Peace
Overview
Peace (平和) is a concept referring to a state in which conflict and violence are absent and in which individuals and communities can safely persist and develop. Traditionally it has been understood as a state without war—that is, negative peace—but in contemporary peace studies it has expanded into the concept of positive peace, which includes the absence of structural violence and the realization of social justice. Today, peace is a multidisciplinary topic touching nearly every domain, including international politics and law, economics, education, medicine, and the environment, and it has established itself as a core norm of international organizations, above all the United Nations.
Main Content
Evolution of the Concept
Since antiquity, peace has mainly meant the ending of war and the restoration of order. Expressions such as the Roman Empire's "Pax Romana" and East Asia's "천하태평 (天下太平, Great Peace Under Heaven)" reveal a view of peace as an order enforced by a powerful authority. By contrast, Kant's Perpetual Peace (1795) was an early attempt to ground peace institutionally through the conditions of the spread of republican government, a federation of free states, and cosmopolitan right. Passing through the two world wars of the 20th century, the perception spread that peace is not merely a state of ceasefire but something to be managed through international law and institutions.
Negative Peace and Positive Peace
Johan Galtung (요한 갈퉁), called the founder of peace studies, distinguished peace on two levels. Negative peace is the absence of direct violence—a state in which war, terrorism, and violence have ceased. Positive peace means the absence of structural violence and cultural violence such as poverty, discrimination, and oppression. This distinction embodies the critical awareness that even without military conflict, if grave human rights violations or extreme inequality exist, it is difficult to regard that as genuine peace.
Development of Peace Research
After World War I, Peace Studies began to be institutionalized as an independent academic field. Whereas the realist tradition of international politics emphasized the balance of power and deterrence, the liberal and constructivist traditions hold that international organizations, interdependence, and norm formation promote peace. Since the 1960s, theories of Conflict Resolution and Conflict Transformation have developed, accumulating practical methodologies such as negotiation, mediation, reconciliation, and restorative justice.
Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
The international community's peace activities are generally divided into conflict prevention, peacekeeping (PKO), peacemaking, and peacebuilding. Peacekeeping has a strongly military character, such as monitoring ceasefires and operating buffer zones, while peacebuilding includes long-term tasks such as election support, reconstruction of judicial systems, economic rehabilitation, and social integration. UN peacekeeping operations have been deployed more than 70 times since 1948 and tend to expand into multidimensional missions.
International Organizations and Peace
Article 1 of the UN Charter states the maintenance of international peace and security as its foremost purpose. The Security Council holds the authority for enforcement measures and sanctions, while the General Assembly, the Secretary-General, and regional organizations play complementary roles. The Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law prescribe minimum humanitarian norms that must be observed even during armed conflict, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) pursues individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Peace, Human Rights, and Development
With the spread of the concept of human security, peace has been redefined not merely as a matter of national security but as a matter of individual safety and dignity. Goal 16 among the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizes peaceful and inclusive societies, justice, and effective institutions. The perception that peace, development, and human rights are mutually reinforcing has become the basic framework of international development cooperation.
The Korean Peninsula and Peace
After experiencing the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, Korea has been under an armistice regime, and the two Koreas pursued discussions on easing military tensions and declaring an end to the war through the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration and the Pyongyang Joint Declaration. Peace on the Korean Peninsula is being addressed as a complex agenda involving denuclearization, confidence building, humanitarian exchanges, and international coordination.
Latest Trends
In 2024–2025, the international community's peace environment entered a phase of pronounced, compounded crisis. As the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza became protracted, civilian casualties and humanitarian crises deepened, and strategic competition among great powers stimulated arms buildups and bloc formation. Accordingly, deadlock in the UN Security Council recurred, intensifying controversy over the effectiveness of the multilateral security system, while the roles of regional organizations, groups of middle powers, and non-state mediators relatively expanded. The Pact for the Future adopted at the 2024 UN Summit of the Future and the Global Digital Compact are assessed as attempts to link conflict prevention, cybersecurity, and climate and food security to the peace agenda.
Technological change is also altering peace discourse. Satellite imagery and AI-based early warning systems enhance the efficiency of conflict prediction and humanitarian response, while autonomous weapons, drones, and information manipulation (disinformation) have emerged as new threats. In education, digital peace education and media literacy are spreading, and discussions on contributing to peace through economic means—such as corporate human rights due diligence and regulations on conflict minerals—are active. SDG 16 indicators are regressing in many conflict areas, making prospects for achieving the 2030 goals bleak, and this is increasing the need for expanded funding for peacebuilding and preventive diplomacy. In Korea, whether the Korean Peninsula peace process will resume, the restoration of inter-Korean relations, and the resumption of multilateral security dialogue in Northeast Asia remain major concerns.
Related Topics
- [[United Nations]]
- [[Human Rights]]
- [[Diplomacy]]
- [[Conflict and Dispute Resolution]]
- [[Disarmament and Nonproliferation]]
- [[International Law]]
- [[Sustainable Development Goals]]