Methodological problems of interdisciplinary peace research

Abstract

The increase in international tensions and the threat of global selfdestruction has determined the appearance of new interdisciplinary sciences aimed to investigate ways of contradictions resolving and raising the peace process’s effectiveness. Since the Second World War, issues of peace have become the object of study for several disciplines: polemology, eirenology, conflict resolution, and peace studies. They coexisted and rivalled in questions of methods and ways of cognition and achievement of peace. From 1960 to 1980, peace studies had been taking the first place. It had broadened and deepened the object and methods of peace research and been transformed into a separate interdisciplinary scientific field for studying and analyzing the preconditions for forging a lasting peace. Peace studies has combined conflict studies, development studies, philosophical-ethical reflections, historical context, and the international relations theory. Within peace research, two main schools have coalesced. The American traditional school (J. Burton) went in for peace keeping through predominantly analyzing international relations, arms control, disarmament, balance of power, and methods to establish peace „from the top”. The Scandinavian critical school (J. Galtung, B. V. A. Rolling, K. Boulding), based on updated social doctrine of the catholic church (the encyclicals of Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI), studied the underlying basis of conflict, having developed the theory of positive peace as a state of absence of not only direct but also of structural violence. Since the beginning of the 21st century, over 300 academic institutions and universities have been engaged in peace studies. Current peace research focuses on problems of global climate change, terrorism, sustainable development, failed states, and violation of human rights. At the same time, unsteady terminology is a significant problem of peace studies. R. Seidelman spoke about peace studies as a discipline in its infant stage. Evidently, a hybrid type of warfare, novel compound risks and threats to international security will promote the appearance of new directions of peace research. Key words: war, conflict, peace studies, peace research, peace process, conflict resolution, polemology.