Roundtable

What Is Peace?
Ethics and the Practice of Responsible Peace-craft

Date & Time: Saturday, October 3, 2026, 1:30–3:00 pm

 

Location: George Mason University’s Mason Square Campus, 3351 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, Virginia

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This roundtable serves as a starting point for a broader scholarly and practitioner conversation on the ethical foundations of peacebuilding, anchored in the question: what constitutes peace as a substantive good, and what follows from this for how peace is pursued and evaluated in practice? The discussion will examine how different understandings of peace shape practice, policy, and institutional design, and will engage tensions between ethical commitments and the political constraints that structure real-world peace processes. In doing so, it will interrogate the limits of existing frameworks and open space for more grounded and coherent approaches to “responsible peace-craft.”

 

Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the roundtable is designed as an interactive exchange, with brief opening reflections

followed by a moderated discussion. It also serves as a catalyst for contributions to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Peace Ethics (“What Is Peace? Towards Responsible Peace-craft”).

 

The event is part of The Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Annual Conference: “Global Fallouts: Moving Peace and Justice Forward in Times of Uncertainty,” taking place on October 2–4, 2026, at George Mason University.

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Lead: Dr. Margarita Tadesvoyan, Executive Director of the Center of Peacemaking Practice, George Mason