Common Ground for Peace

What the programme does

A review published in 2024 counted 61 concepts of peace in the research literature from 1969 to 2022. The plurality leaves no shared standard by which to tell peace from its absence. The Institute’s 2023 article argued that researchers may nevertheless agree on more than their disagreements suggest.

The Common Ground for Peace programme examines the definitions gathered by the Concepts and Definitions of Peace programme for the elements they share, including assumptions they hold without necessarily stating them. It articulates that common ground as a comprehensive framework for defining peace, which the Theory of Change for Global Peace programme develops into a theory of change for global peace. The aim is not to add another definition but to state what existing definitions already share, precisely enough to be tested and critiqued.

The Institute’s 2026 article sets out its present account of that common ground, the Sovereignty of Sentience. It starts from a condition every person shares: each person is the only one who can see their own experience. Only that person can know what their well-being is, define it, seek it out and secure it. To do so freely and fully, each person needs at least a minimum of self-determination. Peace is the name for relations between people that reinforce each party’s self-determination, mutually and equitably. The article maps 12 of the 61 concepts of peace onto this account as a first example. The 61 Peace Definitions Review is to map the rest.

Outputs

• Journal article

  The Sovereignty of Sentience: A Phenomenological Approach to Peace for International Law

  Journal on the Use of Force and International Law. 8 October 2026.

• Journal article

  Reframing the Ontology of Peace Studies

  Peace and Conflict Studies 29(2). May 2023. Open access.

• Written statement

  Reinforcing the Foundations of Peace and Human Rights: A Call for Philosophical and Scientific Rigour

  A/HRC/58/NGO/136. Human Rights Council, fifty-eighth session. 20 February 2025.

• Side event

  The Future of Peace: Defining a Foundation for Global Peacecraft

  Organized and moderated by the Institute at the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council. 24 March 2025, Palais des Nations, Geneva.

• Presentation

  Invited presentation, “Peace Reimagined: Embracing Sentience in Peace Studies”, at the workshop “Ontology of Peace: Reflections on Pluriversality”, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences, O.P. Jindal Global University

  23–24 June 2023

The written statement was submitted under the Institute’s former name, the Peace and Conflict Science (PACS) Institute.

Where the programme fits

The Institute’s five research programmes form one sequence. The first three together yield the theory of change, and the fifth applies it.

1. Concepts and Definitions of PeaceGathers how peace is defined and used in research, law, policy and practice. Its intended output is a systematic record of these definitions, the evidence base for the programmes that follow.
2. Common Ground for PeaceCompares those definitions to find what they have in common, including assumptions they make without stating them. Its intended output is a statement of that common ground, precise enough to be tested and critiqued.
3. Peace Measurement and IndicatorsWorks out how peace can be observed and measured in practice: within a person, between people and between groups. Its intended output is a set of indicators of peace that can be tested against data.
4. Theory of Change for Global PeaceBrings together the definitions, their common ground and its indicators. Its intended output is a comprehensive theory of change for global peace, offered as a starting point for discussion.
5. Peace in Law, Policy and InstitutionsApplies the theory of change to law, policy and institutions. Its intended output is an assessment of how far they are aligned with it, and how far they produce peace or violence.