ABSTRACT
Peace implies many different things to different people. Some may identify peace as a lack of conflict of any serious kind. The term peace making is associated with conflict resolution without the use of violence. The concept of peace is more clearly understood in comparison with the concept of violence. Direct violence, the popularly understood meaning of violence, is referred to physical injuries and the infliction of pain that is caused by a specific person. Structural violence is apparent in social systems maintained by exploitative means throughout human history. Cultural violence is seen as the source of other types of violence through its production of hatred, fear and suspicion. Minimisation of cultural violence goes along with reduction in structural and direct violence. Negative peace focuses on the absence of direct violence such as war. As the absence of direct violence does not explain how to deal with unacceptable social order, changing human conditions has become an important goal of peace.
