First, there is negative peace. Negative peace means the absence of violence, typically through coercion rather than cooperation. When Mom tells Sally to stop beating up on Sarah, she is imposing a negative peace in the household. Sally s conflict with Sarah is not resolved, but merely suppressed. The concept of negative peace extends not only from our mundane example in the home, but also to international peace.
International peace is said to exist during a cessation of violence and hostility.
This form of peace is often imposed by U.N. peacekeepers. Again, peace is defined as an absence of war and is imposed coercively. Our law enforcement mechanisms, euphemistically called criminal justice, create another form of negative peace. The bad guys are taken off the street so that crimes are reduced. Thus, law enforcement officials are called peace officers even though they use extremely coercive and sometimes violent means to achieve their ends.