What the programme does
The Charter of the United Nations states that the first purpose of the United Nations is “to maintain international peace and security”. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development speaks of peaceful, just and inclusive societies. General Assembly resolution 70/262 and Security Council resolution 2282 (2016) speak of sustaining peace. The Declaration on the Right to Peace, adopted by the General Assembly in 2016, states that “everyone has the right to enjoy peace”. None of these instruments defines peace. In the research literature, a review published in 2024 by Boulanger Martel and others counted 61 concepts of peace in work published from 1969 to 2022. The definitions overlap, but they are not the same, and what they share, like where they differ, is seldom made explicit when the word "peace" is used.
The Concepts and Definitions of Peace programme builds the Institute’s evidence base. It gathers how peace is defined and used, source by source, and records each definition in a form that can be compared. The resulting dataset is the starting point for the other three programmes. The Common Ground for Peace programme examines it for shared elements, the Peace Measurement and Indicators programme turns those elements into indicators, and the Peace in Law, Policy and Institutions programme considers what they mean for law and policy.
The programme’s current work is a review of the research literature:
- The research literature. The 61 Peace Definitions Review is a systematic review of how the 61 concepts of peace identified by Boulanger Martel and others in 2024 are defined across 117 sources. Its registry holds 149 records, checked against their sources in March 2026. Three Research Trainees code each record independently.
Outputs
- Conference paper. “When Peace Fails Definition: Typologies Under Scientific Scrutiny”, presented at the conference of Concerned Philosophers for Peace. October 2025.
- Dataset. The registry of the 61 Peace Definitions Review: 149 records of 61 concepts of peace from 117 sources. It will not be made public before the review is published.
- Research paper reporting the 61 Peace Definitions Review. In preparation.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.