Peace

Abstract

Abstract Peace is a composite term that connotes a range of political conditions from the absence of war to the institutionalization of social justice and/or cosmopolitan ethics. Peace is frequently theorized primarily as the absence of war between political units in international relations and diplomatic studies (negative peace), whereas philosophers and social theorists debate the social, economic, and ethical prerequisites for lasting conditions of peace (positive peace). Social and economic prerequisites may be conceptualized as forms of wealth distribution that result in economic justice. Ethical prerequisites are often conceptualized as necessitating one of many forms of cosmopolitanism, such as respect for human rights. These prerequisites are extremely difficult to achieve in a pluralist world. While peace defined as the absence of war frequently occurs, most theorists and observers would not claim that the conditions of lasting peace, including social justice and agreement on ethics, has ever been achieved. Yet twentieth and twenty‐first century global international organizations have attempted to provide a framework within which to do so.