Peace Ecology: An Emerging Paradigm in Peace Studies


Publisher: International Journal of Peace Studies

Author(s): Christos N. Kyrou

Date: 2007

Topics: Renewable Resources

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This article explores the peacebuilding potential of the environment beyond "environmental problems" from the perspective of two interactive and interacting paradigms: peace studies and environmental studies. A thorough investigation reveals ontological, axiological, epistemological, rhetorical and methodological overlaps; inter dependencies; conflicts and; potential synergism from their "interaction." It suggests a theoretical framework, broad and integrative enough to allow a full understanding, functionally as well as philosophically, of the inherent capacities of the environment to inform and sustain peace. The new paradigm, inspired by the idea of environmental peacemaking, is called Peace Ecology.