Levels of Peace

The Essential Knowledge

Peacemaking...the word conjures up an interesting dichotomy of concepts. On the violent side, all kinds of weapons have been called "Peacedmakers," from the venerable Colt .45 pistol to US Air Force aircraft to other interesting weapons. On the nonviolent side, peacemakers have included Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. The word for many is either too strong or too soft. This is because the complexity and levels of peacemaking are not well-articulated or understood. This section of the lawyertopeacemaker site discusses these differing perspectives.

Inspiring Peace and Practicing Peace

Peacemaking really has a bad rap. Unlike the more abstract and unemotional terms like conflict resolution, conflict management, alternative dispute resolution, or mediation, peacemaking has levels and layers of meaning. Most people shy away from the word "peacemaking" because it sounds soft and impractical ("Blessed are the peacemakers"; "The meek shall inherit the earth", etc.). The truth is peacemaking is powerful, tough, and hard. As much as we might want to whitewash the deep hostilities in conflict with euphemisms like "conflict management," (very business school sounding and scientific too, don't you think?), those hostilities need to be confronted. How that confrontation occurs depends on the level of peacemaking one is engaged at.

Understanding the levels of peacemaking is therefore an important part of the peacemaking process. If we are engaged at the inspirational and exhortational level of peacemaking, we are expecting to create hope and motivation, but not real results. If we are bearing witness to injustice, as Gandhi did, we can create peace through appeals to higher values. If we are in the middle as mediators and peacemakers, we are inspiring, creating hope, appealing to higher values, while de-escalating, problem-solving teaching, coaching, cajoling, and crafting agreements that will withhold the inevitable future disputes. This section looks at various levels of peacemaking with the goal of demonstrating its complexity and richness in practice.

Four Choices for Resolving Conflict At its essence, peacemaking and mediation are about choices. How do we want to process this conflict we have? Ron Claassen, director of the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University, has developed a simple and elegant model that demonstrates these choices. It's a great tool for helping people choose peace instead of fighting. Read more ...	Conscious Resolution In this question and answer session, Doug talks about consciousness and its role in conflict resolution, mediation, and peacemaking. In his view, conflict is caused by unconsciousness and unawareness. Mediation and peacemaking processes help people become more conscious about themselves, their conflicts, and their choices. Read more ...
Justice and Injustice --A Procedural Perspective In another section of this site, the concept of substantive justice is discussed. In this section, the idea of procedural justice is taken up. How do we know that peacemaking will be fair? How are power imbalances handled? If peacemaking is voluntary, what prevents one side from trying to coerce or threaten the other into submission? This and more are covered here. Read more ...	The "shuns"-Litigation, Arbitration, Mediation Even lawyers get the "shuns" mixed up. What is litigation? What is arbitration? And what is mediation? How do they relate to each other in a common law legal system like the U.S.? This section answers these questions. Read more ...
Peacemaking by Inspiration, Exhortation, and Hope Many people are called peacemakers who inspire, exhort, and create hope for peace. They play an important leadership role at all levels of conflict. Understanding this level of peacemaking and distinguishing it from peacemaking on the ground is vital to fully understanding the power of peacemaking in its entirety. Read more ...	Peacemaking by Bearing Witness Peacemakers sometimes bear witness to atrocity to call for action from the world. Peacemakers may support the downtrodden, the weak, or the disenfranchised in society. Peacemakers teach everyone how to live in peace with inner awareness and outer pragmatism. This section discusses these levels of peacemaking and their importance. Read more ...