Johan Vincent Galtung (24 October 1930 – 17 February 2024) was a Norwegian
sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of
peace and conflict studies. He was the main founder of the
Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in 1959 and was its first director until 1970. He also established the ''
Journal of Peace Research'' in 1964.
In 1969, he was appointed to the world's first
chair
A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...
in peace and conflict studies, at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
. He resigned his Oslo professorship in 1977 and thereafter held professorships at several other universities; from 1993 to 2000 he taught as Distinguished Professor of Peace Studies at the
University of Hawaii
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
. He was the
Tun Mahathir Professor of Global Peace at the
International Islamic University Malaysia until 2015.
Background

Galtung was born in
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
. He earned the
cand. real. degree in mathematics at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
in 1956, and a year later completed the
mag. art. (PhD)
degree in sociology at the same university.
["Johan Galtung"](_blank)
, ''Norsk Biografisk Leksikon
is the largest Norwegian biographical encyclopedia. It is part of the '' Great Norwegian Encyclopedia''.
Origin
The first print edition (NBL1) was issued between 1923 and 1983; it included 19 volumes and 5,100 articles.
Kunnskapsforlaget to ...
'' Galtung received the first of thirteen
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
s in 1975.
Galtung's father and paternal grandfather were both
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
s. The Galtung name has its origins in
Hordaland, where his paternal grandfather was born. Nevertheless, his mother, Helga Holmboe, was born in central Norway, in
Trøndelag, while his father was born in
Østfold
Østfold () is a county in Eastern Norway, which from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023 was part of Viken. Østfold borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other ...
, in the south. Galtung was married twice, and had two children by his first wife
Ingrid Eide, Harald Galtung and Andreas Galtung, and two by his second wife Fumiko Nishimura, Irene Galtung and Fredrik Galtung.
Galtung experienced
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in German-occupied Norway, and as a 12-year-old saw his father arrested by the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s. By 1951, he was already a committed peace mediator, and elected to do 18 months of social service in place of his obligatory military service. After 12 months, Galtung insisted that the remainder of his social service be spent in activities relevant to peace.
Galtung died in Stabekk Helsehus og Hospice, Baerum, Norway, on 17 February 2024, at the age of 93.
Career
Upon receiving his mag. art. degree, Galtung moved to
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where he taught for five semesters as an assistant professor in the department of sociology.
In 1959, Galtung returned to Oslo, where he founded the
Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO; ) is a private research institution in peace and conflict studies, based in Oslo, Norway, with around 100 employees. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researchers led by Johan Galtung, who was ...
. He was the institute's director until 1969.
In 1964, Galtung led PRIO to establish the first academic journal devoted to Peace Studies: the ''
Journal of Peace Research''.
In the same year, he assisted in the founding of the
International Peace Research Association. In 1969, he left PRIO for a position as professor of peace and conflict research at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
, a position he held until 1978.
Galtung was the director general of the International University Centre in
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...
and helped to found and lead the World Future Studies Federation.
[(E. Boulding 1982: 323)] He has held visiting positions at other universities, including
Santiago, Chile
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
, the
United Nations University in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Witten/Herdecke University in Germany, and at
Columbia,
Princeton and the
University of Hawaii
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
in the USA. In 2014, he was appointed the first Tun Mahathir Professor of Global Peace at the
International Islamic University Malaysia.
Economist and fellow peace researcher
Kenneth Boulding has said of Galtung that his "output is so large and so varied that it is hard to believe that it comes from a human".
[(K. Boulding 1977: 75)] He was a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
In 1993, he co-founded TRANSCEND: A Peace Development Environment Network.
In 1987, he was given the
Right Livelihood Award.
Work and views
Conflict Triangle
In Galtung's 1969 paper, "Violence, Peace and Peace Research", he presents his theory of the Conflict Triangle, a framework used in the
study of peace and conflict, with the purpose of defining the three key elements of violence that form this "triangle." The theory is based on the principle that peace must be defined by widely accepted social goals, and that any state of peace is characterized by the absence of violence. When a conflict has features of all three areas of violence, the result is a more consolidated, static state of violence in a social system, which may include a conflict or a nation-state, whereas the absence of these three typologies of violence results in peace.
Structural Violence
Galtung's concept of
structural violence
Structural violence is a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or rights.
The term was coined by Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, who intr ...
refers to the indirect forms of violence originating from social, economic, and political structures and manifesting primarily as oppression and exploitation.
These indirect forms of violence result in injustices in the distribution of political power and economic benefits.
Rather than conveying a physical image, structural violence is an avoidable impairment of
fundamental human needs. Structural violence is increased in situations where low income individuals also suffer in the rank dimensions of education, health, and power. This is due to an overall consolidation of factors in the social structure, resulting in a high correlation between social class and disempowerment. Structural violence can be recognized through its relative stability, having been built into the social structure. This can make structural violence difficult to ascertain, despite its often vast consequences. This concept has been applied in a large number of cases, some of the most notable are listed below.
Akhil Gupta argued in 2012 that structural violence has been the key influence in the nature and distribution of extreme suffering in India, driven by the Indian state in its alleged corruption, overly bureaucratic standards of governance used to exclude the middle and working classes from the political system through a system of politicized poverty.
Jacklyn Cock's 1989 paper in the ''
Review of African Political Economy'' applied Galtung's theory of structural violence, analysing the role of militarized society under the
apartheid regime of South Africa in the development of patriarchal values that is a form of structural violence against women. Cock found that tacit misdirection of women in society by its leadership focused their energies toward the direct and indirect incorporation of the patriarchal regime in order to maintain the status quo.
Mats Utas claimed that even those youth in Liberia indirectly unaffected by direct violence in the
civil war of 1989-1996 suffered from structural violence in the form of association with different blocs, leading to poverty, joblessness and marginalisation effects.
Cultural Violence
Galtung defines cultural violence as ideas, consciousness, language, art, or science that can be used to legitimize or enable direct violence or structural violence.
The existence of prevailing or prominent social norms make direct and structural violence seem natural or at least acceptable, and serves to explain how prominent beliefs can become so embedded in a given culture that they function as absolute and inevitable and are reproduced uncritically across generations. Galtung expanded on the concept of cultural violence in a 1990 paper
also published in the Journal of Peace Research. This concept has been applied in a limited number of cases, with most occurring after Galtung's follow up paper in 1990,
some of the most notable of which are listed below.
Johan Galtung has written about Zionism and violence. He has discussed various forms of violence, including structural and cultural violence, in his extensive body of work. Galtung has been critical of Zionism, particularly in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has linked it to broader themes of structural violence. He has framed Zionism within his broader theories of structural and cultural violence, suggesting that the establishment and actions of the state of Israel have contributed to ongoing conflict and suffering in the region.
Gregory Phillips argues in his 2003 book, Addictions and Healing in Aboriginal Country, that resistance to the Western medical sphere driven by
previous atrocities committed against the
Aboriginal community has led to a fierce resistance effort against modern medicine, addiction treatment and perhaps fuels a desire to seek out drugs and illicit substances as a starting point of addiction. Wide scale suspicion against medical practitioners and government representatives has become engendered in the Aboriginal community.
In Enduring Violence: Ladina Women's Lives in Guatemala, the 2011 book by
Cecilia MenjÃvar, it is argued that the preexisting cultural conditions of ''mediania'', or half and half, agriculture led to women facing large scale cultural violence due to high rents, low returns and high required investment with additionally harsh conditions due to the conflict in Guatemala. Given the patriarchal culture of Guatemala, any earnings would go to the partner of the working woman, leaving a large poverty gap enshrined in the demographic diversity of the country.
The Austrian peace researcher Franz Jedlicka has tried to measure the level of cultural violence in a "Culture of Violence Scale" in 2023.
Direct Violence
Direct Violence is characterised as having an actor that commits the violence, and is thus able to be traced back to persons as actors. Direct violence shows less stability, given it is subject to the preference sets of individuals, and thus is more easily recognised. Direct violence is the most visible, occurring
physically or
verbally, and the victim and the offender can be clearly identified. Direct violence is highly interdependent with structural and cultural violence: cultural and structural violence causes direct violence which on the other hand reinforces the former ones. This concept has been applied in a large number of cases, some of which are listed below.
A 2011 paper by the
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) demonstrated the widespread nature of
child marriage
Child marriage is a practice involving a marriage or domestic partnership, formal or informal, that includes an individual under 18 and an adult or other child.*
*
*
*
Research has found that child marriages have many long-term negative co ...
in
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
. The ICRW highlighted marriage before the age of 18 as a fundamental human rights violation, one that leads to early childbearing, with significantly higher maternal mortality and morbidity rates as well as higher infant mortality rates amongst women. The paper most directly presented evidence to show that child brides are at heightened risk of violence in the home.
In Matthew Chandler's 2009 paper on so-called "non-violent" techniques utilised by
Hezbollah still include forms of Direct Violence, most notably the threat of violence toward
Fouad Siniora's allies after his 2008 order to dismantle the Hezbollah telecommunications network in 2008, which led to the freezing of the order. Further, Hezbollah are argued to have used their operation of
social services
Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...
, in lieu of government operations, as a ransom for support as well as rewarding their fighters with guaranteed healthcare and support for their families. Chandler argues this is due to opposition within the group to harming Lebanese civilians, who they view as "their own", or exacerbating conflict through civil war.
In 2005, Steven Wright made the case for Peacekeeping efforts to be regarded as violence due to increasing use of techniques such as pre-interrogation treatment, and the use of non-lethal weapons such as tear gas for crowd dispersal and plastic bullets, which he terms "torture-lite", being increasingly common in peacekeeping manuals across a number of nation-states and supranational organisations.
Reinforcing Factors
Galtung focuses a section of the paper on the means of direct and structural violence, in particular, developing groups of factors that may be included as types of such forms and methods of maintaining and reinforcing the mechanisms of such violence. In terms of reinforcing factors, Galtung identifies six key areas:
;Linear Ranking Order
:Systems in which there is an open and complete ranking of actors leaves no doubt as to the actor who is ranked more highly, and is thus a mechanism of structural violence due to the reinforcement of an existing power dynamic.
;Acyclical Interaction Pattern
:Systems in which all actors are connected via a one-way ‘correct’ path of interaction, where outcomes are structurally dependent on using this system in the intended way of its design. This makes structural systems stable, as change can only be achieved through this consolidated
power-seeking and power-retaining system.
;Rank-Centrality Correlation
:Within the social system, actors that are higher ranked are more central within the system itself, reinforcing their importance to the status quo as well as their incentives to maintain it.
;(4) System Congruence
:Social systems are made up of similar components, allowing those who are ranked highly and are successful at mobilising one system shifting from a comparative advantage within one system to an absolute advantage over all systems of desired operation.
;Rank Concordance
:Actors that are ranked highly within one metric, such as income, are also ranked highly on other metrics such as education and health. This congruence is also present in actors ranked low within these metrics, and serves to limit
mobility within the social system.
;Interlevel High Rank Coupling
:Collaboration amongst the highest ranks results in the system being defined in such a way that benefits the most powerful actors, usually through a sub optimally ranked representative (not the highest ranked actor), which limits allegations of system consolidation by the most powerful.
Beyond Galtung's initial paper and thesis, scholars have applied the Conflict Triangle to a broad array of conflicts, struggles and occupations since 1969, and retroactively.
Criticism of the model
Galtung's Conflict Triangle and Peace Research paper are widely cited as the foundational pieces of theory within peace and conflict studies. However, they are not without criticism. Galtung uses very broad definitions of
violence
Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
,
conflict and
peace
Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
, and applies the terms of mean both direct and indirect, negative and positive, and violence in which one cannot distinguish actors or victims, which serves to limit the direct application of the model itself.
Galtung uses a
positivist approach, in that he assumes that every rational tenet of the theory can be verified, serving to reject social processes beyond relationships and actions. This approach enforces a paradigm of clear-cut, currently testable propositions as the ‘whole’ of the system, and thus is often deemed
reductionist. Galtung also wields an explicit
normative orientation in the paper, in which there is a weighting toward evaluative statements that may show bias or simply opinion, or indeed a trend toward the
institution
An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...
s and concepts of peace in the West, which may serve to limit the applicability of the model more widely.
Peacebuilding
Galtung proposes resolving conflicts through peacekeeping, peacemaking, and
peacebuilding.
Peacekeeping and peacemaking primarily involve eliminating violence and bringing about immediate peace.
In Galtung's view, addressing the root causes of violence requires peacebuilding which goes beyond ending direct violence to end structural violence and cultural violence.
The peacebuilding structures needed to address the root causes of conflict and support local capacity for peace management and conflict resolution. Galtung has held several significant positions in international
research
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
councils and has been an advisor to several
international organisations. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Advisory Council of the
Committee for a Democratic UN.
Galtung is strongly associated with the following concepts:
*
Structural violence
Structural violence is a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or rights.
The term was coined by Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, who intr ...
– widely defined as the systematic ways in which a regime prevents individuals from achieving their full potential. Institutionalized racism and sexism are examples of this.
*
Negative vs.
positive peace – popularized the concept that peace may be more than just the absence of overt violent conflict (negative peace), and will likely include a range of relationships up to a state where nations (or any groupings in conflict) might have collaborative and supportive relationships (positive peace). Though he did not cite them, these terms were, in fact, previously defined and discussed in a series of lectures starting in 1899 by
Jane Addams
Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...
(in her 1907 book she switched to calling it 'newer ideals of peace' but continued to contrast them to the term negative peace), and in 1963 in the letter from a Birmingham jail by
Martin Luther King Jr.
Criticism of the United States
In 1973, Galtung criticised the "structural fascism" of the US and other Western countries that make war to secure materials and markets, stating: "Such an economic system is called
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
, and when it's spread in this way to other countries it's called imperialism", and praised
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
's Cuba in 1972 for "break
ngfree of imperialism's iron grip". Galtung stated that the US is a "killer country" guilty of "neo-fascist
state terrorism
State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens.
It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...
" and compared the US to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
for bombing Kosovo during the
1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
In an article published in 2004, Galtung predicted that the US empire will "decline and fall" by 2020. He expanded on this hypothesis in his 2009 book titled ''The Fall of the US Empire - and Then What? Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming?''.
[On the Coming Decline and Fall of the US Empire]
by Johan Galtung, Transnational Foundation and Peace and Research (TFF), 28 January 2004.
Following the election of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
in 2016, Galtung revised forward his theory of American global power decline, citing Trump's deportation policy and critical views of
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
would accelerate it.
Views on Communist regimes
During his career, Galtung statements and views have drawn criticism including his criticism of Western countries during and after the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
and what his critics perceived as a positive attitude to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
,
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
and
Communist China. A 2007 article by
Bruce Bawer published by the ''
City Journal'' magazine
and a subsequent article in February 2009 by
Barbara Kay in the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only. ''
[Barbarians within the gate]
by Barbara Kay, National Post, 18 February 2009. criticised Galtung's opinion of China during the rule of
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
. China, according to Galtung, was "repressive in a certain liberal sense", but he insisted "the whole theory about what an 'open society' is must be rewritten, probably also the theory of 'democracy'—and it will take a long time before the West will be willing to view China as a master teacher in such subjects."
Calling Galtung a "lifelong enemy of freedom", Bawer said Galtung discouraged Hungarian resistance against the
Soviet invasion in 1956, and criticized his description in 1974 of
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...
and
Andrei Sakharov as "persecuted elite personages".
Views on Jews and Israel
Galtung recommended that people should read
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...
, a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination.
In defending his claims that Jews control American media companies, Galtung cited an article published by
National Vanguard, a neo-Nazi organization.
Galtung's rhetoric has been criticized by Terje Emberland, a historian at the
Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, and Øystein Sørensen, a University of Oslo historian known for his scholarship on conspiracy theories.
Asked by
NRK about his controversial remarks, Galtung reiterated his recommendation that people should read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Galtung rejected that he was anti-Semitic.
The Israeli newspaper ''
Haaretz
''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
'' accused Galtung in May 2012 of
antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
for (1) suggesting the possibility of a link between the
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, also called 22 July () or 22/7 in Norway, were two domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attacks by far-right politics, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik against the politics of Norway, government, the civil ...
and Israel's intelligence agency
Mossad
The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...
; (2) maintaining that "six Jewish companies" control 96% of world media; (3) identifying what he contends are ironic similarities between the banking firm
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...
and the conspiratorial antisemitic forgery ''
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...
''; and (4) theorizing, although not justified, antisemitism in post–
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
was a predictable consequence of
German Jews holding influential positions.
As a result of such statements, TRANSCEND International, an organisation co-founded by Galtung, released a statement in May 2012 attempting to clarify his opinions. On 8 August 2012, the World Peace Academy in
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
, Switzerland announced it was suspending Galtung from its organization, citing what it posited were his "reckless and offensive statements to questions that are specifically sensitive for Jews."
Galtung said the claims were "smearing and libel".
Selected awards and recognitions
*Dr honoris causa,
University of Tampere
The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019.
The university offered undergraduate, postgraduate an ...
, 1975, peace studies
*Dr honoris causa,
University of Cluj, 1976, future studies
*Dr honoris causa,
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially fou ...
, 1987, Faculty of Social Sciences
*Dr honoris causa,
Soka University, Tokyo, 1990, peace/Buddhism
*Dr honoris causa,
University of Osnabrück, 1995, peace studies
*Dr honoris causa,
University of Torino, 1998, sociology of law
*Dr honoris causa,
FernUniversität Hagen, 2000, philosophy
*Dr honoris causa,
University of Alicante, 2002, sociology
*Dr honoris causa,
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2006, law
*Dr honoris causa,
Complutense University, Madrid, 2017, politics and sociology
*Honorary professor,
University of Alicante, Alicante, 1981
*Honorary professor,
Free University of Berlin, 1984–1993
*Honorary professor,
Sichuan University, Chengdu, 1986
*Honorary professor,
Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, 1993
*Distinguished professor of peace studies,
University of Hawaii
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, 1993-
*John Perkins University Distinguished Visiting Professor, 2005-
*
Right Livelihood Award, 1987
*First recipient of the Humanist Prize of the
Norwegian Humanist Association, 1988
*
Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values, 1993
*
Brage Prize, 2000
*First
Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award, 2001
*Honorary Prize of the Norwegian Sociological Association, 2001
*Premio Hidalgo, Madrid, 2005
*Augsburg Golden Book of Peace, 2006
*Member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
*Honorary member of the
Green Party, 2009
*
Erik Bye Memorial Prize, 2011
Selected works
Galtung has published more than a thousand articles and over a hundred books.
* ''Statistisk hypotesepröving'' (''Statistical hypothesis testing'', 1953)
* ''Gandhis politiske etikk'' (''Gandhi's political ethics'', 1955, with philosopher
Arne Næss)
*
Theory and Methods of Social Research' (1967)
* ''
Violence, Peace and Peace Research'' (1969)
* ''Members of Two Worlds'' (1971)
* ''Fred, vold og imperialisme'' (''Peace, violence and imperialism'', 1974)
* ''Peace: Research – Education – Action'' (1975)
* ''Learning from China?'' (1977, with
Fumiko Nishimura)
* ''Europe in the Making'' (1989)
* ''Global Glasnost: Toward a New World Information and Communication Order?'' (1992, with Richard C. Vincent)
''Global Projections of Deep-Rooted U.S Pathologies'' (1996)
* ''Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization'' (1996)
* ''Johan uten land. PÃ¥ fredsveien gjennom verden'' (''Johan without land. On the Peace Path Through the World'', 2000, autobiography for which he won the
Brage Prize)
* ''50 Years: 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives'' (2008)
* ''Democracy – Peace – Development'' (2008, with Paul D. Scott)
* ''50 Years: 25 Intellectual Landscapes Explored'' (2008)
* ''Globalizing God: Religion, Spirituality and Peace'' (2008, with Graeme MacQueen)
See also
*
Cost of conflict, a tool which attempts to calculate the price of conflict to the human race
*
Democratic peace theory
Proponents of democratic peace theory argue that both electoral and republican forms of democracy are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Different advocates of this theory suggest that several factors ar ...
, a theory which posits that
democracies
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
are hesitant to engage in
armed conflict
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
with other identified democracies
*
Critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...
, a critical examination of society and culture, to the intersection of
race,
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
, and
power
References
Sources
* Boulding, Elise. 1982. "Review: Social Science—For What?: Festschrift for Johan Galtung." ''Contemporary Sociology''. 11(3):323-324
JSTOR Stable URL* Boulding, Kenneth E. 1977. "Twelve Friendly Quarrels with Johan Galtung." ''Journal of Peace Research''. 14(1):75-86
JSTOR Stable URL
External links
TRANSCEND: A Peace Development Environment NetworkGaltung-Institute for Peace Theory and Peace PracticePeace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)* Biography o
Lecture transcript and video of Galtung's speech at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego, December 2010Audio recordings with Johan Galtungin the Online Archive of the
Österreichische Mediathek (Interviews and lectures in German). Retrieved 18 September 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galtung, Johan
1930 births
2024 deaths
Norwegian anti-Zionists
Peace and conflict scholars
Norwegian male writers
Norwegian sociologists
Norwegian mathematicians
Nonviolence advocates
Writers from Oslo
European pacifists
Norwegian political scientists
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian expatriates in the United States
Norwegian expatriates in France
Norwegian expatriates in Japan
Norwegian expatriates in Malaysia