The history of Peace is as old as the history of humanity itself, and certainly as old as War. War is often thought to be the natural state of humanity, Peace of any sort being fragile and fleeting. However, Peace in its various forms has been by far humanity's more common experience, as much of history has been relatively peaceful and orderly, while frameworks for security, law and justice have constantly been advancing. Thus, over the centuries the concept of Peace has been broadened from the absence of overt violence and war to something much more sophisticated, incorporating terms such als peacemaking, conflict resolution, and statebuilding.
This Research Guide is intended as a starting point for research on War and Peace. It provides the basic legal materials available in the Peace Palace Library, both in print and electronic format. Handbooks, leading articles, bibliographies, periodicals, serial publications and documents of interest are presented in the Selective Bibliography section. Links to the PPL Catalogue are inserted. The Library's subject headings (keywords) War, Peace and War and Peace Research are instrumental for searching through the Catalogue. Special attention is given to our subscriptions on databases, e-journals, e-books and other electronic resources. Finally, this Research Guide features links to relevant websites and other online resources of particular interest.
Reference works
- Baofu, P., The Future of Post-Human War and Peace: A Preface to a New Theory of Aggression and Pacificity, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.
- Barash, D.P. (ed.), Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Barash, D.P. and C.P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies, Fourth Edition, 2018.
- Cashman, Greg, and Leonard C. Robinson. An Introduction to the Causes of War : Patterns of Interstate Conflict from World War I to Iraq. Second edition, Rowman & Littlefield, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2021.
- Clausewitz, C.Ph.G. von, On the Nature of War, London, Penguin Books, 2005.
- Dinstein, Y., War, Aggression and Self-Defence, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Durieux, B., J.-B. Jeangène Vilmer et F. Ramel (dir.), Dictionnaire de la Guerre et de la Paix, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2017.
- Edsforth, R. (gen. ed.), A Cultural History of Peace, London (etc.), Bloomsbury Academic, 2020:
Volume I: A Cultural History of Peace in Antiquity
Volume II: A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age
Volume II: A Cultural History of Peace in in the Renaissance
Volume IV: A Cultural History of Peace in in the Age of Enlightenment
Volume V: A Cultural History of Peace in the Age of Empire
Volume VI: A Cultural History of Peace in the Modern Age
- Gat, A., The Causes of War & the Spread of Peace: But Will War Rebound?, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Gillespie, A., The Causes of War: Volume I-III, Oxford; Portland, Hart Publishing, 2013-2017.
- Goertz, G., P.F. Diehl and A. Balas, The Puzzle of Peace: The Evolution of Peace in the International System, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Grayling, A.C., War: An Inquiry, New Haven; London, Yale University Press, 2017.
- Howlett, Charles F., et al., editors. The Oxford Handbook of Peace History. Oxford University Press, 2023.
- Jäger, Th. und R. Beckmann (Hrsg.), Handbuch Kriegstheorien, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011.
- Lazar, S. and H. Frowe (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War, New York, Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Lindley-French, J. and Y. Boyer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of War, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Martel, G., Twentieth-Century War and Conflict: A Concise Encyclopedia, Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
- Neff, S.C., War and the Law of Nations: A General History, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Reiter, Dan, editor. Understanding War and Peace. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
- Richmond, O.P., Peace: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Sidebottom, H., Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Recent books and peer-reviewed articles
- Apsel, Joyce, et al., editors. Museums for Peace : In Search of History, Memory, and Change. Routledge, 2024.
- Badalič, Vasja. Preventive Warfare : Hegemony, Power, and the Reconceptualization of War. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.
- Black, Jeremy. Insurgency Warfare : A Global History to the Present. Second edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.
- Bousquet, A., The Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity, Second Edition, London, Hurst & Company, 2022.
- Bramsen, I., The Micro-Sociology of Peace and Conflict. Cambrige, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
- Caron, J.-F. and M. Miron (eds.), Military Ethics and the Changing Nature of Warfare, Leiden, Brill Nijhoff, 2023.
- Schrage, Marco. Friedens- Und Konfliktethik : Ein Grundriss. Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2022.
- Chifu, Iulian, and Greg Simons. Rethinking Warfare in the 21st Century : The Influence and Effects of the Politics, Information and Communication Mix. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
- Dyer, Gwynne. The Shortest History of War : From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers- a Retelling for Our Times. The Experiment, 2021.
- Freedman, Lawrence. An Introduction to War Studies. Edited by Michael S. Goodman et al., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024.
- Iron, Richard, and Damien Kingsbury, editors. How Wars End : Theory and Practice. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023.
- Käsehage, Nina, editor. Keeping Peace in Troubled Times : Perspectives from Different Disciplines on War and Peace. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024.
- Liebsch, B. (Hrsg.), Radikalität und Zukunft des Krieges: Bernhard H. F. Taurecks Theorie des Krieges in interdisziplinärer Diskussion, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2021.
- Mainguy, Daniel. Droit de la guerre atypique: réflexions sur les conflits non armés et non militaires (lawfare, guerre economique et informationnelle). LGDJ, 2023.
- Mann, Michael. On Wars. Yale University Press, 2023.
- Morgan, W.J. and A. Guilherme (eds.), Peace and War: Historical, Philosophical, and Anthropological Perspectives, 2020.
- Roy, Kaushik, editor. Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and the Future of Warfare : Global Perspectives. Routledge, 2024.
- Richmond, O.P., Peace in International Relations, Second Edition, London; New York, Routledge, 2020.
- Saunders, Elizabeth N. The Insiders’ Game : How Elites Make War and Peace. Princeton University Press, 2024.
- Schrage, Marco. Friedens- Und Konfliktethik : Ein Grundriss. Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2022.
- Szanto, War and International Relations: A Critical Analysis, London; New York, Routledge, 2022.
- Ucko, D.H., The Insurgent's Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail, London, Hurst & Company, 2022.
For all peer-reviewed articles in the PPL Catalogue, click here.