Armed peace
Armed peace, like many concepts in social and political sciences, does not have a single definition of peace; some consider it synonymous with absence of war, while others evaluate it in terms of security.
From the perspective of international relations theories, achieving peace is subject to various prerequisites; while realists believe that power balance prevents war, idealists and liberals argue that cooperation and democracy lead to peace.
Critical theory also emphasizes the existence of non-governmental and consultative organizations in achieving peace.
Constructivists see the dominance of Kantian and Lockean culture in international relations and countries as a factor for peace; normative theories also involve ethical do’s and don’ts, as well as issues of rights and justice in defining peace.
Ideology plays a significant role in the perception of peace; peace may be interpreted as weakness or even betrayal of ideals from one ideological perspective, while from another group’s perspective, peace signifies diplomacy, dialogue, and equality.
We are not seeking a specific definition of peace and its propositions here, as it requires a separate discussion; peace in its general sense is the focus.
In a general sense, peace refers to the actions of a group or individuals to end conflicts and establish diplomacy-based relationships.
The second concept of terror is exactly the same as the act of interpreting peace as betrayal or deviation from ideals, and aims to eliminate the results of peace efforts by targeting peace actors.
These concepts can have different meanings in each country. In this text, an attempt has been made to provide four examples to further explain these two concepts, although the geographical and even temporal dimensions of these examples are different.
United States
In the history of America, four presidents have been assassinated, but what is relevant to the subject of this text is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, in 1865. In the early sixties of the nineteenth century, the Civil War began in America between the southern states, who were in favor of slavery, and the northern states.
The southern states demanded a separate confederation from the northern states and opposed the abolition of slavery and granting voting rights to blacks. However, President Lincoln’s desire was to abolish slavery, which led to the defeat of the southern states, the abolition of slavery, and the end of the Civil War.
This was not the end of the story, and the peace actor, the president, was assassinated by one of the supporters of slavery and opponents of granting voting rights to slaves named John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre.
India
India’s independence from Britain was achieved in 1947 under the leadership of great figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Gandhi, as a leader and advocate of non-violence, had a significant influence in gaining India’s independence.
Immediately after independence, the issue of Muslims separating from Hindus led to the formation of the countries of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which faced strong opposition from Hindu nationalists.
Nationalists considered Gandhi’s peace-loving and non-violent policy as the main factor in this separation. Therefore, on January 30, 1948, a person named Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi in the courtyard of a residential complex.
The peace that led to the formation of the Muslim country of Pakistan was seen as separatism by nationalists. They did not believe in the right of Muslims and could not prevent the partition of Pakistan afterwards.
In Gandhi’s view, peace meant the necessity or coexistence of Muslims and Hindus.
Egypt
After the sudden death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt in 1970, who had strong hostility towards Israel and had experienced two wars with Israel in 1956 and 1967, Anwar Sadat succeeded him. Initially, he followed Nasser’s policies and hostility towards Israel, which led to the six-day war with Israel in 1973. However, his positions gradually changed after the war, shifting from a hostile relationship to a period of peace and reconciliation with Israel, culminating in the Camp David Accords in 1978.
However, this peace came to an end with the assassination of Sadat three years later on October 6, 1981, by Khalid Islambouli, a dissident Islamist opposed to peace with Israel.
The signing of the Camp David Accords led to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin, the Prime Minister of Israel, in 1978.
Israel
Approximately 17 years after the Camp David Accords, which resulted in Egypt as the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, the issue of Arab-Israeli peace took its first theoretical and practical steps.
With the mediation of the United States, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization entered into the peace negotiations process known as the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, which emphasized the formation of a Palestinian government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as the recognition of Israel by the PLO.
In 1995, the Oslo II Accord was also signed, but this reconciliation was not accepted by hardline Jews in Israel, and a hardline youth named Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin by firing multiple bullets on November 4, 1995 in Tel Aviv.
Interpretations
The abolition of slavery in the United States by Lincoln’s action, although racial discrimination has always remained a significant issue in American society, slavery in its historical sense did not continue in this country.
The assassination of Gandhi could not prevent the independence of Pakistan and the separation from India. The differences between Pakistan and India after decades of independence still remain, and recently with the rise of nationalists in India, Muslims in this country have come under more pressure.
While the peace agreement between Sadat and Israel in the 1970s did not bring immediate results for other Arab countries, Jordan joined this phase in the 1990s, and nearly 20 years later, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain followed suit.
This peace was mainly pursued by Egypt in line with its own goals, and with the Camp David Accords, Israel evacuated the Sinai Desert, which it had occupied in the 1967 war. Egypt’s peace policy with Israel continued, and even with the Arab Spring and the rise of Mohamed Morsi, this policy did not change.
Rabin’s peace with Arafat, which initiated the formation of two states in Palestine, recognized some Palestinian rights in a small area, but the results of this peace were not very practical. Numerous challenges in this regard arose, especially after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 elections and the subsequent conflict between Fatah and Hamas in 2007 and beyond.
