International Baccalaureate IB Global politics

Peace is often defined as both the absence of conflict and violence as well as a state of harmonious relations.

Conflict is the dynamic process of actual or perceived opposition between individuals or groups. This could be opposition over positions, interests or values.

Evolution of confict

Confict resolution and post-confict transformation

Different definitions of peace, conflict and violence, including positive peace and structural violence
- Peace, eg negative peace, peace as balance of power, peace in diferent political traditions and religions, feminist peace
- Confict, eg through scale of confict from disenfranchisement through to interstate war
- Violence, eg direct violence, cultural violence

Types of conflict
- Territorial confict, eg Russian claims, disputes in the South China Sea
- Interest-based confict, eg weapon sales, positive discrimination on the factory foor
- Ideological confict, eg political ideologies, free market versus state-led economy
- Identity confict, eg indigenous populations, more heterogeneous populations in previously homogeneous states

Justifications of violence, including just war theory
- Humanitarian intervention, self-defence, religiously or culturally condoned violence

Causes of conflict
- Greed versus grievance (eg Colombia, Sierra Leone), territorial control, material interest, resource scarcity, ideology, threatened identity, perception

States, intrastate groups, protest groups, individuals.

Manifestations of conflict, including non‑violence
Demonstrations, civil disobedience, violent protests, guerrilla warfare, terrorism, genocide, intrastate war, interstate war, arms proliferation, nuclear deterrence.

Galtung’s conflict triangle, positions–interests–needs, conflict cycles

Weapon embargoes, financial freezes, trade limitations, NATO involvement, UN peace enforcement, election observers

Peacemaking, including negotiations and treaties
- Military victory, imposed settlement, ceasefres, truces, arbitration, mediation, peace treaties, peacekeeping

Peacebuilding, including reconciliation and work of justice institutions
- Truth and reconciliation commissions (eg Sierra Leone), courts (eg Cambodia, International Criminal Court), forgiveness