Peace

The concept of peace ranks among the most controversial in our time. Peace undoubtedly carries a positive connotation; almost nobody admits to opposing peace; world peace is widely seen as one of the most noble goals of humanity. Various groups, however, differ sharply about what peace entails, how best to achieve peace, and whether peace is even truly possible.

What is Peace?

Peace is many things: the meaning of the word peace changes with context. Peace may refer specifically to an agreement concluded to end a war, or to a lack of external warfare, or to a period when a country's armies are not fighting enemies. It can also refer more generally to quietude, such as that common at night or in remote areas, allowing for sleep or meditation. Peace can be an emotion or internal state. And finally, peace can be any combination of these defintions.

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A person's conception of "peace" is often the product of culture and upbringing. People of different cultures sometimes disagree about the meaning of the word, and so do people within any given culture.

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Absence of War

A simple and narrow definition of peace entails the absence of war. (The ancient Romans defined peace, Pax, as Absentia Belli, the absence of war.) By this definition, however, we might consider the Congo, the Sudan, and perhaps even North Korea at peace because none of these countries engages in deadly combat with external enemies.

Related Topics:
War - Ancient Romans - Congo - Sudan - North Korea

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Indeed, by this definition, we now live in an era of world peace, with no active wars between nation-states. The maintenance of longstanding peace between nations ranks among the few great successes of the United Nations. Peace can be voluntary, where potential agitators choose to abstain from disturbance, or it can be enforced, by suppressing those who might otherwise cause such disturbance.

Related Topics:
Nations - United Nations

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A hard stance on neutrality has given Switzerland fame as a country for its long-lasting peace. Sweden, however, presently has the longest history of continuous peace. Since its 1814 invasion of Norway, the Swedish kingdom has not engaged in military-style external violence.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - Sweden - 1814 - Norway

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Absence of Violence or of Evil; Presence of Justice

Constraining the concept of peace strictly to the absence of international war masks internal genocide, terrorism, and other violence. Few would describe the Congolese genocide of the 1890s as an example of peace, even though it technically occurred within the personal domain of King Léopold of the Belgians. Some, therefore, define "peace" as an absence of violence: not merely the absence of war, but also of evil.

Related Topics:
Genocide - Terrorism - Violence - King Léopold of the Belgians - Evil

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Many believe that peace is more than the absence of certain societal maladies. From this perspective, peace requires not only the absence of violence but also the presence of justice, as articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr. In this conception, a society in which one group is oppressed by another lacks peace even in the absence of violence, because the oppression itself constitutes evil.

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Plural Peaces

Some "peace thinkers" choose to abandon the idea of one definition of peace; rather, they promote the idea of many peaces. They think that no singular, correct definition of peace can exist; peace, therefore, should be seen as a plurality.

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For example, in the Great Lakes region of Africa, 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 is a much more broad vision of peace than a mere "absence of war" or even a "presence of justice" standard.

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Many of these same thinkers also critique the idea of peace as a hopeful or eventual end. They recognize that peace does not necessarily have to be something the humans might achieve "some day." They contend that peace exists, we can create and expand it in small ways in our everyday lives, and peace changes constantly. This view makes peace permeable and imperfect rather than static and utopian.

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Peace and Quiet

In some contexts, peace refers more generally to a state of quiet or tranquillity--an absence of disturbance or agitation.

Related Topics:
Quiet - Tranquillity

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Those who travel to remote, rural areas often notice the striking difference in the noise level between the cities and the countryside; hence the term 'peace and quiet'. Conflict that occurs in nature, however, often produces sounds. When animals fight, the surrounding forest can become even more silent, as the non-engaged animals warily await the outcome. After a conflict, the normal sounds and actions of the inhabitants eventually reappear.

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Inner Peace

One meaning of peace refers to inner peace; a state of mind, body and soul, which is said to take place within ourselves. People that experience inner peace say that the feeling is not dependent on time, people or place, asserting that an individual may experience inner peace even in the midst of war.

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