John Paul Lederach - Böcker

The US State Department, the US Institute of Peace, and other governmental agencies now recognize that religious leaders, transnational religious movements, and faith-based NGOs are central players in the post-Cold War era of ethnic and religious conflict. The Mennonites, through the Mennonite Central Committee and its international Conciliation Service, have been leaders in this emerging area of expertise. This collection of new essays chronicles, analyses, and evaluates the Mennonite contribution to the new cultural paradigm in conflict resolution and peacebuilding theory and practice.

John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the 'moral imagination.'

John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the "moral imagination."

This much-needed handbook offers conflict resolution professionals working (or planning to work) in foreign countries a critical, step-by-step guide for dealing with difficult and potentially dangerous disputes in other nations. The editors, John Paul Lederach and Janice Moomaw Jenner, have gathered a stellar panel of seasoned experts who illustrate how to approach international peacebuilding with effective actions and approaches gained through experience that will contribute ultimately to a more positive outcome. Based on the experience of the contributors-- work as global peace brokers, the book includes a wide array of guidelines, pragmatic approaches, and models of constructive, culturally appropriate ways to respond to conflict.

Since the early 1950s, John Paul Lederach has traveled worldwide as a mediation trainer and conflict resolution consultant. He has worked with governments, justice departments, and youth programs in Latin America, the Philippines, Cambodia, Somalia, and Africa. Drawing on his experience, Lederach explains the process and key variables used in teaching conflict resolution. Lederach uses anecdotes and pertinent experiences to demonstrate his resolution techniques. The book will appeal to those involved in resolution activities through development, relief, and nongovernmental agencies.

The contributors to this book represent a wide breadth of scholarly approaches, including law, social and environmental science, engineering, as well as from the arts and humanities. The chapters explore what environmental violence is and does, and the variety of ways in which it affects different communities. The authors draw on empirical data from around the globe, including Ukraine, French Polynesia, Latin America, and the Arctic. The variety of responses to environmental violence by different communities, whether through active resistance or the creative arts, are also discussed, providing the foundation on which to build alternatives to the potentially damaging trajectory on which humans currently find themselves. This book is indispensable for researchers and policymakers in environmental policy and peacebuilding. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.