Classical Approach to Peace and Criticism of Modern Peace Theory: Strategy for Iranian Administrations

Abstract

War and peace is one of the most important challenges of states and nations. Peace compare to war, has an unclear and inexpressive concept requiring to be clarified. Modern state theory explaining the peace in context of politics and international relations alleges: peace is a product of sovereignty of one or more states backed by military power and its resulting terror. This simple and widespread theory has become a dominant paradigm in peace discussions in politics and international relations of 20th century. This article, however, alleges that modern theory of peace not only lacks historical backgrounds but also is the contrary to them. Based on that, the question is that: is peace an order and stability established by states in region or has some reality of more developing and deeper? We will argue that peace, in fact, is the ability of the society to make compatible the regions surrounding it through developing cultural unconsciousness. It is the classical approach to peace that contrast to modern theory of peace. What the approach leads to is that peace is a functional characteristic of states but of societies, peace is not unilateralism but bilateral interaction, peace shall not obtain through exercising the power but it arises from freedom and self-inducement. Iran is among these historical societies that had a peaceful relationship based on a classical approach with its communities throughout history and hence it is recommended for foreign policy to base upon classical approach to peace.

Keywords

• classical approach to peace
• modern peace theory
• iranian administrations