Customer Reviews

Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies

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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.

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!

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.