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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Peace studies
In discussions about people power or nonviolent action, most people
will immediately think of Gandhi or Martin Luther King, a few will
recall the end of the Marcos regime in the Philippines in the
mid-1980s, and some others will remember or have heard of the
Prague Spring nearly two decades earlier. Moreover, for most
activists and others involved in peace action and movements for
social change, there will be little knowledge of the theories of
nonviolent action and still less of the huge number of actions
taken in so many countries and in such different circumstances
across the world. Even recent events across the Middle East are
rarely put in a broader historical context. Although the focus of
this book is on post-1945 movements, the opening section provides a
wide-ranging introduction to the history and theoretical bases of
nonviolent action, and reflects the most recent contributions to
the literature, citing key reference works.
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.
Based on twenty-five years of fieldwork, Rural Women's Sexuality,
Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy: A Critical Perspective on
Development examines rural women's behaviors towards health in
several developing countries. These women are confronted with many
factors: gender inequalities, violence from partners, and lack of
economic independence. The book also gives insight into the general
weakness of the health systems in place and questions the progress
of numerous international conferences ICPD (International
Conference on Population and Development) and MDGs (Millennium
Development Goals) along with WHO (The World Health Organization)
Frame Work for Action, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and
CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women) all supporting women's empowerment as related to violence,
education, and reproductive health. Chapters provide numerous
concrete examples and vignettes describing constraints on women in
a variety of countries related to their intimate lives and their
struggle between traditional and modern medicine. Widely practiced
clandestine sex work is a challenge to HIV/AIDS programs. The book
examines the women who choose clandestine sex work and their
clients' sexual behavior and attitudes toward prostitution and HIV
prevention. It also explores the negotiations between promiscuous,
migratory men, and the ties of sexuality and fertility that women
use to tie them to a male partner. The book argues for effective
delivery of healthcare programs accompanied by multi-lateral
responses from the civil society, governments, donors and agencies.
Rural Women's Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy is a
useful resource scholars, as well as consultants and staff working
in development agencies and public health.
Political Culture and Conflict Resolution in the Arab MIddle East
develops a method for examining the explanatory capacity of
political culture in relation to the issues of civil war and
conflict resolution in Lebanon and Algeria. How perception, shaped
by values and assumptions, affects political behaviour presents
scholars with potentially valuable but also dangerous
possibilities. Namely, seeking to explore the explanatory capacity
of the nebulous concept of political culture can prospectively lead
to the cul de sacs of essentialism or relativism. In an attempt to
engage with the concept of political culture, Political Culture and
Conflict Resolution in the Arab Middle East develops a method for
examining the explanatory capacity of political culture in relation
to the issues of civil war and conflict resolution in Lebanon and
Algeria. Applying strict limits on the implementation of political
culture in an explanatory capacity, namely its role as a secondary,
relational and comparative concept, this book demonstrates how
political culture operates to shape the form and affect the
legitimacy of conflict resolution processes. This is applied to two
peace agreements, Lebanon's Taef Agreement and Algeria's Civil
Concord. Here. the importance of 'contextuality' is emphasised in
developing a space where political culture can provide explanatory
capacity whilst remaining connected to 'macro' theoretical
concepts.
In a world riven with conflict, violence and war, this book
proposes a philosophical defense of pacifism. It argues that there
is a moral presumption against war and unless that presumption is
defeated, war is unjustified. Leading philosopher of nonviolence
Robert Holmes contends that neither just war theory nor the
rationales for recent wars (Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq and
Afghanistan Wars) defeat that presumption, hence that war in the
modern world is morally unjustified. A detailed, comprehensive and
elegantly argued text which guides both students and scholars
through the main debates (Just War Theory and double effect to name
a few) clearly but without oversimplifying the complexities of the
issues or historical examples.
Scholars from Japan and a range of other countries explore in this
book the still-unfinished effort to achieve the reconciliation of
old enmities left over from past wars in East Asia. They present
concrete policy proposals for a 'grand design' of peace based on
the Japanese concept of 'kyosei', a word roughly translated as
'conviviality'. A positive peace through kyosei means not only the
absence of violence, but also the amelioration of past injustices,
exploitation and oppression. The diversity of disciplines
represented in the volume-international law and politics, history,
philosophy and theology - enrich the contributors' search for an
intellectually appropriate, practically transformative and viable
grand theory of peace in the twenty-first century. Chapters address
issues such as security in North-South conflict situations, foreign
policy strategies for Japan, the perspective of comparative
religions, and current skepticism for the possibility of peace and
reconciliation. These insightful and compelling analyses will be of
great interest to students and researchers of East Asia and the
politics of peace in general.
Though conflict is normal and can never fully be prevented in the
international arena, such conflicts should not lead to loss of
innocent life. Tourism can offer a bottom-up approach in the
mediation process and contribute to the transformation of conflicts
by allowing a way to contradict official barriers motivated by
religious, political, or ethnic division. Tourism has both the
means and the motivation to ensure the long-term success of
prevention efforts. Role and Impact of Tourism in Peacebuilding and
Conflict Transformation is an essential reference source that
provides an approach to peace through tourism by presenting a
theoretical framework of tourism dynamics in international
relations, as well as a set of peacebuilding case studies that
illustrate the role of tourism in violent or critical scenarios of
conflict. Featuring research on topics such as cultural diversity,
multicultural interaction, and international relations, this book
is ideally designed for policymakers, government officials,
international relations experts, academicians, students, and
researchers.
This book uses machine-learning to identify the causes of conflict
from among the top predictors of conflict. This methodology
elevates some complex causal pathways that cause civil conflict
over others, thus teasing out the complex interrelationships
between the most important variables that cause civil conflict.
Success in this realm will lead to scientific theories of conflict
that will be useful in preventing and ending civil conflict. After
setting out a current review of the literature and a case for using
machine learning to analyze and predict civil conflict, the authors
lay out the data set, important variables, and investigative
strategy of their methodology. The authors then investigate
institutional causes, economic causes, and sociological causes for
civil conflict, and how that feeds into their model. The
methodology provides an identifiable pathway for specifying causal
models. This book will be of interest to scholars in the areas of
economics, political science, sociology, and artificial
intelligence who want to learn more about leveraging machine
learning technologies to solve problems and who are invested in
preventing civil conflict.
War and conflict continually plague many nations around the world
and have led to mass causalities, a shortage of resources, and
political turmoil. To eradicate this ongoing issue, individuals,
companies, and governments need to establish a fundamental change
in the distribution of the world's assets, resources, and ideals.
Marketing Peace for Social Transformation and Global Prosperity is
a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the
development of programs and campaigns destined to impose and
sustain ideas that lead to conflict resolution. Through analyzing
and proposing various peace marketing campaigns, it showcases how
individuals and corporations can employ various tactics to enhance
and achieve political, social, and individual peace and promote the
sustainability of resources and education. Highlighting topics such
as civic engagement, conflict management, and symbolism, this book
is ideally designed for policymakers, business leaders,
professionals, theorists, researchers, and students.
The book provides for a further development of the essential themes
that have been identified by scholars and practitioners working in
the field of peace leadership and/or in publications specifically
related to peace leadership. The book is a comprehensive reader on
peace leadership as it stands now, expanding on themes that need
in-depth explorations as well as introducing important themes so
far barely addressed, such as qualifications of a peace leader,
peace leadership education in conflict zones and refugee camps or
peace leadership and storytelling. The impact on the field of peace
leadership is through the book being a comprehensive reader on
peace leadership representing the discipline as it stands now as
well as providing an agreed upon theoretical framework. It also
develops the discipline by introducing new and further in-depth
explorations of existing themes. Thus, it can be used as a
reference for those interested in researching peace leadership or
applying peace leadership in the field. The book is intended for
scholars, practitioners working in the field of peace leadership as
well as the general public interested in these themes. The book
should serve as a reference for scholars working on peace
leadership themes as well as for practitioners reflecting on their
approaches. The book could serve as a reader in peace leadership to
be used in its entirety or parts of it in school, college and
university programs as well as in training programs for
professionals working in areas requiring peace leadership
knowledge/qualifications such as for the military, peacebuilders
for civil society and community development officers.
This edited book offers a collection of highly nuanced accounts of
children and childhoods in peace and conflict across political time
and space. Organized according to three broad themes (ontologies,
pedagogies, and contingencies), each chapter explores the
complexities of a particular case study, providing new insights
into the ways children's lives figure as terrains of engagement,
contestation, ambivalence, resistance, and reproduction of
militarisms. The first three chapters challenge dominant ontologies
that prefigure childhood in particular ways. These include who
counts as a child worthy of protection, questions of voice and
participation, and the diminution of agency. The chapters in the
second section bring to view everyday pedagogies whereby myriad
knowledges, performances, practices, and competencies may function
to militarize children's lives, including in but not limited to
advanced (post)industrial societies of the global North. The third
and final section includes investigations that foreground questions
of responsibility to children. Here, contributors assess, among
other things, resilience-building, the exigencies of protection,
and the ethics of military recruitment practices targeting
children.
In May 1992 political and social tensions in the former Soviet
Republic of Tajikistan escalated to a devastating civil war, which
killed approximately 40,000-100,000 people and displaced more than
one million. The enormous challenge of the Soviet Union's
disintegration compounded by inner-elite conflicts, ideological
disputes and state failure triggered a downward spiral to one of
the worst violent conflicts in the post-Soviet space. This book
explains the causes of the Civil War in Tajikistan with a
historical narrative recognizing long term structural causes of the
conflict originating in the Soviet transformation of Central Asia
since the 1920s as well as short-term causes triggered by
Perestroika or Glasnost and the rapid dismantling of the Soviet
Union. For the first time, a major publication on the Tajik Civil
War addresses the many contested events, their sequences and how
individuals and groups shaped the dynamics of events or responded
to them. The book scrutinizes the role of regionalism, political
Islam, masculinities and violent non-state actors in the momentous
years between Perestroika and independence drawing on rich
autobiographical accounts written by key actors of the unfolding
conflict. Paired with complementary sources such as the media
coverage and interviews, these autobiographies provide insights how
Tajik politicians, field commanders and intellectuals perceived and
rationalized the outbreak of the Civil War within the complex
context of post-Soviet decolonization, Islamic revival and
nationalist renaissance.
It is easy to see that the world finds itself too often in
tumultuous situations with catastrophic results. An adequate
education can instill holistic knowledge, empathy, and the skills
necessary for promoting an international coalition of peaceful
nations. Promoting Global Peace and Civic Engagement through
Education outlines the pedagogical practices necessary to inspire
the next generation of peace-bringers by addressing strategies to
include topics from human rights and environmental sustainability,
to social justice and disarmament in a comprehensive method.
Providing perspectives on how to live in a multi-cultural,
multi-racial, and multi-religious society, this book is a critical
reference source for educators, students of education, government
officials, and administration who hope to make a positive change.
This edited volume highlights how individuals, communities and
nations are addressing a history of protracted violence in the
transition to peace. This path is not linear or straightforward.
The volume integrates research from peace processes and practices
spanning over 20 countries. Four thematic areas unite these
contributions: formal transitional justice mechanisms, social
movements and collective action, community-driven processes, and
future-oriented initiatives focused on children and youth. Across
these chapters, the volume offers critical insight, new methods,
conceptual models, and valuable cross-cultural research. The
chapters in this volume balance locally-situated realties of peace,
as well as cross-cutting similarities across contexts. This book
will be of particular interest to those working for peace on the
frontlines, as well as global policymakers aiming to learn from
other cases. Academics in the fields of psychology, sociology,
education, peace studies, communication, community development,
youth studies, and behavioral economics may be particularly
interested in this volume.
This book is a commonsense guide to becoming a reflective
practitioner, written by a practitioner for practitioners. Relying
on actual practice situations, stories, and self-guided exercises,
it responds to the questions: Why should professionals care about
reflective practice? How do its principles and methods increase
competence? What characteristics distinguish reflective
practitioners? Every person in a conflict resolution process sees
the world differently and acts in a distinctive manner. Yet, by
following well-developed practice routines, practitioners often
fail to consider the unpredictability of human interactions and
overlook behaviors that are inconsistent with their expectations.
To respond effectively to surprising and unpredictable events, this
book encourages practitioners to adapt their thinking, so they can
use their knowledge and skills when situations do not match their
assumptions or are inconsistent with their practice routines.
This book is a commonsense guide to becoming a reflective
practitioner, written by a practitioner for practitioners. Relying
on actual practice situations, stories, and self-guided exercises,
it responds to the questions: Why should professionals care about
reflective practice? How do its principles and methods increase
competence? What characteristics distinguish reflective
practitioners? Every person in a conflict resolution process sees
the world differently and acts in a distinctive manner. Yet, by
following well-developed practice routines, practitioners often
fail to consider the unpredictability of human interactions and
overlook behaviors that are inconsistent with their expectations.
To respond effectively to surprising and unpredictable events, this
book encourages practitioners to adapt their thinking, so they can
use their knowledge and skills when situations do not match their
assumptions or are inconsistent with their practice routines.
The eruption in the early 1990s of highly visible humanitarian
crises and exceedingly bloody civil wars in the Horn of Africa,
imploding Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, set in motion a trend towards
third party intervention in communal conflict in areas as far apart
as the Balkans and East Timor. However haltingly and selectively,
that trend towards extra-systemic means of managing ethnic and
national conflict is still discernible, motivated as it was in the
1990s by the inability of in-house accommodation methods to resolve
ethno-political conflicts peacefully and the tendency of such
conflicts to spill into the international system in the form of
massive refugee flows, regional instability, and failed states
hosting criminal and terrorist elements. In its various forms,
third party intervention has become a fixed part of the current
international system Our book examines the various forms in which
that intervention occurs, from the least intrusive and costly forms
of third party activity to the most intrusive and expensive
endeavors. More specifically, organized in the form of overview
essays followed by case studies that explore the utility and
limitations, successes and failures of various forms of third party
activity in managing conflict, the book begins by examining
diplomatic intervention and then proceeds to cover, in turn, legal,
economic, and military instruments of conflict management before
concluding with a section on political tutelage arrangements and
nation/capacity building operations. The chapters themselves are
authored by a mix of contributors drawn from relevant disciplines,
both senior and younger scholars, academics and practitioners, and
North Americans and Europeans. All treat a common theme but no
attempt was made to solicit work from contributors with a common
orientation towards the value of third party intervention. Nor were
the authors straight-jacketed with heavy content guidelines from
the editors. Their essays validate the value of this approach. Far
from being chaotic in nature, they generally supplement one
another, while offering opposing viewpoints on the overall topic;
for example, our Italian contributor who specializes in
non-government organizations offers a chapter illustrating their
utility under certain conditions, whereas the chapter from an
Afghan practitioner notes the downside of too much reliance on NGOs
in nation-building operations. The essays also cover topics not
often treated, and are written from the viewpoint of those on the
ground. The chapter on creating a police force in post-Dayton
Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, reads much like a diary from the
American colonel who was sent to Bosnia in early 1996 charged with
that task.
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