Peace is an elusive concept, especially within the field of international law, varying according to historical era and between Research Handbook responds to the gap created by the neglect of peace in international law scholarship. Explaining the normative evolution of peace from the principles of peaceful co-existence to the UN declaration on the right to peace, this Research Handbook calls for the fortification of international institutions to facilitate the pursuit of sustainable peace as a public good. It sets forth a new agenda for research that invites scholars from a broad array of disciplines and fields of law to analyse the contribution of international institutions to the construction and implementation of sustainable peace. With its critical examination of courts, transitional justice institutions, dispute resolution and fact-finding mechanisms, this Research Handbook goes beyond the traditional focus on post-conflict resolution, and includes areas not usually found in analyses of peace such as investment and trade law. Bringing together contributions from leading researchers in the field of international law and peace, this Research Handbook analyses peace in the context of law applicable to women, refugees, environmentalism, sustainable development, disarmament, and other key contemporary issues. This thoughtful Research Handbook will be a crucial tool for policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the fields of international law, human rights, jus post bellum, and development. Its comprehensive insights to the field will also be of benefit for students of political science, law, and peace studies. Contributors: B.A. Andreassen, C.M. Bailliet, D. Behn, K. Egeland, O. Engdahl, O.K. Fauchald, J. Garcia-Godos, C. Hellestveit, M. Janmyr, S. Kanuck, K.M. Larsen, K. Liden, G. Nystuen, S. O'Connor, J.C. Sainz-Borgo, K. Skarstad, V.B. Strand, H. Syse, A Tadjdini, C. Voigt, C. Weiss, P. Wrange, G. Zyberi

These are the stories you haven't heard on the news. These are the people you will never forget. In the midst of never-ending debates, protests, riots, suicide bombings, and broken peace initiatives, one man came to make a difference. Previously known for his determination to deliver Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, Brother Andrew has spent the last thirty years on a very different quest. Traveling to Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel, Brother Andrew has sought out church leaders and urged them not to flee the violence but to stay and strengthen their congregations to become a force for change. His mission: to bring hope to the believers caught in the crossfire of the most volatile region on earth. "This is a book that invites applause and criticism. It will edify and offend, fostering healthy and much-needed discussion and debate in the Western Church."-Randy Alcorn, author, Safely Home "This man's courage is not just a case of bravado on steroids."-Charisma magazine Brother Andrew began taking Bibles to Christians behind closed borders in 1955. That work has since developed into Open Doors International. He is the author and coauthor of numerous books, including God's Smuggler and The Narrow Road. Al Janssen has cowritten or authored more than twenty-five books. He is chairman of the board for Open Doors (USA) and is director of communications for Open Doors International.

In Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War, Caron E. Gentry reflects on the predominant strands of American political theology-Christian realism, pacifism, and the just war tradition-and argues that Christian political theologies on war remain, for the most part, inward-looking and resistant to criticism from opposing viewpoints. In light of the new problems that require choices about the use of force-genocide, terrorism, and failed states, to name just a few-a rethinking of the conventional arguments about just war and pacifism is timely and important. Gentry's insightful perspective marries contemporary feminist and critical thought to prevailing theories, such as Christian realism represented in the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and the pacifist tradition of Stanley Hauerwas. She draws out the connection between hospitality in postmodern literature and hospitality as derived from the Christian conception of agape, and relates the literature on hospitality to the Christian ethics of war. She contends that the practice of hospitality, incorporated into the jus ad bellum criterion of last resort, would lead to a "better peace." Gentry's critique of Christian realism, pacifism, and the just war tradition through an engagement with feminism is unique, and her treatment of failed states as a concrete security issue is practical. By asking multiple audiences-theologians, feminists, postmodern scholars, and International Relations experts-to grant legitimacy and credibility to each other's perspectives, she contributes to a reinvigorated dialogue.

This edited volume offers new insights into the inner life of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and introduces scholars of African security dynamics to innovative epistemological, conceptual and methodological approaches. Based on intellectual openness and an interest in transdisciplinary perspectives, the volume challenges existing orthodoxies, poses new questions and opens a discussion on actual research practice. Drawing on Global Studies and critical International Studies perspectives, the authors follow inductive approaches and let the empirical data enrich their theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools. In this endeavor they focus on actors, practices and narratives involved in African Peace and Security and move beyond the often Western-centric premises of research carried out within rigid disciplinary boundaries. Contributors are Michael Aeby, Yvonne Akpasom, Katharina P.W. Doering, Ulf Engel, Fana Gebresenbet Erda, Linnea Gelot, Amandine Gnanguenon, Toni Haastrup, Jens Herpolsheimer, Alin Hilowle, Jamie Pring, Lilian Seffer, Thomas Kwasi Tieku, Antonia Witt, Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu

In Humanities Perspectives in Peace Education: Re-Engaging the Heart of Peace Studies, scholar-teachers across a variety of humanities fields explore the content, methods, and pedagogies that are unique to their respective disciplines in contributing to the study of peace and justice. In recent decades, even as peace scholarship has burgeoned, many peace studies texts- including those that purport to be interdisciplinary in nature-have emphasized social science perspectives and, in some cases, have foregone exploration of the role of the humanities altogether in comprehensive peace education. While humanities scholars continue to stake out space for peace scholarship within their fields, no volume has attempted to collect the wisdom of multiple humanities disciplines in order to make the case for their critical role in authentic peace education. Humanities Perspectives in Peace Education addresses that shortcoming in the field of peace studies by exploring the ways in which the humanities are uniquely situated to contribute particular content, knowledge, skills, and values required of comprehensive peace education, scholarship, and activism. These include the development of empathy and understanding, creative vision and imagination, personal and communal transformation toward "the good" in society (such as the pursuit of justice, nonviolence, freedom, and human thriving), and field-specific analytical lenses of their own, among other contributions. Both teachers and students of peace will find value in this interdisciplinary humanities volume. Each chapter of Humanities Perspectives in Peace Education offers a deep-dive into a particular humanities field-including philosophy, literature, language and culture studies, rhetoric, religion, history, and music-to mine the field's unique contributions to peace and justice studies. Scholars ask: "What are we missing in peace education if we fail to include this academic discipline?" Chapters include suggestions for peace pedagogies within the humanities field as well as bibliographies and suggestions for further reading.

Our Brains at War: The Neuroscience of Conflict and Peacebuilding suggests that we need a radical change in how we think about war, leadership, and politics. Most of us, political scientists included, fail to appreciate the extent to which instincts and emotions, rather than logic, factor into our societal politics and international wars. Many of our physiological and genetic tendencies, of which we are mostly unaware, can all too easily fuel our antipathy towards other groups, make us choose 'strong' leaders over more mindful leaders, assist recruitment for illegal militias, and facilitate even the most gentle of us to inflict violence on others. Drawing upon the latest research from emerging areas such as behavioral genetics, biopsychology, and social and cognitive neuroscience, this book identifies the sources of compelling instincts and emotions, and how we can acknowledge and better manage them so as to develop international and societal peace more effectively.

Communication is vital to the prosperity and survival of the community, with the quality of communication amongst its members directly improving or worsening the value of the community. However, with the increase in immigration and relocation of refugees, the need to accommodate diverse cultural groups becomes imperative for the viability and survivability of a community while posing challenges to communication. Intercultural and interfaith dialogue can be used constructively to cultivate, manage, and sustain diversity and wellbeing in particularly deeply divided communities. Intercultural and Interfaith Dialogues for Global Peacebuilding and Stability is a critical research publication that explores the importance of conflict resolution strategies among populations that include a varied amalgamation of cultural and religious backgrounds. With the increasing emphasis on intercultural understanding promoted by governments, civil societies, and international mediators, this book offers relevant remedies for major afflictions in the world today, such as exclusion, marginalization, xenophobia, and racism. It is ideal for government officials, policymakers, activists, diplomats, lawyers, international trade and commerce agencies, religious institutions, academicians, researchers, and students working in a variety of disciplines including political science, international relations, law, communication, sociology, and cultural studies.

The contemporary conflict scenarios are beyond the reach of standardized approaches to conflict resolution. Given the curious datum that culture is implicated in nearly every conflict in the world, culture can also be an important aspect of efforts to transform destructive conflicts into more constructive social processes. Yet, what culture is and how culture matters in conflict scenarios is contested and regrettably unexplored. The Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding is a critical publication that examines cultural differences in conflict resolution based on various aspects of culture such as morals, traditions, and laws. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as criminal justice, politics, and technological development, this book is essential for educators, social scientists, sociologists, political leaders, government officials, academicians, conflict resolution practitioners, world peace organizations, researchers, and students.

In 1992 David Owen was appointed the EU Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, working alongside the UN's Co-Chairman, Cyrus Vance. The papers collected here provide fascinating primary source material and an insider's account of the intense international political activity at that time, which culminated in the Vance-Owen Peace Plan (VOPP). At a time when the international community is looking again at whether and how the Dayton Accords and the 1995 division into two entities should be adjusted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Owen highlights elements of the VOPP which are of continuing relevance and which can guide political debate and decisions in 2012 and thereafter. Sadly, Bosnia-Herzegovina is still deeply divided, a direct consequence of not imposing the VOPP. The book reminds the international community and the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina that a unified structure for their country is still achievable.

Years before he was Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Henry Kissinger wrote "A World Restored" to understand and explain one of history's most important and dramatic periods-a time when Europe went from political chaos to a balanced peace that lasted for almost a hundred years.

After the fall of Napoleon, European diplomats gathered in a festive Vienna with the task of restoring stability following the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The central figures at the Congress of Vienna were the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Viscount Castlereagh and the Foreign Minister of Austria Klemens Wenzel von Mettern Metternich. Castlereagh was primarily concerned with maintaining balanced powers, while Metternich based his diplomacy on the idea of legitimacy-that is, establishing and working with governments that citizens accept without force. The peace they brokered lasted until the outbreak of World War I.

Through trenchant analysis of the history and forces that create stability, "A World Restored" gives insight into how to create long-lasting geopolitical peace-lessons that Kissinger saw as applicable to the period immediately following World War II, when he was writing this book.

But the lessons don't stop there. Like all good insights, the book's wisdom transcends any single political period. Kissinger's understanding of coalitions and balance of power can be applied to personal and professional situations, such as dealing with a tyrannical boss or coworker or formulating business or organizational tactics.

Regardless of his ideology, Henry Kissinger has had an important impact on modern politics and few would dispute his brilliance as a strategist. For anyone interested in Western history, the tactics of diplomacy, or political strategy, this volume will provide deep understanding of a pivotal time.

El Salvador is widely considered one of the most successful United Nations peacebuilding efforts, but record homicide rates, political polarization, socioeconomic exclusion, and corruption have diminished the quality of peace for many of its citizens. In Captured Peace: Elites and Peacebuilding in El Salvador, Christine J. Wade adapts the concept of elite capture to expand on the idea of "captured peace," explaining how local elites commandeered political, social, and economic affairs before war's end and then used the peace accords to deepen their control in these spheres. While much scholarship has focused on the role of gangs in Salvadoran unrest, Wade draws on an exhaustive range of sources to demonstrate how day-to-day violence is inextricable from the economic and political dimensions. In this in-depth analysis of postwar politics in El Salvador, she highlights the local actors' primary role in peacebuilding and demonstrates the political advantage an incumbent party-in this case, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA-has throughout the peace process and the consequences of this to the quality of peace that results.

It has been the home to priests and prostitutes, poets and spies. It has been the stage for an improbable flirtation between an Israeli girl and a Palestinian boy living on opposite sides of the barbed wire that separated enemy nations. It has even been the scene of an unsolved international murder. This one-time shepherd's path between Jerusalem and Bethlehem has been a dividing line for decades. Arab families called it "al Mantiqa Haram." Jewish residents knew it as "shetach hefker." In both languages it meant the same thing: "the Forbidden Area." Peacekeepers that monitored the steep fault line dubbed it "Barbed Wire Alley." To folks on either side of the border, it was the same thing: A dangerous no-man's land separating warring nations and feuding cultures. The barbed wire came down in 1967. But it was soon supplanted by evermore formidable cultural, emotional and political barriers separating Arab and Jew. For nearly two decades, coils of barbed wire ran right down the middle of what became Assael Street, marking the fissure between Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem. In a beautiful narrative, A Street Divided offers a more intimate look at one road at the heart of the conflict, where inches really do matter.

Gershon Baskin's memoir of thirty-eight years of intensive pursuit of peace begins with a childhood on Long Island and a bar mitzvah trip to Israel with his family. Baskin joined Young Judaea back in the States, then later lived on a kibbutz in Israel, where he announced to his parents that he had decided to make aliya, immigrate to Israel. They persuaded him to return to study at NYU, after which he finally immigrated under the auspices of Interns for Peace. In Israel he spent a pivotal two years living with Arabs in the village of Kufr Qara. Despite the atmosphere of fear, Baskin found that he could talk with both Jews and Palestinians, and that very few others were engaged in efforts at mutual understanding. At his initiative, the Ministry of Education and the office of right-wing Prime Minister Menachem Begin created the Institute for Education for Jewish-Arab Coexistence with Baskin himself as director. Eight years later he founded and codirected the only joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think-and-do tank in the world, the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. For decades he continued to cross borders, often with a kaffiyeh (Arab headdress) on his dashboard to protect his car in Palestinian neighborhoods. Airport passport control became Kafkaesque as Israeli agents routinely identified him as a security threat. During the many cycles of peace negotiations, Baskin has served both as an outside agitator for peace and as an advisor on the inside of secret talks-for example, during the prime ministership of Yitzhak Rabin and during the initiative led by Secretary of State John Kerry. Baskin ends the book with his own proposal, which includes establishing a peace education program and cabinet-level Ministries of Peace in both countries, in order to foster a culture of peace.