Peace and Development Contradictions and Compatibilities

A 'positive' (analytical-descriptive) approach to the study of the peace-development relationship is con trasted to a value-oriented (normative) one. It is argued that both approaches are fruitful and that much can be gained from reconciling the two rather than making a too strong distinction between them. This facilitates a problem-oriented and solution-oriented research.Three elements are identified as necesssary in problem-oriented research: the analysis of the problem, the exploration of alternatives, and the identification of social carriers of alternative development. Pre liminary analysis indicates that 'mainstream' models of development (i.e. growth and modernization models) create internal and external conflicts that breed and feed the arms race. Consequently, the basic argument is that the proposed causal link between disarmament and development — the former creating the latter — should be reversed:Rather than to conceive of disarmament as a condition for development, one would argue that development — that is development of another kind — is a condition for disarmament. The main carriers of another development in present-day industrial countries — carriers, that is, of 'counterpoint' ideas and values — are the 'post-materialist' movements such as the environmental, women's liberation, peace, and ethnic and linguistic movements. In the Third World, there are other, but corresponding, forces which favour another development.