Cultures: Positive and Negative Peace

Description

While violence and war seem perpetually capable of ‘breaking out’ at any moment, we rarely have the luxury of saying the same for peace. Peace is a state that needs to be carefully constructed, discussed, debated, and constantly adjusted. It can take years – decades, even – with the process of negotiation and creation of working settlements often taking far longer than the initial period of violence to which they are responding. Even when countries do appear to have momentarily reached a degree of ‘peace’ – from Burundi to Yemen, Sierra Leone to Ukraine – unforeseen circumstances can result in years of progress unravelling without warning.