One young and clearly structured department of the social science faculty is ‘Peace and Conflict Studies‘, or ‘Peace and Conflict Studies‘. The social science faculty is a broad and extensive collective field. Under it come political science, social science, international relations, economics, biosocial science and many other departments and sub-departments. So first let's find out what peace and conflict are.
Contents
- What is Peace and Conflict Studies?
- What is taught in Peace and Conflict Studies?
- What is peace, and why?
- Where Peace and Conflict Studies graduates work
- Universities that teach Peace and Conflict Studies
- Final words
A view of a war-ravaged city
What is Peace and Conflict Studies?
Although the word ‘peace' is an abstract idea, the need or demand for it in human life is extremely concrete. Just as the wish for it in personal life is undeniable, so its absence in social or national life gives rise to an equally wearying spiral. So much for the idea of peace; now let's learn about conflict. As stark as the word ‘conflict' sounds, its application is socially and politically intimate. Conflict means sometimes inequality and disagreement, and sometimes war and matters related to war.
The devastation of war
What is taught in Peace and Conflict Studies?
Violence, violent conflict, non-violent movements, the various structural causes and conditions on the road to peace and to conflict, the various condition-based ideas of peace and the various terms for bringing peace about, treaties, reconciliation, peace negotiations, the human rights work of the United Nations, international peace agreements — these are the core subject matter of Peace and Conflict Studies. To put it more specifically, though,
- The distinct concepts of peace and conflict
- Human rights and human rights law
- International law
- Extensive discussion of diplomatic currents
- Social movements
- A detailed account of the refugee issue
- Detailed discussion of the various activities of the United Nations.
The 2019 peace rally organised by the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka
What is peace, and why?
Is peace a political or a social matter? Questions like this were first taken up in club-based discussions by students at various universities in America and Sweden in the nineteenth century, after the American Civil War. No separate department by the name of Peace and Conflict Studies had yet emerged. After the Second World War, in 1948, Peace and Conflict Studies began its academic journey for the first time at Manchester University in the United States.
The devastation of war
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Where Peace and Conflict Studies graduates work
The field of work for Peace and Conflict Studies is varied and broad. Because the subject is bound up with the international sphere, there is wide scope and possibility for going into the foreign affairs sector through the BCS. Demand for it is proportionately broad both at home and abroad. In various private social organisations and in foreign NGOs the demand is immense. Since it is a young discourse, there is also scope to take up a career as a subject teacher at various universities at home and abroad. Alongside working in organisations that run human rights programmes, it can be taken up as a profession. Various social activities can also be carried out with great dedication.
Non-governmental organisations
- UNICEF Bangladesh
- BRAC
- ASA
- CARE Bangladesh
- Oxfam Bangladesh
- Wikimedia Bangladesh
- Shakti Foundation
- Jagorani Chakra Foundation
- ActionAid
- Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
- Bangladesh Shishu Task Force
- JAAGO Foundation
Human rights organisations
- National Human Rights Commission
- Odhikar
- Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust
- Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights
- Bangladesh Mahila Foundation
- Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum
- Bangladesh Human Rights Bureau
- Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF)
- Bangladesh Human Rights Coordination Council
- Bangladesh Human Rights Implementation Agency
- Aparajeyo Bangladesh
Research organisations
- Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Peace and Liberty Research Institute, University of Dhaka
Curzon Hall, University of Dhaka
Universities that teach Peace and Conflict Studies
In a few countries of Asia — at various universities in India, Japan and South Korea, and in Bangladesh at the University of Dhaka — the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies is currently taught as an independent discourse under the faculty of social science.
At present peace research is one of the notable discourses at more than about 25 universities around the world. In particular, Sweden's Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) are known as leading research centres of Peace and Conflict Studies.
In the four-year graduation programme, 32 courses in total are taught across 8 semesters. Alongside the theoretical discourse, internships can readily be done at various international and national non-governmental organisations after graduation.
Final words
To this day Peace and Conflict Studies carries on its work as a new department. Fitting itself to the opportunities, the field of work and future demand, its reach will grow further still. At present its demand in the private sector is growing considerably and its importance is great. A properly balanced environment of government patronage and private cooperation can be expected to take the department into a much wider sphere.
Mahfuzur Rahman
BSS in Peace and Conflict Studies (19th batch, 2018–19)
Department of Peace and Conflict Studies
University of Dhaka
