Peaceweaving: Jane Addams, Positive Peace, and Public Administration

Abstract

Beginning with the odd finding that “peace research is just the study of war,” this article explores “positive peace” as an important yet neglected notion in public administration. It does this by examining the ideas of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, a pioneer in public administration and peace theory. More than 100 years ago, Addams refined an expansive notion of peace that incorporated social justice and social equity. Addams’s feminist, pragmatist ideas of peace, which we call peaceweaving, emerged from her critique of municipal government and her experience as a settlement worker in Chicago. Her ideas are placed in historical context, and applied to an essential problem facing contemporary peace operations, which is how to prepare troops and other state agents for the seemingly contradictory demands that come along with today’s security problems, both intra- and internationally.