In a world struggling to adapt to seismic social and environmental changes, the time is now for businesses to prioritise creating local conditions of peace. This book builds on original research foregrounding ‘peace’ as a core business outcome for natural resources industries. Especially in non-warlike situations where natural resources industries have exacerbated or caused conflict, foregrounding peace as a core business outcome can bring substantial benefits. Peace is a concept external and internal stakeholders understand. Consequently, research shows that when natural resources sector CSR professionals start reframing their day-to-day decisions in terms of peace outcomes, they are more likely to create efficient and cost-effective solutions to environmental, social and economic business challenges. This book provides both theory and practical suggestions for how to reframe day-to-day CSR activities of natural resources companies as peace-focused, business decisions. Especially in the remote and rural regions of the world where natural resources industries have the greatest impact, businesses can lead the way in contributing to conditions of peace while bringing much needed resources to market.

Nonviolent Political Economy offers a set of theoretical solutions and practical guidelines to build an economy of nonviolence which implies a social state of peacefulness, involving minimal violence and minimal destruction of nature. The book provides renewed reflections on heterodox economics, ecological economics, anthropology, Buddhism, Gandhianism, disarmament, and business ethics, as well as innovative initiatives such as Blue Frontiers. It also sets out feasible solutions to rebuild countries that have suffered prolonged conflicts such as Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan. Bringing together authors from around the world, this collection includes new perspectives on the abolition of profit; disarmament; obliteration of the consumer society; expansion of collective property; Buddhist and Gandhian economies; small-scale and artisanal production, the increasing use of clean energies; a gradual reduction in the human population; political processes closer to direct and radical democracy, and anarchy. Discussing cutting-edge developments, this book provides valuable tools to build alternatives to the prevailing models of (violent) political economy. It will be of great interest to a public of critical citizens, students and researchers from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, and all those seeking to understand the fundamental concepts of nonviolent political economy.

One of the most influential Catholic figures of the of the twentieth century, Jesuit priest and activist Daniel Berrigan has inspired countless people of faith and conscience to pursue the gospel vision of a world without war. In 1968 he made national headlines as one of the Catonsville Nine, who destroyed draft files to protest the Vietnam War. In the nearly thirty years since then he has continued to challenge the conscience of both his country and the church by his uncompromising manner of Christian witness. In Apostle of Peace, reflective essays by forty fellow travelers celebrate Berrigan’s life and gifts as a peacemaker, prophet, poet, priest, and “keeper of the word.” These essays by distinguished friends and colleagues from every walk of life are written in honor of Berrigan’s seventy-fifth birthday. Contributors include: - Berrigan’s brother and fellow archivist Philip Berrigan - Benedictine Joan Chittister - former Attorney General Ramsey Clark - psychiatrist Robert Coles - Bishop Thomas Gumbleton - writer and activist Joyce Hollyday - poets Denise Levertov and Thich Nhat Hanh - activist Elizabeth McCallister - columnist Colman McCarthy - historian Howard Zinn - author and storyteller Megan McKenna - Franciscan Richard Rohr - theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether - actor Martin Sheen - fellow Jesuits Jon Sobrino and Richard McSorley - Sojourners founder Jim Wallis - Superior General of the Society of Jesus Peter-Hans Kolvenbach - Plus many others

This major new Handbook provides a cutting-edge and transdisciplinary overview of the main issues, debates, state-of-the-art methods, and key concepts in peace and conflict studies today. The Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies will be essential reading for students of peace studies, conflict studies and conflict resolution. It will also be of interest and use to practitioners in conflict resolution and NGOs, as well as policy makers and diplomats.

In Peace and Rural Development in Colombia Andrés García Trujillo investigates whether peace agreements geared toward terminating internal armed conflicts trigger rural distributive changes. Combining academic rigor with an insider’s perspective, García Trujillo shows that the peace agreement in Colombia opened an exceptional window for addressing rural inequality. Yet, despite some progress, he argues that the agreement’s leverage to stir change was severely constrained by opposing actors within and outside the government. García Trujillo later applies the framework developed for the Colombian case to explain key dynamics of other post-conflict societies that have dealt with agrarian issues under a transitional context, like El Salvador or South Africa. The original theoretical framework and empirically rich analysis make Peace and Rural Development in Colombia an indispensable read for scholars and practitioners who wish to gain an understanding on the political economy of peacemaking, policy change, and rural development in Colombia and beyond.

This book examines the relationship between business-based peacebuilding and the opportunities that emerge from the pluralisation of regulation. The core message is, notwithstanding the broad range of regulatory initiatives and actors that exist in conflict-affected settings, the state should assume responsibilities for defining the types of contribution that business can and ought to make to peace. It also demonstrates how the state, through different forms and methods of regulation, is well-placed to engage businesses to do so. It is particularly concerned with the potential for regulation to help address what is identified as a state of optimistic uncertainty in the field of business and peacebuilding. On one level, there is a sense of optimism around the types of contributions that businesses can and often do make as agents for peace. On another, there are varying degrees of uncertainty surrounding the actual peacebuilding impacts of business activities; how businesses are to understand the ways in which to make these contributions, and why businesses would do so. Regulation, this book will argue, can play an important role in bridging the chasm between optimism and uncertainty. This book will be of interest to those engaged not only with business and peacebuilding but also business and human rights, business and development and business and the environment. Moreover, this book is also of contemporary interest in other ways – the aftermath of the Ukranian conflict, as an example, will require a concerted effort to rebuild that society after war. Private sector actors could be a powerful vehicle for reconstruction and development and this book examines how regulation can be used to facilitate businesses involvement in peacebuilding efforts.

This updated and revised second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding contains cutting-edge analyses of contemporary attempts to reach and sustain peace. The book covers the main actors and dynamics of peacebuilding, as well as the main challenges that it faces, with accessible chapters. The volume is comprehensive, covering everything from the main international institutions for peacebuilding to the links between peacebuilding and climate change, or peacebuilding and trauma. It is also firmly interdisciplinary, with a number of chapters devoted to showcasing how different disciplines interpret peacebuilding and how they contribute to it. Bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners on peacebuilding, many from the Global South, the handbook offers a valuable “hands-on” perspective on how peace can be secured and sustained. There is a significant emphasis on comparison and the book shows how peacebuilding is best examined from the vantage point of multiple cases. The book is organised into six thematic sections: Part I: Architecture and Actors Part II: Reading Peacebuilding Part III: Issues and Approaches Part IV: Violence and Security Part V: Everyday Living Part VI: Disciplinary Approaches This book will be essential reading for students of peacebuilding, mediation and post-conflict reconstruction, and of great interest to students of statebuilding, intervention, civil wars, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies and IR in general.

The book provides critical perspectives that reach beyond the technical approaches of international financial institutions and proponents of the liberal peace formula. It investigates political economies characterized by the legacies of disruption to production and exchange, by population displacement, poverty, and by 'criminality'.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL OF THE YEAR 'There are war stories and there are love stories, but we only occasionally get war stories and love stories braided together. Tim Finch has written a wonderful novel, tiny and epic both. Laced with humour and sadness, this is an intimate account of what it means to make peace, both with others and with oneself' COLUM McCANN 'A shrewd delight' independent.co.uk Edvard Behrens is a senior diplomat of some repute, highly regarded for his work on international peace negotiations. Under his arbitration, unimaginable atrocities are coolly dissected; invisible and ancient lines, grown taut and frayed with conflict, redrawn. In his latest post, Edvard has been sent a nondescript resort hotel in the Tyrol. High up on this mountain, the air is bright and clear. When he isn't working, Edvard reads, walks, listens to music. He confides in no one – no one but his wife Anna. Anna, who he loves with all his heart; Anna, always present and yet forever absent. Honest, honourable, tragic, witty, wise, an unforgettable novel of love, loss, and the human longing for peace, Peace Talks maps the darkest and most tender territories of the human heart.