Peace Studies

Peace Jobs by David J. Smith; Laura Finley (Series edited by); Robin Cooper (Series edited by) This book is a guide for college students exploring career options who are interested in working to promote peacebuilding and the resolution of conflict. High school students, particularly those starting to consider college and careers, can also benefit from this book. A major feature of the book is 30 stories from young professionals, most recently graduated from college, who are working in the field. These profiles provide readers with insight as to strategies they might use to advance their peacebuilding careers. The book speaks directly to the Millennial generation, recognizing that launching a career is a major focus, and that careers in the peace field have not always been easy to identify. As such, the book takes the approach that most any career can be a peacebuilding career provided one is willing to apply creativity and passion to their work.

Direct Deliberative Democracy by Jack Crittenden; Debra J. Campbell As American politics becomes ever more dominated by powerful vested interests, positive change seems permanently stymied. Left out in the cold by the political process, citizens are frustrated and despairing. How can we take back our democracy from the grip of oligarchy and bring power to the people?   In Direct Deliberative Democracy, Jack Crittenden and Debra Campbell offer up a better way for government to reflect citizens' interests. It begins with a startlingly basic question: "Why don't we the people govern?" In this provocative book, the authors mount a powerful case that the time has come for more direct democracy in the United States, showing that the circumstances that made the Constitutional framers' arguments so convincing more than two hundred years ago have changed dramatically--and that our democracy needs to change with them. With money, lobbyists, and corporations now dominating local, state, and national elections, the authors argue that now is the time for citizens to take control of their government by deliberating together to make public policies and laws directly. At the heart of their approach is a proposal for a new system of "legislative juries," in which the jury system would be used as a model for selecting citizens to create ballot initiatives. This would enable citizens to level the playing field, bring little-heard voices into the political arena, and begin the process of transforming our democracy into one that works for, not against, its citizens. 

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace by Jolyon Mitchell (Editor); Suzanna R. Millar (Editor); Francesca Po (Editor); Martyn Percy (Editor) Incisive contributions from leading and emerging scholars in the field of Peace Studies In the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace, a team of renowned scholars delivers an authoritative and interdisciplinary sourcebook that addresses the key concepts, history, theories, models, resources, and practices in the complex and ambivalent relationship between religion and peace. The editors have included contributions from a wide range of perspectives and locations that reflect diverse methods and approaches. The Companion provides a collection grounded in experience and context that draws on established, developing, and new research characterized by academic rigor. The differences between the approaches taken by several religious traditions are fully explored and numerous case studies highlight relevant theories, models, and resources. Accessible as either a standalone collection or as a partner to the Companion to Religion and Violence, this edited volume also offers: A thorough introduction to religion and its search for peace, including the relationships between religion and peace and theories and practices for studying the interplay between religion and peace Comprehensive explorations of religion and peace in local contexts, including discussions of women's empowerment and peacebuilding in an Islamic context Practical discussions of practices and embodiments of religion and peace, including treatments of museums for peace and self-religion in global peace movements In-depth examinations of lived Christian theologies and building peace, including discussions of Martin Luther King Jr. and spiritual activism in Scotland Perfect for students and scholars of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building, the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace will also earn a place in the libraries of anyone professionally or personally interested in the field of Peace or Religious Studies, International Relations, History, Politics, or Theology.

Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict by Lester R. Kurtz "This outstanding three-volume set seeks to answer basic questions about modern warfare, conflict, violence, and peace, but also covers current topics such as police brutality, aggression in sports, television violence, and animal aggression. The greatest value of this multivolume work is its interdisciplinary coverage. The set is broken down into 15 subject areas covering approximately 200 different issues. Each article is about 9,000 words, including a definition of the subject, illustrations, glossaries, and bibliographies. It is an excellent source written by scholars from around the world."--"Outstanding reference sources 2000", American Libraries, May 2000. Comp. by the Reference Sources Committee, RUSA, ALA.

Democracy, Peace, and Security by Heinz Gärtner (Editor); Jan Willem Honig (Editor); Hakan Akbulut (Editor); Heinz Gärtner (Editor) Democracies are extremely unlikely to wage war against other democracies - this main proposition of the Democratic Peace theory constitutes the starting point for this volume. Chapters authored by experts from different parts of the world explore the concept of Democratic Peace in greater depth in relation to selected issue areas and in comparison to other concepts such as security communities or concerts of powers. The role and significance of international organizations and gender equality, for instance, are discussed and assessed in this context. The objective guiding this exercise is to give an answer to the question as to whether Democratic Peace and the other two concepts - i.e. security communities and concerts of powers - can provide a solution to today's security challenges and constitute a guide to peaceful co-existence and conflict settlement. So, the chapters discuss intellectual frameworks at some length, at the same time, reflecting on potential inferences for the outside world and highlighting associated challenges, limits, or even possible adverse implications.

Preventing War and Promoting Peace by William H. Wiist (Editor); Shelley K. White (Editor) Preventing War and Promoting Peace: A Guide for Health Professionals is an interdisciplinary study of how pervasive militarism creates a propensity for war through the influence of academia, economic policy, the defense industry, and the news media. Comprising contributions by academics and practitioners from the fields of public health, medicine, nursing, law, sociology, psychology, political science, and peace and conflict studies, as well as representatives from organizations active in war prevention, the book emphasizes the underlying preventable causes of war, particularly militarism, and focuses on the methods health professionals can use to prevent war. Preventing War and Promoting Peace provides hard-hitting facts about the devastating health effects of war and a broad perspective on war and health, presenting a new paradigm for the proactive engagement of health professions in the prevention of war and the promotion of peace.

Negotiating Peace by Sven M. G. Koopmans This book is the first and only practical guide to negotiating peace. In this ground-breaking book Sven Koopmans, who is both a peace negotiator and a scholar, discusses the practice, politics, and law of international mediation. With both depth and a light touch he explores successful as well as failed attempts to settle the wars of the world, building on decades of historical, political, and legal scholarship. Who can mediate between warring parties? How to build confidence between enemies? Who should take part in negotiations? How can a single diplomat manage the major powers? What issues to discuss first, what last? When to set a deadline? How to maintain confidentiality? How to draft an agreement, and what should be in it? How to ensure implementation? The book discusses the practical difficulties and dilemmas of negotiating agreements, as well as existing solutions and possible future approaches. It uses examples from around the world, with an emphasis on the conflicts of the last twenty-five years, but also of the previous two-and-a-half-thousand. Rather than looking only at either legal, political or organizational issues, Negotiating Peace discusses these interrelated dimensions in the way they are confronted in practice: as an integral whole. With one leading question: what can be done?

Routledge Handbook of Masculinities, Conflict and Peacebuilding by Henri Myrttinen (Editor); Chloé Lewis (Editor); Heleen Touquet (Editor); Philipp Schulz (Editor); Farooq Yousaf (Editor); Elizabeth Laruni (Editor) This handbook broadens and engages with current debates on men and masculinities in conflict and peacebuilding. Through an expansive range of chapters across a unique array of geographical settings, the volume shatters prevailing assumptions about men's relationship to conflict and its wake. Situated across scholarship, policy, and practice, the contributions offer new possibilities for a more complex and complete picture of the gendered tapestries of conflict, peace, and the spaces in between. The handbook combines feminist, intersectional, relational, decolonial, and queer perspectives on the conceptualisation of masculinities in conflict and peacebuilding. This approach provides us with the tools to go beyond direct, physical, conflict-related violence to examine less visible forms of violence and power, as well as other ways in which masculinities interact with conflict and peace. In doing so, the book permits a multi-faceted view of men's roles, relationships, vulnerabilities, and non-violent agencies in conflict and peacebuilding across scholarship, policy, and practice. This book will be of much interest to students of gender, masculinities, peace and conflict studies and International Relations. Chapter 1, 3, 9, and 13 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. Chapter 25 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.