In Hedley Bull''s analysis peace is typically treated as an outcome or condition and is readily equated with order, thus said to trump considerations of justice. The institutions of international society, on this view, including war, are said to be functionally geared toward the preservation of peace and order. My argument will be that this way of setting up the relationship between peace, justice, order, and institutions, leads to an inadequate and essentializing understanding of peace in international politics. It is more productive to consider peace itself as a historically variable practice of international society. In a case-study, I will then compare how Bull''s take and mine deliver very different understandings of the meaning of the cold war.
