Building New Pathways to Peace

Introduction

3 Introduction T his volume is the outcome of a fruitful, five-year research collaboration between International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo and Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman. The project, Research and Education for Peace, Security, and Kyosei,1 was sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science through its 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program. This volume shares the results of the ICU-WSU collaboration with a wider audience by outlining the findings and reflections (both methodological and substantive) that emerged from a common endeavor to build a multidisciplinary theory of comprehensive peace studies. We hope this introduction will serve as a methodological prolegomenon to our shared task of developing a new grand theory of peace. The title Building New Pathways to Peace captures the spirit in which WSU and ICU approached their joint quest for a grand theory of peace. The first word, building, connotes the dynamic and ongoing orientation and process that characterize our search for a grand theory of peace. The second word, new, conveys the distinct nature of this quest. We are seeking new ways to look at this subject and exploring new ideas and concepts that will help frame contemporary discussions of peace. In this volume, we discuss relatively recent ideas and concepts such as human security, decent peace, credibility, accountability, plurality, and multiculturalism . And in order to find new perspectives for a contemporary grand theory of peace, we have redesigned, reexamined, or reformulated 4 Introduction old ideas and concepts such as tolerance, nomos, chaos, forgiveness, reconciliation , justice, shalom, and wa. The term pathways conveys the key idea that our endeavor is a process or development in a quest for peace. This word also suggests directionality , durability, and sustainability. We believe that helping to achieve peace as a consequence of our endeavor is important, but we also maintain that the process of moving toward peace is no less significant. The quest for peace is seldom spectacular or conspicuous: it is the laborious and mundane work of creating and maintaining peace. For us, it has also been important to stress the use of the plural form: pathways. The road to peace is not limited to one way or a few ways—we believe there are multiple roads to peace. In this book, twelve scholars from a range of social and human science disciplines use their varied expertise to explore pathways to peace. Thus, this book aims to share with readers multiple and feasible pathways to peace. The title clearly shows that our ultimate goal is to realize peace. The following chapters demonstrate that the idea of peace is always present, in individual as well as group relationships. They also suggest that elements of peace are almost always buried under, or intermingled with, actual situations in our everyday lives, situations replete with the potential for violence and conflict. In other words, there will be no peace that is pure and absolute, that is not mingled with conflict-laden situations. What one can reasonably expect today is the possibility of either a rare peace or a narrow peace, both of which can barely survive in a world filled with violence, conflict, and antagonism. Each of us can choose merely a few possibilities for walking along this road of scarce peace. But there is no peace essentialism here that specifies our way. Therefore, we contend that we need a two-track approach, one that includes studies of the burden of the past as well as critical analyses of the predicament of the threatening reality that we now face. And if we accept this idea of a two-track approach, we have to take seriously the possibility of seeking a negative peace (that is, the absence of war, conflict, and direct violence) as one step toward the positive peace of social justice, cooperation, and kyosei (conviviality). Recent Developments in Peace Research and Peace Studies This volume belongs to the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies generally called “peace research” or “peace studies,” and it has pre- Introduction 5 supposed some recent developments in this field. In today’s post–Cold War world, as globalization trends grow ever stronger, the issues of peace, violence, and conflict have become enormously complex and multifaceted . If the discipline of peace studies aspires to retain its relevance, it must take these characteristics of the current violent world into consideration as its foundational reality. First, the actors of peace and conflict have...