Negative Peace

I came across an interesting term today - "Negative Peace". It worries me that academics and indeed politicians have gone so far as to stretch the definition of Peace to include anything other than what is a positive outcome. Indeed, a cessation to violence - whether permanent or fragile - is a period of peace; an opportunity for parties to conflict to reassess their ideals; to see the potential for dialogue; and to embark on dialogue for peaceful resolution. While the permanent state of peace, that "Positive Peace" has been coined to define, may not always be tangible, the potential for coexistence and the hope that periods of non-violence give a society are more valuable than time spent seeking to define the state of affairs. War is not a science, the only rules of conflict are those which are wisened to after the event.