Peace in International Relations

This study examines the way peace has been implicitly conceptualized within the different strands of international relations theory, and in the policy world as exemplified through practices in the peace-building efforts since the end of the Cold War.

Developing our understanding of peace helps chart the different theoretical contributions to international relations in terms of their own objectives and interests, and contribute to its envisaged mission by highlighting complex issues that then emerge from this perspective of international relations theory.

These include the questions of: intervention versus exit, the problem of sustainability of international and state/domestic order, and the issue of agency and structure in terms of which actors at which levels of analysis adhere to which peace agendas.

This helps to redress the balance, where an obsession with analyzing war has led to the dominance of war as an understanding of, and response to the problems of international relations. "Peace and International Relations" will be of interest to students of international relations theory, peace and conflict studies and security studies.