The purpose of the book reviews is to get an in-depth understanding of particular aspects of conflict studies/conflict resolution by reading a self-selected book and to learn about other current studies and debates (by listening to and engaging with the books presented by your peers). Ideally, you will select a book that helps you understand the conflict you are writing about in Papers 1, 2, and 3.

Please prepare a 10-minute (max!) presentation of your chosen book. Powerpoint is available if you wish to use that. After your presentation, there will be 5 minutes for questions/discussion.

In your presentation, you should be "critical" of the author's work by:

acknowledging the author's contribution to the discipline,
summarizing their argument and evidence,
evaluating the persuasiveness of their argument and evidence, and
engaging in a conversation with the author's argument and evidence by highlighting what is missing or unclear, what work still needs to be done, and how the argument and evidence can be strengthened.

Sound familiar?! It should! You have been developing the skills you need to be "critical" in the academic context during Literature Seminars 1-5. If you are unsure about what it means to be critical, please see the Reading Progression Model in the Literature Seminar modules.

Book selection: Please select your book as soon as possible and enter your selection in the following word file no later than April 21:

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ai5W5pSrtyqpgrxo0kpnWx39eGJeOQ?e=PQzLGoLinks to an external site.

(Please note that you must select an entire book, NOT a couple of chapters in an anthology or edited volume. If your selection is not appropriate for the course, Edme and Elizabeth will ask you to select a different book. Remember that only two students can review the same book.)

Grading: The book review is graded with G (pass) or U (fail). To pass, you need to show that you are able to present and summarize arguments and findings in conflict resolution research (learning outcome 1) and to critically discuss research methods used (learning outcome 5). Your presentation skills will not be evaluated.

You must also participate during the session by asking questions about the books presented by your peers.

Please note that only maximum of 2 students can select the same book!

Possible books include but are not limited to:

Ruggeri, Hultman, Kathman, and Shannon (2019): Peacekeeping in the Midst of War

The authors extend and sharpen our understanding of peacekeeping effectiveness thanks to this innovative book. Their bargaining theoretical framework highlights mechanisms of peacekeeping that can mitigate incomplete information and commitment problems among belligerents. They systematically and convincingly show that the capacity of a peace operation - deployment size - and its constitution - type of personnel - are crucial factors to shape conflict dynamics between combatants and save civilians' lives. This book is a crystalline example of careful and relevant research. Peacekeeping in the Midst of War will become a reference point for scholars and, I truly hope, for policymakers working on peace operations and conflict resolution.

Keating, Michael and Matt Waldman (2018): War and Peace in Somalia. National Grievances, Local Conflict and Al-Shabaab

For the last thirty years Somalia has experienced violence and upheaval. Today, the international effort to help Somalis build a federal state and achieve stability is challenged by deep-rooted grievances, local conflicts and a powerful insurgency led by Al-Shabaab. Consisting of forty-four chapters by conflict resolution specialists and the world's leading experts on Somalia, this volume constitutes a unique compendium of insights into the insurgency and its impact. War and Peace in Somalia explores the legacies of past violence, especially impunity, illegitimacy and exclusion, and the need for national reconciliation. Drawing on decades of experience and months of field research, the contributors throw light on diverse forms of local conflict, its interrelated causes, and what can be done about it. They share original research on the role of women, men and youth in the conflict, and present new insight into Al-Shabaab--particularly the group's multi-dimensional strategy, the motivations of its fighters, their foreign links, and the prospects for engagement. This ground-breaking volume illuminates the war in Somalia, and sets out what can and should be done to bring it to an end. For policymakers and researchers covering Somalia, East Africa, extremism or conflict resolution, this is a must-read.

Davenport, Cristian, Erik Melander and Patrick (2018): The Peace Continuum

The idea of studying peace - over studying war, genocide and political violence and then inferring about peace - has gained traction recently, but how should it be studied? The Peace Continuum reviews the literature and offers three alternative ways in which peace could be conceptualized and studied.

Leiner, Martin, and Christine Schliesser (Eds.) (2018): Alternative Approaches in Conflict Resolution

This edited volume brings together alternative and innovative approaches in conflict resolution. With traditional military intervention repeatedly leading to the transformation of entire regions into zones of instability and violence (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria), the study of alternative and less violent approaches to conflict resolution has become imperative. Four approaches are presented here: negotiation, religion and gender, reconciliation and forgiveness, and the arts. This volume contains the insights and experiences of fourteen internationally renowned scholars and practitioners from different contexts. Can forgiveness help heal relationships in post-apartheid South Africa? How can art assist dealing with ‘unrememberable’ events such as the genocide in Rwanda? What transformational resources do women offer in contexts of massive human rights violations? The aim here is twofold: to provide and encourage critical reflection of the approaches presented here and to explore concrete improvements in conflict resolution strategies. In its interdisciplinary and international outlook, this work combines the tried-and-tested approaches from conflict resolution experts in academia, NGOs and civil society, making it an invaluable tool for academics and practitioners alike.

Garred, Michelle and Mohammed Abu-Nimer (Eds.) (2018): Making Peace with Faith: The Challenges of Religion and Peacebuilding (Peace and Security in the 21st Century)

Although religion is almost never a root cause, it often gets pulled into conflict as a powerful element, especially where conflicting parties have different religious identities. Every faith tradition offers resources for peace, and secular policy makers are more and more acknowledging the influence of faith-based actors, even though there remains a tendency to associate religion more with conflict than peace. In this text, practitioners from different faiths relate and explore the many challenges they face in their peacebuilding work, which their secular partners may be unaware of. The contributors are all practitioners whose faith or religious experience motivates their work for peace and justice in such a way that it influences their actions. Their roles are diverse, as some work for faith-based institutions, while others engage in secular contexts. The multiple perspectives featured represent multiple faiths (Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish), diverse scopes of practice, different geographic regions. Each chapter follows a similar template to address specific challenges, such as dealing with extremist views, addressing negative stereotypes about one’s faith, endorsing violence, developing relations with other faith-based or secular groups, confronting gender-based violence, and working with people who hold different beliefs. In this text, practitioners from different faiths relate and explore the many challenges they face in their peacebuilding work, which their secular partners may be unaware of. They provide a comprehensive view of the practice of peacebuilding in its many challenging aspects, for both professionals and those studying religion and peacebuilding alike.

Sugden, John and Alan Tomlinson (2017): Sport and Peace-Building in Divided Societies. Playing with Enemies.

Sport is a cultural institution that stands at the interface between political and civil society. In divided communities, sport has been an agent of separation, sectarian hatred and violence, but also a highly effective tool for conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace-building. In this important study, John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson draw on their extensive international experience of working with divided communities to develop a methodological and theoretical model for peace-building in sport. The book showcases original case studies from three regions of the world in which sport has played a prominent role in social deconstruction and reconstruction: Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and South Africa. Combining a wealth of primary and secondary data, the authors chart the rise of the contemporary Sport for Development and Peace movement (SDP) and outline an important new practice-based framework for understanding, researching and working to achieve positive social change in the SDP sector. This is essential reading for any student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in the sociology of sport, sport development, international development, peace studies or conflict resolution.

Cortright, David, Johan and Rothabart, Daniel (2018): Economic Sanctions. Panacea or Peacebuilding in a post-cold War World?

As the challenge of preventing military conflict has become increasingly complex in the post-Cold War era, economic sanctions are being applied with growing frequency. Sanctions are also being used to enforce international law, to deter aggression and terrorism, to defend democracy and human rights, and to prevent nuclear proliferation. This study addresses questions about the utility, appropriateness and success or failure of sanctions, as well as their impact on the poor and innocent. Specific case studies, focusing on recent conflicts such as those in Haiti, Iraq, South Africa and the former Yugoslavia, demonstrate the principal aspects of economic sanctions.

Shaw, Timothy M J (ed.) (2018): Twisting Arms and Flexing MusclesHumanitarian Intervention and Peacebuilding in Perspective

Military force is considered essentially a non-military pursuit in international relations, specifically, humanitarian intervention and peacebuilding. This coherent and interrelated study makes an important contribution to the existing literature by concentrating on empirical analyses. It is illustrated by key case studies which consider the complexities and dynamics associated with the application of military force. Of particular importance in this context is the emphasis on areas of recent crisis, such as Africa and the Balkans. The book considers whether our understanding of military force and its utility is outdated and finds that new considerations are required in order to capture the demands of the new environment and generate more appropriate and effective responses. The volume will have wide appeal, ranging from students and academic researchers to high-level policy makers and policy analysts in the military, governance and democratization and peacebuilding communities, as well as area-specialists and non-governmental organizations.

Visoka, Gëzim (2017): Shaping Peace in Kosovo. The Politics of Peacebuilding and Statehood

This book explores the prospects and limits of international intervention in building peace and creating a new state in an ethnically divided society and fragmented international order. The book offers a critical account of the international missions in Kosovo and traces the effectiveness of fluid forms of interventionism. It also explores the co-optation of peace by ethno-nationalist groups and explores how their contradictory perception of peace produced an ungovernable peace, which has been manifested with intractable ethnic antagonisms, state capture, and ignorance of the root causes, drivers, and consequences of the conflict. Under these conditions, prospects for emancipatory peace have not come from external actors, ethno-nationalist elite, and critical resistance movements, but from local and everyday acts of peace formation and agnostic forms for reconciliation. The book proposes an emancipatory agenda for peace in Kosovo embedded on post-ethnic politics and joint commitments to peace, a comprehensive agenda for reconciliation, people-centred security, and peace-enabling external assistance.

Goetze, Catherine (2017): The Distinction of Peace: A social analysis of peacebuilding.

"Peacebuilding" serves as a catch-all term to describe efforts by an array of international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and agencies of foreign states to restore or construct a peaceful society in the wake-or even in the midst-of conflict. Despite this variety, practitioners consider themselves members of a global profession. In The Distinction of Peace, Catherine Goetze investigates the genesis of peacebuilding as a professional field of expertise since the 1960s, its increasing influence, and the ways it reflects global power structures. Goetze describes how the peacebuilding field came into being, how it defines who belongs to it and who does not, and what kind of group culture it has generated. Using an innovative methodology, she investigates the motivations of individuals who become peacebuilders, their professional trajectories and networks, and the "good peacebuilder" as an ideal. For many, working in peacebuilding in various ways-as an aid worker on the ground, as a lawyer at the United Nations, or as an academic in a think tank-has become not merely a livelihood, but also a form of participation in world politics. As a field, peacebuilding has developed techniques for incorporating and training new members, yet its internal politics also create the conditions of exclusion that often result in practical failures of the peacebuilding enterprise. By providing a critical account of the social mechanisms that make up the peacebuilding field, Goetze offers deep insights into the workings of Western domination and global inequalities.

Hellmüller, Sara (2018): The Interaction Between Local and International Peacebuilding Actors. Partners for Peace.

This book helps to better understand how the interaction between local and international peacebuilding actors influences the outcomes of their programs. Based on the case study of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it analyses the relationships between local and international peacebuilding actors over the long term and assesses ways to overcome the obstacles to more cooperative partnerships. Focusing on perceptions, the book nuances existing definitions of war, peacebuilding and peace and allows for a more comprehensive understanding of conflict contexts. Thereby, it contributes to the literature on peacebuilding effectiveness and makes concrete suggestions for translating these findings into practice.

Mathieu, Xavier and Pol Bargues-Pedreny (2019): The Politics of Peacebuilding in a Diverse World. Difference Exposed.

This book challenges the understanding of 'difference' in the field of peacebuilding and offers new ways to consider diversity in the context of international interventions. International peacebuilding as a practice and academic field has always been embroiled in the 'problem' of difference. For mainstream scholars and policy-makers, local views, histories, and cultural codes are often seen as an obstacle on the way to peace. For critical scholars, international interventions have failed because of the very superficial attention given to the needs, values, and experience of the people in post-conflict societies. Yet the current proposals of hybrid peace and emancipation seem to reproduce Eurocentric lenses and problematic binaries. Differently inspired by feminist, post-structuralist, and new materialist perspectives, the authors assembled in this volume give sustained attention to the theorisation and practice of difference. Taken together, these contributions show that differences are always multidimensional, non-essential, and are reflections of broader power and gender inequalities. This book thus makes a major contribution to the field of critical peacebuilding by revisiting the 'problem' of difference. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

Gippert, Birte Julia (2017): Local Legitimacy and International Peacebuilding

This book analyses the role of legitimacy in explaining local actors' compliance with international peacebuilding operations. The book provides a comparative, micro-level study of local actors' reasons for compliance with or resistance to international peacebuilding. Specifically, it analyses three pathways to compliance -legitimacy, coercion, and reward-seeking - to explore local police officers' compliance with the reforms stipulated by the EU Police Mission in Bosnia and the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. The work constructs a holistic framework of the mechanisms connecting each pathway to compliance and measures legitimacy using micro-level indicators. This study not only shines light on the question why local actors comply, a crucial factor in mission effectiveness, but it also illuminates exactly how compliance works. The book contributes nuanced evidence about the often-heralded importance of legitimacy in peacebuilding, showing exactly in which situations local legitimacy matters and in which it does not. It is also highly relevant for policy-makers as it unpacks and explains the mechanisms behind local legitimacy, assisting in understanding this usually nebulous concept. This book demonstrates the need for micro-level analysis by revealing the relevant processes of legitimation usually hidden behind commonly perceived social fault lines, such as the Serb-Albanian divide in Kosovo. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, war and conflict studies, Balkans politics, security studies and International Relations.

Kustermans, Jorg, Tom Sauer and Barbara Segaert (Eds.) (2020): A Requiem for Peacebuilding?

This book assesses the claim that peacebuilding is a moribund international practice. Its contributors trace the origins of peacebuilding, bring back to memory its moments of triumph, and reflect on the reports of its decline. The story of peacebuilding parallels the broader story of liberalism's rise and fall in world politics, including the attempt to remedy an ailing patient by administering a magic medicine - "the local turn". Its contributors further write about what may come after peacebuilding as we still know it. They describe more locally rooted attempts at building peace and how they operate in the shadows of, and in an ambiguous relationship with, governmental and international peacebuilders. The book finally suggests that reports of the pending death of peacebuilding are probably premature. Peacebuilding is a resilient international practice, apt to adjust itself to a changing environment, and too important a source of legitimacy for those that wield power.

Rashid, Ismali and Amy Niang (2020): Researching Peacebuilding in Africa. Reflections on Theory, Fieldwork and Context

This book examines the multifaceted nature of conflict and the importance of the socio-economic and political contexts of conflict and violence and shows how to support ongoing initiatives and programs to build sustainable peace on the African continent. Drawing on a range of conceptual framings in the study of peace and conflict, from gender perspectives to institutionalist to decolonial perspectives, the contributors show how peacebuilding research covers a whole range of questions that go beyond concerns for post-conflict reconstruction strategies. Chapters focus on the methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of peacebuilding and provide a toolbox of perspectives for conceptualizing and doing peacebuilding research in Africa. Anchored in African-centered perspectives, the book encourages and promotes high-quality interdisciplinary research that is conflict-sensitive, historically informed, theoretically grounded and analytically sound. This book will be of benefit to scholars, policy makers and research institutions engaged in peacebuilding in Africa.

Patrick, Tom (2017): Liberal Peace and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Africa

The book makes theoretical and empirical contributions to recent debates on hybrid forms of peace and `post-liberal' peace. In applying concepts of power, hybridity and resistance, and providing different kinds of hybridity and resistance to explore post-conflict peacebuilding in Sierra Leone, the author makes an original contribution to existing literature by providing various ways in which power can be exercised not just between locals and internationals, but also among locals themselves and the nature of peace that is produced. This volume provides various ways in which hybridity and resistance can be manifested. A more rigorous development of these concepts not only offers a better understanding of the nature of these concepts, but also helps us to distinguish forms of hybridity and resistance that are emancipatory or transformatory from those that result in people accommodating themselves to their situation. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, International Relations and African Studies, and practitioners of peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction.

Tarja Väyrynen, Swati Parashar, Elise Féron, and Catia Cecilia Confortini (eds.) (2021): Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of feminist approaches to questions of violence, justice, and peace. The volume argues that critical feminist thinking is necessary to analyse core peace and conflict issues and is fundamental to thinking about solutions to global problems and promoting peaceful conflict transformation. Contributions to the volume consider questions at the intersection of feminism, gender, peace, justice, and violence through interdisciplinary perspectives. The handbook engages with multiple feminisms, diverse policy concerns, and works with diverse theoretical and methodological contributionon.

De Heredia, Marta Iniguez (2017): Everyday resistance, peacebuilding and state-making Insights from 'Africa's World War'

Everyday resistance, peacebuilding and state-making addresses debates on the liberal peace and the policies of peacebuilding through a theoretical and empirical study of resistance in peacebuilding contexts. Examining the case of 'Africa's World War' in the DRC, it locates resistance in the experiences of war, peacebuilding and state-making by exploring discourses, violence and everyday forms of survival as quotidian acts that attempt to challenge or mitigate such experiences. The analysis of resistance offers a possibility to bring the historical and sociological aspects of both peacebuilding and the case of the DRC, providing new nuanced understanding on these processes and the particular case. The book also makes a significant contribution to the theorisation of resistance in International Relations.

Castillo, Graciana (2017): Obstacles to Peacebuilding global standard of reporting conflict.

Combining the insights of a seasoned practitioner with the academic rigor of a meticulous policy and risk analyst, del Castillo discusses the major obstacles to peacebuilding that need to be removed before war-torn countries can move towards peace, stability, and prosperity. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres assumes leadership in January 2017, a top priority must be to address the bleak peacebuilding record where over half of the countries under UN watch relapse back into conflict within a decade. While policy debate and the academic literature have focused on the security, political, and social aspects of the war-to-peace transition, this book focuses on "the economic transition"-that is, "economic reconstruction" or "the political economy of peace"-which, in the author's view, is the much-neglected aspect of peacebuilding. The book argues that rebuilding war-torn states effectively has acquired a new sense of urgency since extremist groups increasingly recruit people by providing jobs and services to those deprived of them due to government and economic failures. Based on past lessons and best practices of the last quarter of a century, the author makes recommendations to move forward and improve the record. It will be of great use to students and scholars of peacebuilding, as well as policymakers in national governments, donor countries and international organizations involved in peacebuilding, statebuilding, and development.

Zanker, Franziska (2017): Legitimacy in Peacebuilding. Rethinking Civil Society Involvement in Peace Negotiations

The book offers a critical analysis of legitimacy in peacebuilding, with a focus on peace negotiations and civil society participation in particular. The aim of this book is to unpack the meaning of legitimacy for the population in peacebuilding processes and the relationship this has with civil society involvement. There is a growing consensus for addressing local concerns in peacebuilding, with the aim of ensuring local ownership. Moreover, scholars have noted a relationship between civil society inclusion in peace negotiations and legitimacy. Yet, the very idea of legitimacy remains a black box. Using data from original empirical fieldwork - including over 100 semi-structured interviews and 12 focus group discussions - the book focuses on two case studies of negotiations that, respectively, ended a long civil war in Liberia in 2003 and ended the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008. It argues that civil society involvement is conceptually insufficient to show a multidimensional understanding of legitimacy. Instead, the book shows a complex picture of legitimate peace negotiations, based on outcome and participation-based characteristics with the involvement of both 'guarantors' of legitimacy and a more general civic agency which includes the general population. Through forms of participative communication, the passive audience become active stakeholders in the construction of legitimacy. This has repercussions for how we think about civil society and peacebuilding more generally.This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, security studies and IR in general.

Lu, Chaterine (2017): Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics.

Calls for justice and reconciliation in response to political catastrophes are widespread in contemporary world politics. What implications do these normative strivings have in relation to colonial injustice? Examining cases of colonial war, genocide, forced sexual labor, forcible incorporation, and dispossession, Lu demonstrates that international practices of justice and reconciliation have historically suffered from, and continue to reflect, colonial, statist and other structural biases. The continued reproduction of structural injustice and alienation in modern domestic, international and transnational orders generates contemporary duties of redress. How should we think about the responsibility of contemporary agents to address colonial structural injustices and what implications follow for the transformation of international and transnational orders? Redressing the structural injustices implicated in or produced by colonial politics requires strategies of decolonization, decentering, and disalienation that go beyond interactional practices of justice and reconciliation, beyond victims and perpetrators, and beyond a statist world order.

Oxford, Rebecca L, Maria Matilde Olivero, Melina Harrison, Tammy Gregersen (2020): Peacebuilding in Language Education. Innovations in Theory and Practice

This innovative, much-needed book shares powerful wisdom and practical strategies to help language teachers, teacher educators and peace educators communicate peace, contribute to peace and weave peacebuilding into classrooms and daily life. The clear, six-part Language of Peace Approach underlies more than 50 creative activities that can promote peacebuilding competence in secondary and post-secondary students, current and prospective educators and community members outside of academia. Chapters span the spectrum from cross-cultural peace education to the positive psychology of peace, from nonverbal peace language to transformative language teaching for peace, and from the needs of language learners to the needs of language educators. The book makes a unique and valuable contribution to the discussion of how we can live together peacefully in a changing world.

Schliesser, Christine, S Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana, Pauline Kollontai (2020): On the Significance of Religion in Conflict and Conflict Resolution

In this ground-breaking volume, the authors analyze the role of religion in conflict and conflict resolution. They do so from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, while bringing different disciplines into play, including peace and conflict studies, religious studies, theology, and ethics. With much of current academic, political, and public attention focusing on the conflictive dimensions of religion, this book also explores the constructive resources of religion for conflict resolution and reconciliation. Analyzing the specific contributions of religious actors in this field, their potentials and possible problems connected with them, this book sheds light on the concrete contours of the oftentimes vague "religious factor" in processes of social change. Case studies in current and former settings of violent conflict such as Israel, post-genocide Rwanda, and Pakistan provide "real-life" contexts for discussion. Combining cutting-edge research with case studies and concrete implications for academics, policy makers, and practitioners, this concise and easily accessible volume helps to build bridges between these oftentimes separated spheres of engagement. The Open Access version of this book, available at: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003002888, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Rees, Anthony (2020): Things that Make for Peace. Traversing Text and Tradition in Christianity and Islam

In a world that increasingly sees religion as a source of violence, this book explores resources from within religious traditions that might help build peace. Drawing from the rich textual histories of Christianity and Islam, the contributors mine their faith traditions for ways of thinking and ways of being that help shift perceptions about religion, and actively contribute to the growth of peace in our troubled times. Not content with retreat into religious exclusivism, these essays are an act of sharing something held dear. In sharing, the thing offered no longer remains the possession of the one who offers, and so these essays are an act of vulnerability and trust-building. In sharing precious things together, in giving and receiving, peace becomes not only a matter of dialogue, but also shared commitments to ways of being.

Gonzales-Ocantos, Ezequiel A (2020): The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America. Power, Norms, and Capacity Building

How has Latin America pioneered the field of transitional justice (TJ)? Do approaches vary across the region? This Element describes Latin American innovations in trials and truth commissions, and evaluates two influential models that explain variation in TJ outcomes: the Huntingtonian and Justice Cascade approaches. It argues that scholars should complement these approaches with one that recognizes the importance of state capacity building and institutional change. To translate domestic/international political pressure and human rights norms into outcomes, states must develop 'TJ capabilities'. Not only should states be willing to pursue these highly complex policies, they must also develop competent bureaucracies.

Maiangwa, Benjamin (2021): The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Predicaments of Territorial and Identity Contestations in Kaduna, Nigeria

This book explores the contested notions of territory and belonging in Nigeria, most especially among the Fulani and other ethnic groups in Kaduna. The book argues that these controversies center around Indigenous, nomadic, and autochthonous claims of belonging. The author identifies these differing notions of belonging as a major condition of violent conflicts in Kaduna and across various postcolonial societies. The author's analysis demonstrates how dynamic ideological impetuses for these conflicts underscore broader issues of citizenship rights, nationhood, and local peacebuilding in Nigeria.

Odak, Stipe (2020): Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. The Role of Religious Leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This book provides fresh insights into the role of religious leaders in conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Based on a large dataset of interviews with Christian and Muslim leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it offers a contextually rich analysis of the main post-conflict challenges: forgiveness, reconciliation, and tragic memories. Designed as an inductive, qualitative research, it also develops an integrative theoretical model of religiously-inspired engagement in conflict transformation. The work introduces a number of new concepts which are relevant for both theory and practice of peacebuilding, such as Residue of Forgiveness, Degree Zero of Reconciliation, Ecumene of Compassion, and Phantomic Memories. The book, furthermore, proposes two correlated concepts - "theological dissonance" and "pastoral optimization" - as theoretical tools to describe the interplay between moral ideals and practical limitations. The text is a valuable resource for religious and social scholars alike, especially those interested in topics of peace, conflict, and justice. From the methodological standpoint, it is an original and audacious attempt at bringing together theological, philosophical, and political narratives on conflicts and peace through the innovative use of the Grounded Theory approach.

Randazzo, Elisa (2017); Beyon Liberal Peacebuilding. A Critical Exploration of the Local Turn

This book examines the logic behind the shifts and paradigm changes within the scholarship on peacebuilding. In particular, the book is concerned with examining if, and how, these shifts have significantly altered how we think about peacebuilding beyond the `liberal peacebuilding' paradigm. To do so, the book engages with the logic of critique that has led to the emergence of different theoretical approaches to peacebuilding, from hands-on institutionalisation, to the `local turn'. It uses the case of Kosovo to understand how a lessons-learnt approach facilitated the shift towards more invasive and intrusive forms of peacebuilding first. However, it is also crucial to understanding the recent local turn, as the rise of local ownership discourses in Kosovo is fundamentally tied to the critiques of extensive international missions, and the associated resistance and marginalisation of local agency. The book examines the implications of the framing of `everyday' agency in order to assess the extent to which these bottom-up approaches have been able to by-pass the problems attributed to the liberal peace approach. It argues that despite its critical and radical intentions, the local turn retains certain foundational modernist and positivist qualities that have so far characterised the very mainstream approaches these critiques claim to transcend. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, statebuilding, peace and conflict studies, security studies and International Relations in general.

Angom, Sidonia, (2018): Women in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in Northern Uganda

The book analyses the two decades of the brutal civil war of northern Uganda. The author modified Lederach's peacebuilding framework to include peacemaking to bring out the argument that women and men make significant contributions to the peace processes and point out women's position as top leadership actors. The book uncovers the under-emphasised role of women in peacemaking and building. From grassroots to national level, women were found to have organised themselves and assumed roles as advocates, negotiators and mobilisers. The actions by women became evident at the stalemated Juba peace talks when women presented the Peace Torch to the peace negotiating teams who on the occasion shook hands for the first time and peace was ushered in. Their initiatives and non-violent actions offer lessons to resolve civil conflicts in Africa. The book recommends that women should undergo relevant training in times of peace as this would make them more effective in times of need.

Goldfield, Norbert (2021): Peace Building Through Women's Health. Psychoanalytic, Sociopsychological, and Community Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This book is an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through psychoanalytic, sociopsychological, and nationalistic lenses, highlighting the successes and the hurdles faced by one organization, Healing Across the Divides (HATD), in its mission to measurably improve health in marginalized populations of both Israelis and Palestinians. Peace Building through Women's Health begins with a summary of the "peace building through health" field and a psychoanalytic, sociopsychological examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a series of informative case studies, the book concludes with an analysis of how this organization has evolved its "peace building through health" approach over the fifteen years since its founding. Working with community groups, HATD has measurably improved the lives of more than 200,000 marginalized Israelis and Palestinians. In the process, it also improves the effectiveness of the community group grantees, by offering experienced management consulting and by requiring rigorous ongoing self-assessment on the part of the groups. IHATD hopes that, in the long term, some of the community leaders it supports will be tomorrow's political leaders. As these leaders strengthen their own capabilities, they will be able to increasingly contribute to securing peace in one of the longest running conflicts in the world today. Peace Building through Women's Health will be invaluable to public and mental health professionals interested in international health, peace and conflict studies, and conflict resolution.

Funk, Julianne, Nancy Good and Marie E Berry (2020): Healing and Peacebuilding after War. Transforming Trauma in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This book brings together multiple perspectives to examine the strengths and limitations of efforts to promote healing and peacebuilding after war, focusing on the aftermath of the traumatic armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This book begins with a simple premise: trauma that is not transformed is transferred. Drawing on multidisciplinary insights from academics, peace practitioners and trauma experts, this book examines the limitations of our current strategies for promoting healing and peacebuilding after war while offering inroads into best practices to prevent future violence through psychosocial trauma recovery and the healing of memories. The contributions create a conversation that allows readers to critically rethink the deeper roots and mechanisms of trauma created by the war. Collectively, the authors provide strategic recommendations to policymakers, peace practitioners, donors and international organizations engaged in work in Bosnia and Herzegovina - strategies that can be applied to other countries rebuilding after war. This volume will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, social psychology, Balkan politics and International Relations in general.

Standish, Katerina (2019): Suicide through a Peacebuilding Lens

This book, as the first exploration of suicide in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS), illustrates the scarcity of suicide research in the discipline and argues that the leading cause of violent death worldwide is a multifaceted phenomenon that needs to be fully comprehended as a significant and often preventable form of world-wide violence. The author supplies a theoretical framework for assessing suicide as medical or instrumental, posits interdisciplinary complementarity and offers future lines of inquiry that challenge established notions of prevention. The book presents a PACS meta-theory termed 'encounter theory' and supplies a suicidal peacebuilding platform via relationship. This book questions why more PACS scholars aren't turning their attention to suicide when more people die by suicide than ethnic, religious or 'terroristic' violence combined.

Trujillo, Andrés García (2021): Peace and Rural Development in Colombia. The Window for Distributive Change in Negotiated Transitions

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.