This study takes the work of transforming violence and conflict online and offers insight into the practice of dialogue in virtual settings for peacebuilding purposes. In the field of peace and conflict studies and peacebuilding practices, a significant amount of literature has dealt with the theory and practice of dialogue in face-to-face settings. This project is unique as it takes the peacebuilding practice of dialogue and explores it within an online context. The research is framed and analyzed through the dialogue theories of Martin Buber and Paulo Freire. This project is distinct in its exploration of the connection between dialogue encounters and positive peace, the practical linkages of which are often difficult to articulate or identify. As such, this book offers unique contributions to the knowledge and understanding of dialogue-based peacebuilding in online settings and provides an understanding of how dialogue practices enable outcomes within the construct of positive peace. This book is aimed at academics as a presentation of research into a relatively unexplored field of inquiry. However, it is also relevant and applicable for peacebuilding practitioners who want to navigate taking their practices into online settings and provide a framework for linking practices to intended positive peace outcomes.

This volume elucidates some key ideas and practices underlying women’s peacebuilding, highlighting positive examples of their contribution to peacebuilding in conflict zones and in societies pursuing transitional justice.

This book explores the meaning of local ownership in peacebuilding and examines the ways in which it has been, and could be, operationalized in post-conflict environments. In the context of post-conflict peacebuilding, the idea of local ownership is based upon the premise that no peace process is sustainable in the absence of a meaningful degree of local involvement. Despite growing recognition of the importance of local ownership, however, relatively little attention has been paid to specifying what precisely the concept means or how it might be implemented. This volume contributes to the ongoing debate on the future of liberal peacebuilding through a critical investigation of the notion of local ownership, and challenges conventional assumptions about who the relevant locals are and what they are expected to own. Drawing on case studies from Bosnia, Afghanistan and Haiti, the text argues that local ownership can only be fostered through a long-term consensus-building process, which involves all levels of the conflict-affected society. This book will be of great interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, development studies, security studies and IR.

Africa lies at the centre of the international community’s peacebuilding interventions, and the continent’s rich multitude of actors, ideas, relationships, practices, experiences, locations, and contexts in turn shapes the possibilities and practices of contemporary peacebuilding. This timely new handbook surveys and analyses peacebuilding as it operates in this specifically African context. The book begins by outlining the evolution and the various ideologies, conceptualizations, institutions, and practices of African peacebuilding. It identifies critical differences in how African peacebuilders have conceptualized and operationalized peacebuilding. The book then considers how different actors sustain, construct, and use African infrastructure to identify and analyse converging, differing, or competing mandates, approaches, and interests. Finally, it analyses specific thematic issues such as gender, justice, development, democracy, and the politics of knowledge before ending with in-depth analyses of case studies drawn from across the continent. Bringing together an international line-up of expert contributors, this book will be an essential read for students and scholars of African politics, post-conflict reconstruction, security, and peace and conflict studies.

There is widespread dissatisfaction with the current suite of evaluation and monitoring tools available to peacebuilders and those responding to conflict. Yet, despite this dissatisfaction, there are few concrete moves to investigate alternative methods of gauging the success or failure of peace initiatives. This volume explores alternative methods of assessing peace. These methods tend to be bottom-up and people-centric and are interested in many aspects of conflict societies that orthodox top-down indicators often miss. The methods explored in this work chime with the contemporary interest in critical approaches to peace and conflict studies, and approaches that are interested in local perspectives. The volume also connects with a growing interest in civic epistemology, or the co-production of data whereby research ‘subjects’ participate in the research and have a chance of understanding the relevance of research. All of the contributors to the volume have significant field experience in conflict-affected areas and their work is informed by an engagement with the everyday challenges and opportunities facing people in war zones. This bookw as published as a special issue of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

A fundamental challenge plagues the global peacebuilding community. How can technocratic approaches to peacebuilding that are rooted in short-term, project-based execution of activities, further the longer-term transformative outcomes like altering young people's attitudes and beliefs about peace and violence? In response to this global challenge, in Peacebuilding Legacy, Sukanya Podder analyzes the long-term effects of peacebuilding programmes involving children and young people. Podder unpacks the concept of peacebuilding legacy through the lens of time, transformation, and intergenerational peace. Podder also develops unique qualitative cues for measuring legacy in terms of the institutional, normative, and organizational logics. If norms resonate strongly with the local context, they are likely to encourage strong retention and meaningful adoption over time. Successful institutionalization of project models through planned handover to successor national organizations, or government departments, holds the key to stronger local ownership. Organizational learning and reflection can support this process through a more strategic approach to programming, and through post-exit studies. Regarding attitude change, Podder found that, the media and peace education projects that targeted individuals' ingrained beliefs and values but overlooked the role of group social norms had only limited persuasive effects. To shift the values, practices, norms, and beliefs of the younger generation, the mindset of the older generation must also be targeted. Changes in the legal, political, economic, and other social institutions are critical for long-term and meaningful transformation. This requires adopting an ecological model of peace.

Business, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding examines the actions currently being taken by businesses in areas of violent conflict around the world, and explores how they can make a significant contribution to the resolution of violent conflicts through business-based peacebuilding. This book combines two approaches to provide a comprehensive look at the current state and future of business- based peacebuilding. It marries a detailed study of documented peacebuilding activities with a map of the possibilities for future business-related conflict work and pragmatic suggestions for business leaders, conflict resolution practitioners, and peacebuilding organizations. The use of the label ‘business-based peacebuilding’ is new and signifies actions business can take beyond simple legal compliance or making changes to avoid creating a conflict. Although business-based peacebuilding is new, examples are included from around the world to illustrate that, working together, businesses have a strong contribution to make to the creation of peaceful societies. The book advocates pragmatic peacebuilding, which is not overly concerned with cause-driven models of conflict. Instead, pragmatic peacebuilding encourages an examination of what is needed in the conflict and what can be provided. This approach is free of some of the ideological baggage of traditional peacebuilding and allows for a much wider range of participants in the peacebuilding project. This book will be of much interest to students of peace studies, conflict resolution, international security and business studies, as well as to practitioners and business leaders. Derek Sweetman is Dispute Resolution Director for Better Business Bureau in Washington, DC and Instructor at New Century College, George Mason University, USA.

This book fills a gap in our understanding of the forces that lead to moderation and constructive engagement in the context of violent, intrastate conflicts.

In addition to being a major area of research within International Relations, peacebuilding and statebuilding is a major policy area within the UN and other international and regional organizations. It is also a concern of international financial institutions, including the World Bank, and a significant factor in the foreign and security policies of many established and emerging democracies. Peacebuilding and statebuilding are among the main approaches for preventing, managing, and mitigating global insecurities; dealing with the humanitarian consequences of civil wars; and expanding democracy and neoliberal economic regimes. Peace formation is a relatively new concept, addressing how local actors work in parallel to international and national projects, and helps shape the legitimacy of peace processes and state reform. The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation serves as an essential guide to this vast intellectual and policy landscape. It offers a systematic overview of conceptual foundations, political implications, and tensions at the global, regional, and local levels, as well as key policies, practices, examples, and discourses underlining all segments of peacebuilding and statebuilding praxis. Approaching peacebuilding from disciplinary perspectives across the social sciences, the Handbook is organized around four major thematic sections. Section one explores how peacebuilding, statebuilding, and peace formation is conceived by different disciplines and IR approaches, thus offering an overview of the conceptual bedrock of major theories and approaches. Section two situates these approaches among other major global issues, including globalization, civil society, terrorism, and technology to illustrate their global, regional, and local resonance. Section three looks at key themes in the field, including peace agreements, democratization, security reform, human rights, environment, and culture. Finally, section four looks at key features of everyday and civil society peace formation processes, both in theory and in practice.

This new Routledge Handbook offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the meanings and uses of the term ‘peacebuilding’, and presents cutting-edge debates on the practices conducted in the name of peacebuilding. The term ‘peacebuilding’ has had remarkable staying power. Other terms, such as ‘conflict resolution’ have waned in popularity, while the acceptance and use of the term ‘peacebuilding’ has grown to the extent that it is the hegemonic and over-arching term for many forms of mediation, reconciliation and strategies to induce peace. Despite this, however, it is rarely defined and often used to mean different things to different audiences. Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding aims to be a one-stop comprehensive resource on the literature and practices of contemporary peacebuilding. The book is organised into six key sections: Section 1: Reading peacebuilding Section 2: Approaches and cross-cutting themes Section 3: Disciplinary approaches to peacebuilding Section 4: Violence and security Section 5: Everyday living and peacebuilding Section 6: The infrastructure of peacebuilding This new Handbook 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.