Peace and Conflict Studies Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Peace and Conflict Studies distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Positive Peace vs. Negative Peace

Negative peace refers to the absence of direct, physical violence, while positive peace describes the presence of social justice, equality, and institutional structures that address the root causes of conflict and prevent violence from recurring.

Structural Violence

A concept introduced by Johan Galtung describing harm caused by social structures and institutions that prevent people from meeting their basic needs, even in the absence of direct physical violence. It includes systemic poverty, racism, and unequal access to healthcare or education.

Conflict Transformation

An approach pioneered by John Paul Lederach that goes beyond resolving immediate disputes to address the underlying relationships, systems, and cultural patterns that generate conflict, aiming to transform destructive conflict dynamics into constructive social change.

Transitional Justice

The set of judicial and non-judicial mechanisms that societies use to address legacies of mass atrocity and human rights violations during transitions from conflict or authoritarian rule to peace and democracy, including trials, truth commissions, reparations, and institutional reform.

Track II Diplomacy

Unofficial, informal interactions between private citizens, academics, former officials, or civil society groups from opposing sides of a conflict, intended to build trust, generate creative solutions, and support or complement official (Track I) diplomatic negotiations.

Security Dilemma

A situation in which actions taken by one state to increase its own security, such as military buildup or alliance formation, are perceived as threatening by other states, prompting them to respond in kind and creating an escalatory spiral even when no party intends aggression.

Nonviolent Resistance

A strategy of political action that uses methods such as civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, and mass demonstrations to challenge oppression and achieve political goals without resorting to physical violence, often drawing on the traditions of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

A global political commitment adopted by the United Nations in 2005 establishing that sovereign states have the primary responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, and that the international community should intervene when a state manifestly fails to do so.

Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR)

A process used in post-conflict settings to collect weapons from combatants, formally disband armed groups, and support former fighters in returning to civilian life through vocational training, education, psychosocial support, and economic opportunities.

Democratic Peace Theory

The proposition that democracies are significantly less likely to go to war with one another than non-democracies, attributed to shared democratic norms of peaceful conflict resolution, institutional constraints on leaders, and economic interdependence between democratic states.

Key Terms at a Glance

Armistice:A formal agreement to stop fighting, typically as a prelude to peace negotiations. Unlike a peace treaty, an armistice does not resolve the underlying issues of the conflict.

Ceasefire:A temporary or permanent halt to hostilities agreed upon by warring parties. May be unilateral or bilateral and can be a precursor to formal peace negotiations.

Civil Resistance:A form of political action that uses nonviolent methods such as strikes, boycotts, and mass demonstrations to challenge oppressive power structures and achieve political change.

Conflict Analysis:A systematic study of the profile, causes, actors, and dynamics of a conflict, used to inform effective intervention strategies for resolution, transformation, or prevention.

Conflict Resolution:The methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and adjudication.

Conflict Transformation:An approach that addresses the deeper relational, structural, and cultural dimensions of conflict, seeking to change destructive patterns into constructive processes of social change.

Cultural Violence:Aspects of a society's symbolic sphere, including religion, ideology, language, and art, that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or structural violence.

Deterrence:A strategy aimed at discouraging an adversary from taking an unwanted action, typically by threatening severe retaliation. Nuclear deterrence during the Cold War is the most prominent example.

Direct Violence:Physical, visible acts of violence committed by identifiable actors, including killing, assault, torture, and destruction of property. One of three forms in Galtung's violence triangle.

Disarmament:The process of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. In post-conflict settings, it involves the collection and destruction of arms held by combatants as part of DDR programs.

Early Warning:The systematic collection and analysis of information to anticipate the escalation of conflict and enable timely preventive action by governments or international organizations.

Ethnic Conflict:Armed conflict in which the primary parties identify themselves or are identified by others on the basis of ethnic, national, or tribal affiliation, often exacerbated by political mobilization of ethnic identity.

Genocide:Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Human Security:A people-centered approach to security that focuses on protecting individuals from threats to their physical safety, economic welfare, health, and dignity, rather than solely on state territorial defense.

Humanitarian Intervention:The use of military force by external actors in a sovereign state to protect civilians from mass atrocities, often debated in terms of legitimacy, sovereignty, and effectiveness.

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