1. Generally dictionary definitions variously characterize peace as a normal condition of tranquility, harmony, order, freedom and justice in society without internal or external warfare.

2. True security rests on a supportive and sustainable ecological base, on spiritual as well as material well-being, on trust and reliance on one's neighbors, on justice and understanding in a disarmed world (p. 212).
Frank Barnaby, ed., 1988, The Gaia Atlas of Peace: Survival into the Third Millennium, New York, NY: Doubleday.

3. Positive peace is a societal condition in which structures of domination and exploitation, which underlie war, have been eliminated.
Johan Galtung, 1969, "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research," Journal of Peace Research 6(3):167-191.

4. A peace culture maintains creative balance among bonding, community closeness and the need for separate spaces. It can be defined as a mosaic of identities, attitudes, values, beliefs, and patterns that lead people to live nurturingly with one another and with the Earth itself without the aid of structured power differentials, to deal creatively with their differences and to share their resources.
Elise Boulding, 1998, "Peace Culture: Managing Human Difference," Cross Currents.

5. Following the positive concept, peace may be defined ideally as the dynamic processes that lead to the relative conditions of the absence of direct and indirect violence, plus the presence of freedom, equality, economic and social justice, cooperation, and harmony.

Peace is a relative condition involving dynamic processes that are life-enhancing; that is, ideally it promotes the survival, welfare, development, and creativity of individuals within a society so that they may realize their physical, sociocultural, mental, and spiritual potential in constructive ways (p. 98).
Leslie E. Sponsel, 1996, "The Natural History of Peace," in A Natural History of Peace, Thomas Gregor, ed., Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, pp. 95-125.

Also see:

Barash, David P., 1991, Introduction to Peace Studies, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Ch. 1.
Hellwig, Monika K., 1992, A Case for Peace in Reason and Faith, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.
Rapoport, Anatol, 1992, "Conceptions of Peace," in his Peace: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, p. 139-168.