- Peaceful Change: The Interwar Era and the Disciplinary Context
- Peaceful Change after the World Wars
- Peaceful Change: The Post–Cold War Evolution
- Realism and Peaceful Change: A Structural and Neoclassical Realist First-Cut
- Liberalism and Peaceful Change
- International Institutions and Peaceful Change
- Economic Interdependence, Globalization, and Peaceful Change
- Constructivism and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in English School Theory: Great Power Management and Regional Order
- Critical Theories and Change in International Relations
- Civilization, Religion, Peaceful and Non-Peaceful Change in Asia
- Evolutionary Theorization of Peaceful International Changes
- International Law and Peaceful Change
- Nuclear Weapons and Peaceful Change
- The Political Economy of Peaceful Change
- Climate Change, Collective Action, and Peaceful Change
- Democracy, Global Governance, and Peaceful Change
- Status Quest and Peaceful Change
- Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in US Foreign Policy
- China’s Peaceful Rise: From Narrative to Practice
- Russia and Peaceful Change: From Gorbachev to Putin
- Germany and Peaceful Change
- India and Peaceful Change
- South Africa and the Idea of Peaceful Change
- Indonesia’s Contribution to Peaceful Change in International Affairs
- Peaceful Change in Western Europe: From Balance of Power to Political Community?
- Origins and Evolution of the North American Stable Peace
- Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System: A Stony Road
- Peaceful Change in Africa
- Peaceful Change in Southeast Asia: The Historical and Institutional Bases
- South Asia’s Limited Progress toward Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in Northeast Asia: Maintaining the “Minimal Peace”
- The Middle East and Peaceful Change
- Explaining Peaceful Change in Central and Eastern Europe
- Central Asia: A Decolonial Perspective on Peaceful Change
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter seeks to reconcile the seemingly pacifist nature of Eastern religions and civilizations and the reality of terrorism, communal violence, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Asia. All religions promote peaceful change but justify violent change. All civilizations have Gandhi-like advocates for peaceful change but also leaders who agitate for violent change. Civilizational plurality and canonical ambiguity have paradoxically provided a fertile ground for the reduction of complex identities, which are more amenable to peaceful change, into singular ones, which are more prone to civilizational clashes. The weakness of inclusive institutions has further incentivized the politicization of religion. While singular ethnonational identities are constructed and can theoretically be deconstructed, they have tended to become hardened. The chapter anchors the analysis with Islam in Afghanistan and Indonesia; Hinduism in India; Buddhism in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Tibet; and Confucianism in China. It concludes that the rise of self-proclaimed civilization-states in recent years does not bode well for peaceful change.
Keywords: peaceful change, violent change, terrorism, genocide, pluralism, religion, identities, clash of civilizations, civilization-states, Asia
University of Notre Dame
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- Peaceful Change: The Interwar Era and the Disciplinary Context
- Peaceful Change after the World Wars
- Peaceful Change: The Post–Cold War Evolution
- Realism and Peaceful Change: A Structural and Neoclassical Realist First-Cut
- Liberalism and Peaceful Change
- International Institutions and Peaceful Change
- Economic Interdependence, Globalization, and Peaceful Change
- Constructivism and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in English School Theory: Great Power Management and Regional Order
- Critical Theories and Change in International Relations
- Civilization, Religion, Peaceful and Non-Peaceful Change in Asia
- Evolutionary Theorization of Peaceful International Changes
- International Law and Peaceful Change
- Nuclear Weapons and Peaceful Change
- The Political Economy of Peaceful Change
- Climate Change, Collective Action, and Peaceful Change
- Democracy, Global Governance, and Peaceful Change
- Status Quest and Peaceful Change
- Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in US Foreign Policy
- China’s Peaceful Rise: From Narrative to Practice
- Russia and Peaceful Change: From Gorbachev to Putin
- Germany and Peaceful Change
- India and Peaceful Change
- South Africa and the Idea of Peaceful Change
- Indonesia’s Contribution to Peaceful Change in International Affairs
- Peaceful Change in Western Europe: From Balance of Power to Political Community?
- Origins and Evolution of the North American Stable Peace
- Latin America’s Evolving Contribution to Peaceful Change in the International System: A Stony Road
- Peaceful Change in Africa
- Peaceful Change in Southeast Asia: The Historical and Institutional Bases
- South Asia’s Limited Progress toward Peaceful Change
- Peaceful Change in Northeast Asia: Maintaining the “Minimal Peace”
- The Middle East and Peaceful Change
- Explaining Peaceful Change in Central and Eastern Europe
- Central Asia: A Decolonial Perspective on Peaceful Change
