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Peace is not an absence, but rather a visibly identifiable set of norms. This visualization can take place through internationally recognized signs such as the white flag and the blue helmet. These representations of norms are united in their ability to be distinguished from similar objects or signs through their use of colors. The identificatory use of color avoids confusion between parties embroiled in a conflict, making an organization or envoy stand out and creat- ing the expectation that they are encompassed by the specific norms of war- fare, which these colors make visible. Through establishing such "dumb signs" of peace, as Grotius put it, the colors of peace have, we argue, played a notable part in establishing customary international law. The aim of our con- tribution is to offer an illustrative chromatological analysis of how peace and its norms are made visible through objects and symbols which are not con- nected with peace beyond their coloring (e.g., emblems, flags, helmets, or war- zone vehicles). We show how certain colors, in their situated use, come to both symbolize and enact peace in terms of international politics.

This essay takes stock of the existing literature in economics on the costs, consequences and causes of armed conflicts. The existing literature has put a particular focus, among others, on the impact of ethnic diversity, natural resource abundance and high poverty levels on the likelihood of conflict. Drawing on this, the current essay highlights several broad emerging trends in this literature. First of all, more and more papers use newly created, very fine-grained data. Second, there is a trend towards linking more closely the empirical analysis to underlying theoretical frameworks. Third, there is a growing awareness of the importance of being policy relevant. Studying the impact of particular policies and institutions is likely to take a more central importance in this literature in the coming years.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- List of Contributors -- Chapter 1: Introduction: Making Geographies of Peace and Conflict -- Geographic Framings of Peace and War -- Peace, Conflict, and the Making of Geographies -- Consistent Themes through the Book -- Geographic Scale and Forms of Peace and Violence -- Chapter Summaries -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 2: Geography and war, geographers and peace: Expanding research and political agendas -- Introduction -- Key developments in war and peace in the 21st century -- Key developments in academic geography in the 21st century -- Geographers about war (and peace) -- Geographers about peace (and conflict) -- Geographers in war and peace -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Chapter 3: Geographies of peace -- Introduction -- Peace and conflict as relational, place-specific processes -- The politics of peace -- Peace as a set of holistic social and ecological (human and nonhuman) agendas -- Everyday peace -- Engaging with the "spatial turn" in peace and conflict studies -- The multiple spatialities and temporalities of peace and conflict -- Conclusion -- Note -- References -- Chapter 4: Spatializing peace and peacebuilding: Where is knowledge about peace and peacebuilding produced? -- Introduction: Taking the spatial turn to research peace and peacebuilding agency -- Overview of the spatial turn in peace studies -- Spatial concepts of peace -- Peacebuilding agency and the spaces and places of peace -- Building peace: Space-making and place-making -- Where does knowledge production of peace take place? -- Conclusion: Advancing the spatial a research agenda across disciplines -- References -- Chapter 5: Navigating the ambiguous geographies of war and peace -- Understanding war and peace.

Intro -- Contents -- Figures and tables -- Preface -- List of contributors -- Part I The analytical and conceptual framework -- 1 Diasporas in international conflict -- 2 A neglected relationship: Diasporas and conflict resolution -- 3 Gender, diasporas and post-Cold War conflict -- Part II The case studies -- 4 The Jewish Diaspora and the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- 5 The Palestinian diaspora -- 6 The Armenian diaspora and the Karabagh conflict since 1988 -- 7 A reluctant diaspora? The case of Colombia -- 8 The Cuban diaspora -- 9 The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora: Sustaining conflict and pushing for peace -- 10 Kurdish interventions in the Iraq war -- 11 The mobilized Croatian diaspora: Its role in homeland politics and war -- 12 African diasporas and post- conflict reconstruction: An Eritrean case study -- 13 Political remittance: Cambodian diasporas in conflict and post conflict -- Bibliography -- Index.

Having quantitatively grown so fast, peace research urgently needs to clarify its research object and to dissociate itself from other approaches. A discussion of theory is not luxury. The international system, with its threat of total or partial destruction which provides the general framework of peace research, must be recognized as a phenomenon of recent history. It is the pro duct of the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist mode of production. Retracing this system to its historic genesis enables us to expose the roots from which the decisive conflict potential of modern times - the modern state, the arms race, the discrepancy between rich and poor countries, non-capitalist countries as components of the capitalist world system - have developed. Unless we reduce historically conflicts of the moment to their recent contemporary structure rooted in the capitalist revolution, peace research will only be able to cure symptoms. Today we are historically still in the epoch of the capitalist revolution of the (European) 17th and 18th centuries. It must be transcended, overcome, if we are to create conditions for the possibilities of circumstances in which conflicts are no longer warlike, i.e. mediated by states but rather articula ted and carried out as social conflicts by the agents directly concerned.

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