Cooperation and Conflict

In: Peace review: peace, security & global change, Band 26, Heft 4, S. 475-478

Abstract

International Relations (IR) research is constantly undergoing change, both in reaction to real changes in international politics and to new patterns of and trends in cooperation and conflict, as well as to methodological innovations within the academy. In general the discipline of IR has paid extensive attention to the definition and dynamics of conflict, while in comparison fewer efforts have been made to conceptualize and analyze peace and peace processes. Thus, to map peace research in an IR journal like Cooperation and Conflict means to widen the search and/or to look for research also in the margins of the discipline. Our brief survey shows that it is not a coincidence that IR research on peace had somewhat of a renaissance during the last Cold War years, with the renewed interest in peacekeeping and the democratic peace; levelled off during the Global War on Terror; and rebounded with renewed focus on interventions for peace and peacebuilding. Most recently, the intervention in Libya in 2012, the Arab Spring, the inability to prevent violence in Syria, and the precarious situation in Ukraine have renewed interest in peace and a greater appreciation of the importance of peace in contemporary times. Adapted from the source document.