Tuesday 20th January
1.15 coffee/tea, Swallowgate 11 (School of Classics, Butts Wynd, St Andrews, KY16 9AL)
1.30 Introduction to the Ancient Peace Studies Network
Alice König, Professor of Classics and Director of the APSN, University of St Andrews
2 KEYNOTE: Towards Future Peace? Reaction and Innovation in Peacemaking
Oliver P. Richmond, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester
2.30 Academia, the Arts and Peace Action
Noor al-Naser, Scottish Peace Platform Manager
3 coffee/tea break
3.30 ‘The Mood of the Land Will Change’: Peace Imperilled in Mesopotamian Omens
Seth Richardson, Associate at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, and Managing Director of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
4 Ancient Notions of Peace and Their Poetic–Musical Performances in Archaic Greece
Ronald Forero-Álvarez, Associate Professor and member of the Irene Project, University La Sabana
4.30 Peace Linguistics and Diplomatic Failure in Thucydides
Sarah Bolmarcich, Teaching Professor in Classics, School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona State University
Wednesday 21st January
9 Worldview and politics in conflict: the peace treaty between Ramesses II and Hattušili III in context
Susanne Bickel, Professor of Egyptology, University of Basel
9.30 Impediments to Peace in Greek and Roman Antiquity:
International Relations Theory, Advances and Limitations
Craige B. Champion, Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman History, Syracuse University
10 War-weariness in the Roman Republic
Toni Ñaco del Hoyo, ICREA Research Professor, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Universitat de Girona
10.30 coffee/tea break
11 Peace, War, and Honor in Roman-Sasanian Relations: Ferdowsi as IR Theorist
Jake Nabel, Tombros Early Career Professor of Classical Studies and Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Pennsylvania State University
11.30 ROMEX: Building Frameworks to study Late Antique Iberia from Peace Studies
Purificación Ubric Rabaneda, Associate Professor in Ancient History and Deputy Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPAZ), University of Granada
12 Experiences of peace in ancient Sicily, 400-200 BCE
Luis Silva Reneses, Research and Teaching Fellow in Ancient History, University of Geneva, and member of the Ianua Project
12.30 lunch in Swallowgate
1.30 Give Peace a Chance (Not): Use and Misuse of Peace in the Narrative of the Saviour
Consuelo Martino, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Roman History and Latin Literature, University of Edinburgh
2 Unmasking Gendered Narratives of Peace during the Julio-Claudian Era
Carmen Ruiz Vivas, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Granada – University Paris Nanterre
2.30 Performing peace under Rome? The pax augusta from imperial to the personal
Hannah Cornwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, University of Birmingham
3 coffee/tea break
3.30 Women’s peace: a historiographical topos in Classical Antiquity
Elena Torregaray Pagola, Senior Lecturer, University of the Basque Country
4 No pity was shown for age: Discourses of age, war and peace in ancient Jewish literature
Joseph Scales, Postdoctoral Fellow in Ancient Studies, University of Bergen
4.30 ‘A Desert Called Peace?’ Placing Tacitus’s Agricola and Arkady Martine’s A
Desolation Called Peace in Conversation with 21st-Century Notions of Positive Peace
Audrey Williams, PhD candidate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Lab Manager of The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
7 conference dinner (must be pre-booked): Zizzi, South Street
Thursday 22nd January
9 A Global Model of Dramatic Design: Confucius, Machiavelli, and the Psychology of Moral Judgment
Solon Simmons, Professor and Director of The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
9.30 Eirene Meets the Minotaur: visualising peace via ancient myth and modern theatre
Alice König (University of St Andrews) Jennie Dunne and Jonathan D’Young (co-artistic directors of NMT Automatics)
10 coffee/tea break
10.30 The Irene Project: Conflict Resolution and Classical Literature
Martin Dinter, Reader in Latin Literature, King’s College London
11 CEASEFIRE!: Peacegaming as a new peace pedagogy frontier
Rebecca Sutton, Professor of International Law, University of Glasgow
11.30 coffee/tea break
12 Roundtable: next steps for Ancient (and Modern) Peace Studies
Abstracts
Towards Future Peace? Reaction and Innovation in Peacemaking
Oliver P. Richmond, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester
This paper will outline the state of play in contemporary peace studies, with a view to exploring synergies with ancient peace studies. It will sketch some potential spaces – and problems – for emancipatory developments in peacemaking in the light of the serious constraints and blockages to the existing Liberal International Order that have emerged. It will outline two main patterns of innovations in peacemaking praxis. The first is structural and related to major innovations after systemic reform aimed at justice and legitimacy. The second is one tactical and merely renovative, related to maintaining stability in a system with declining legitimacy. This version, however can be connected to the reactionary emergence of the Authoritarian International Order. Emerging and entangled advances in theoretical work in a range of connected areas: on local legitimacy; transversal networks; digital/ AI technologies; decolonialism; post-humanism; law; global justice; the arts; and sustainability indicate the first major type of innovation is now required for any ‘future peace’ while systemic decline into an authoritarian international order is underway.
Academia, the Arts and Peace Action
Noor al-Naser, Scottish Peace Platform Manager
The Scottish Peace Platform (SPP) is a groundbreaking initiative funded by the Scottish Government to connect, coordinate, and amplify Scotland’s vibrant peace sector. Guided by principles of feminist, inclusive, and independent peacebuilding, the SPP aims to increase the collective impact of its members’ work and to create opportunities for strategic engagement in peacebuilding activities, both within and outside Scotland. This paper will introduce the SPP’s work, particularly outlining its bridging of academia and practice and its commitment to arts-based initiatives.
“The Mood of the Land Will Change”: Peace Imperilled in Mesopotamian Omens
Seth Richardson, Associate at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, and Managing Director of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
The terms and idioms for “peace” in the Mesopotamian languages of Akkadian and Sumerian are at once familiar and mostly unrevealing, in the sense that they connect to a relatively unsurprising semantic range: “peace” was related to quiet, stillness, wholeness, goodwill, brotherhood, etc. As in English, the lexicon allowed one to refer with equal ease to a sleeping baby, calmed waters, peace treaties, or the pacification of angry gods as various kinds of peace, extending all the way up to the generalizable existential state of “universal peace” (salam kiššati). Given this, and an equally familiar set of expressions for “war(fare),” the concepts and constructs particular to this ancient culture remain difficult of access precisely because they are so similar to ours (with, perhaps, the exception of temporalized meanings: one finds no expressions for “peacetime” or “wartime”). Building from a 2022 paper, I will focus on the range of concepts between “war” and “peace” as expressed in a collection of Babylonian terrestrial omens called Shumma Alu. This compendium of ca. 10,000 omens encodes a diverse imaginary of all kinds of possible near-futures, from both the perspective of the private household and of the royal palace. In these potents, one indeed finds predictions of war and peace, but more commonly a variety of uneasy fates foreseen for “the land.” These are problems short of war, but far from peace: strife, changing moods, confusion, absent gods, and more. I will investigate this menagerie of ambiguous auguries and consider how their potentialities reveal some of the ingredients considered necessary to achieve true peace. Affective unity, theological stability, and community opinion were among the cultural criteria implied by naming these concerns, richly imagined in a transcript of worries about the future.
Ancient Notions of Peace and Their Poetic–Musical Performances in Archaic Greece
Ronald Forero-Álvarez, Associate Professor and member of the Irene Project, University La Sabana
This paper advances an integrated reading of peace in antiquity that links its core notions to their enactment through poetic–musical mediation in Archaic Greece. The first part delineates four notions: peace as a condition (before/after conflict), as inner composure, as treaty, and as divine gift. These are refined through the semantic fields of eirēnē, pax, šālōm, ḥtp/hrw, and śānti, and are evidenced in specific sociocultural settings: social and natural stability (eudia), emotional self-control (ataraxia/tranquillitas animi), socio-political agreements (spondai, symmachia, koine eirēnē, foedus pacis), and public rites and imagery (Eirene/Pax, Ekecheiria, Ara Pacis, pax deorum). The second part develops the concept of “performative peace” (Irvin-Erickson, 2016) in light of mousikē contexts where word, song, dance, and ritual—as well as the poet’s persona—quieted tempers and channelled collective decision-making. Case studies include Thaletas and Terpander at Sparta (paeans; Gymnopaidiai), Stesichorus at Locri (parenetic song), Pindar at Thebes (hyporcheme), and the mediation ascribed to Simonides between Hieron and Theron on the battlefield. Read through ritual as a social technology and through peace-narrative analysis, the corpus shows that the four notions of peace are embodied in socially situated practices and that poets—by virtue of their ritual and civic authority—acted as agents of concord, shaping performative narratives of pacification.
Peace Linguistics and Diplomatic Failure in Thucydides
Sarah Bolmarcich, Teaching Professor in Classics, School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona State University
This paper applies the principles of peace linguistics to the Peace of Nicias (Thucydides 5.15–24), exploring how language shapes the fragility or durability of peace agreements. While the treaty marked a formal cessation of hostilities between Athens and Sparta in 421 BCE, it quickly unravelled—highlighting the limits of what Francisco Gomes de Matos calls “communicative peace.” Using a peace linguistics framework, I examine the treaty’s lexical and rhetorical features: its legalistic tone, absence of reconciliation language, bilateral focus and thus exclusion of key stakeholders, and lack of affective or inclusive framing. I argue that the treaty’s discursive structure reflects a model of “negative peace” that lacks the linguistic scaffolding for sustainable conflict resolution. Thucydides’ narrative thus becomes a case study in the language of failed peace.
Worldview and politics in conflict: the peace treaty between Ramesses II and Hattušili III in context
Susanne Bickel, Professor of Egyptology, University of Basel
The peace treaty between Egypt under Ramesses II and the Hittite empire under Hattušili III around 1258 BCE is one of the earliest major diplomatic agreements. It survives in both Egyptian hieroglyphic and Akkadian cuneiform versions. The treaty emphasizes the equity of the two partners and their commitment to mutual assistance in the future. The Egyptian version was inscribed in several temples to affirm its everlasting validity. However, within the temple setting, political reality and traditional worldview came into severe contradiction. According to worldview and royal ideology, Egypt was always victorious while all foreign lands were viewed as subordinate enemies. Visual renderings and narrations of the former conflict between the two powers, deeply embedded in their established ideological framework, were reproduced next to the copy of the treaty. This paper examines the intricate, multilayered communicative dynamics produced by this juxtaposition within temple contexts that were, to some extent, open to public access.
Impediments to Peace in Greek and Roman Antiquity:
International Relations Theory, Advances and Limitations
Craige B. Champion, Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman History, Syracuse University
In recent years, historians of ancient Greece and Rome have employed International Relations Theory to gain new insights into the nature of ancient Mediterranean interstate environments, largely due to the pioneering work of Arthur M. Eckstein (2006, 2008). He argued for a brutal interstate system in which the default condition was zero-sum international anarchy, with ambassadorial dialogues typically devolving into “compellence diplomacy.” His reconstruction owes a great deal to the pessimistic Neo-Realist outlook of Kenneth N. Waltz. Utilizing the Neo-Constructivist theory of Alexander Wendt, Paul J. Burton (2011) countered with an argument that diplomatic language in Roman international relations cannot be discounted and opened prospects for peaceable conflict resolution. But the historical record, characterized by constant, internecine wars, vitiates his central thesis.
This paper canvasses some IR theories that shed new light on historical episodes in Greek and Roman history: Hiero II’s approach to Rome and Carthage (“balancing”); alliances in the Peloponnesian and Hannibalic wars (“band-wagoning”); peripheral origins of major wars in Epidamnus and Messana, for the Peloponnesian and First Roman-Carthaginian wars, respectively (“pericentric analysis”). It goes on to argue against flattening limitations of IR models with states as “unit aggregates,” sacrificing historical nuance and complexity. At a more granular level, historians must acknowledge both internal, domestic conditions of individual states and their interactions with regional rivals, as well as their relations with imperial metropoles. Politicians often appealed to outside powers to gain advantages over competitors in intramural power dynamics (Achaean Dyme and Rome), or unified states cast their lots with relative superpowers to check neighboring rival states (Apulian states in Hannibalic war). This level of analysis reinforces the grim prospects for peace in the ancient Mediterranean world offered by Neo-Realist “defensive imperialism.” The paper ends on an optimistic note, however, arguing that the twenty-first century, globalized village of nation-states and existence of the (admittedly anaemic) peace-keeping council of the United Nations (with no analogue in the ancient world), hold out a much more realistic hope for peaceful conflict resolution than the anarchic, bellicose world of the ancient state, based on the “polis-model.”
War-weariness in the Roman Republic
Toni Ñaco del Hoyo, ICREA Research Professor, Catalan Institution for Research and
Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Universitat de Girona
As clearly shown in many wars across human history, and particularly in modern and today’s conflicts, war fatigue may eventually strike on combatants from both sides. Additionally, their civilian populations always suffer even more when wars have already consumed huge resources and cost many lives. This is often a symptom of far too long conflicts whose side-effects might be unquestionably profound (Castor & Weineck 2016). As a result, the significance of war-weariness in the Roman Republic will be addressed although the historical evidence is relatively limited in comparison with other periods. War-weary complaints have already been raised e.g. among Roman soldiers fighting in Sicily during the First Punic War, or among non-combatants in Italy during Hannibalic War, in this paper I will particularly trace further examples from long-lasting wars of the Middle and Late Republics (Melchior 2011). By raising such examples, I firstly intend to better understand war fatigue when wars became longer and more onerous for Rome than ever. Then, bearing in mind that Mid-republican Romans were fully involved in warmongering and empire building, I wonder whether war-weariness might contain any signs —perhaps still unconscious— of any eventual need among soldiers and non- combatants for longer periods of peace (Engerbeaud 2023).
- Caston, V. & Weineck, S-M. (ed.) (2016), Our Ancient Wars. Rethinking War through
- Classics (Ann Arbor).
- Engerbeaud, M. (2023), “Rome et la paix, des origines à la guerre d’Hannibal (milieu du
- VIIIè siècle – 201 av. J.-C.”, Kentron. Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Antique (38)
- 45-62.
- Melchior, A. (2011), “Caesar in Vietnam: did Roman Soldiers suffer from post-traumatic
- stress disorder?”, Greece & Rome (58.2) 209-223.
Peace, War, and Honor in Roman-Sasanian Relations: Ferdowsi as IR Theorist
Jake Nabel, Tombros Early Career Professor of Classical Studies and Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Pennsylvania State University
A passage in the classical Persian poet Abu’l-Qasem Ferdowsi offers interpretive insight into peace and war between the Sasanian and Roman empires in late antiquity. A blend of history, romance, and folklore, Ferdowsi’s account tells the story of negotiations between Shapur, the king of the Sasanian empire, and the emperor “Baranush,” a composite of several Roman rulers. Shapur is victorious in war and has the Roman empire at his mercy, but he desists from his campaign of vengeance and grants Baranush “peace,” a word that appears several times in the passage. The treaty that the two subsequently conclude, however, does not aim at peace. Instead, it contains the startling provision that, in the future, Shapur “will not lead an army from Iran, except with dignity and consideration, such that Rome would not be belittled by it.” War will continue, in other words, but it will be conducted in a way that preserves the reputation and prestige of the combatants. This remarkable phrase suggests that the accommodation of war within a framework of mutual honor is a more productive diplomatic project than the pursuit of peace. It also challenges the assumption of realism, an international relations theory that has seen wide adoption in ancient history, that peace is a casualty of interstate anarchy. Ferdowsi’s text affords novel perspectives on these questions in the tradition of Iranian political thought.
ROMEX: Building Frameworks to study Late Antique Iberia from Peace Studies
Purificación Ubric Rabaneda, Professor and Subdirector of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Granada
Traditional historiography on Late Antique Iberia has often prioritized narratives of conflict, focusing on violent political and religious aspects. This paper, framed within the ROMEX project, proposes a methodological imperative and an epistemological shift to counter this trend, using a Peace Studies theoretical framework to analyse the period. The objective is to uncover evidence of Positive Peace (common welfare, integration, mediation) in Late Antique Iberian sources. This paper will focus on everyday, grassroots strategies and nonviolent mechanisms that fostered inter-community collaboration (Hispano-Romans, Sueves, Visigoths; Catholics, Arians, Priscillianists, Pagans, and Jews). Furthermore, this work will highlight the conciliatory role of the religious factor and demonstrate significant non-state agency in peacemaking. By focusing on these nonviolent strategies and the “Margins of Power,” this study aims to offer a rich, nuanced understanding of Late Antiquity, providing historical models of diversity management and enriching contemporary Peace Studies.
Experiences of peace in ancient Sicily, 400-200 BCE
Luis Rémigio Silva Reneses, Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Geneva, and member of the Ianua Project
During the fourth and third centuries BCE, the island of Sicily was the scene of constant political instability, inter-state conflict, and demographic upheaval. According to our textual sources, the citizens of several Greek as well as non-Greek communities were recurrently displaced or relocated, forced to coexist with newcomers, enslaved, or even massacred as a result of the disruptive intervention of hegemonic powers such as Syracuse, Carthage, and Rome. Yet ancient authors pay little attention to the impact these drastic measures had on the building and preservation of intra- and inter-community peace in the longer term. The aim of this paper is to assess how local communities reacted to and endured such traumatic experiences and transformations by examining the different strategies of post-conflict recovery, reconciliation, and competition they developed in order to adapt to new realities while at the same time striving to preserve –sometimes reinvent – their physical and political identity.
“Give Peace a Chance (Not): Use and Misuse of Peace in the Narrative of the Saviour”
Consuelo Martino, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Roman History and Latin Literature, University of Edinburgh
Since antiquity, particularly during the Roman Empire, leaders have built their autocratic authority on the idea of restoring peace after periods of severe upheaval. The establishment of the Pax Augusta after the Triumviral civil war serves as a key example of this phenomenon; however, before Augustus, Julius Caesar had already highlighted his role in restoring peace following the civil war with Pompey and the Senate. Roman rulers after Augustus continued to promote the Pax Augusta as a central part of their rule, demonstrating continuity and reassuring the people with a sense of safety under the emperor’s autocracy. Closely related to the use of peace in political discourse is what I define the “narrative of the saviour”. No one is born a saviour; many autocrats believe themselves to be one.
My paper will explore how the narrative of the saviour, as it develops within the formation of autocratic regimes emerging after civil war, incorporated and leveraged the concept of a restored peace. It will analyse the rhetorical strategies used to secure personal power and the various ways this rhetoric manifests itself in everyday life. I will mainly focus on the emphasis placed on peace by emperors after Augustus (especially Vespasian and Trajan), to examine the continuity and evolution of this the narrative.
As will become evident by the end of the paper, this particular narrative extends beyond antiquity. Totalitarian leaders of the 20th century, notably Benito Mussolini in Italy, also claimed to have restored peace through their dictatorship. In 2001, after 9/11 shattered the Western world, President Bush’s speech on the impending invasion of Iraq in 2003 also asserted that it was undertaken to “carry on the work of peace”. My paper will subsequently examine how peace is not only promoted but also manipulated over time to justify and advance autocratic and aggressive actions, often bringing more war rather than peace and stability.
Unmasking Gendered Narratives of Peace during the Julio-Claudian Era
Carmen Ruiz Vivas, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Paris Nanterre
This presentation analyses, from a gender perspective, the propagandistic discourses of peace disseminated during the Julio-Claudian Era through representations of women from that dynasty. It explores how women participated in and contributed to these messages of peace. First, it examines the peace narrative inaugurated under Augustus, which promoted an ideal of renewal, prosperity, and well-being, presented as guaranteed by the emperor and his family. Livia played a central role in these discourses and in practices promoting pax, concordia, and consensus. Second, it investigates the language and symbols that constructed a positive narrative of peace, embodied by women according to the gender roles that structured these representations. By endorsing and transmitting these messages linked to their social and gendered positions, women gained public visibility and contributed to legitimizing the dynastic system of the Principate, which was presented as the true guarantor of peace.
Overall, this approach illuminates how peace was conceptualized in Antiquity in intersection with gender norms, recognizing women as active agents in peacebuilding processes and highlighting the optimistic and aspirational aspects of this ideology. These insights help reveal the complex and multifaceted nature of peace ideology that permeated ancient politics, society, and culture.
Performing peace under Rome? The pax augusta from imperial to the personal
Hannah Cornwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, University of Birmingham
This paper offers reflections on the meanings of pax in ancient Roman thought and practice, with a particular focus on the impact of the pax augusta (the august or imperial peace) as a product and expression of the (newly created) Imperial system of governance, while also noting the earlier concept of an ‘imperial’ peace in the Republican period. To what extent was pax ‘sold’ to imperial subjects and commodified? To what extent was the concept questioned and critiqued from within and without? The paper considers the meanings through which different groups (including individuals) engaged with and understood the concept of pax across different types of evidence. Whether as symbolic of the economic benefits of Roman imperium or as a rhetorical tool through which to negotiate relations with Rome, pax was a complex notion within the imperial system. This paper examines the epigraphic and visual materials through which communities and individuals signified collective or personal engagements with the concept of pax augusta to offer some insights into the impact and significance of the concept both at the level of engaging with the imperial and of expressing private, legal status.
Women’s peace: a historiographical topos in Classical Antiquity
Elena Torregaray Pagola, Senior Lecturer, University of the Basque Country
In ancient Rome, women were attributed an indirect but essential role in building and maintaining social peace. Since they were legally excluded from political and military spheres, their influence was considered to be mainly in the family and religious spheres. However, they were able to transcend the domestic sphere to undertake famous acts of public mediation. The strategies they had to use to do so involved equating harmony in the home with harmony in the state. But this narrative, which became a topos throughout the historiography of Antiquity, sometimes clashed with another negative tradition regarding women, which reproached them for their inconstancy, their fickleness, their passion for wealth and even their lust. This line of argument denied the possibility of women’s intervention in resolving conflicts in public life. In this paper, we will discuss some of the results of the intersection of both representations of women in Greco-Latin literature and historiography and their consequences for the representation of “women’s peace”.
Hulot, S., (2022), “Les femmes dans les violences de guerre du monde romain (IIIe siècle avant J.-C.-Ier siècle après J.-C.)”, HiMA : revue internationale d’histoire militaire ancienne, 2022, Dossier I : Femmes, violences et guerres dans le monde gréco-romain, 11, pp.103-117.
Hemelrijk, E. (2023), “The Empire of Women: How Did Roman Imperial Rule Affect the Lives of Women?”, Gendering Roman Imperialism, Brill, Leiden, 18-38.
Loman, P., (2004), “No Woman No War: Women’s Participation in Ancient Greek Warfare”, Greece & Rome 51, 1, 34-54.
No pity was shown for age: Representations of being elderly in ancient Jewish war narratives
Joseph Scales, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Agder
War has been typified as the preserve of the young from Homer to Edwin Starr’s 1970 chart-topping hit, “War”. This association between youth and combat it sited at the nexus of ideas about conflict, masculinity, maturity and many more cultural associations. This paper will examine the explicit and implicit reverse; how the aged are conceived in relation to war. The focus herein will be on ancient Jewish literature and documentary sources which attest to Jewish participation in military structures and settings of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. The effects of conflict on elderly populations and individuals will be examined to shed light on how conflict threatens an image of elder population in society. This image will be juxtaposed with papyrological data and documentary sources which shed light on older persons participation in armed conflict. This comparison reveals the ways in which the aged are deployed in war narratives to convey images of horror and peace, portrayals which idealise an older population who are largely victims of warfare, rather than also active participants.
“A Desert Called Peace?” Placing Tacitus’s Agricola and Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace in Conversation with 21st-Century Notions of Positive Peace
Audrey Williams, PhD candidate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Lab Manager of The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
In his Agricola (c. AD 98), Tacitus relates a critique of the Pax Romana through the words of the Caledonian chieftan Calgacus, who, in decrying Roman militarism and expansionism, exclaims “ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.” Frequently translated as “where they make a desert, they call it peace,” to what extent can this eminently quotable line expand our understandings of “positive peace” in the 21st Century? In this paper, I explore this question by placing Tacitus’s description of Roman expansion in conversation with Arkady Martine’s exploration of empire and personhood in her space opera, A Desolation Called Peace (2020), the title of which takes inspiration from the Agricola.
A Global Model of Dramatic Design: Confucius, Machiavelli, and the Psychology of Moral Judgment
Solon Simmons, Professor and Director of The Narrative Transformation Lab (TNT Lab) at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
There is a line that we can draw through the discussion about the nature of literary form. First, a structure or rhythm of design is proposed (a poetics, form, or structure) and then it is denied. From Aristotle to Eugene Scribe to Vladimir Propp to Robert McKee, visionary storytellers reveal the structure of a well told story and then this form is violated against equally thoughtful rebels like George Bernard Shaw, Francois Truffaut, and Jacques Derrida to Italo Calvino who suggest that classical poetics is little more than a habit of storytelling if not a bias of civilization. With peace storytelling in mind, I will use the examples of Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy and Confucius’ Analects to demonstrate how historical accounts are rendered as narrative. Central to my argument is the loose formal structure that undergirds these two accounts of the use of history for the development of practical wisdom. Using examples both from the overall design of the texts and the way that examples are developed for didactic effect, I propose a new model of the five act structure of storytelling and then develop a perspective on how this literary structure reveals something essential about human moral judgment in non-fiction accounts, all in a way that skirts the accusation of colonial narrative imposition.
Eirene meets the Minotaur: visualising peace via ancient myth and modern theatre
Alice König (University of St Andrews) Jennie Dunne and Jonathan D’Young (co-artistic directors of NMT Automatics)
This paper examines the narrative potential of ancient myth/history to explore and communicate key aspects of war’s aftermath, post-conflict transformation and peacebuilding today. Our discussion will centre around NMTA’s development of a new play, provisionally titled Rena, after its main protagonist (also called Eirene), a survivor of the Holocaust. Born to a Jewish family in Chania, Crete, in 1934, some of her earliest and fondest memories are learning Greek myths at school, which we see her continue to engage with as she matures. Rena lives through the occupation of her island by the Nazis, and miraculously escapes, as her family, and the entire Jewish population on the island are rounded up and placed on a ship, the SS Tanais, bound for the Nazi death camps, along with Cretan resistance fighters and Italian prisoners of war. Rena hides in an ancient olive tree and tumbles into the famous labyrinth of Knossos where she encounters the Minotaur. The labyrinth becomes a liminal space where she begins to process feelings of loss, grief and anger, and this in turn will help the audience to explore different dimensions of post-conflict transition and peacebuilding (Pass 2019, Sparks 2022). Will Rena be able to keep the Minotaur (a manifestation of trauma, anger, revenge and othering) at bay, and what will that take? The play follows Rena through out her life as she tries to come to terms with the loss of her family and community, and in doing so, takes the audience on a journey to explore different understandings of peace-seeking and peace-making in the wake of conflict, both ancient and modern.
The Irene Project: Conflict Resolution and Classical Literature
Martin Dinter, Reader in Latin Literature, King’s College London
Colombia’s recent history has been marked by over sixty years of armed conflict, leaving deep scars in its social fabric. Although the 2016 Havana Peace Agreement represented a significant step toward reconciliation, structural challenges, including persistent violence, political polarization, and social fragmentation, continue to prevent sustainable peace. In this context, education serves not only knowledge transmission, but also as a space to cultivate dialogue, empathy, and democratic engagement.
In 2014, the Colombian Ministry of Education created the Cátedra de la Paz (the national Peace Education Curriculum), making peace education a compulsory subject across schools in the country. This landmark decision recognized the need of embedding peacebuilding into the curriculum as a civic and ethical imperative. However, in practice, the initiative has faced serious obstacles: its guidelines are often vague, teacher training insufficient, and pedagogical tools scarce or poorly contextualized. As a result, the Cátedra has frequently been reduced to a symbolic gesture, disconnected from students’ lived realities.
Our research project “Irene: A Workbook Based on Classical Literature for Conflict Resolution” was developed in response to this gap and stems from an AHRC funded project on “Conflict Resolution through Classical Literature”. It offers an interdisciplinary approach that draws on classical literature and the Socratic method to engage students in structured, reflective dialogue around conflict, justice, and reconciliation. Its most recent output, the Practical Guide for Conflict Resolution Based on the Socratic Method, provides educators and facilitators with a flexible framework for fostering inquiry-based learning and meaningful conversations in schools and other community settings.
By combining ancient texts with contemporary methodologies, the Irene project seeks to activate the civic potential of the humanities and to position dialogue as a transformative practice essential to the construction of peace.
CEASEFIRE!: Peacegaming as a new peace pedagogy frontier
Rebecca Sutton, Professor of International Law, University of Glasgow
In this presentation I will use my recent experience co-designing a 2D video game on ceasefire negotiation skills to explore the emerging field of peacegaming. The presentation will focus on three aspects of the interdisciplinary game design experience, which also brought seasoned ‘experts’ together with young people in Scotland to shape the tool. (1) How does peacegaming fit within the wider traditions of peace education and peace pedagogy? (2) Can (youth) co-design of peace games be a form of peacebuilding in and of itself? (3) Where might the boundaries between peacegaming and wargaming lie, and what is at stake in delineating those boundaries? The presentation will combine personal reflections and behind-the-scenes codesign experiences with an initial investigation of the relevant literature on peacegaming, peace pedagogy, youth co-design, and wargaming.