Business and Peacebuilding – Serie

The intersection of business, peace and sustainable development is becoming an increasingly powerful space, and is already beginning to show the capability to drive major global change. This book deciphers how different forms of corporate engagement in the pursuit of peace and development have different impacts and outcomes. It looks specifically at how the private sector can better deliver peace contributions in fragile, violent and conflict settings and then at the deeper consequences of this agenda upon businesses, governments, international institutions and not least the local communities that are presumed to be the beneficiaries of such actions. It is the first book to compile the state-of-the-field in one place and is therefore an essential guide for students, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners on the role of business in peace. Without cross-disciplinary engagement, it is hard to identify where the cutting edge truly lies, and how to take the topic forward in a more systematic manner. This edited book brings together thought leaders in the field and pulls disparate strands together from business ethics, management, international relations, peace and conflict studies in order to better understand how businesses can contribute to peacebuilding and sustainable development. Before businesses take a deeper role in the most complicated and risky elements of sustainable development, we need to be able to better explain what works, why it works, and what effective business efforts for peace and development mean for the multilateral institutional frameworks. This book does just that.

The intersection of business, peace and sustainable development is becoming an increasingly powerful space, and is already beginning to show the capability to drive major global change. This book deciphers how different forms of corporate engagement in the pursuit of peace and development have different impacts and outcomes. It looks specifically at how the private sector can better deliver peace contributions in fragile, violent and conflict settings and then at the deeper consequences of this agenda upon businesses, governments, international institutions and not least the local communities that are presumed to be the beneficiaries of such actions. It is the first book to compile the state-of-the-field in one place and is therefore an essential guide for students, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners on the role of business in peace. Without cross-disciplinary engagement, it is hard to identify where the cutting edge truly lies, and how to take the topic forward in a more systematic manner. This edited book brings together thought leaders in the field and pulls disparate strands together from business ethics, management, international relations, peace and conflict studies in order to better understand how businesses can contribute to peacebuilding and sustainable development. Before businesses take a deeper role in the most complicated and risky elements of sustainable development, we need to be able to better explain what works, why it works, and what effective business efforts for peace and development mean for the multilateral institutional frameworks. This book does just that.

Business schools are placing more emphasis on the role of business in society. Top business school accreditors are shifting to mandating that schools teach their students about the social impact of business, including AACSB standards to require the incorporation of business impact on society into all elements of accredited institutions. Researchers are also increasingly focused on issues related to sustainability, but in particular to business and peace as a field.A strong strain of scholarship argues that ethics is nurtured by emotions and through aesthetic quests for moral excellence. The arts (and music as shown specifically in this book) can be a resource to nudge positive emotions in the direction toward ethical behavior and, logically, then toward peace. Business provides a model for positive interactions that not only foster long-term successful business but also incrementally influences society. This book provides an opportunity for integration and recognition of how music (and other art forms) can further encourage business toward the direction of peace while business provides a platform for the dissemination and modeling of the positive capabilities of music toward the aims of peace in the world today. The primary market for this book is the academic audience. Unlike many other academic books, however, the interdisciplinary nature of the book allows for multiple academic audiences. Thus, this book reaches into schools of music, business, political science, film studies, sports and society studies, the humanities, ethics and, of course, peace studies.

Business schools are placing more emphasis on the role of business in society. Top business school accreditors are shifting to mandating that schools teach their students about the social impact of business, including AACSB standards to require the incorporation of business impact on society into all elements of accredited institutions. Researchers are also increasingly focused on issues related to sustainability, but in particular to business and peace as a field.A strong strain of scholarship argues that ethics is nurtured by emotions and through aesthetic quests for moral excellence. The arts (and music as shown specifically in this book) can be a resource to nudge positive emotions in the direction toward ethical behavior and, logically, then toward peace. Business provides a model for positive interactions that not only foster long-term successful business but also incrementally influences society. This book provides an opportunity for integration and recognition of how music (and other art forms) can further encourage business toward the direction of peace while business provides a platform for the dissemination and modeling of the positive capabilities of music toward the aims of peace in the world today. The primary market for this book is the academic audience. Unlike many other academic books, however, the interdisciplinary nature of the book allows for multiple academic audiences. Thus, this book reaches into schools of music, business, political science, film studies, sports and society studies, the humanities, ethics and, of course, peace studies.

This book examines the relationship between business-based peacebuilding and the opportunities that emerge from the pluralisation of regulation. The core message is, notwithstanding the broad range of regulatory initiatives and actors that exist in conflict-affected settings, the state should assume responsibilities for defining the types of contribution that business can and ought to make to peace. It also demonstrates how the state, through different forms and methods of regulation, is well-placed to engage businesses to do so. It is particularly concerned with the potential for regulation to help address what is identified as a state of optimistic uncertainty in the field of business and peacebuilding. On one level, there is a sense of optimism around the types of contributions that businesses can and often do make as agents for peace. On another, there are varying degrees of uncertainty surrounding the actual peacebuilding impacts of business activities; how businesses are to understand the ways in which to make these contributions, and why businesses would do so. Regulation, this book will argue, can play an important role in bridging the chasm between optimism and uncertainty. This book will be of interest to those engaged not only with business and peacebuilding but also business and human rights, business and development and business and the environment. Moreover, this book is also of contemporary interest in other ways – the aftermath of the Ukranian conflict, as an example, will require a concerted effort to rebuild that society after war. Private sector actors could be a powerful vehicle for reconstruction and development and this book examines how regulation can be used to facilitate businesses involvement in peacebuilding efforts.

This book examines the relationship between business-based peacebuilding and the opportunities that emerge from the pluralisation of regulation. The core message is, notwithstanding the broad range of regulatory initiatives and actors that exist in conflict-affected settings, the state should assume responsibilities for defining the types of contribution that business can and ought to make to peace. It also demonstrates how the state, through different forms and methods of regulation, is well-placed to engage businesses to do so. It is particularly concerned with the potential for regulation to help address what is identified as a state of optimistic uncertainty in the field of business and peacebuilding. On one level, there is a sense of optimism around the types of contributions that businesses can and often do make as agents for peace. On another, there are varying degrees of uncertainty surrounding the actual peacebuilding impacts of business activities; how businesses are to understand the ways in which to make these contributions, and why businesses would do so. Regulation, this book will argue, can play an important role in bridging the chasm between optimism and uncertainty. This book will be of interest to those engaged not only with business and peacebuilding but also business and human rights, business and development and business and the environment. Moreover, this book is also of contemporary interest in other ways – the aftermath of the Ukranian conflict, as an example, will require a concerted effort to rebuild that society after war. Private sector actors could be a powerful vehicle for reconstruction and development and this book examines how regulation can be used to facilitate businesses involvement in peacebuilding efforts.