International Peace and Character Strengths

The deliberate integration of character strengths in international peace work is a synergy ripe for science and practice. This chapter embarks on this exploration with multiple scholars in peace psychology and peace and conflict studies—many of whom work in international peace contexts—and all of whom devote attention to bringing peace into the world. After delineating frameworks for character strengths and for international peace, we discuss how two levels of peace (intrapersonal and interpersonal), when merged with character strengths, inform global peace. These include individual factors associated with global peace attitudes and the lens of naïve dialecticism in interpersonal relationships in the global context. We then offer several reports from the field discussing the importance of character strengths within peace-workers, among recipients experiencing peace work, and within the processes therein. We conclude that there are clear roles in global peace contexts (e.g., humanitarian work, diplomacy and mediation, human rights, youth development, violence/conflict prevention, educational programming, and peace promotion) for the VIA Classification framework of 24 character strengths, and related character strengths concepts, dynamics, and interaction effects. Future peace work will further explore the integration of character science and character strengths as catalysts for the good, as well as empirically test character strength interventions to reduce violence and conflict and amplify harmony, cooperation, and balance in international peace contexts.