Responding to “The Greats”: A Problematic Lack of Tension

ABSTRACT

In his two articles ‘On the Greats and Peace’ Oliver P. Richmond outlines the long development of political theories that underpin what he calls the International Peace Architecture, or IPA. The ideas presented, he argues, have given rise to and are embodied in the institutions and practices of international security and peace. However, these ideas, institutions, and practices are, he notes, ill-suited to respond to many of the contemporary challenges to peace in the 21^st Century. Together the two articles present an interesting argument, but they also suffer from a few key problems. These are primarily issues, first, of selection and exclusion (as the articles present almost wholly the ideas of white European men), and second, of inconsistency both in the ideas about how the IPA was constructed, and in ideas of how it is used. This short response outlines and explains these problems and suggests that Peace and Conflict studies, as an interdisciplinary field, is more suited to this task than IR theory alone.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gearoid Millar

Gearoid Millar is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. His research primarily examines the local experiences of international interventions for peace, justice and development in post-conflict contexts and he has developed and promoted the use of Ethnographic Peace Research for such studies. His current research focuses on complexity in peace and conflict systems and the reorientation of peace and conflict studies to face 21st century challenges to peace.