Citation

Rittberger V. J. Peace Res. 1973; 10(3): 217-226.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1973, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/002234337301000305

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The article seeks to bring together perspectives of peace research and of the study of international organization. The common meeting-ground for both perspectives is the analysis of the performance of international organization, particularly with respect to eliminating violence in international society. The discussion begins by ascertaining the meaning of the concept of violence as it has regularly been defined in the theory and practice of international organization. It is argued that, due to the genesis of international organization as an adaptive outgrowth of the modern state system, 'violence' is usually seen as identical with 'direct' or 'personal' violence, and that it does not encompass 'indirect' or 'structural' violence. In the analysis of international organization performance, it is shown that international organization has failed, by and large, in fulfilling its major open function: the elimination of direct violence in international society. The article then takes up the question whether and in which ways international organization activities bear on the existence of structural violence in international society. Here, we note first of all a certain lack of research - as compared with the large number of studies on the impact of international organization on direct violence. Based on the available evidence, the tentative answer to the previously-raised question is that, whereas international organization may have been instrumental in attacking some secondary manifestations of structural violence, it has served more often to perpetuate and even strengthen structural violence in inter national society.