Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Terminology

A form of protest in which individuals and groups stand, sit, walk, or pray at a site linked to an injustice or symbolically associated with principles of freedom, justice or peace.

Psychological or physical force exerted for the purpose of threatening, injuring, damaging, or abusing people or property.

Violence consists of actions, words, attitudes, systems or structures that cause physical, psychological, social or environmental damage and/or prevents people from reaching their full human potential.

A violent conflict involves at least two parties using physical force to resolve competing claims or interests. Violent conflicts may occur among individuals or groups not affiliated with a government, but the term is most commonly applied as a synonym for war.

Any actions taken, procedures put in place, or policies proposed that are designed to prevent either states or groups within the state from using armed force or other forms of violence or coercion to settle disputes.

A mutually recognized, hostile exchange of actions among two or more parties (such as between or within nation-states) conducted by conventional military forces, paramilitary forces, or guerrillas to achieve respective policy objectives. Warfare assumes a degree of continuity until such objectives are accomplished or a party concedes or is defeated.

Crimes committed during armed conflict in violation of the laws of war or international humanitarian law, described more fully in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, article 8.

Any weapon capable of horrific human or material destruction. Weapons of mass destruction may be nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological.

Also called zero-sum game, results when only one side perceives the outcome as positive. Produce a completely victorious party and an utterly defeated party

Occur when each side of a dispute feels they have won. Since both sides benefit from such a scenario, any resolutions to the conflict are likely to be accepted voluntarily.

Deeply rooted interpretations of the nature of the universe. The pronounced way things are. Worldview undergirds values, ethics, precept ions and decision-making. Conflicts that occur among those who share common worldviews are presumably easier to address than conflict between those that share different worldviews.