Kjell-Ake Nordquist – författare

This book brings together a variety of perspectives on how religion can be related to violence and war--both in a destructive and constructive way. Religion can justify and mobilize violence--even terrorism or guerilla wars--just like political ideology. But how is such a link between religion and violent behavior established in the first place? How can we go further in understanding this possible connection between religion and war?Is religious peace work just the flip side of religious support of war? Or can peace work be informed by knowing about how religion promotes violence and war? In the search for answers to the puzzle of religion and war, it is easy to focus on conflict and war situations, but maybe there is as much to learn from peace work as from war studies? Therefore, this book also analyses religious peace work from different contexts. The multifaceted presence of religion in conflict situations--whether justifying violence or promoting peace--is illustrated in this book using a variety of situations, in an enlightening panorama of one of today''s must puzzling social connections: religion and armed conflict.Contributors include: R. Scott Appleby, Goran Gunner, Mariyahl Hoole, Mark Juergensmeyer, Anne Kubai, Kjell-Åke Nordquist, Jehan Perera, Jennifer Schirmer, Nari Senanayake, and Maria Smaberg.

Is "political reconciliation" a new tool for peace-building and justice--in peace processes and other complex social reconstruction efforts-after dictatorship or civil wars? Or is it just another term for established practices like negotiation, conflict resolution, and cooperation? Reconciliation processes after conflict and war can be very different in form and content. Kjell-Ake Nordquist analyzes the concept of reconciliation from a political perspective and outlines an understanding of its characteristics in a comparison with its closest "conceptual relatives": forgiveness and conflict resolution. In addition, Nordquist specifically addresses the structural dimensions of reconciliation, and formulates an understanding of reconciliation that identifies a specific contribution to the settlement of political conflicts. In this way, political reconciliation has the potential to be an approach that, along with other activities, contributes to more complete and genuine peace processes.