This book addresses positive peace. In his introduction, Arun Gandhi , fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, asks, "For generations human beings have strived to attain peace, but with little or no success. Why is peace so illusive?" Twelve philosophers and educators suggest creatively and pragmatically that peace education has a large part of play in meeting the challenge. --Book Jacket.

Positive Peace addresses how sustainable intra-state peace could best be elicited through the UN system in non-liberal/democratic divided societies. It offers a novel positive peace vision together with a comprehensive framework for positive peace that would strengthen the UN’s conflict prevention pillars and complement its post-conflict peacebuilding efforts.

Positive Peace in Schools offers a fresh and challenging perspective on the question of conflict, violence and peace in schools. Drawing on the most up-to-date theory and research from the field of peace and conflict studies, this book provides readers with a strong understanding of the concept of positive peace, and how the dimensions of peace-keeping, peace-making and peace-building can be robustly applied in schools. This accessible book challenges educators everywhere to reconsider the nature of direct and indirect violence in schools, and the structural and cultural factors that sustain it. It engages with global traditions of harmony and balance that are often neglected in Western notions of liberal securitised peace, in order to suggest a model for schools that integrates inner and outer peace. The book also includes practical sections that outline restorative approaches to discipline, peer mediation, circle learning, and classroom activities to promote mindfulness, inclusion and wellbeing. Taken together, these provide a philosophy and a highly effective framework for building conflict literacy and a culture of peace in schools.

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.

Johan Galtung, one of the founders of modern peace studies, provides a wide-ranging panorama of the ideas, theories and assumptions on which the study of peace is based. The book is organized in four parts, each examining the one of the four major theoretical approaches to peace. The first part covers peace theory, exploring the epistemological assumptions of peace. In Part Two conflict theory is examined with an exploration of nonviolent and creative handling of conflict. Developmental theory is discussed in Part Three, exploring structural violence, particularly in the economic field, together with a consideration of the ways of overcoming that violence. The fourth part is devoted to civilization theory. This involves an

While COVID-19 is reshaping our lives, this must-read book for 2021 provides some of the answers to our most pressing global challenges. Unless the world is basically peaceful, we will never get the trust, cooperation and inclusiveness to solve these issues, yet what creates peace is poorly understood. Working on an aid program in one of the most violent places in the world, North East Kivu in the DR Congo, philanthropist and business leader Steve Killelea asked himself, ‘What are the most peaceful nations?’ Unable to find an answer, he created the world’s leading measure of peace, the Global Peace Index, which receives over 16 billion media impressions annually and has become the definitive go to index for heads of state. Steve Killelea then went on to establish world-renowned think tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace. Today its work is used by organisations such as the World Bank, United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and taught in thousands of university courses around the world. Peace in the Age of Chaos tells of Steve’s personal journey to measure and understand peace. It explores the practical application of his work, which is gathering momentum at a rapid pace. In this time when we are faced with environmental, social and economic challenges, this book shows us a way forward where Positive Peace, described as creating the optimal environment for human potential to flourish, can lead to a paradigm shift in the ways societies can be managed, making them more resilient and better capable of adapting to their changing environments.

This study takes the work of transforming violence and conflict online and offers insight into the practice of dialogue in virtual settings for peacebuilding purposes. In the field of peace and conflict studies and peacebuilding practices, a significant amount of literature has dealt with the theory and practice of dialogue in face-to-face settings. This project is unique as it takes the peacebuilding practice of dialogue and explores it within an online context. The research is framed and analyzed through the dialogue theories of Martin Buber and Paulo Freire. This project is distinct in its exploration of the connection between dialogue encounters and positive peace, the practical linkages of which are often difficult to articulate or identify. As such, this book offers unique contributions to the knowledge and understanding of dialogue-based peacebuilding in online settings and provides an understanding of how dialogue practices enable outcomes within the construct of positive peace. This book is aimed at academics as a presentation of research into a relatively unexplored field of inquiry. However, it is also relevant and applicable for peacebuilding practitioners who want to navigate taking their practices into online settings and provide a framework for linking practices to intended positive peace outcomes. Rachel Nolte-Laird completed her Ph.D. with the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand.