Johan Galtung Source: Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1969), Pp
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Violence, Peace, and Peace Research Author(s): Johan Galtung Source: Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1969), pp. 167-191 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/422690 Accessed: 07-04-2015 01:57 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Peace Research. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 133.30.212.88 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 01:57:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions VIOLENCE, PEACE, AND PEACE RESEARCH* By JOHAN GALTUNG International Peace Research Institute, Oslo 1. Introduction values of concern and togetherness be- In the present paper we shall be using the cause peace is on anybody's agenda.2 word 'peace' very many times. Few words One may object that frequent use of are so often used and abused - perhaps, it the word 'peace' gives an unrealistic seems, because 'peace' serves as a means image of the world. Expressions like of obtainingverbal consensus-it is hard to 'violence', 'strife', 'exploitation' or at be all-out against peace.l Thus, when ef- least 'conflict', 'revolution' and war forts are made to plead almost any kind of should gain much higher frequency to policy - say technical assistance, increased mirror semantically a basically non-har- trade, tourism, new forms of education, ir- monious world. But leaving this major rigation, industrialization, etc. - then it is argument aside for the moment, it is ob- often asserted that that policy, in addition vious that some level of precision is nec- to other merits, will also serve the cause of essary for the term to serve as a cognitive peace. This is done regardless of how tool. At this point, of course, nobody has tenuous the relation has been in the past any monopoly on defining 'peace'. But or how dubious the theory justifying this those who use the term frequently in a as a reasonable expectation for the future. research context, as peace researchers Such difficulties are avoided by excluding (will do) do, will at least have gained some any reference to data from the past or to experience when it comes to definitions theories about the future. that should be avoided for one reason or This practice is not necessarily harm- another. ful. The use of the term 'peace' may To discuss the idea of peace we shall in itself be peace-productive, produc- start from three simple principles: ing a common basis, a feeling of com- in that may pave the munality purpose 1. The term 'peace' shall be used for social for deeper ties later on. The use ground goals at least verbally agreed to by many, if of more terms drawn from the precise not necessarilyby most. vocabulary of one conflict group, and excluded from the vocabulary of the 2. These social goals may be complex and diffi- opponent group, may in itself cause cult, but not impossible, to attain. dissent and lead to manifest conflict 3. The statement peace is absence of violence precisely because the term is so clear- shall be retained as valid. ly understood. By projecting an image of harmony of interests the term 'peace' may also help bring about such a har- The third principle is not a definition, mony. It provides opponents with a since it is a clear case of obscurum per one-word language in which to express obscurius. What we intend is only that This content downloaded from 133.30.212.88 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 01:57:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 168 Johan Galtung the terms 'peace' and 'violence' be linked 2. On the definition and dimensions of to each other such that 'peace' can be 'violence' regarded as 'absence of violence'. The As a point of departure, let us say that reasons at this early point in our seman- violence is present when human beings are tical excursion, are twofold: the state- being influencedso that their actual soma- ment is simple and in agreement with tic and mental realizations are below common usage, and defines a peaceful theirpotential realizations. This statement social order not as a point but as region - may lead to more problems than it solves. as the vast region of social orders from However, it will soon be clear why we which violence is absent. Within this re- are rejecting the narrow concept of gion a tremendous amount of variation is violence - according to which violence is still possible, making an orientation in somatic incapacitation, or deprivation of favor of peace compatible with a number health, alone (with killing as the extreme of ideologies outlining other aspects of form), at the hands of an actor who in- social orders. tends this to be the consequence. If this Everything now hinges on making a were all violence is about, and peace is definition of 'violence'. This is a highly seen as its negation, then too little is unenviable task, and the suggestions will rejected when peace is held up as an hardly be satisfactory to many readers. ideal. Highly unacceptable social orders However, it is not so important to arrive would still be compatible with peace. at anything like the definition, or the Hence, an extended concept of violence typology - for there are obviously many is indispensablebut that concept should types of violence. More important is to in- be a logical extension, not merely a list dicate theoretically significant dimensions of undesirables. of violence that can lead thinking, re- The definition points to at least six im- search and, potentially, action, towards portant dimensions of violence. But first the most important problems. If peace some remarks about the use of the key action is to be regarded highly because it words above, 'actual' and 'potential'. is action against violence, then the con- Violence is here defined as the cause of cept of violence must be broad enough to the difference between the potential and include the most significant varieties, yet the actual, between what could have been specific enough to serve as a basis for and what is. Violence is that which in- concrete action. creases the distance between the potential Thus, the definition of 'peace' becomes and the actual, and that which impedes a major part of a scientific strategy. the decrease of this distance. Thus, if a It may depart from common usage by person died from tuberculosis in the not being agreed to 'by most' (consensus eighteenth century it would be hard to not required), yet should not be entirely conceive of this as violence since it might subjectivistic ('agreed to by many'). It have been quite unavoidable, but if he should depict a state of affairs the realiza- dies from it today, despite all the medical tion of which is not utopian ('not impos- resources in the world, then violence is sdile to obtain'), yet not on the imme- present according to our definition. Cor- diate political agenda ('complex and respondingly, the case of people dying bifficult'). And it should immediately from earthquakes today would not war- steer one's attention towards problems rant an analysis in terms of violence,3 but that are on the political, intellectual, and the day after tomorrow, when earth- scientific agenda of today, and to- quakes may become avoidable, such morrow.2 deaths may be seen as the result of voi- This content downloaded from 133.30.212.88 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 01:57:19 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Violence, Peace, and Peace Research 169 lence. In other words, when the potential To discuss them, it is useful to conceive is higher than the actual is by definition of violence in terms of influence, as in- avoidable and when it is avoidable, then dicated in the statement we used as a violence is present. point of departure above. A complete When the actual is unavoidable, then influence relation presupposes an influ- violence is not present even if the actual encer, an influencee, and a mode of influ- is at a very low level. A life expectancy of encing.6 In the case of persons, we can thirty years only, during the neolithic put it very simply: a subject, an object, period, was not an expression of violence, and an action. But this conception of but the same life-expectancy today violence in terms of a complete inter- (whether due to wars, or social injustice, personal influence relation will lead us or both) would be seen as violence accor- astray by focussing on a very special ding to our definition. type of violence only; also truncated versions where either subject or object Thus, the potential level of realization is that or both are absent are highly signifi- which is possible with a given level of insight cant. To approach this we shall start and resources. If insight and/or resources are with two dimensions monopolized by a group or class or are used for characterizing the other purposes,then the actual level falls below violent action itself, or the mode of in- the potential level, and violence is presentin the fluence.