Peace Studies and the Color Line [Hardback]

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Peace Studies and the Color Line

Africana Contributions

by Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa (Universitat Jaume I, Spain; UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace), I Jin Jang (Universitat Jaume I; Spain; UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace)

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This book contributes to a much-needed critical engagement with peace scholarship, while addressing interconnections between racism and colonialism on one hand, and peace and conflict studies on the other. In so doing, Dr. Jang and Dr. Cordero reach fundamental insights into epistemic inequality and epistemic justice in the field of peace and conflict studies. This book is thus an invaluable contribution to this field and its place between social studies and the humanities.

Dr. Egidio Alcides De Bustamante Azevedo
Cátedra UNESCO de Filosofía para la Paz
Universitat Jaume I, Spain

With remarkable critical adeptness, artistry and adroitness, the authors of this intellectual feast, Carlos Cordero and I Jin Jang, unmask the epistemological blindness to race, racism and colonialism in peace studies and advocate the insights from Africana philosophy as its cure.
Alberto Gomes
Emeritus Professor
La Trobe University
Australia

Providing a genealogical excavation of the foundational narratives of peace studies, I Jin Jang and Carlos Cordero lay bare the epistemic and conceptual problems that arise when the discipline (and beyond) separates race from its colonial roots. Inspired by the Africana critical philosophical tradition, this dynamic duo puts race, racism and colonialism at the center of their disruptive inquiry for rethinking violence and reimagining freedom and notions of being human. An incredible journey into the humanization of the world, this work shows how the problem of the color line is ‘our’ problem, one where race becomes a “rallying site of resistance” for creating “new human relations.”

Dr. Jennifer Murphy
International Studies Department
University of San Francisco

Race is an important element of the modern understanding of the human being which emerged during colonialism in order to mark the distinction between the human and the subhuman. Histories and processes of racialization have not only been histories of direct and structural violence, but they were coterminous with the formation of modern human and social sciences, forms of governance, the emergence of international law, notions of citizenship, the formation of modern states, the elaboration of liberal political theories. Likewise, race is a significant aspect of migration, international and humanitarian aid, the notion of development, or current urban and environmental conflicts. The anthropological and racial dimensions of these issues have been omitted in peace studies. This work explores the silence on questions of race in peace studies, the under-theorization of racism and colonialism, and the scarce engagement with the different fields and traditions that put race, racism and colonialism at the center of their inquiry. The book starts with the question of how peace studies can address issues of race and racism when the discipline has not only ignored them as an object of study but also when the field has not properly addressed the intricacy of race, racism colonialism with knowledge production. To that effect, it follows two interwoven paths: First, it addresses the reasons behind these absences and what the silence says about the field. Bringing the silences to the forefront would enable us to situate and rethink how peace research conceives itself, its own foundational narrative, its disciplinary boundaries, and its relationship with other fields of knowledge. Second and relatedly, the approach of the book is not only critical but also expansive and reconstructive. It engages in conversations with neglected fields such as black and Africana philosophy, anticolonial and decolonial thought, and feminist approaches to race and racism.

Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa (PhD) and Jin Jang (PhD) teach International Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies at Jaume I University in Spain and the International Course on Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta in Indonesia. They are members of the Global DEEP Network (Dialogue, Empathic, Engagement & Peacebuilding). This book results from their common research interests in anticolonialism, black existential and Africana philosophy and the possible dialogue with peace studies. At the same time, this work animated their teaching experience and the confusion and difficulties of discussing race and racism in the classroom.

anticolonialism, philosophical anthropology, African diasporic theory, phenomenology, human rights, international law, violence, peace, international relations, nonviolence, European modernity, philosophy of science, decolonization, Caribbean, ethnicity, black studies