In what ways might the characteristics of contemporary peace studies be said to have established important practices of analysis?
Peace studies has developed a normative approach of analysis in which most peace researchers have brought strong ethical commitments and concerns which have facilitated the development of strong deterministic ideas about the international system .
Peace studies have facilitated the development of a strong relationship between the theory and practice of research undertaken, and thus may be regarded to be a normative and an analytical mode of practice.
Humanitarian intervention emerged as the approach for the reconciliation of the use of force and responsibility. Military force is legitimate in internalized conflicts if it meets the criteria of preventing recurring inequalities.
A general consensus that the motivation of peace studies should be the commitment to address the causes and means of overcoming structural inequalities through equitable and co-operative relations.
In what ways is climate becoming a case for conflict resolution and the security agenda?
The climate modeling picture presented in the 1990s indicated the potential destabilization of the economic capacity of the industrialized northern states.
By the mid-1990s climate modeling showed a major impact on rainfall distribution which would decrease over landmasses and increase over the world's ocean and polar regions.
By the 1990s climate modeling showed few global effects. Climate change would be limited to the richer countries of Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Italy and Greece who might see warmer, wetter, and windier weather .
By the 1990s climate modeling showed a disturbing picture; the likelihood that climate change would have a major impact on rainfall distribution in the tropics and sub-tropics and would result in the substantial increase of rainfall over the land-masses.
In what ways have communication and technology changes posed a new security challenge?
The proliferation of non-western satellite news channels has resulted in the reinforcement of traditional monopolies of power, dominated by transnational broadcasting organizations and local elites. News censorship was served to localize disaffection.
The proliferation of communication networks accompanied by technological advancements particularly within the realm of non-western satellite news channels has served to break down time-space barriers.
The proliferation of communication networks have resulted in a wider recognition of inequitable development and socio- economic opportunities creating a revolution of rising expectations, manifest in consumerism demands.
The key development underpinning socio-economic marginalization and environmental constraints is a marked advancement in technology which has facilitated the emergence of global networks, revolutionizing the nature of protest.
Why was there a need to move the peace studies agenda beyond the immediate confines of responses to conflict situations?
Developmental disparities were considered an inevitable outcome of the competitive dynamics rising from the anarchical international system between stronger and weaker states and therefore a natural extension of state security needs.
Economic security and international development are interrelated areas of analysis because of the asymmetric development patterns and the potential limitations placed on economic growth by environmental constraints.
Development was contextualized by Cold War mentalities and military advancement. The competitive arms dynamic had environmental consequences whilst social and economic policy was frequently sidelined in favour of military expenditure.
The most important issue for the prevention of conflict was economic development and financial assistance to developing states. Externally sourced rapid industrialization programs were considered the most effective means .
What events precipitated the emergence of Peace Studies as a field of research?
Peace studies emerged as a response to the new nuclear weapons as a means for the study of the way in which nuclear accumulation and strategic deployment could be used as a military tactic to deter potential aggression from communist states.
The wars of liberation from colonial European powers in the post-war period in Asia and Africa marked the establishment of peace studies as a concentrated field of studies concerned with anti-colonial insurgency.
The Post-war era facilitated the emergence of Peace Studies as a profoundly optimistic and idealistic response to the Cold War. The proliferation of nuclear weapons would eventually give way to the need for intergovernmental cooperation .
The hope of securing the effective replacement of inter-governmental action capable of controlling new nuclear weapons had failed at the end of the war. Nuclear accumulation meant that the prospect of globalized warfare remained undiminished .
In the informative period of the 19050s what were the key features that differentiated peace studies as a specific area of study?
A key feature of Peace Studies in the early years was that the development of research centers occurred primarily in the West marked by its interdisciplinary nature. The centers extended the scope of inquiry drawing on input from natural scientists.
Peace studies initially developed as a truly global sphere of activity with research centers and journals established world wide facilitating an inter-cultural approach towards the social sciences that drew on an array of nation and ethnic sources.
Peace studies as an inter-disciplinary social science developed under the sponsorship of central government for the study of conflict resolution enabling it to flourish independently in spite of the prevailing political climate.
New centers for peace research were established at the behest of charitable peace church sponsorship. During the formative period the growth of the field was unstable and prospects of innovation severely limited their independence .
What affect did the legacy of the Vietnam War have on the agenda of peace research?
The Vietnam war highlighted for those with a Maximalist peace agenda that pace research was critically engaged with defining peaceful societies justice and therefore was identified as non-peaceful by researchers legitimating intervention.
The reason why Cold War tensions over the regional conflict in Vietnam did not escalate to international warfare was primarily because of the decision not to use nuclear weapons.
The Vietnam War resulted in a divergence of opinion on when it was appropriate to use force Maximalist peace researchers contended that the agenda of peace should not only be the absence of violence but that structured violence.
The Vietnam War resolved that researchers should be engaged with the pursuit of justice, defined as the absence of conflict. Violence of any kind was not justifiable and was considered the surest means by which socio-economic grievances could be permeated.
Why was there opposition in the 1980s and a war on peace studies, and what affect did it have on the development of the field of peace studies?
Conflict resolution, mediation, conflict prevention and peace keeping initiatives alongside socio-economic and environmental programs emerged as important conceptual advancements, an important consequence of which has been the involvement of NGOs .
Unyielding critical scrutiny of research produced a need to demonstrate success to consolidate a continuation in funding. This resulted in a lapse of practical standard and a tendency to over state claims of advancement.
Research was contextualized by Cold War thinking serving to re-produce the patterns of norms and doing little to address the problems of the marginalization of people from conventional power structures as a potential source of conflict.
Reliance on governmental funding made multi level analysis an untenable project, the predominant source of analysis coming from policy makers. Research potential stagnated, failing to analyze emerging norms of inter-state governance and democracy .
What is the predominant paradigm in security and threat perception post 9/11 and to what extent is it an adequate response?
The security paradigm has been the development of multi-level analysis to the understanding of radical responses of the disempowered involving the promotion of peace research and multi-level involvement by NGOs, policy-makers, and academic communities.
The security paradigm of US led strategy has been the undertaking of short-terms measures drawn from research of the peace studies community for peace-keeping, peace-making and method of preventing further conflict.
The paradigm of post 9/11 security has been to some extent a reversion to liddism keeping the lid on a potentially fractured international system, without redress to the critical underlying causes of the problems.
The paradigm in security thinking has been a US led initiative which recognizes the need to undertake responsibility for inter-governmental cooperation, particularly for the commitment towards ethical intervention for securing peaceful transformation.
