We are honored to take part in the upcoming 38th Annual Conference of Concerned Philosophers for Peace (CPP): Reframing Wisdom / Decolonizing Peace, hosted by Texas State University. This gathering will bring together philosophers and peace scholars to critically examine how traditions of wisdom can be reimagined through decolonial perspectives, and how such reframing reshapes our understanding of peace itself.

The conference will explore how wisdom traditions and philosophical inquiry intersect with struggles for justice, migration, climate change, and the global search for a just and sustainable peace. Participants will engage with both theoretical and practical perspectives, highlighting voices and approaches often marginalized in mainstream peace research.

The PACS Institute’s contribution will present the paper When Peace Fails Definition: Typologies Under Scientific Scrutiny, which diagnoses a paradigmatic crisis at the heart of peace research. Despite decades of institutional growth, the field has yet to arrive at a scientific definition of peace. Using Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions and Hibberd’s criteria for definition, the paper argues that peace must be reconceived not as an outcome or proxy, but as a structured condition with intrinsic, ontological features. This intervention aims to clear conceptual ground for a post-operational paradigm in which peace can be treated as a definable and measurable kind.

We are grateful to the Concerned Philosophers for Peace and Texas State University for convening this important conference. The dialogue promises to advance a critical reimagining of peace as a knowable, grounded concept—one that can sustain both academic inquiry and emancipatory practice.