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When we talk about resolving intractable conflict, we are talking about establishing peace. But what do we mean by peace? The word is used in a variety of ways, from a respite in hostilities to God's peace, "the peace that passeth all understanding."
In 1978, Kenneth Boulding introduced the term "stable peace." It can serve to clarify the peace we are seeking in intractable conflict. He defines stable peace as "a situation in which the probability of war is so small that it does not really enter into the calculations of any of the people involved."[1]
While most of Boulding's short treatise focuses on relations between and among nations, he includes in the definition all levels of social groups -- families, businesses, churches, and nations. He points out that while there are examples of what might be called "war" among all types of social groups -- the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys being an example of interfamilial war -- "war is much commoner between political organizations [bands, tribes, city-states, nations, and empires] than between any other kind of social organization."[2]
Boulding identifies several factors as important in developing stable peace:
- Habit: "The longer peace persists the better chance it has of persisting"[3]
- Professional specializations which include mediators, conciliators, marriage counselors, and diplomats, including a web of "integrative relationships" among leaders;
- Rise of travel and communication within the system;
- Web of economic interdependence;
- Mutually compatible self-images which do not include the use of force against one another; and
- Taboos against the use of violence within the stable peace system.
On an international level, Alexander George offers a slightly more specific definition: "Stable peace is a relationship between two states in which neither side considers employing force or even making a threat of force, in any dispute between them. Deterrence and compellence backed by threats of military force are simply excluded as instruments of policy."[4] George contrasts stable peace with his two other categories of peace. "Precarious peace" is a state of acute conflict which means "little more than a temporary absence of armed conflict."[5] "Conditional peace" is a relationship in which general deterrence plays a key role, although the possibility of stronger threats or even actual violence is maintained for crisis situations.
To be more concrete, the ongoing Middle East conflict tends to waiver between precarious and conditional peace, still falling, every so often, into war. The Cold War is a good example of conditional peace. The ongoing peacefulness between the United States and Canada or the Baltic states is a stable peace system.
Additional insights into stable peace are offered by Beyond Intractability project participants.
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Even with stable peace, however, there are degrees. "Stable peace is a developmental process, not merely the absence of visible violence."[6] Within a relatively short time after World War I, even before the establishment of the Common Market, Western Europe could already be called a stable peace system. The European Union represents such a great difference in degree; however, it is difficult not to think of it as a difference in kind
For those nations and political groups entangled in intractable conflict, the words of Coventry University's Centre for Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation may be more instructive than suggestions of simple cessation of hostilities:
At the heart of any sustainable peace is the condition and process of reconciliation: the restoration of wholeness. There are structural conditions that can promote reconciliation, but integral to the process is that element of compassion, charity, mercy -- forgiveness: the capacity to let go of the hatred and hurt of the past and begin to envision common futures.[7]
Although the transformation from intractable conflict to stable peace may seem all but impossible, Boulding has another observation that applies, which he called "Boulding's First Law." That states that "if it exists, it must be possible." At the time he wrote Stable Peace, the "Stable Peace Triangle" went from North America through Western Europe to Japan and Australia. The Soviet Union was not included, and the notion that it possibly could be seemed pretty far fetched.
But now former Warsaw Pact and Soviet states are joining NATO and the European Union, a massive change since 1978. And Japan was listed as in the triangle of stable peace, even though the U.S. and Western Europe had been at war with Japan a few decades earlier. So stable peace can come to countries that have been at war, even to ones who have been mortal enemies for a very long time.
[1] Boulding, Kenneth E. Stable Peace. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978. (1978, p. 13).
[2] Boulding, p. 7.
[3] Boulding, p. 62.
[4] George, Alexander. "Forward" to Stable Peace among Nations. Eds., Arie M. Kacowicz, Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, Ole Elgstrom and Magnus Jerneck. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000, pp. 11-18. (2000, p. 13).
[5] George, p. 12.
[6] Wehr, Paul. Conflict Regulation. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979. (1979, p.16).
[7] Centre for Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Coventry University, http://legacywww.coventry.ac.uk/legacy/acad/isl/forgive/about/backgrd.htm.
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Use the following to cite this article:
Dugan, Máire A.. "Stable Peace." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: October 2003 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/stable_peace/>.
Sources of Additional, In-depth Information on this Topic
Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:
Online (Web) Sources
Brahm, Eric. "Confronting Past Human Rights Violations: Justice vs. Peace in Times of Transition -- Summary." Conflict Research Consortium.
Available at: http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10029/.
This is a summary of Chandra Lekha Sriram's "Confronting Past Human Rights Violations: Justice vs. Peace in Times of Transition"
Coventry University: Centre for Forgiveness and Reconciliation.
Available at: Click here for more info.
This is the home page of this organization, which dedicates itself to promoting strategies for establishing sustainable peace in post-conflict regions. The organization is guided by the notion that forgiveness and reconciliation are essential components of lasting peace.
United States Institute of Peace. Europe in the 21st Century: A Strategy for Achieving Stable Peace.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr001107.html.
This report outlines a hypothetical strategy for achieving stable peace in Europe in the new millenium. The strategy aims to achieve a "peaceful, undivided, and democratic" Europe.
Stable Peace.
Available at: http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/speace.htm.
Kenneth Boulding introduced the concept of "stable peace" which is the situation when two parties do not even consider war to be an option, no matter what conflict occurs between them. Examples would be the relationship between the United States and Canada, or the countries of Western Europe. Boulding foresaw the region of stable peace to be expanding, predicting that it would eventually cover much of the globe.
Conflict Research Consortium Staff and Tanya Glaser. "Stable Peace--Book Summary." Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado.
Available at: http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10068/.
This is a summary of Kenneth Boulding's Stable Peace, which presents policies for creating and sustaining stable international peace. Modern warfare is increasingly devastating and costly. Nations can no longer afford to merely hope for peace. Author Kenneth Boulding argues that proactive policies for promoting peace must be developed and adopted instead.
Offline (Print) Sources
Sriram, Chandra Lekha. Confronting Past Human Rights Violations: Justice vs. Peace in Times of Transition. New York: Frank Cass, 2004.
This book challenges transitional justice literature, which aruges that in a period of transition governments much choose between ensuring peace and attaining justice. This Sriram believes that there is a peace and justice continuum and rather than putting the two in competition with each other. Click here for more info.
Goodby, James, Petrus Buwalda and Dmitri Trenin. A Strategy for Stable Peace. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002.
This book provides a framework and gives recommendations for developing a stable peace across Europe, the US and Russia.
Wehr, Paul. Conflict Regulation. Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 1979.
This work presents a general framework for analyzing and understanding conflict. This early work in the field of conflict resolution explains the basics of conflict mapping at the micro and macro levels. It also includes case studies of "self-limiting" conflict and discusses the emergence of alternative dispute resoution processes in solving environmental conflicts in Colorado mountain communities.
From War to Peace : Altered Strategic Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. Yale University Press, December 1, 2000.
In this book, a collection of top international relations scholars discuss the world's inability to construct a peaceful, stable world in the twentieth century. Through an examination of history, they offer insights into how to move toward peace in the future.
Boulding, Kenneth E. Stable Peace. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978.
Stable Peace presents policies for creating and sustaining stable international peace. Modern warfare is increasingly devastating and costly. Nations can no longer afford to merely hope for peace. This book therefore argues that proactive policies for promoting peace must be developed and adopted instead.
Click here for more info.
Kacowicz, Arie Marcelo, ed. et al. Stable Peace Among Nations. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, October 25, 2000.
"This book builds on the original conceptualization of stable peace by Kenneth Boulding and adds contemporary theoretical and empirical understandings of its nature, causes, conditions, dimensions, and prospects for consolidation and expansion. In original research, fifteen international scholars assess the policy relevance of stable peace for the Middle East peace process and for the future of Europe."
-from Amazon.com
Kritz, Neil J. "The Rule of Law in the Post-Conflict Phase: Building a Stable Peace." In Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Edited by Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall, eds. Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 1996.
The author discusses some of the structural and procedural elements essential to the functioning of the rule of law, including an independent judiciary, a law enforcement system, and a freely elected representative government. Reckoning with war crimes and other past abuses is also central to maintaining rule of law, and criminals must be held accountable for their actions. In some cases, this will involve removing government officials from their positions of power and instituting a new government. Compensation and restitution are also crucial, as well as constitutional reform and the establishment of new legal entities to deal with justice issues in the post-conflict phase.
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Examples Illustrating this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
Lortan, Fiona. "The Ethiopia-Eritrea Conflict: A Fragile Peace." African Security Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 , 2000
Available at: http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/ASR/9No4/Lortan.html.
"After two years of bloody warfare, the warring sides in the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict finally signed an interim peace agreement on 18 June 2000. Just how lasting this agreement will be, however, remains to be seen and there are many who doubt its ability to secure a lasting peace. While much of the war of the past two years was characterized by a military stalemate, it is estimated that more than 100 000 soldiers have been killed, and more than one million people have been displaced on either side of the disputed border ? up to 750 000 in Eritrea alone. Nor have the consequences been confined to the two belligerents either, for the war has had effects throughout this strategically important and already unstable region." This article examines past, present and future conflict and peace prospects.
Clements, Kevin P. "Towards Conflict Transformation and a Just Peace." Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, 1900.
http://www.berghof-handbook.net/articles/clements_handbook.pdf.
This article argues that the structural sources of conflict--political and economic in particular--have been relatively underdeveloped in conflict analysis and in the design of intervention processes. This has meant that many Track II interventions in conflict have been oriented towards attitudinal and behavioural change rather than situational or structural change. Until this situation is reversed and more attention is paid to the transformation of institutions and processes, it will be difficult to generate stable peaceful relationships. The article concludes with some lessons learned from experiences of conflict intervention in Africa, the Caucasus and Asia.
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Teaching Materials on this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
Stages of Conflict and Peace with Corresponding Policy Tools: Situation 1: Stable Peace. Creative Associates, Inc.
Available at: Click here for more info.
This is the description of the first stage of conflict, stable peace. It includes topics such as the environment for interventions, timeframe for action, and primary objectives. Also included are illustrative policy tools during stable peace, prior to conflict.
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