Johan Galtung

Twenty-Five Years of Peace Research: Ten Challenges and Some Responses

The article is an effort to discuss ten major dilemmas of peace research as the field has evolved over the last 25 years: the definition of peace research; peace as absence of violence (including structural violence); violence as obstacles to basic needs satisfaction; extension to peace in nature, human and social spaces (not only the global space); the dialectic between research, education and action; the social role of the peace researcher; the basic strategies of peace action; the methods of peace research; the choice of intellectual style; the conception of peace in various civilizations. The central conclusion is that the basic concern of peace research is the reduction of violence of all kinds; this is done by progressively removing barriers in space (transnational, global studies), in the organization of knowledge (transdisciplinary, holistic studies), in time (integrating empirical studies of the past, critical studies of the present and constructive studies for the future). As such peace research can also be seen as an effort, along with development, future and woman studies, to counteract fragmentation in the social sciences.

Structural and Direct Violence

In comparing these two types of violence only one aspect of structural violence will be discussed here: that which kills, although slowly, and undramatically from the point of view of direct violence. It should be kept in mind that there are very many other very different types of structural violence. In order to compare violence that kills slowly and violence that kills quickly, violence that is anonymous and violence that has an author, there has to be a common unit. Direct violence is usually measured in number of deaths. One could approach structural violence in the same way, looking at e.g. the number of avoidable deaths that occur because medical and sanitary resources are concentrated in the upper classes. One problem of deaths, however, is that they occur at different ages, and we feel that the loss involved is greater in (he death of a child than in that of an adult. A more appropriate measure would therefore be the numnber of years lost, which we shall use to measure both direct and structural violence. In evaluating the amount of direct or structural violence we compare the real world not with an ideal world in an abstract sense, but with a potential world. Death as such is unavoidable, but we would consider all war-deaths as potentially avoidable, and a great number of deaths from illnesses and accidents as caused by the existing distribution of wealth and power. In most countries, that is, the average level of health could be raised through a redistribution of present resources. There is an avoidable deprivation of life, measured in lost man-years. If a society has the resources medical, organizational, financial to give an average life expectancy of c years to its members, then the question is whether the average life expectancy of social groups is correlated with social position, so dilat the lower the social position, the lower thelife expectancy. In other words, we assume that life expectancy, L, is a function of social position, S, the latter defined as ranging from O to 1:

Handbook of peace and conflict studies

Introduction 1. Toward a Philosophy and Metapsychology of Peace Charles Webel 2. Peace by Peaceful Conflict Transformation: The Transcend Approach Johan Galtung Part 1: Understanding and Transforming Conflict 3. Negotiation Fen Hampson, Chester Crocker and Pamela Aall 4. Mediation Sara Horowitz 5. Former Yugoslavia and Iraq: A Comparative Analysis of International Conflict Mismanagement Jan Oberg 6. Peace Studies and Peace Politics: Multicultural Common Security in North-South Conflict Situations Kinhide Mushakoji 7. Disarmament Marc Pilisuk 8. Nuclear Disarmament David Krieger Part 2: Creating Peace 9. Peace and Conflict Counseling and Training: The Transcend Approach Gudrun Kramer, Wilfried Graf and Augustin Nicolescou 10. Nonviolence - More Than the Absence of Violence Joergen Johansen 11. Human Rights/Peace Processes Jim Ife 12. Reconciliation Joanna Santa Barbara 13. Peace as a Self-Regulating Process Dietrich Fischer Part 3: Supporting Peace 14. Gender and Peace: Towards a Gender-Inclusive Holistic Perspective Tony Jenkins and Betty Reardon 15. Peace Business Jack Santa Barbara 16. Peace Journalism Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick 17. Peace Psychology: Theory and Practice Antonella Sapio and Adriano Zamperini 18. Rethinking Peace Education Alicia Cabezudo and Magnus Haavelsrud Part 4: Peace Across the Disciplines 19. Peace Studies as a Transdisciplinary Project Chadwick Alger 20. The Spirit of War and the Spirit of Peace: Understanding the Role of Religion Graeme MacQueen 21. International Law: Amid Power, Order and Justice Richard Falk 22. The Language Game of Peace Anat Biletzki 23. Peace and the Arts Patrick McCarthy 24. Peace through Health? Neil Arya Conclusion Johan Galtung and Charles Webel

International Development in Human Perspective

From the very beginning let it be stated unambiguously: a basic need approach (BNA) is not the approach to social science in general or development studies in particular, but only one approach. There are others. They may focus on structures (particularly of production—consumption patterns of any type of goods and services), on processes (e.g., of how the structures change over time), and on how structure and process are constrained and steered by culture and nature, to mention just some examples, In more classical approaches there is also heavy emphasis on actors, their strategic games in cooperation and conflict and their motivations and capabilities. Nor is it assumed that one can pick any one of these approaches at will; they are probably all (and more could be added) indispensable for a rich picture of the human condition. The only thing that is assumed in the following is that a BNA, although not sufficient, is at least necessary; that a basic needs approach — or its equivalent in other terminologies — is an indispensable ingredient of development studies.

High Road, Low Road: Charting the Course for Peace Journalism

Imagine a blackout on everything we associate with medical practice; never to be reported in the media. Disease, however, is to be reported fully, in gruesome detail, particularly when elite persons are struck. The process of disease is seen as natural, as a fight between the human body and whatever is the pathogenic factor, a micro-organism, trauma, stress and strain. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other. It is like a game, even like a sports game. Fair play means to give either side a fair chance, not interfering with the ways of nature where the stronger eventually wins. The task of journalism is to report this struggle objectively, hoping that our side, the body, wins.

A Structural Theory of integration

In this article a definition of integration is given, defining integration as a process whereby two or more actors form one new actor. There are many ways in which this may be brought about, and the process may have very different consequences, but conditions and consequences should not be confused with the definition. Three types of integration are then distinguished: territorial, organizational, and associational. These three types can be combined in many ways, and nations can be analyzed in terms of how these processes of integration are combined inside the nation. Corresponding reasoning may be used for the analysis of world integration. The three types of integration are then analyzed in terms of how they satisfy basic human and social needs. It is pointed out that whereas organizational and associational integration are complementary and always will satisfy some human needs, territorial integration depends very much on communication and will tend to disappear with in creasing communication. But organizational integration will lead to crises that can only be alleviated by means of associational integration, and vice versa. Hence, a general world trend of decreasing territorial integration and a pattern of dialectical change from organizational to associational and back again are predicted. The basic problem of a substitute for the decreasingly important territorial integration is then left unanswered.

Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (The Transcend Method)

Conflict workers (peace workers) apply for membership in the conflict formation as outside parties. Their credentials: as fellow human beings, they bring in general conflict knowledge and skills with compassion and perseverance, but no hidden agendas.

The Middle East and the Theory of Conflict

In this article we shall use some fragments from general theories of conflict to analyze the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. We are painfully aware of the limitations of any such approach, and of the shortcomings of our results for no coherent, general theory of conflict exists. And if it did exist, it is hard to see how it could steer clear of the major difficulty also found in the legalistic approach to conflict: a heavy orientaltion towards the past. Any body of thought on conflict descriptions, predictions and prescriptions will have to be based on certain preconceived ideas or paradigms that a real conflict, cut out of live, creative human reality, may transcend. Thus, in an effort to confront the Middle East situation and the theories of conflict with each other, certainly the latter could benefit most. Basic in this connection is the search for a language in Wh4ich the conflict can be formulated. An adequalte language of conflict would permit the formulation not only of the goals and interests of the parties and of the incompatibilities, but also of solutions that cannot easily be arrived at in ordinary language. For thait reason, the conflict language should broaden the concepit of reality, expanding it by bringing in possibilities that would belong to potential rather than empirical reality. On purpose, we use the term language here: a solution adequately formulated in a language of conflidt theory is, of course, a paper solution and not the same as a real life solution. An adequately formulated soluition is neither {a sufficient, nor a necessary condition for a real life solution. But the search for it is nonetheless significant, particularly if one is concerned both with the conflict in the Middle East affecting directly millions of people, and indirectly the whole world and with the general theory of conflict. The process of solution, however, will have to be in the hands of the participants themselves.l

Measuring World Development

The purpose of this article is to discuss how the old and rather technocratic idea of expressing the state of affairs in a society in numbers, by means of social indicatros, can be given a more radical content. One idea is to measure not only how good a society is to its own citizens, but also how good or bad it is to the rest of the world. A second idea is to avoid abstractions like GNP and averages and try to develop measures that reflect the state of affairs at the level of human beings. A third idea is to find ways of developing indicators that would give less power to experts and more to people themselves. The article starts by giving the outline of a basic discussion on indicators, proceeds with a discussion of the basic values guiding the selection of indicators and ends with a presentation of the indicators.

Patterns of Diplomacy

In this article the institution of diplomacy is examined in terms of its main functions: negotiation, representation and as a channel of information. Some theses about how diplomacy changes with growing internationalization, about changes in diplomatic style from elite-oriented via treaty-oriented to structure-oriented diplomacy, about the various effects the extraordinarily high rank of the diplomat has, about the types of contact diplomats usually have in the host-society and about the loyalty problems of diplomats, are advanced, illustrated with examples and discussed. In the second part of the article the changes over time in one particular foreign service, that of Norway, are analyzed. The method used was to obtain all available information about the social backgrounds, education and diplomatic careers of the 398 who had been or still were members of the Norwegian foreign service as diplomats from the last century up to the end of 1964. Most of the article shows trends in these data when they are divided in five or six phases, defined by events in the history of Norway in general and its foreign service in particular. These trends are found to be consistent with the theory fragments advanced in the first part of the article, but other interpretations are also possible. Finally some predictions are made with regard to what future diplomacy will look like, and some major sources of conflict are pointed out.