OJPCR: The Online Journal of
Peace and Conflict Resolution is a resource for students, teachers and
practitioners in fields relating to the reduction and elimination of
destructive conflict. It is a free, yet valuable, source of information to aid
anyone trying to work toward a less violent and more cooperative
world.
Issue 5.1
Experience
From
Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding
From
Violence to Peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Personal
Empowerment as the Missing Ingredient for a Resolution of the Israel/Palestine
Conflict
Creating a More Peaceful Classroom Community by Assessing Student
Participation and Process
Analysis
To Protect
Democracy (Not Practice It): Explanations of Dyadic Democratic Intervention
(DDI)
Why did
the Colombia Peace Process Fail?
Truth and
Reconciliation: The Road Not Taken in Namibia
Africa
Crisis Response Initiative: Its Workability as a Framework for Conflict
Prevention and Resolution
Culture, Gender, Power and Conflict in Melanie Thernstrom's
Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder
Kant's
Perpetual Peace: A New Look at this Centuries-Old Quest
An Analysis
of Bloody Sunday
The
Jewish Group: Highlighting the Culture Problem in Nation-States
How Can I
Teach Peace When the Book Only Covers War?
Cooperation in Pluralistic Societies: An Analytic Mathematical
Approach
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Publications of Interest
Books
Conflict Resolution |
Ethnic Conflict | History | International
Relations/Diplomacy | Reconciliation | General
Reconciliation
Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy &
Conflict Transformation Edited by Raymond G. Helmick, S. J. and Rodney
L. Petersen. 2001. Philadelphia, Templeton Foundation Press. 450 pp with
index.
Religion and Reconciliation in South Africa Edited by
Audrey R. Chapman and Bernard Spong. 2003 Philadelphia, Templeton
Foundation Press. 321 pp with index. Paper, $22.95.
Both of these books
are the product of projects funded by the John Templeton Foundation that
examine religion and conflict resolution. The articles in Forgiveness and
Reconciliation developed from a conference at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University in 1999. While reconciliation is more often
the term heard in conflict resolution circles, Forgiveness and Reconcilation
unabashedly focuses on forgiveness first, and forgiveness as a process of
reconciliation second. The book is divided into four sections, examining the
history of the concept of reconciliation, forgiveness and public policy,
forgiveness and reconciliation, and post-conflict forgiveness.
Along
with a thorough discussion of the role of reconciliation and forgiveness in
conflict resolution, this book includes a number of insights into the role of
contemporary religion in conflict. These views move well beyond simple notions
that a resurgence in religion is the same as a resurgence in
religious-motivated violence. While the literature on forgiveness and
reconciliation is growing rapidly, Forgiveness and Reconciliation deserves a
place on any conflict resolution reading list.
Religion and
Reconciliation in South Africa is the product of a project of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, which conducted interviews with
many participants in the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa.
Since it felt the religious aspect of this process was especially important,
many of these individuals represented various religious groups.
The
book itself is split into two sections. The first includes the interviews
conducted by Bernard Sprong. These are separated by religion and each group is
represented by a number of interviewees. This approach, with just a simple
overview paragraph at the beginning of each chapter and a single sentence
noting an important thought at the beginning of each interview, allows the
reader to draw much from the speakers themselves.
The second section
includes two essays, one about the role of the church in the truth and
reconciliation process and the second on the possibility of inter-religious
reconciliation. While these are informative, it is the voices of the South
Africans themselves that come through most clearly in Religion and
Reconciliation in South Africa. |
I Thought
We'd Never Speak Again: The Road from Estrangement to Reconciliation By
Laura Davis. 2002. New York, HarperCollins. 342 pp with index.
In I
Thought We'd Never Speak Again, Laura Davis examines reconciliation, primarily
in interpersonal relationships. Davis alternates between stories of
reconciliation and helpful guidance about seeking reconciliation in our own
lives. Practitioners of conflict resolution will find interesting material,
especially in the narratives Davis uses to illustrate her discussion, but this
is not a book that is aimed at third parties in particular. Davis focuses
instead on helping the individuals harmed by a damaged relationship themselves
and this book may be of more interest as something passed to individuals in
conflict. |
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