Absence of Violence or Sustainable Peace?

Violence , Peace , and Peace Research

Technology, Violence, And Peace

Technologies play a crucial role in both war and peace. Technologies designed for violence, namely weapons, range from handguns to nuclear weapons. Important characteristics of weapons include their destructive power, centralized control, offensive capacity, and ease of use. Technologies valuable for a peaceful society include those used in agriculture, construction, and transport. They can als...

The Thorny Road to Sustainable Peace:

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of post-conflict/post-major political transition violence in cities. It examines the transformation of violence in these cities from violence associated with protracted warfare and prolonged civil strife into new forms. The paper argues that post-conflict societies in general and cities in particular do not move from conflict and war into peace and no...

Angry or Weary? The effect of personal violence on attitudes towards peace in Darfur

Does an individual’s exposure to personal violence during civil war tend to make them more “angry” and anti-peace, or more “weary” and pro-peace? Despite the fundamental nature of this question and its potential consequences for conflict duration, termination, and recurrence, it remains largely unanswered. This paper examines the effect of exposure to direct violence faced by Darfurian civilian...

Israel’s Dilemma: Unity or Peace?

Ever since President Bush introduced his ‘Road Map’ for a permanent solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in April 2003, a great deal of public attention has focused on its demand for a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) to confront aggressively radical Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad who violently oppose a two-state solution to the conflict. One of the major obstacle...