Category Archives: Introductions

The Roles of Power and Communication in Peacemaking and Peacekeeping

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This issue of International Journal on World Peace has three articles related to peacemaking and peacekeeping in Africa. The principles discussed apply to peacemaking and peacekeeping anywhere in the world. The first step is the creation of negative peace, the absence of fighting, and the second step involves positive peace, dialogue, negotiations, and a legal framework in which to work together for the common good. There is first an important role in the use of … Continue reading →

Special Issue on the Rohingya Crisis

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Guest Editor: Norman K. Swazo, North-South Universtiy, Dhaka, Bangladesh On 27-28 July, 2019, the Department of Political Science and Sociology and the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) of North South University (NSU) in Dhaka Bangladesh, together with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), sponsored and convened an international academic conference—International Conference on Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions. This special issue includes four papers that together provide background … Continue reading →

Utopian Vision and Social Progress

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Introduction to IJWP, December 2019 This issue of International Journal on World Peace has three very different articles: one on utopianism and peace, one on the nature of “enlightenment,” and one on the history of power struggles and human rights in Colombia. All of these articles are, nevertheless, related to the idea of social progress. Some ideas of “progress” are based on group advancement, where power is used by one group to conquer a group … Continue reading →

Interreligious Foundations of a Peaceful State

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Introduction to IJWP, September 2019 The relation of religion to governance is one of the most important yet disputed aspects of the modern state. Should a state merely administer services on a territory or should it use its force to impose a specific set of religious beliefs and values on all of its citizens and residents? And, if a specific set of values is imposed, should there be limits to what the state is allowed … Continue reading →

Beyond Ideology: Measuring the Impact of Cultural Beliefs and Values on Political and Economic Development

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Introduction to IJWP June 2019 The authors of the four articles in this issue are contributing to the scientific study of political economy. Many contemporary political and economic policies are guided by beliefs, suppositions, passions, and interests, rather than historical analyses and scientific measurements that correlate policies and desired outcomes. In this environment there is endless partisan argumentation, name-calling, and attempts to use political or military force to impose the will and the opinions of … Continue reading →

Terrorism, Human Security, Human Rights, and Responsibility

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Introduction to IJWP, March 2019 “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” is a saying that reveals the ambiguity of an emotionally charged word, “terrorism.” The word “terrorism” evokes fear in members of the group that might be attacked. A “terrorist” is a label used to classify a person as evil, dangerous, outside the law, and a target for removal from the streets. People often become so concerned for their security that they will … Continue reading →

Religion, Consciousness, and Peace Research

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Introduction to IJWP, December 2018 Social science research methods are able to produce verifiable knowledge about society that is more reliable than the seemingly arbitrary suppositions of religious traditions based on prophetic revelation or sacred texts, or on ideological belief systems based on other suppositions. Auguste Comte, “father of sociology,” proposed a threefold view of the evolution of social consciousness: (1) the theological stage, in which gods and spirits control our fate, (2) a metaphysical … Continue reading →

Nuclear NonProliferation, a NonKilling Index, and Nobel Prize Demographics

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Introduction to IJWP, September, 2018 Only people over 75 years of age can remember a world without nuclear weapons—a world before humans could end life on earth as we know it in a few hours. The possession of nuclear weapons by a few poses a threat to all. During the Cold War, the nuclear weapons race between the United States and the Soviet Union was rooted in a doctrine appropriately called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). … Continue reading →

Positive Peace and Transcendent Values

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Introduction to IJWP, June 2018 Positive peace is more than the absence of war and more than the absence of structural violence and oppression. Positive peace alludes to a world in which everyone has more than their basic needs met and has an opportunity to be healthy, pursue their dreams, and enjoy their relationships. Positive peace can be guided by science, but it is motivated by ideals and values. Since the rise of science and … Continue reading →

The Evolution of State and Global Social Consciousness

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Introduction to IJWP, March 2018 Grow…  seeds of evolution Revolution never won It’s just another form of gun To do again what they have done With all our brothers’ youngest sons —Mike Pinder, “Lost in a Lost World” in The Seventh Sojourn, by the Moody Blues The desire for social change has many times led to revolutionary fervor and the excitement for quick destruction of the old order, with the belief that society will magically … Continue reading →