Abstract
Abstract This chapter examines orthodox, top-down interruptions to violent conflict—mainly in the form of ceasefires—and so sets up a contrast with the following chapter, which looks at bottom-up initiatives to disrupt conflict. The chapter draws on personal diaries and memoirs, mainly from World Wars I and II, and spends time justifying these as source material. It also notes that they are used infrequently in contemporary peace and conflict studies. The chapter takes issue with a very common trait in explanations of violent conflict: that conflict is totalising and often involves the full mobilisation of a population and all actions and stances. In fact, conflict is often less than totalising, and this allows space for dissent and actions that might be pro-peace and pro-social. The chapter illustrates how tactical agency can be used to carve out space for pacific acts and thinking in the midst of war.
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