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Scholars studying postwar settings are often highly critical of the work of NGOs in peacebuilding. In this chapter, I argue that many of the limitations of the NGO model are the result of the structure of funding. Using ethnographic and archival data from donors and NGOs engaging in peacebuilding in Croatia, this chapter examines the incentives build into the dominant donor–NGO model of funding. I find that the incentives for both donors and NGOs built into funding for peacebuilding lead to dysfunctional behavior by both donors and NGOs, and ultimately to ineffective and sometimes counterproductive peacebuilding projects. I find that donors actively shape the agenda of NGOs and push NGOs to see projects as the unit of peacebuilding. Donor funding is novelty seeking, rewarding NGOs for coming up with new project ideas and working in new locations. It also favors quantifiable events and activities for the purposes of reporting. In practice, these systematic preferences lead to the abandonment of successful projects, difficulty in securing long-term funding for work in troubled communities, and the favoring of countable events over development of the interpersonal relationships that are at the heart of successful peacebuilding.

The purpose of this paper is to spur further exploration of blockchain technologies for environmental peacebuilding, specifically through water management. Although the environmental peacebuilding field acknowledges the potentially transformative nature of frontier technologies, most existing studies do not address how such technologies can contribute to peacebuilding through improved natural resource governance. Using a theory synthesis research design, this conceptual paper connects these studies to discuss how blockchain technologies in water management may contribute to environmental peacebuilding through the efficient and transparent management of natural resources.

The authors use a conceptual approach and a theory synthesis research design to present potential mechanisms through which blockchain technology can potentially contribute to environmental peacebuilding.

The authors discuss the limitations in the literature on environmental peacebuilding, blockchain and water management, concluding that the third generation of studies should focus on the role of frontier technologies. This approach should especially address the negative consequences of technology for peacebuilding objectives. The authors argue that blockchain applications in water management can potentially contribute to environmental peacebuilding objectives in three ways: (i) creating a mechanism for confidence-building in low-trust contexts through automated and transparent water transactions, (ii) facilitating postconflict economic development through attracting capital and increasing the efficiency of water management and (iii) improving governance through greater transparency and local participation in natural resource management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to conceptually explore the use of blockchain technology for water management in the context of environmental peacebuilding. The insights from this study can guide policymakers of conflict sides that focus on resolving issues such as lack of governance and low state agency.

Physicians' uniquely privileged social status gives them influence to help prevent conflict in addition to treating its victims. Yet the peacebuilding role of physicians has received little attention in medical education. In this paper, the authors tackle both and provide some concrete guidance to medical schools interested in taking it on.

Using Qualitative Description, a review of literature and expert interviews in violence prevention, peacebuilding, medicine and medical education, three statements are posited: improved healthcare may enhance the prospects for peace; there are mechanisms by which healthcare may potentially enhance peacebuilding; and medical education can be designed to support these mechanisms. A “peace audit” is developed against which to evaluate the efforts of medical schools towards peacebuilding. This audit is used to assess a medical school in Nepal that is invested in peacebuilding.

Medicine has a role, both in resolving conflict, and in preventing its occurrence. The experts believe that physicians have a responsibility to go further than treating the wounded and address the root cause of conflict: the structural violence of poverty and economic disparity.

This paper considers the mechanisms by which medicine supports peacebuilding, and the consequences of this for medical education. The literature to date has not dealt with this issue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the idea of inclusion in women’s bottom-up peacebuilding in Ghana. Inspired by the growing importance of “inclusion” and “local empowerment” in the discourse and practice of local ownership in peacebuilding, this paper seeks to investigate the scope and degree of inclusion of key actors such as women and youth, and how that affects peacebuilding and sustainable peace in some conflict-affected zones.

This study adopts a cross-sectional case study design and qualitative strategy. It is based on semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions conducted with actors who have been engaged in grassroots peacebuilding in Ghana and West Africa. The analysis was largely inductive, identifying emerging themes and patterns in the research data.

The findings indicate that young women are usually absent or not engaged meaningfully in the mobilization of women and youth in the “inclusive” grassroots peacebuilding in Ghana. This is due to the prevalence of deep-seated cultural and political prejudices or stereotypes about women in the areas studied. As these local constructs and thus practices are difficult to change or challenge, peacebuilding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) usually deploy innovative ways by mobilizing socially constructed women’s positionalities – as “whistleblowers,” “cross-ethnic/cross-cultural actors” and “socially networked actors” – in ways that promote women in contemporary peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through mobilizing these stereotypes (to forestall possible provocation, especially from dominant actors or gatekeepers), peacebuilding NGOs have subtly positioned women centrally within a vibrant peace infrastructure in Ghana. Yet, due to the dominance of some patriarchal sociopolitical structures, only older women and young men occupy the spaces for women and youth’s peacebuilding.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first research papers to question not only the scope but also the degree of inclusion and participation of women in peacebuilding in sub-Sahara Africa. This has nuanced scholarly debates on the subject and encouraged the development of innovative programmes targeted at a more comprehensive gendered and youth-ed inclusion to address the inequality gap in peacebuilding discourses and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities for future organizational and leadership research presented by positioning dialogue related to the #MeToo movement within a peacebuilding agenda. The #MeToo movement raised public consciousness about the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment in schools, workplaces and other institutions by an international social media campaign. However, subsequent discussions are often charged with hostility and outrage that result in divisiveness within workplaces and other settings that can further silence about these issues. The authors argue a community peacebuilding framework can create space to have difficult conversations to further the efforts of the #MeToo movement.

The authors will discuss the implications of a peacebuilding framework by the discussion of a case study in a rural setting to highlight the ways in which community conversations necessary to further the goals of the #MeToo movement.

A grassroots community peacebuilding framework can present opportunities for victims, offenders, family members and the community to voice expressions harms experienced and to enable processes of accountability. Promotion of a positive relational peace includes opportunities for education, skill development and conflict resolution that are healing and transformative for individuals and communities.

The systemic social and cultural change required to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault must happen within face-to-face relationships within community dialogue.

The authors argue a critical relational peace lens offers an emancipatory framework that can initiate change from the bottom up to facilitate social healing and further the efforts of the #MeToo movement.

Grassroots peacebuilding invites a relational peace established by dialogue within communities. This dialogue is often not easy but is recognized as essential to establishing trust, resolving conflict and fostering community integrity.

In this paper, the authors offer a community peacebuilding framework to provide skill development and a vision necessary to host difficult conversations to inform the next wave of the #MeToo movement.

This chapter will explore the contribution of a major figure in peacebuilding – John Paul Lederach – and examine its relevance to leadership theory and practice. The first part of the chapter introduces Lederach and charts some of his key arguments with respect to peacebuilding. Lederach’s approach has not been applied previously to leadership. The second part will examine how it links to the co-charismatic leadership theory developed by Robinson and Smith (2014). This co-charismatic leadership theory is encompassed in seven Cs, that is, around shared responsibility for critical challenge, the development of consciousness, community, connectivity, creativity, commitment, the development of character (organisational and individual) and the nature of dialogue that will enable all these. The third part of the chapter will explore ideas and practices of peacebuilding in organisations through the lens of co-charismatic leadership theory (Robinson & Smith, 2014), with reference to Lederach’s (2005) ‘moral imagination’ and peacebuilding.

Peacebuilding is often premised on international intervention in post-conflict situations. This epilogue extends the concept to address preventative peacebuilding in pre-conflict societies. Social movement organizations that spring from democratically oriented movements can either reproduce dominant and dominating leadership styles, or they can cultivate democratizing leadership (Klein, 2016) by developing democratic practices, structures, and cultures within and between organizations. Democratizing leadership promotes leadership as a verb more than a noun: as the operation of power in relationship between people, rather than as positional power grounded in an authority figure. In democratizing leadership, democratic decision-making is preceded by the development of individual and collective voice and followed by responsible collective action. In addition to these processes, democratic values are also essential, including: freedom (differentiated from autonomy), justice (procedural, social, and restorative justice), and equity (more than equality), which underlie structural processes and inform practices. When social movement organizations find creative tension between ad hoc leadership and the tendency toward bureaucratization, they can cultivate a democratic culture through organizational practices and structures for preventative peacebuilding work. Leadership in such organizations recognizes and utilizes creative conflict to sustain agonistic pluralism and promote conflictual consensus (Mouffe, 2013). This epilogue provides examples of democratizing leadership from social movement organizations, including: In the Heart of the Beast Theater, Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, Neighborhood Leadership Program, and the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, that illustrate how democratizing leadership can be developed in pre-conflict preventative peacebuilding organizations by integrating democratic practices, structures, and cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the research literature on how sport can be used more productively as a peacebuilding device in post-conflict countries.

This paper uses interviewing method that includes both semi-structured and unstructured interviews with trainers, instructors and children involved in implementing Open Fun Football Schools (OFFSs) in Kosovo.

Findings show that OFFSs have played a vital role in peacebuilding in Kosovo by bringing together people from different ethnic backgrounds in Kosovo, which contributed to social inclusion of Albanians and Serbs, and other communities by changing their initial attitudes toward one another.

The main research limitation is the usage of semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires instead of structured questionnaires, which would provide more generalized conclusions about the OFFSs. More research is needed on this topic to investigate the effect of similar programs in other country contexts.

The most important practical implication of the research is that conflict mitigation through football sports programs and activities can be used in other similar contexts by donors and the international community. OFFSs offer a hope for peacebuilding, and if adequately implemented can contribute to peacebuilding in post-conflict societies similar to Kosovo’s context. The positive attitude changes as a result of participation in the OFFS programs shows that these joint programs can promote better ethnic relations. There is a need for the expansion of such programs to reach more people.

The study provides an original contribution as there has been almost no prior research which actually measured the effects of OFFSs on change of youth attitudes through the integrated sport programs with different ethnicity in Kosovo.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for an integrative model of social enterprises (SE) and social marketing (SM) to usher in desirable change, instead of the currently adopted either/or approach. We offer the shadow framework to integrate these two paradigms in the context of peace-building organizations.

Using purposive sampling strategy, 19 cases of peacebuilding initiatives were identified and reviewed from secondary sources. Ashoka Fellows working in the domain of peacebuilding, along with a few other exemplary cases across the globe were considered.

We found an emerging typology of three forms in the organizational responses to peacebuilding initiatives: (a) pure charity-driven work, (b) dual structure of charity plus business enterprises, and (c) social enterprises with distinct revenue model.

Building upon previous theoretical research, we find a lot of merit in SEs adopting the SM toolkit. We contribute to theory building by showing the interaction between paradox theory and stakeholder marketing in the context of SEs dealing with wicked problems such as peacebuilding. Consequently, we propose a shadow social marketing (SSM) model that would camouflage the real offering of peace through an apparent offering that would be non-controversial in nature and result in moderate-importance small wins for the multiple stakeholders involved with conflicting interests.

From a managerial perspective, chances of success of the desired social change increases by complementing the efforts of SEs through the SM toolkit. Organizationally, although all the three forms of peacebuilding initiatives can benefit from systematic usage of the SSM, they need to reframe their efforts toward those that are not pro-peace, rather than preach to the converted. Consequently, the answer may lie in efforts at building cultural sensitivity to promote entrepreneurship amongst such target groups amongst such target groups in conflicting communities, with an organizational form that successfully marries SEs and SM.

Though previous scholarship mentions the need for finding complementarities between social marketing objectives and social enterprise missions, no paper yet has suggested a roadmap for achieving it. This paper highlights an integrative plan that, in this specific case of peacebuilding initiatives, or social enterprises in general, can leverage to evolve better organizational practices, improve financial sustainability and measurable impact to effect the desired social change.

Democratization has become the prescription for peace in conflictual societies, but often stagnates in a political standoff or devolves back to war. Sustainable and effective democracy in these societies requires a citizenry which actively guides and pressures political leaders toward effective policy making for peace. But in societies with little or no democratic tradition, it takes time to develop the attitudes and organizations required. This study examines the relationship of democratic exposure to the development of the ideology of external political participation among peacebuilding NGOs. Using original field interview data, it compares the ideology of 28 peacebuilding NGOs in Northern Ireland to 37 in the less democratic context of Bosnia. The study examines the effects of exposure to democracy on “externally democratic ideology,” defined as an ideology of participation in the political processes of society external to the organization. Three aspects of exposure to democracy are examined: societal democratization, internal democracy in the NGO, and mentorship by outsiders from established democracies. The findings are that internal democracy is associated with externally democratic ideology, but outsider mentorship is not, even when controlling for dominating relationships, and neither is societal democracy, except indirectly via its effect on internal democracy. Implications for theory, policy, and future research are discussed.