Peace Activists Research Articles

Forum on Scholarship and Peace Activism

Forum on Scholarship and Peace Activism

Pragmatism, courage, and ideals of peace in times of war

ABSTRACT After the demise of liberal peacebuilding, the policy literature often views peacebuilding as a project aimed at avoiding relapse into conflict, focusing on prevention, stabilisation and hard security. Also, critical peace scholars have predominantly narrowed peacebuilding down to gradual, small, hybrid, everyday work. There is no enthusiasm for pointing towards new ideals of peace. To this aim, this article engages with the work of the American social worker, feminist, and peace activist of the early twentieth century, Jane Addams, who was the first to theorise what a positive peace may be. According to Addams, a positive peace was about enlarging human relations and already emerging from the ashes of the First World War. Peacebuilding had to be heroic, courageous, and aggressive, substituting the virtues of war. Her pragmatist work is useful for thinking of alternative imaginaries of liberal peace in times when imagination about peace and peacebuilding has dimmed.

‘What we give up to get where we’re going’: compromise in the institutionalizing of youth peace advocacy

ABSTRACT In 2015, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS), formalizing an agenda for positive youth participation in peace and security. However, youth peace activists have been leading peacebuilding long before this institutional recognition. This article explores the dynamics of how advocates and institutional actors conceptualize and negotiate compromise. To do this, it draws on in-depth interviews with youth and adult YPS advocates, a critical analysis of documents related to the agenda, and extended participant observation. It explores and develops a notion of a field of youth-oriented peacebuilding, drawing on Bourdieu. This makes visible a more complex field of struggle, showing how compromise can help explain how youth actively negotiate their participation in formalized agendas and persist in their own peacebuilding ambitions. It argues for a more nuanced understanding of compromise to understand the affordances and limitations of youth agency and institutional agendas.

Perceptions at War: Exploring Public Attitude Formation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict

Abstract The post-2020 escalations in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, culminating in the Azerbaijani military offensive of September 2023 and the subsequent mass exodus of the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, once again underscored the persistent deadlock in the peace process and the failure to achieve compromise. This article aims to analyze the genesis of maximalist attitudes within Armenian and Azerbaijani societies in the years preceding the 2020 war, as well as the factors contributing to the endurance of these attitudes in the years that followed. Drawing on the analysis of maximalist attitudes formation during the interwar period (1994–2020), the research delves into the obstacles encountered by peace activists and peacebuilders in their efforts to counter dominant nationalism, alongside other challenges and structural impediments in the peacebuilding process. Finally, the study investigates the determinants that shaped the post-war attitudes in Armenia and Azerbaijan preceding the pivotal events of September 2023.

Exchanging “Mementos of Death”: Holocaust Remains in Poland and Japan

Abstract In 1962, a Japanese delegation of peace activists visited Auschwitz-Birkenau where they participated in the annual ceremony commemorating the liberation of the camp. As part of the ceremony, the delegation engaged in an exchange of Hiroshima and Auschwitz “memontos,” receiving from the Polish side, amongst others, an urn containing ashes of the victims of the camp. The exchange was the first of several that included Holocaust urns, most of which are now in Japan, and a part of a much broader phenomenon of material dispersal of human remains instituted by Polish museums established at the former Nazi camps. In this paper, we take a critical look at this practice, its development, directionalities and meanings. Tracing the journey of the urns and their various uses, we argue, reveals the complex politics and cultural landscape of the transnational commemoration of World War II in its very local meanings in Poland, Japan and beyond.

Pacifism and peace activism in modern Britain: A history of the ‘peace studies problem’

AbstractIt is over 40 years since Ceadel defined interwar British pacifism as a ‘faith’. During that time, pacifism has had little political significance and the influential peace movement of the interwar years is now scarcely within living memory. Yet, what Margaret Thatcher once described as ‘the peace studies problem’ is a diverse and interdisciplinary field, and one in which scholarship, peace activism and mainstream politics are all closely intertwined. Feminist scholars and peace activists have queried the links between militarism and patriarchy; historians and ethicists have explored medical pacifism and have asked whether medicine is (or should be) a pacifist profession. More recently, scholars have looked at interwar pacifism through the lens of the Empire and have challenged the imperialist pacifist delusion. Despite pacifism's limited political influence, its history over the last 40 years has explored the beliefs and motivations of men and women struggling to respond to militarism and the threat of war.

The museology of peace: How accessible, collection‐led, peace history contributes to cultures of peace

AbstractYamane and Anzai (2020) identify over 300 “museums for peace” worldwide, including large national tourist attractions, Sites of Conscience with their “dark tourism,” and small independent institutions celebrating civil society and war resistance. A subset of these, “peace museums,” focus on peace and peace movement history. The Peace Museum, Bradford, UK, uses a collection of 16,000 peace artifacts to encourage casual tourists to access past peace activism and to adopt that mantle themselves.

Violence against women is a price paid by society as a whole: (Iraq after 2003 as an example)

In 2003, Iraq experienced a regime change. This change and the events that followed have increased the vulnerabilities faced by Iraqi women and girls during the conflict period and beyond. The lack of security for women in Iraq is considered one of the main factors hindering the achievement of gender equality, which hinders peace-building processes in society. In the first half of 2021 alone, about 15,000 women were exposed to domestic violence, whether by family members such as husbands, fathers and children, or by relatives. This number refers to cases that required security intervention, without considering the number of hidden cases inside homes. Violence against women is not limited to domestic violence, as women's groups and civil society activists who emerged as leaders after 2003 were constantly threatened. These threats come either directly through exposure to danger, or indirectly through attempts to undermine their efforts towards peaceful activism and advocacy for rights. This reflects the difficult situation that women face in Iraq, where achieving equality and building a peaceful society is considered a challenge that requires great efforts to overcome. These challenges are numerous and complex.” The economic and political conditions, wars, and terrorism that Iraqi society experienced after 2003 underscore the severity of this problem, requiring active efforts to change these social dynamics and improve the status of women.

The Bodhisattva Peace Activist

abstract: This paper considers the challenge of transcending partisan and ideological attachments in the work of peace activism through the Buddhist hermeneutic of nonduality. The Diamond Sutra as well as the witness and teaching of Thích Nhất Hạnh form the foundation of the paper's argument. It first recalls Nhất Hạnh's contribution to peace activism, especially his radical stance of neutrality and peace at any cost, which caused him to be marginalized by the American peace movement during the Vietnam War. It then presents the teaching of the Diamond Sutra , where the Buddha challenges the bodhisattva to practice acts of generosity without being attached to the signs of self, person, living being, and life span. Nhất Hạnh's teaching of interbeing is invoked to help explain the dialectical logic of the Diamond Sutra . Finally, the same bodhisattva ideal is shown to be found in the teaching and example of Jesus in the New Testament. The paper concludes with the belief that both Christianity and Buddhism demand from their followers a radical transformation of consciousness that transcends egoism and dualism.

Are values stable throughout adulthood? Evidence from two German long-term panel studies.

Previous studies have used cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal data, resulting in a truncated view of a phenomenon unfolding across the lifespan. We find that, contrary to the consensus in the literature, people's values continue developing in adulthood, albeit at a slower pace than in previous developmental stages. We use longitudinal data sources with two measurement instruments. We show their comparability using confirmatory MDS in Study 1 (N = 1,027). We examined value development using latent growth models in a convenience sample of highly educated German peace activists (Study 2, N = 1,209) and corroborated these with evidence from a representative sample from the German population (Study 3, N = 19,566). We find that all values change up to age 40 consistent with theoretical expectations. We observe that with age, self-transcendence and conservation values increase while self-enhancement values decrease. At the same time, we find a curvilinear pattern for openness to change in Study 2 and an overall decrease in Study 3. Moreover, the developmental trajectory of conservation and of self-enhancement in the German general population differ between those with tertiary and without tertiary education. We discuss the implication of the present findings for research on value development and for interventions.

The Role of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: A Civil–Military Cooperation (CIMIC) Perspective

This paper scrutinises the assimilation of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – TNI) into civilian structures to shape a harmonised civil–military cooperation (CIMIC) in post-conflict peacebuilding initiatives. Acting as a crucial state apparatus, the TNI confronts a spectrum of threats, upholds national integrity, and follows Law No. 34/2004 by promoting soft power in non-combative military operations. Notwithstanding concerns raised by peace activists regarding potential human rights breaches during armed interventions, peacebuilding heavily depends on trust-building, which is a key catalyst for stakeholder cooperation. In contradiction to activists’ apprehensions, 2022 surveys reveal an impressive public trust level of around 93% towards the TNI. This robust public confidence sets a promising stage for the active engagement of the TNI in peacebuilding. To ensure effective participation, the TNI must demonstrate human rights commitment and adaptability to civilian protocols and guarantee non-repressive methodologies in peace missions. Leveraging its soft power, the TNI can cultivate productive alliances with civil institutions via joint ventures under civilian supremacy within a regulated CIMIC construct. The theory of change offers a unique perspective on the intertwined dynamics of civil–military collaboration, public trust and soft military power in peacebuilding, steering state policy outcomes. These are shaped by the government’s ability to reshape military duties devoid of military overreach. In conclusion, civilian control over the military materialises through shared accountability in peacebuilding endeavours, encapsulated within the CIMIC framework.

Relationship Between Passion Pathways and Religious Activism: Why the Threat to Religious Identity Predicts Peaceful Activism or Extremism?

Identities of religious believers can motivate believers’ passions, emotions, and action tendencies. Religious identity-based passion can, therefore, lead people to identify with certain kinds of movements, both peaceful and extremist. Around the globe, identities of religious minorities provide a compelling context for studying peaceful and extremist activism driven by passion. Building on previous literature on social identity theory, passion, and religious identity, it was hypothesized that religious identity predicts passion of both types: Harmonious Passion (HP) and Obsessive Passion (OP). It was proposed that people who were harmoniously passionate about their religious identity would promote peaceful activism whereas people who were obsessively passionate would promote hatred and extremism. A sample of 221 devout Shias (a religious minority) from Pakistan participated in the survey-based experiment of this study (males = 108, females = 113; ages ranging from 19 to 38 years, Mage = 22, SD = 2.13; experimental condition = 111, control condition = 110). The results supported the key hypotheses of the study: identification with a minority (Shia Identity) leads to both Harmonious Passion (HP) and Obsessive Passion (OP); when the Shia Identity was threatened, HP and OP scores were lower. Furthermore, HP predicted peaceful activism whereas, under a threat to identify, OP increased and showed a significantly higher violent stance, predicting religious extremism. These findings support the assumption that HP leads to Peaceful Activism, whereas OP is associated with increased support for Extremism and Hatred. The results of this study replicated existing theoretical and empirical predictions about passion pathways and threats to religious identity. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of contemporary identity threats and activism strategies among Muslim minorities in Pakistan.

Introduction

Armed political conflict is no stranger to contemporary Europe. Radicalized nationalist ideologies, state-sanctioned ethnic and religious violence, revolutionary separatist organizations, state-supported armies and police forces turning against civilian populations, insurgents and counterinsurgents, a long list of actors embodying the dance of death in recent times. This Special Issue of the International Journal of Iberian Studies (IJIS), ‘Unspeakable Truths’, will focus on the aftermath and the road to recovery after Basque ETA armed conflict in Spain–France (1959–2011) through the lens of affect, restorative justice, memory, peace-making efforts, and the arts (literature and film) thanks to contributions by academics, ETA and GAL victims, filmmakers, restorative justice practitioners and mediators of the Nanclares process, and peace activists.

Breaking the Myth of Nuclear Power Omnipotence in the Cold War era: Discourse on Nuclear Power and the Movement against the Construction of Nuclear Power Plants in South Korea in the 1980s and early 1990s

In South Korea, the frontline of the Cold War in East Asia, an active anti-nuclear movement could not emerge until the 1970s due to the effects of Korean War, national division, and the Cold War culture. In the 1970s, youth activists, religious figures, and intellectuals who opposed the military regime became concerned about environmental issues as a reaction to the adverse effects of industrialization pursued by the military. In the 1980s, the ecological movement gave way to the anti-nuclear peace movement, which confronted the security discourse that dominated the Cold War era. The South Korean democratization movement of the 1980s overcame and transcended Cold War factionalism on an ideological level, and as a result, anti-nuclear peace activists opposed the nuclear disarmament of the Korean Peninsula and called for the abolition of nuclear power plants. Based on anti-foreign nationalism, they used a discourse that directly linked individual life, safety, and health rights to national survival and peace, and treated nuclear weapons as a symbol of imperialist oppression.</br>Environmentalist organizations, such as the ‘Anti-Pollution Movement Association’, actively engaged in solidarity activities with local residents' protests against the construction of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste sites. As the case of Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do shows, the difference in position between the local residents who pursued economic compensation and the establishment of a sustainable basis for livelihood and the environmental movement group that pursued the public spread of the anti-nuclear movement led to distrust and conflict, despite the devoted solidarity of both sides. As the case of Anmyeonisland shows, conflicts between residents were intensified by monetary inducements from government organizations, undermining their everyday relationships. Nevertheless, the anti-nuclear movement in Korea from the late 1980s to the early 1990s contributed greatly to breaking the myth of nuclear power omnipotence in the Cold War era, revealing the ecological agenda to Korean society, and laying the foundation for the growth of the eco-environmental movement in the 1990s.

Tracing the legacy of peace leadership from an Asian perspective: Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh

ABSTRACT This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the ‘father of mindfulness’. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence.

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Indian Romance

Former colonial powers are living through a moment of self-discovery. They are examining the enormous benefits they reaped from colonialism as well as the heavy costs they inflicted on the colonised. Academic disciplines have set about questioning their own foundations, some more successfully than others. Sociology, in particular, is experiencing its decolonial moment. In the United States at the centre of debate is W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)—a brilliant sociologist, historian, novelist, dramatist, socialist, civil rights and peace activist and Pan-Africanist. Despite being the leading African American public intellectual of the 20th century, he was largely ignored by academic sociology. An ardent advocate of national self-determination and an enthusiastic admirer of Nehru and Gandhi, he was the author of a surreal novel Dark Princess (2007 [1928]) that placed India at the centre of world revolution. In this talk, I try to disentangle the global significance of canonising Du Bois for the decolonisation of sociology.

The meaning of hope for Israeli peace activists: consolidation of collective identity, antidote to despair and spiritual resource

Twenty years after the outbreak of the Second Intifada and with the collapse of the Oslo Peace Process, many Israelis perceive the conflict with Palestinians as inevitable and unsolvable, yet some still mobilise for peace. This article investigates the meaning of hope for Jewish and Arab-Palestinian peace activists who joined the two newest peace movements in Israel, Women Wage Peace (2014) and Standing Together (2015). The article draws on qualitative methodologies – in-depth interviews with activists and ethnographic work conducted from 2018 to 2021. It finds that within the context of a protracted conflict, in addition to the distant and more abstract objective of peace, activists view hope as an objective in and of itself. As an attachment to a political vision, a capacity to imagine positive change or a visceral substance, activists embrace hope to consolidate their collective identity, protect themselves from crippling emotions such as despair, resignation and cynicism and/or regain spirituality. Far from being a fraudulent form of hope, the article suggests that this is a radical, authentic and active form of hope to save what can be a political vision, the shattered dream of peace, that remains central to the activists’ sense of identity and belonging. This hope is valuable: it mobilises Israeli peace activists and allows them to avoid despair as they refuse to accept the protracted conflict reality as an unchangeable given.

Stories of Gender Inclusion, Power-Sharing and the Good Friday Agreement

Abstract Marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, we review the gendered legacy of power-sharing and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. The participation of an all-women’s political party in the 1996–1998 peace talks and world-class commitments to human rights and equality enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement suggested that Northern Ireland would stand as a conflict resolution and institutional design model par excellence. While the intervening years have been largely peaceful, and women’s political representation has improved, years of political stalemate and poor equality and human rights protections for women suggest a mixed legacy of gender inclusion and power-sharing. In this paper, we chart the ups and downs of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions in the context of feminist peace activism over two and a half decades and offer a set of feminist reflections on the promise and peril of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

Reflexive postliberal peace: a cultural paradigm shift in Israel’s peacebuilding

ABSTRACT To what extent does postliberal peace represent a substantive cultural paradigm shift relative to the liberal peace paradigm? We offer an empirical examination of the question through the Israeli case. An analysis of sixteen peace associations shows that peace activism has changed in the last twenty years in Israel in terms of organization, orientation, and action. Such change is clearly based on reflexivity, i.e. on the attempt by the activists to overcome the weakness of the liberal peace approach that has failed repeatedly in the Israeli-Palestinian context. The Israeli case reveals a cultural change that is creating a new, concrete, micro-level, “bottom-up” model of peacebuilding grounded, first and foremost, in everyday life. It is based on creating bridges on the social and cultural levels through practices, meetings, and networks. Although the peace process is not visible in the near future in Israel, and precisely because of that, the article presents the formation of a new cultural perception, which might be useful, and even necessary in time.

Political Communication Strategies of Local Parties in the Implementation of Aceh Peace

The purpose of this research is to analyse how the political communication strategies of local parties towards the implementation of Aceh peace and the impact of political communication strategies of local parties in the implementation of Aceh peace. This research uses the theory of political communication strategies that are ethical, elegant and professionalThis research uses qualitative research methods. The research informants came from local political parties, representatives of Aceh Nanggroe Party, MoU Helsinki peace negotiators and Aceh peace activists who have information about the object of research with a qualitative approach. The results showed that the political communication strategy is through the control of legislative and executive seats by the local party Partai Aceh and Partai Nanggroe Aceh, aims to initiate both policies and regulations (Qanun) and to increase the bargaining value in communication and policy to the central government towards the Aceh government to realise the points of the Helsinki MoU, Secondly, the full control of the legislative and executive seats by the local party (Partai Aceh and Partai Nanggroe Aceh) and reunited in one command of the Free Aceh Movement, the management of the local government runs according to the expectations and ideals of the Helsinki MoU, in addition to giving birth to Qanuns and decisions that have a direct impact on the people of Aceh.