Just Peace After Conflict

As contemporary studies have increasingly viewed just post bellum to the concept of peace, or the law of peace, so opinions concerning what a 'just peace' could look like have diverged. Is it merely an elusive ideal? Or is it predominantly procedural justice? Is it dependent on concessions and compromise? In this volume, the third output of a major research project on Jus Post Bellum, Carsten Stahn, Jens Iverson, and Jennifer Easterday bring together a team of experts to explore the issues surrounding a just peace, what it is composed of, and how it makes itself felt in the modern world, concluding that a just peace is not only related to form and

Opinions over the nature of a 'just peace' are divided. In this third output of a major research project on Jus Post Bellum, the authors bring together a team of experts to argue that a just peace is not only related to form and process, but involves 'substantive' justice: a just order, a secure peace, and societal acceptance.

The just peace movement offers a critical shift in focus and imagination. Recognizing that all life is sacred and seeking peace through violence is unsustainable, the just peace approach turns our attention to rehumanization, participatory processes, nonviolent resistance, restorative justice, reconciliation, racial justice, and creative strategies of active nonviolence to build sustainable peace, transform conflict, and end cycles of violence. A Just Peace Ethic Primer illuminates a moral framework behind this praxis and proves its versatility in global contexts. With essays by a diverse group of scholars, A Just Peace Ethic Primer outlines the ethical, theological, and activist underpinnings of a just peace ethic.These essays also demonstrate and revise the norms of a just peace ethic through conflict cases involving US immigration, racial and environmental justice, and the death penalty, as well as gang violence in El Salvador, civil war in South Sudan, ISIS in Iraq, gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, women-led activism in the Philippines, and ethnic violence in Kenya. A Just Peace Ethic Primer exemplifies the ecumenical, interfaith, and multicultural aspects of a nonviolent approach to preventing and transforming violent conflict. Scholars, advocates, and activists working in politics, history, international law, philosophy, theology, and conflict resolution will find this resource vital for providing a fruitful framework and implementing a creative vision of sustainable peace.

This book asks whether states have the right to intervene in foreign civil conflicts for humanitarian reasons. The UN Charter prohibits state aggression, but many argue that such a right exists as an exception to this rule. Offering a thorough analysis of this issue, the book puts NATO's action in Kosovo in its proper legal perspective.

Almost invisibly, numerous activists are presently engaged in ongoing, nonviolent efforts to build peace and bring about an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Beginning in 2004, after the mainstream peace movement collapsed, Maia Hallward spent most of a year observing the work of seven such groups on both sides of the conflict. She returned in 2008 to examine the progress they had made in working for a just and lasting peace. Although small, these grassroots organizations provide valuable lessons regarding how peacebuilding takes place in times of ongoing animosity and violence. By raising awareness of these groups’ existence, Hallward provides a much richer investigation of available options for peacemaking in Israel, which is otherwise dominated by violence and armed strategies. Challenging the official diplomatic presumption that peace is about working out lines on a map, she relocates the question into social, cultural, political, and geographic contexts that affect people’s daily lives. In the end, Struggling for a Just Peace offers a critical look at the realities on the ground, focusing on what has been successful for groups engaged in working for peace in times of conflict and how they have adapted to changing circumstances.

The interplay between peace and justice plays an important role in any contemporary conflict. Peace can be described in a variety ways, as being 'negative' or 'positive', 'liberal' or 'democratic'. But what is it that makes a peace just? This book draws together leading scholars to study this concept of a 'just peace', analysing different elements of the transition from conflict to peace. The volume covers six core themes: conceptual approaches towards just peace, macro-principles, the nexus to security and stability, protection of persons and public goods, rule of law, and economic reform and accountability. Contributions engage with understudied issues, such as the pros and cons of robust UN mandates, the link between environmental protection and indigenous peoples, the treatment of illegal settlements, the feasibility of vetting practices, and the protection of labour rights in post-conflict economies. Overall, the book puts forward a case that just peace requires not only negotiation, agreement, and compromise, but contextual understandings of law, multiple dimensions of justice, and strategies of prevention. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Drawing on many of the wars and peaces of recent decades, this book offers a persuasive new perspective on postwar justice. In her analysis wars of succession, wars for territory, and the political institutions that precede and follow wars, Fixdal explores the outer limits of the idea that it is worth paying almost any price for peace.