Looking at natural peace through Niko Tinbergen's lens

In March 2013, 53 scientists from three continents and a range of
disciplines, including anthropology, ethology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience,
political science and psychology, attended a week-long workshop
at the Lorentz Center of Leiden University entitled 'Obstacles and Catalysts
of Peaceful Behavior' (Figure 1). The meeting followed in the footsteps of a
symposium and roundtable at the XXV International Ethological Conference
in Vienna in 1997 on post-conflict behaviour (de Waal, 2000) that inspired
the edited volume 'Natural conflict resolution' (Aureli & de Waal, 2000).
The Leiden meeting expanded the concept of natural conflict resolution into
a concept of natural peace. Peace is seen here as behavioural process and
includes, but is not limited to, mutually beneficial cooperation, helping, sharing,
and limiting aggression and restoring tolerance in its aftermath. How and
why did these peaceful behaviours evolve and persist? What is their function
and how do they develop? Following up on the discussions in Leiden we invited
14 participants at the Leiden meeting and 17 other experts in the field
to offer some answers to these questions by means of a contribution to this
special issue. While each article stands on its own in terms of its particular
contribution to the field, the articles complement each other by offering
views from different disciplines within the framework of Tinbergen's four
questions.