citation form VIOLENCE, PEACE, AND PEACE RESEARCH

"VIOLENCE, PEACE, AND PEACE RESEARCH. by JOHAN GALTUNG

In the present paper we shall be using the word 'peace' very many limes. Few words
are so often used and abused -perhaps, it seems, because 'peace' serves as a means of obtaining verbal consensus -- it is hard to be all-out against peace. Thus, when efforts are made to plead almost any kind of policy -- say technical assistance, increased trade, tourism, new forms of education, irrigation, industrialization, etc. -- then it is often asserted that that policy, in addition to other merits, will also serve the cause of peace. This is done regardless of how tenuous the relation has been in the past or how dubious the theory justifying this as a reasonable expectation for the future. Such difficulties are avoided by excluding any reference to data from the past or to theories about the future.
This practice is not necessarily harmful. The use of the term 'peace' may in itself be peace-productive, producing a common basis, a feeling of communality in purpose that may pave the ground for deeper ties later on. The use of more precise terms drawn from the vocabulary of one conflict group, and excluded from the vocabulary of the opponent group, may in itself cause dissent and lead to manifest conflict precisely because the term is so clearly understood. By projecting an image of harmony of interests the term 'peace'
may also help bring about such a harmony. It provides opponents with a one-word language in which to express values of concern and togetherness because peace is on anybody's agenda.
One may object that frequent use of the word 'peace' gives an unrealistic image of the world. Expressions like 'violence', 'strife" 'exploitation' or at least 'conflict', 'revolution' and war should gain much higher frequency to mirror semantically a basically non-harmonious world. But leaving this major argument aside for the moment, it is obvious that some level of precision is necessary for the term to serve as a cognitive tool. At this point, of course, nobody has any monopoly on defining 'peace'. But those who use the term frequently in a researchers (will do) do, will at least have gained some experience when it comes to definitions when it comes to definitions that should be avoided for one reason or another.
To discuss the idea of peace we shall start from three simple principles:

I. The term 'peace' 'hall be used for social goals at least verbally agreed to by many, if not necessarily by most.
2. These social goals may be complex and difficult, but not impossible, to attain.
3. The statement peace is absence of violence shall be retained as valid.
The third principle is not a definition, since it is a clear case of obecurum per obscurius".