Contemporary Security Studies - Chapter 5: Peace Studies by Paul Rogers

Chapter 5: Peace Studies by Paul Rogers

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© Oxford University Press, 2018. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5: Peace Studies
Paul Rogers
Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e

2. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
Peace Studies developed as a response to the
carnage of the First and Second World Wars, with the
Cold War providing further impetus in the 1950s
Most early work on peace studies was carried out in
North America and Scandinavia
Peace Studies has since the beginning been
interdisciplinary, including the natural sciences
By 1970 research centres and journals were
established
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
The Early Years

3. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
Contrary to realists’ Atlanticist outlook on the Cold
War, peace researchers tried to avoid a narrow
ethnocentric analysis of confrontation between the
two blocs
As Cold War tensions reduced, three major
international issues became central in Peace Studies:
North–South relations and socio-economic division
The link between development and the
environment
The Vietnam war
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
Evolution Amidst Controversy

4. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
A debate within Peace Studies was between
‘maximalists’ and minimalists’
Maximalists such as Johan Galtung argued that real
peace requires the absence not just of overt violence
but also of structural violence (the persistence of
economic and social exploitation)
However other scholars thought that the broadening
of the peace research agenda would weaken the field
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
Evolution Amidst Controversy

5. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
In the 1980s, in the final period of the Cold War, there
was bitter opposition to what was sometimes seen as
‘appeasement studies’, as peace researchers’
analyses differed markedly to that of international
relations realists
Within Peace Studies, one of the later developments
was a major interest in conflict prevention, conflict
resolution, peacekeeping, and peace-building
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
Evolution Amidst Controversy

6. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
Seven defining characteristics of Peace Studies
(Rogers and Ramsbotham,1999)
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
What is Peace Studies now?

7. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
What is Peace Studies now?

8. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
Major issues for the future centre on the effects of a
combination of socio-economic divisions and
environmental constraints
There is evidence of three broad conflict trends
resulting from those issues:
Increased human migration and cultural conflicts
Escalation of resource and environmental conflict
‘Revolts from the margins’ exacerbated by political,
religious, and nationalist fundamentalisms
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
Responding to New Security Challenges

9. Collins: Contemporary Security Studies 5e
How these challenges are responded to determines
future outcomes
Currently, the response to socio-economic divisions
and environmental constraints maintains the status
quo, ‘keeping the lid’ on an international system built
on massive inequalities
The prevailing security paradigm since the 9/11
attacks has been dominated by the United States
Responding to a potentially fragile and insecure
international system will require sustained analysis
combined with persistent efforts to suggest viable
alternatives to the current security paradigm
Approaches to Security: Peace Studies
Responding to New Security Challenges