A book newly acquired by the Thammasat University Library helps us understand the importance of the peacemaking process in the world. Blessed are the Peacemakers: the Voices of Peace – from Isaiah to Bob Dylan was generously donated to the library by Ajarn Charnvit Kasetsiri. It is shelved in the Charnvit Kasetsiri Room of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus. Blessed are the Peacemakers was edited by Allen and Linda Kirschner, who also assembled other anthologies such as Film: Readings in the Mass Media and Journalism : Readings in the Mass Media. These are not in the TU Library collection, but may be requested by interlibrary loan.

Pacifism is a significant subject for students and ajarns in the fields of history, political science, international relations, law, and other faculties. Blessed are the Peacemakers includes texts written by over many years in prayers, speeches, essays, and songs. The authors include Robert F. Kennedy, Pete Seeger, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Dag Hammarskjold, Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Joan Baez, Henry David Thoreau, Arlo Guthrie, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The phrase Blessed are the peacemakers is a quote from the Christian Bible. It is found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, verse 9 of the New Testament. In the King James Bible, translated in the early 1600s, the phrase is printed as

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Biblical scholars have pointed out that what is being referred to here are not just people who have peaceful natures. Peacemakers are those who energetically make an effort to achieve peace among other people. This is seen by the Bible as more admirable than just having a pacific temperament. Part of the motivation to encourage peace among others is to remind people who may have conflicts that they are all brothers, and that it is noble to live in peace among neighbors. Another related expression in the Bible is to study to be quiet. That means that we may not naturally feel quiet or peaceful but if we concentrate and strive to achieve inner peace, we may reach that goal.

It is particularly appropriate that Ajarn Charnvit presented this book of texts on pacifism to the TU Library, since his historical research has repeatedly involved peace, or the absence of peace, during border conflicts. Cambodia’s Foreign Relations in Regional and Global Contexts, published by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, quotes Ajarn Charnvit as stating that the Thai-Khmer rapport has been a

love-hate relationship.  

Cambodia’s Foreign Relations in Regional and Global Contexts examines such subjects as Australia as a Peacemaker in the Cambodian Conflict, as well as what is called the proactive pacifism of Japan. As we find in Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia, a book in the TU Library collection shelved in the General Stacks of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe advanced a policy of proactive contribution to peace, which is an approach to security and the right of collective self-defense.

Educational opportunities

In the wider world, peace studies have become of interest as an interdisciplinary academic field. It is related to political science, sociology, history, anthropology, theology, psychology, and philosophy. According to the website of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies founded at the University of Notre Dame in 1986, the goals of peace studies are to:

• understand the causes of armed conflict;
• develop ways to prevent and resolve war, genocide, terrorism, gross violations of human rights; and
• build peaceful and just systems and societies.

In Europe, peace research institutes were founded in the 1950s and 60s during the aftermath of the Second World War. They include the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), an independent peace and conflict studies research institution, based in Oslo, Norway. It is considered the world’s oldest and most prominent peace research center, founded in 1959. Its website explains:

The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) conducts research on the conditions for peaceful relations between states, groups and people. Researchers at PRIO seek to understand the processes that bring societies together or split them apart. We explore how conflicts erupt and how they can be resolved; we investigate how different kinds of violence affect people; and we examine how societies tackle crises – and the threat of crisis. We document general trends, seek to understand processes, and inform concrete responses.

Another related institution in Scandinavia is the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. Also in Sweden is the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an international institute established in 1966, dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations based on open sources to policymakers, researchers, media, and the public. In the Kingdom, Chulalongkorn University has a Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.

There are also well-established programs in Universitat Jaume I in Castellón de la Plana, Spain; Malmö University, Sweden; the American University, USA; University of Bradford, UK; the University of Lund, Sweden; the University of Michigan, USA; Notre Dame University, USA; University of Virginia, USA; and the University of Wisconsin, USA. Other noteworthy peace studies programs are found at the University of Manitoba, Canada; Lancaster University, UK; Hiroshima University, Japan; the University of Innsbruck, Austria; University of Sydney, University of Queensland, Australia; King’s College (London), UK; the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

At American universities, peace studies became popular after the Vietnam War. Today around 400 institutional of higher learning offer peace studies programs internationally. Scholars, foreign ministries, the United Nations, humanitarian agencies, civil society organizations, government, and the military all use the research developed by these institutes. Among subjects dealt with in peace studies are genocide, nuclear arms, civil war, religious and ethnic violence, and terrorism. In addition to peace, such matters as conflict, violence, justice, inequality, social change, and human rights are also addressed.

Rather than just defining peace as a matter of whether war is being fought, peace studies take into consideration whether people in a given region have enough food and clean water, whether women and children have access to education, and other societal requirements. Graduates from peace studies programs may find employment as researchers, teachers, negotiators, mediators, government officials, businesspeople, and activists. They may also become professionals in human rights, dispute resolution, environmental protection, international law, and human and economic development.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)