Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies [Paperback]

John Paul Lederach (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1878379739 | ISBN-13: 978-1878379733 | Publication Date: February 1998

A major work from a seminal figure in the field of conflict resolution, Building Peace is John Paul Lederach's definitive statement on peacebuilding. Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond "traditional" diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside.

Sophisticated yet pragmatic, the volume explores the dynamics of contemporary conflict and presents an integrated framework for peacebuilding in which structure, process, resources, training, and evaluation are coordinated in an attempt to transform the conflict and effect reconciliation.

Building Peace is a substantive reworking and expansion of a work developed for the United Nations University in 1994. In addition, this volume includes a chapter by practitioner John Prendergast that applies Lederach's conceptual framework to ongoing conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Paul Lederach has spent 15 years providing training and supporting peacebuilding in Colombia, Somalia, The Philippines, Nicaragua, and Northern Ireland. Director of Eastern Mennonite University's Conflict Transformation Program, he has conducted numerous research projects and published extensively.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: United States Institute of Peace (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878379739
• ISBN-13: 978-1878379733
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Law > International Law > International Disputes

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly cutting-edge, May 17, 2001

By 

J. Rabideau (Stuck in the Loser State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Paperback)

Lederach's work stands at the forefront of the emergent field of conflict transformation study. A professor at Eastern Mennonnite University, he also has extensive field experience. In "Building Peace", he focuses upon the necessity of constructing relationships across multiple social levels, de-emphasizing the role of political elites, and instead focusing both upon mid-level elites (bureaucrats, intellectuals, "influential" persons) and grassroots-level activism. He also stresses the need to develop long-range objectives, to delink expectations of short-term results from questions of involvement, and the need for implementation of training programmes to create what might be termed a "culture of peace" within the society: trained mediators indigenous to the society. In doing this, the hope is that the "parachute" problem of credibility (the idea that mediators are dropped from the above---IGO/foreign gouvernment, etc---and have no particular attachment to the conflict) may be reduced, and transformation of the conflict may be initiated.

Lederach's work is exceptionally lucid, and he draws upon a smorgasbord of substantive examples. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great peacebuilding and conflict overview, April 23, 2009

By 

Joseph McMahon (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Paperback)

This book by John Paul is a very very useful discussion of peacebuilding and how peacebuilders can best engage in thier work. His use of graphics and diagrams makes complex theories accessible. When asked what to read about conflict and peace, this book is at the top of my recommended list. It is thoughtful, compact and applicable in many contexts. My unqualified recommendation!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conflict transformation: crisis intervention and long-term radical strategy integrated into peacebuilding, March 13, 2008

By 

Ivan Boothe "www.QuixoticLife.net" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Paperback)

One of Lederach's most useful revelations in assessing the work of third-party nonviolent interventionists -- from humanitarian workers to nonviolent direct-action trainers -- is the idea of an integrated framework for peacebuilding. Instead of always focusing on either crisis intervention or a future-to-come; instead of focusing on either a local issue or only visioning about addressing root causes, Lederach explores the role of transformation -- how to get from crises to radical change.

"We must ... think about the design of social change in time-units of decades, in order to link crisis management and long-term, future-oriented time frames," he writes. "We must understand crisis issues as connected to systemic roots ... [and] recognize the integrative potential of middle-range leaders, who by their locus within the affected population may be able to cultivate relationships and pursue the design of social change at a subsystem level."

This is a vital book for anyone exploring the theory and practice of nonviolent social change, as well as practitioners searching for a framework for their direct action praxis.