Positive peace

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Positive peace is a concept developed by the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung around 1971. What is meant by this is a peace that does not only consist in the absence of international violence, but in the absence of personal violence and structural violence in all areas of society.

According to the Norwegian peace researcher Han Dorussen, positive peace is characterized by a low number of inter-social conflicts. Conflicts, such as the race riots in the United States , can disrupt positive peace in industrialized nations as well.

This theoretical concept was echoed in the formulations of politicians such as Erhard Eppler : "Peace policy means trying to eliminate the causes that can lead to war." (Interview 1972) and Willy Brandt : "Necessity is conflict. Where there is hunger, there is no lasting peace. [...] We will have to decide to break with ritualized traditions: Whoever wants to outlaw war must also outlaw hunger ”(address to the UN General Assembly in early October 1973).

For Galtung, the concept of positive peace went hand in hand with the concepts of social defense and nonviolent action . Peace as the mere prevention of war can be secured through nuclear deterrence . Social defense can only be afforded by a society that is supported by the vast majority of the population.

The goals of positive peace are, on the one hand, lasting peace, peacekeeping and a peaceful, nonviolent society. This peace, however, can only be achieved through justice, through observance of human rights, reconciliation and understanding, reconstruction aid and coping with the aftermath of the war.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lecture Introduction to Peace and Conflict Research by Thorsten Bonacker , University of Marburg , PDF file, pp. 19 & 20
  2. ↑ Dorussen, Han (2008): Positive and Negative Peace in First World Nations, In: War and Peace Magazine 2/2008, pp. 35-40

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