Oxford University Press has just published Strategies of Peace, a collection of provocative essays that explore innovative models for building peace after genocide, civil war, and terrorism. The book features the writing of eight faculty members of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute and seven other scholars of peace and conflict from around the country.
“The authors of this book argue that peacebuilding is not an elite process,” said Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science and peace studies, who edited the book with Gerard F. Powers, director of Catholic peacebuilding studies. “While building peace involves heads of state, diplomats, and policymakers, it also includes tribal and village leaders, members of civil society, and religious actors whose work can be very powerful but is often obscured. The concept of ‘strategic peacebuilding’ skillfully and artfully links together all these sectors and their activities in a holistic vision of peace.”
The book’s contributors include R. Scott Appleby, David Cortright, Hal Culbertson, Larissa Fast, Robert Johansen, John Paul Lederach, George Lopez, Philpott, Powers, Jackie Smith, and Peter Wallensteen (all from the Kroc Institute) as well as Simon Chesterman, Jeanette Knutson Enright, Robert D. Enright, Anthony Holter, Oliver P. Richmond, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, and Nicholas Sambanis.
“Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and the international community have been confronted by countless conflicts — civil, ethnic, religious, separatist, and others — for which our existing toolkit was inadequate,” wrote Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “Peacebuilding today requires comprehensive, far-sighted, and sustainable policies. This remarkable and fascinating volume is essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners.”
Strategies of Peace is the first book in the multi-volume Oxford Studies in Strategic Peacebuilding. Scott Appleby, John Paul Lederach, and Dan Philpott are the series editors.
Contact: Dan Philpott, (574) 631-7667, jphilpot@nd.edu or Jerry Powers, (574) 631-3765, gpowers1@nd.edu.