Belligerent Peace
Ogbonna, Chidiebere C. (2018) International Journal on World Peace 35, no. 1
This article analyses the apparent paradox of belligerent peace, explaining the concept and showing how Western powers have used sanctions to create apparent peace without determining whether it was appropriate to the particular situation at hand. The article serves as an opportunity to question standardised practices of Western peacekeeping operations and, beyond that, the way we think about solutions for peace on a practical level. What emerges from Ogbonna’s study of belligerent peace is not only the inherent contradiction of weaponising peace, and the problematic implications of conceptualising peace as the result of a form of oppression (which is the case when sanctions are used), but also the lack of insight into the local level of peacekeeping. Ogbonna’s article further encourages peace study research to visualise peace in a less “one-size-fits-all” way, and instead focus on the complexities of peacebuilding with a conscious perspective that comes from within, rather than external.
URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/45014436