Ein materialistisches Friedenskonzept nach Spinoza für eine effektivere Friedensarbeit (A Materialist Concept of Peace According to Spinoza for More Effective Peace Work)

Abstract

More than three decades after the end of the Cold War, the number of armed conflicts worldwide has exceeded the peak of 1991. In addition, the international community's conviction about its ability to build peace has entered a deep crisis. Many international strategies appear to be orientated towards concepts of peace that do not do justice to the complexity of dynamics in many (post-)war contexts. In contrast to the two extreme positions of the classical definition of peace as the absence of physical violence on the one hand and the absence of any mental and physical restrictions on the other, this text presents a concept of peace that covers a broader spectrum and is thus somewhat closer to the realities of life. This is orientated towards the materialistic philosophy of Baruch Spinoza.

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Keywords: positive peace, concept of peace, definition of peace, structural violence, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, UNO