Peace movements are a form of social movements which are targeted to end ongoing war, prevent the probable war or minimize the causes and eliminate factors which can cause a inter-humane conflict and violence.
Peace is not a new phenomena to human civilization nor is peace movement. The human civilization has observed peace movements from the ancient history in different forms. However the impact and importance of peace movements grew after the world faced two great world wars and the arms race during the cold war. Today, antimilitarism, non-violent resistance, feminism, pacifism etc. have made major contributions in the peace movements throughout the world.
Peace Movements:
Peace movement is a type of social movement. Social movements are a process of changing the part or overall structures of the society. The characteristics of the society must be known before knowing social movements. If there is any part of the society which is malfunctioning or society is moving to a wrong track then social movements can be the ways to bring society in order.
There are four approaches to social movement.
Marxist : talks about class reductionism and emphasizes on economy on every change
Structural functionalism: Society is in equilibrium because various parts of the society functioning properly.
New social movement: talk about structures within a society (feminism, LGBTI etc.)
Resource mobilization: absorbs politics and power for mobilization of resources
Global challenges: global terrorism, transnational crimes, overpopulation, cyber threats, climate change, global warming, arms proliferation, cultural invasion, religious fundamentalism etc.
In order to address these challenges social movements are launched and peace movements are a part of it. Peace movements are such movements or efforts to achieve ecological balance, economic fairness and human rights.
Ecological balance: Conflict and wars directly hamper the environment. The use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons have huge effects in the environment and existing flora and fauna which can ultimately disturb the ecosystem. In addition to this, use of small arms, land-mines, overexploitation of resources to fund the war play role in destruction of the environment. So, peace movements are targeted towards ecological balance.
Economic fairness: Wars and conflict directly affect the economic sphere of the society.
Human rights: Human rights violation in a conflict torn society.
Generally, peace movements are not only anti-war movements and a wide sphere is embedded within peace movements. However the trends of the peace movements show them explicitly as anti-war movements.
Peace movements are categorized into three categories:
Peace movements to avoid and prevent war in general.
Peace movements targeted to stop a particular war.
Peace movements launched to stop certain aspects of war (eg. child soldiers, rape, WMDs etc.)
Characteristics of peace movements:
Peace movements are generational in nature. They are ever-changing phenomena according to the time and context.
Objectives of peace movements are found to be changing according to the context.
Peace movements are entitled to subjective interpretation. People and organizations try to use their own perceptions to launch peace movements in order to achieve their goals.
Objective interpretation of peace movements is more focused to the target.
Factors that identify war as a problem:
Potential for global destruction
Social, economic and environmental degradation
Evolution of earth as a global village (Global terrorism, cyber warfare)
Increase in political involvement
Priority shifts of peace movements throughout the history:
| Period |
| Major Issues |
१
|
| 1890-1914 |
| Alarm about modern armament |
२
|
| 1916-1921 |
| Opposition of WWI |
३
|
| 1920s |
| Movements based on opposition of WWI with the skepticism that it might revive. |
४
|
| 1930s |
| Concerns about WWII and anxiety of aerial bombing |
५
|
| 1957-1963 |
| Opposition to nuclear weapons and nuclear testing in atmosphere |
६
|
| 1965-1972 |
| Opposition to Vietnam War |
७
|
| 1980-1985 |
| Opposition to nuclear weapon and nuclear war |
८
|
| 1986-1990 |
| Opposition to underground testing of weapons |
९
|
| 1990s |
| Opposition to child soldiers, proliferation of small arms, emphasis on humanitarian assistance and intervention |
१०
|
| 2000-present |
| Culture of peace, networks on war prevention, nuclear arms and land-mine abolition, proliferation of WMDs, potential terrorism, genocide, ethnic cleansing etc. |
Traditions of Peace movements:
Peace movement traditions generally refers to the values, system established behind any activities. It is more about the approach based on which tradition is formed.
Religious Pacifism
Anti-Conscription
Liberal internationalism
Marxist Internationalism
Socialist Internationalism
Feminist Anti-militarism
Ecological pacifism
Nuclear Pacifism
Interconnection between peace movements and social movements:
Environmental organizations like green peace are found to be involved in anti-nuclear movements because the radio-active contamination creates huge environment hazards.Similarly, groups focusing on economic justice focus on peace movement due to their recognition of the cost of military expenditure and feminist anti-militarism was strongly infused with energy and leadership.
Criticisms:
Peace movements are not homogeneous, they have fluctuated over time.
Can be blamed for being unpatriotic and helping the enemy.
Accused of being movement of the middle class.
Citizens unable to protest against their own government which is in war with other state.
Way Forward:
Which type of peace movement can be launched today and to achieve what? How can the world be benefited? Contemporary peace movements may well profit by:
- Developing alternative foreign policy concept
- Developing defense strategy
- A positive view on social goals
- A workable model of disarm
Differences between peace movements and non-violent movements:
Peace movements are not necessarily launched by the primary party whereas non-violent movement is often launched by the primary party. For non-violent movement, government must be one of the party involved. Non-violent movement is mostly taken as an alternative for armed conflicts.
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