Time for peace?

Abstract

This article reflects and responds to the question of ‘Towards a different IR?’ through the prism of the concept of peace (and the field of Peace and Conflict Studies). Building on a symposium discussion of these matters at the ANU in July 2024, we proffer the theme of temporality in peace study and processes as key to the future of the discipline. We wish to modestly contribute to debates in the discipline in two main directions. First, we explore the continuities and disruptions present, inadvertently or not, consciously or not, in the study of peace and conflict processes. We suggest a few explorative, and potentially transformative, disruptions in the practice and study of peace and conflict studies. Second, we inquire into how a focus on the spectacular and the slow might transform how we understand peace processes. Whilst most studies focus on the immediate and the newsworthy, this overlooks other processes that are happening in the shadows, equally deserving of our attention. We conclude by highlighting the deep structures of possibility but also the constraints we collectively face when studying and researching peace, in Australia and beyond. Show more