptance between two or more conflicting parties. Today, I can define Peace in a much deeper way; it goes past acceptance. As stated in the question stem, “Peace is not merely the absence of war…”, the absence of war is simply negative peace which does not include people’s rights or humanity. The definition of Positive Peace unravels a more holistic approach to peace. According to the Global Peace Index (GPI), Positive Peace is “the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies” (GPI, 78). Such factors provoke the development of more positive aspects in a community that enhances the society.
This definition touches upon ways in which we may confuse negative peace with positive peace, thus pointing out how peace revolves more around justice. For example, when Rwanda was Belgium’s colony, the Belgic employed the divide and conquer technique to dominate the country. This led to the division of the two main tribes: Hutu’s and Tutsis. For years, even post-colonial time, the country remained divided and unbalanced. No war had risen but the feeling of hatred and superiority/inferiority was there. In 1994, civil war arose in Rwanda. A place that could have been entitled peaceful up to that moment was now in the midst of a civil war that led to the annihilation of thousands of Tutsis; a massive internal genocide. (Left to Tell) A place where there is no war or no clear violence is not clearly peaceful.
Peace cannot be reduced to the balance of power between enemies. For instance, take a look at North Korea and the United States. For years both countries have been in dispute and to “balance power”, North Korea developed nuclear weapons as a deterrence policy. Now both carry nuclear weapons and there is fear of what the turn out might be. However, with President Trump’s meeting with Kim and Kim mentioning dis-armament this may change. Nevertheless, the possession of nuclear weapons ready to be used at any time is a fear for civilians which creates an un-peaceful environment in both countries.
Peace cannot be brought by a dictatorship. During lecture, we touched upon the rising of Sudan as the youngest country and how Omar al-Bashir’s government was oppressive now dealing with an ongoing civil war. We did not go into much detail, however, the speaker from Catholic Relief Services mentioned how they have been trying to help refugees during the progression of their war. Now, under an oppressive, dictating regime there is no space for peace. Everything controlled by a central government with prohibitions and limitations leads to a society developing under pressure; not quite a peaceful scenario. This can be seen in multiple countries around the world.
The GPI, is a report that quantifies peace and its benefits created by the Institute for Economics and Peace. This development ranks countries in how peaceful they are analyzing criteria under two main domains that subdivide: (1) domestic/international conflict and (2) societal safety and security (including feeling unsafe). The Global Peace Index demonstrates how peace is an “enterprise of justice”. GPI subdivided the two domains into subdomains (which further breakdown, totaling 24 factors) (GPI, 78) which establish the eight pillars of peace: sound business environment, high human capital, low corruption, free information flow, good relations, acceptance of rights of others, a well-functioning government and equitable distribution of resources (GPI, 78). It requires strong efforts to ensure the pillars of peace are well standing in every country. This framework promotes peace and supports the human potential to flourish and grow (GPI, 78-79).
To me, the eight pillars are the true definition of Peace. It is not the absence/prohibition or lack of that defines peace but the justice brought through these eight pillars that ensure the further positive development of humanity.
Pacifism is the idea of “commitment to peacemaking and rejection of violence” (Allman, 61), resulting in active nonviolence. It is found on the far left of Allman’s continuum of approaches to peace (Allman, 18,97). Peace is a predominant theme in the Hebrew Bible and the new testament (Allman, 68) where pacifism emerged in early Christians following the scriptures. It is seen as early as +295 AD, with St. Maximilian, Martyr claiming he won’t participate in an army in this world (K. Ahern). The Christian tradition and writing has many examples of pacific actions, including Jesus embodying nonviolence and by actively resisting systemic dehumanization (K. Ahern).
Pacifism today is divided by degree, with eight different types ranging from Absolute Pacifists to Political Pacifists. The most discussed was Absolute Pacifism which believes that war and violence are not an option to resolve a conflict by all means. Dorothy Day, an absolute pacifist defines pacifism as the condemnation of war, and the declaration of passive resistance (Day, 1940). Christian pacifists draw from three sources: Scripture (ie. Sermon on the Mount, Church tradition (ie. Franciscans) and Gandhi nonviolence (ie. King, Chavez, Day) (K. Ahern).
In 1933, Peter Maurin told Dorothy Day that she needed to start a paper and a movement toward peace and pacifism. Maurin placed some conditions for Day: the creation of a house of hospitality, weekly meetings and farmer coops to support the local community. Day followed his conditions and developed the Catholic Worker. (Allman, 90-95) Today, many pacifists support the Catholic Worker movement around the world, with chapters internationally.
Pacifism is not passive, it involves many risks. A group called the Plowshare Movement are considered an active absolute pacifist effort, also inspired by Christian tradition, that “sought to respond to structural sin and injustice in the changing world” (K. Ahern). They are committed to lead movements against war and are pro-disarmament, reconciliation and peace by committing symbolic civil disobedience and raising awareness of crimes against humanity. They are a very extreme group that takes very high risks to raise awareness of ie. Nuclear weapon development.
Another pacifist effort is the Pax Christi movement, developed in France post WW2 for the purpose of reconciliation between enemies. Today, it is a universal group found all over the world. “Rooted in Gospel nonviolence and Catholic Social Teaching” (PCMNY), they believe in Practice, Prayer, Study, and Action.
A benefit from the pacifist movement is the intent to find solutions that do not resort in war and violence, protecting humankind. They believe that the ends do not justify the means meaning that it really doesn’t matter what one’s goal is, if to get there one goes against our own beliefs. Pacifism believes it should be loyal to God before the nation to which they belong and so they do not support militarization and policing (ie. not paying taxes). However, Pacifism is more principal than pragmatic thus it is hard to be realistic. They are often questioned on violence as self-defense, and they would turn the other cheek. According to Allman, pacifism is criticized as hypocritical and naïve. By rejecting violence to protect others from oppression like in humanitarian intervention they are not realistic (Allman, 97). They would reject the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’s R2P (Responsibility to Protect) if such is backed by military intervention (Allman, 103). It is believed that Pacifists are naïve because experience shows that rejection of violence does not stop an enemy from causing terror, or intending to dominate.
I don’t believe that Pacifism alone will stop violence, injustice, and war because there are too many people out there that don’t care and will just disobey. However, Pacifist movements can be applied in preventative ways to build trust between countries and/or communities to avoid having to go to war. After taking this course I believe that any measures to avoid war by establishing close ties will aid humankind and present better solutions to world issues.