Hani Smirat
Social experiments and theories have proven the existence of a dialectic that humanity has lived and is experiencing, which is the dialectic of war and peace. Schools and opinions have differed in defining the concept of peace throughout the ages, and they have also differed in clarifying and monitoring the reasons for its establishment, as well as its weakness and collapse. In the past, before the world turned into a small global village due to globalization, peace ,in the eyes of states did not go beyond the absence of manifestations of war, and the state would see peace, if the boys did not go to war, or if there were no war planes flying in the sky intending to bomb and destroy. The concept of peace in the past was no more than the absence of scenes of war and killing.
Today, in light of globalization and international experiences that have begun to move from culture to culture and from one people to another, peace has many dimensions that go beyond the absence of violence. Justice, respect for human rights, equality, and strengthening the values of identity, belonging, and citizenship…and others, all fall within the dimensions of the concept of different cultures of peace.
Over the past decades, the features and dimensions of a culture of peace and civil peace have been absent in many countries of the world within their societies, due to the spread of corruption, the absence of the values of freedom and justice, and the weakness of the culture of dealing positively with conflicts, especially in developing countries, and focusing on our Arab world, unfortunately, The culture of peace and the culture of dealing with conflict through positive means is still weak, and does not receive the attention of academics, decision-makers, and policy makers. The results of the absence of this culture can be seen clearly within Arab society, as scenes of violence that can be seen.
The concept of peace has expanded in the modern era from negative peace to include positive peace, which necessarily means the absence of exploitation, corruption, rejection of others, and the creation of social justice. Thanks to globalization, three schools of peace have been developed. There have been various schools formed in different countries, and in the past each country used to adopt one method. The American and European school is closer to the school of peace building: which is the construction of suitable conditions so that the society can live in peace. This includes several methods such as education in the field of human rights, economic development, increasing aid and social solidarity, and restoring harmony between people and different ethnic groups.
While many Middle Eastern countries adopt the school of peacemaking, which is based on helping the parties in conflict to reach a negotiated agreement. These countries believe in the necessity of the presence of phenomena that threaten the culture of peace, especially the presence of violence, in order for them to intervene.As for the African countries, they adopt the school of peacekeeping, through the presence of international military forces called peacekeeping forces that work to maintain peace, monitor violations within the state, and work to prevent the parties in conflict from fighting among themselves.
Today, in the light of globalization, there is overlap and adoption of these schools, as some countries can be seen adopting more than one school in order to achieve the promotion of a culture of peace within society.
To understand the impact of the development of globalization on the concept of the culture of peace within human societies, it is possible to trace seven basic stages that the various formulations of the concept of peace have passed through, especially in the Western peace research. These stages are:
Peace as a practice and behavior in the absence of war, and this applies to violent conflict, whether between countries or within the countries themselves in the form of civil wars. The second stage focused on peace as a balance of power within the framework of the international system, and sometimes this balance is called the balance of terror when it is based on a balance of military forces.
As for the third stage, emphasis was placed on preventing the outbreak of war by preventing structural violence within society. As for the third stage, emphasis was placed on preventing the outbreak of war by preventing structural violence within society. Fourth, the focus was on the idea of peace with the environment, as capitalist practices have brutally assaulted the human environment. During the sixth stage, the stage of focusing on a development of person’s inner peace, due to its connection to peace at the macro level.
We add to these divisions the seventh stage: this is the stage in which the focus was on human rights, violations and violence directed against children, the disabled and other vulnerable groups.
Perhaps one of the most prominent connotations of the culture of peace in the era of globalization is the connotations of comprehensive development. Therefore, weakening these rights is considered one of the violations of basic human rights and an entry point and fertile ground for fueling conflict. Since the concept of globalization is linked to the economy, fueling conflicts and conflicts within societies would weaken economic development, and there are many studies that indicate a close connection between conflicts and the financial costs that affect the state as a result of the continuation of conflicts.
At the end of this paper, it is necessary to call for embodying the culture of peace, especially within Arab society, and to benefit from the schools of peace culture that have begun to spread widely through international institutions, as these institutions were able to contribute, even if only in a small way, to promoting the culture of peace, and contribute to developing concepts of dealing with conflict, as international mediation companies, arbitration companies, and international institutions concerned with dialogue and dealing with disputes have become crowded in our Arab world in the last five years. Although globalization has led to the creation of new deadly means of combat, it has also created means in dealing with conflict, such as in Tunisia’s case. In choosing peaceful means to deal with its crises, Tunisia has created an innovative image of democracy in the Arab world, while both Libya and Syria refused to adopt the values that globalization brought about the culture of peace, and so there was death, devastation, and terrorism.
What we are today as an Arab world requires the concerted efforts of all national and regional efforts to achieve peace and security. The first steps in promoting and disseminating the culture of peace begin with education in the culture of peace, the values of tolerance and dialogue, and a sense of equal citizenship, leading to seeing the world from the perspective of human culture, and not narrow personal culture.
Perhaps the Palestinian society today is required to adopt new strategies to confront internal conflicts, including political division, societal disputes, phenomena of violence, and other forms that clearly penetrate the Palestinian body. This adoption must address the system of collective thinking about the concepts of the culture of peace. Given that, the culture of peace and conflict resolution does not necessarily mean its connection to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and that is by acknowledging that there are dangerous local societal manifestations that are fragmenting the Palestinian fabric and making it more believe in violence to address its internal conflicts.
