Negative, Positive and Universal Peace

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 1,7, King`s College London, language: English, abstract: What is the essence of international peace and how can it be achieved? Innumerable attempts have been made in the past to seek out the answer to that pivotal question. Countless efforts have gone into supranational endeavours designed to promote a less conflict-ridden international order. Over the centuries historians, IR theorists, strategists, peace researchers, economists and public servants have developed many explanatory models and practical measures which, so it was hoped, would offer world society a more effective approach to the age-old problem of finding an applicable solution to the creation and preservation of international peace. Yet the word 'peace' is evidently an ambiguous and multi-faceted concept with very distinctive meanings and connotations to individual peoples in different countries and at different times throughout history-and thus with likewise very unique ideas and perspectives on how to realize it. In view of this, the academic field of Peace and Conflict studies generally distinguishes between 'negative' and 'positive' peace.