Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has solidified its place as an interdisciplinary field in its own right with a canon, degree programs, journals, conferences, and courses taught on the subject. Internationally renowned centers offering programs on Peace and Conflict Studies can be found on every continent. Almost all of the scholars working in the field, however, are united by an aspiration: attaining Peace, whether "positive" or "negative." The telos of peace, however, itself remains undefined and elusive, notwithstanding the violence committed in its name. This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined "end"), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them. Visit http://www.rethinkingpeacestudies.com/ for further details on the Rethinking Peace Studies project.
Preface Paul Hastings (Japan International Christian University Foundation) Introduction: Rethinking Peace Studies Alexander Laban Hinton, Giorgio Shani, and Jay Alberg I. DISCOURSE Rethinking Peace: Discourse Giorgio Shani (Politics and International Studies, International Christian University [ICU] Japan) 1. The Inner Battles of Peace Studies: The Limits and Possibilities Ashis Nandy (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India) 2. Sovereignty, Interference, and Crisis Stephen Eric Bronner (Political Science and Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers, US) 3. Towards A Peace with Global Justice Oliver Richmond (Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Manchester, UK) 4. Saving Liberal Peacebuilding: From the "Local Turn" to a Post-Western Peace Giorgio Shani (Politics and International Studies, ICU, Japan) II. MEMORY & TEMPORALITY Rethinking Peace: Memory & Temporality Jay Alberg (Philosophy, ICU, Japan) 5. Cultural Memory in the Wake of Violence: Exceptionalism, Vulnerability, and the Grievable Life Marita Sturken (Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, US) 6. Justice in the Land of Memory: Reflecting on the Temporality of Truth and Survival in Argentina Natasha Zaretsky (Center for Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers, US) 7. Negotiating Difference and Empathy: Cinematic Representations of Passing and Exchanged Identities in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Yael Zerubavel (Bildner Center, Rutgers, US) 8. Silence and Memory Politics Leigh A. Payne (Political Science, University of Oxford, UK) II. TRANSLATION Rethinking Peace: Translation Jay Alberg (Philosophy and Religion, ICU, Japan) 9. A Translational Comics Text and its Translation: Maus in Japanese Beverly Curran (Society, Culture, and Media, ICU, Japan) 10. To Arrive Where We Started: Peace Studies and the Logos Jeremiah Alberg (Philosophy and Religion, ICU, Japan) 11. The Crisis of Japan's Constitutional Pacifism: The Abe Administration's Belated Counter-Revolution Shin Chiba (Politics and International Studies, ICU, Japan) IV. DIALOGUE Rethinking Peace: Dialogue (Fetish) Alexander Laban Hinton (Anthropology and Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers, US) 12. Peace-in-Difference: Peace through Dialogue about and across Difference(s) Hartmut Behr (International Relations, Newcastle University, UK) 13. From Substantialist to Relational Difference in Peace and Conflict Studies Morgan Brigg (Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland, Australia) 14. Zona Intervenida: Performance as Memory, Transforming Contested Spaces Nitin Sawhney (Media Studies, The New School, US) AFTERWORD Look Again - Aleppo: The Last Lesson on Prevention Alexander Laban Hinton (Anthropology and Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers, US)
