'This Handbook offers a significant advance and platform that deepens our understanding of trauma, healing, and peacebuilding. I say this for three reasons. First, the extraordinary list of authors are among the most experienced practitioners who have committed to a vocational lifetime facing and living with the challenges of trauma in settings of protracted conflict. Their focus on trauma-responsive centers action and practical strategies cultivating constructive change and sustained healing. Second, this Handbook brings these learnings and strategies via authors who are from and engaged with an extraordinary breadth of geographic contexts and cultural backgrounds that offer views and evidence-based experience far beyond Western dominant models. And finally, these chapters capture the cutting edges of practices from the expressive arts to facing intergenerational and collective trauma that truly give meaning to the notion of committing to comprehensive and integrated approaches to peacebuilding.'John Paul Lederach, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame, USA.'This timely and insightful book makes a meaningful contribution to the peacebuilding sector at a time of major geopolitical shifts, when this sector of work is not getting the attention it needs, considering an increasing backward slide to securitized and militarized approaches. This excellent book places trauma and trauma-informed approaches at the center of how we understand conflict transformation and peacebuilding. It reminds us that sustainable peace cannot be built by political and institutional dynamics alone, but must engage the deep individual and collective wounds left by violence across generations from a systemic perspective. By illuminating how trauma shapes perceptions, relationships, and systems, the authors help practitioners understand the invisible forces that often sustain cycles of conflict and polarization that divide our societies over decades.The book offers a compelling case for integrating trauma-responsive approaches into every stage of peacebuilding; it bridges insights from psychology, social healing, and conflict transformation in a way that is both rigorous and deeply practical. At a time when many societies are facing protracted crises, recurring violence, and generational trauma, this perspective is essential. The authors challenge the field to move beyond technical solutions and recognize the human and relational dimensions of recovery and transformation. My deepest appreciation goes out to Dr. Cordula Reimann and Dr. Sara Clarke‑Habibi, two highly experienced and respected practitioners and researchers in this field of work, for this critical and timely contribution to the peacebuilding sector. This book will be an invaluable resource for practitioners, policymakers, and scholars seeking to build peace, especially during a time of increasing polarization in our societies.Anita Ernstorfer, Director, International Peacebuilding, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).'Trauma is far from uniform and the different ways people experience it significantly shape individuals and communities in conflict - and the way they engage in the process of peace. Understanding the underlying dynamics and impacts in each conflict context is essential for finding viable approaches to transform conflicts in a sustainable way.This handbook provides an essential insight into what this looks like in practical terms. Covering a diverse range of contexts each section walks the reader through critical challenges from types of trauma, through resilience and healing to mental health and psycho social support, using lenses of conflict transformation, peacebuilding and decolonisation. And it does all this giving voice to authors who write with deep personal and research experience that is enlightening!Jonathan Cohen, Executive Director, Conciliation Resources.'The Routledge International Handbook of Trauma-Responsive Peacebuilding, edited by Sara Clarke-Habibi and Cordula Reimann, constitutes an essential resource for scholars and practitioners of peacebuilding. Trauma is an inherent dimension of war and violent conflict, and addressing it is therefore a central requirement in any sustainable peacebuilding process.With its broad scope and multidisciplinary orientation, the volume systematically examines the conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges involved in addressing trauma at both individual and collective levels. It demonstrates that neglecting trauma can have enduring intergenerational consequences, often contributing to the formation of what chosen trauma describes as collectively maintained narratives of past suffering that may perpetuate cycles of conflict.The handbook brings together diverse theoretical perspectives and empirical case studies, presenting a range of approaches to trauma-responsive peacebuilding across different sociopolitical contexts. In doing so, it synthesizes a substantial body of knowledge in a manner that is accessible and relevant to a wide audience, including academic researchers, practitioners, NGO professionals, policymakers, and informed general readers seeking to deepen their understanding of the role of trauma in conflict and peace processes.'Professor Daniel Bar-Tal (emeritus), Tel Aviv University, School of Education
