Abstract

In the face of ongoing conflicts, pacifist movements – as well as their leading intellectuals – have been swinging between seemingly incompatible positions, unsettling large sections of public opinion by creating confusion and uproar regarding the real alternatives for ending the conflicts. This has reduced the pressure on the international community, encouraging procrastination and ambiguity, to the disadvantage of the citizens of conflict-torn societies, who cannot hope to achieve sustainable peace. The article argues that the tradition of peace research – whose trajectory is briefly outlined – provides fruitful methodological and conceptual resources to break the current deadlocks of pacifism