The focus is on utopianism in peace research, defined as the trend which embraces the core value of peace to the extent where tensions and contradictions in the concept of peace are glossed over. The starting-point is Johan Galtung's definition of peace as the absence of both direct and...

Does the spread of democracy present a bright future, with peace among nations? The theoretical foundation for expecting peace to flow from democracy was set forth by Immanuel Kant. According to the interpretation in this article, Kant's notion of a pacific union of democracies rests on three...

The lack of a general consensus on the major characteristics of world order has led to a considerable amount of confusion among scholars as well as among policymakers. What kind of order is emerging now? Is it the “liberal moment”; a renewed balance of power competition; a “clash of...