The Palgrave International Handbook Of Peace Studies

Thirty-four outstanding scholars write about the etymological meaning and the religious, legal and political connotations of the concept of 'peace'. They provide firm evidence to show how adopting a multi-faceted approach to 'peace' could ultimately contribute to the search for a more authentic understanding of 'peace' across the world stage.

Thirty-four outstanding scholars write about the etymological meaning and the religious, legal and political connotations of the concept of 'peace'. They provide firm evidence to show how adopting a multi-faceted approach to 'peace' could ultimately contribute to the search for a more authentic understanding of 'peace' across the world stage.

With existing literature focusing largely on Western perspectives of peace and their applications, a global understanding of peace is much needed. Spurred by more recent debates and discourses that criticize the dominant realist and liberal approaches for crises in contemporary state- and peace-building, the contributors to this handbook emphasize not only the need to solve this eternal conundrum of humanity, but also demand—with the rise of increasingly more violent conflicts in international relations—the development of a global interpretive framework for peace and security. To this end, the present handbook examines conceptual, institutional and normative interpretive approaches for making, building and promoting peace in the context of roles played by state and non-state actors within local, national, regional, and global units of analysis.

In this handbook, a diverse range of leading scholars consider the social, cultural, economic, political, and developmental underpinnings of peace. This handbook is a much-needed response to the failures of contemporary peacebuilding missions and narrow disciplinary debates, both of which have outlined the need for more interdisciplinary work in International Relations and Peace and Conflict studies. Scholars, students, and policymakers are often disillusioned with universalist and northern-dominated approaches, and a better understanding of the variations of peace and its building blocks, across different regions, is required. Collectively, these chapters promote a more differentiated notion of peace, employing comparative analysis to explain how peace is debated and contested.

This Handbook represents an unprecedented exploration of the positive peace platform. It permits a comprehensive appreciation of the breadth of positive peace that engages with nonviolence, environmental sustainability, social justice and positive relationships scholarship. The work serves as a one-stop shop for scholar/practitioners interested in locating their inquiry and outputs in the field of positive peace and provides readers from a multitude of disciplines and academic departments with a comprehensive overview of the multiplicity of positive peace research in one location. In doing so, the Handbook of Positive Peace securely demarcates and recognizes the positive peace platform in social scientific and humanities academic disciplines.

This encyclopaedia provides a comprehensive overview of major theories and approaches to the study of peace and conflict across different humanities and social sciences disciplines. Peace and conflict studies (PCS) is one of the major sub-disciplines of international studies (including political science and international relations), and has emerged from a need to understand war, related systems and concepts and how to respond to it afterward. As a living reference work, easily discoverable and searchable, the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies offers solid material for understanding the foundational, historical, and contemporary themes, concepts, theories, events, organisations, and frameworks concerning peace, conflict, security, rights, institutions and development. The Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Peace and Conflict Studies brings together leading and emerging scholars from different disciplines to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource on peace and conflict studies ever produced.

This major new Handbook provides a cutting-edge and transdisciplinary overview of the main issues, debates, state-of-the-art methods, and key concepts in peace and conflict studies today. The fields of peace and conflict studies have grown exponentially since being initiated by Professor Johan Galtung half a century ago. They have forged a transdisciplinary and professional identity distinct from security studies, political science, and international relations. The volume is divided into four sections: understanding and transforming conflict creating peace supporting peace peace across the disciplines. Each section features new essays by distinguished international scholars and professionals working in peace studies and conflict resolution and transformation. Drawing from a wide range of theoretical, methodological, and political positions, the editors and contributors offer topical and enduring approaches to peace and conflict studies. The Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies will be essential reading for students of peace studies, conflict studies and conflict resolution. It will also be of interest and use to practitioners in conflict resolution and NGOs, as well as policy makers and diplomats.

This handbook offers a critical assessment of the African agenda for conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding; the challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s regional organisations in their efforts towards building sustainable peace on the continent; and the role of external actors, including the United Nations, Britain, France, and South Asian troop-contributing countries. In so doing, it revisits the late Ali Mazrui’s concept of Pax Africana, calling on Africans to take responsibility for peace and security on their own continent. The creation of the African Union, in 2002, was an important step towards realising this ambition, and has led to the development of a new continental architecture for more robust conflict management. But, as the volume’s authors show, the quest for Pax Africana faces challenges. Combining thematic analyses and case studies, this book will be of interest to both scholars and policymakers working on peace, security, and governance issues in Africa.