Peace and Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies September 9th

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.

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

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. • I’ll be walking around to help you or answer any questions you may have.

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

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”

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

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

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.

Bhagavad Gita (Indian Text): tells about a terrible civil war and the main character, a warrior named Arjuna, doesn’t 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

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.

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.

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.

Negative Peace and Structural Violence • Structural Violence is a serious form of social oppression. • It’s unlike direct violence, which can be seen by bodily injury (it’s very visible to the eye) • Structural violence is built into the “structure” or system of social, cultural, and economic institutions.

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

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" isused more as a parting salutation as a way of sending one off with well wishes.

Chinese: “Ping” used as a noun and a person’s 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.

Peace in other language? • Korean? Any peaceful implications in: • annyeong haseyo 안녕하세요? • Other ideas?

Common Goal

The Peace – War Continuum Peace and war are at two ends of a continuum, with an unclear or ambiguous transition between the two:

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

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. • I’ll ask some groups to share their thoughts on some questions after the discussion. • I’ll be walking around to help you or answer any questions you may have.

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 can’t 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.

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.

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

Peace and Conflict Studies