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The research articles in this volume were initially presented at a conference, entitled “Cutting Edge Theories and Recent Developments in Conflict Resolution,” which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC) at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Presenters were encouraged to submit their papers for consideration, and following a rigorous peer review and revision process, nine articles were accepted. The volume explores some of the major themes of conflict analysis, including how powerful dominant discourses can both soothe and exacerbate conflict, the roles of civic organizations in promoting peace and incubating democratic principles, the ways in which different forms of dialogue are used to heal historically dysfunctional intergroup relations, and the importance of a deeply institutional, structural understanding of ethnocentrism and racism. The authors conducted their research in several different countries – the US, Canada, Bosnia, and Northern Ireland – and used a wide range of analytical techniques including in-depth interviews, surveys, and document analysis. What holds them together is the rigorous tie they make between theory and empirical data. Some authors have built conflict theory inductively, based on their own research and/or secondary sources, while others have tested existing models with empirical data. These articles collectively make a solid contribution to theoretical development in the conflict analysis field.

Thomas E. Boudreau graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Boston College. He completed his PhD in the Social Science Program in 1985 at the Maxwell School of Citizen and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. While at the Maxwell School, Boudreau was the research assistant for Donald T. Campbell, the Schweitzer Chair of the Humanities at Syracuse University. He also worked as Project Director of the Crisis Management and United Nations Research Projects at the Carnegie Council in New York City. He taught at the School of International Service at American University and the University of Pennsylvania before coming back to the Maxwell School where he currently teaches in the Political Science Department. He is also a research fellow at the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Cambridge, MA, where he has specialized in issues of global governance, global climate change, and nonproliferation. Boudreau has written two books: Sheathing the Sword: The U.N. Secretary-General and the Prevention of International Conflict and Universitas: The Social Restructuring of Undergraduate Education in the United States. He is currently working on a third book, The Law of Nations: Legal Order in a Violent World. He has a special interest in interdisciplinary inquiry, especially competing epistemologies and how they contribute to interpersonal, intergroup, and international conflict.

The Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC) at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is widely and rightly regarded as a leading center in the theory and practice of conflict analysis and its resolution. In a fitting tribute to its 20th anniversary, many researchers, academics, and practitioners who once studied there returned in 2007 to present their current research and work in the field. This wonderfully edited collection of peer-reviewed papers is the welcome result, and is yet another example of the cutting-edge work that has long been associated with PARC.

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.

The graduate field of conflict resolution is composed of an eclectic mix of programs, departments, centers, institutes, and think tanks which conduct a wide range of theory development, basic and applied research, service and teaching functions. Prior research on the graduate field has been limited mainly to either direct comparisons between a few graduate programs or summaries of progress made by program clusters, with the largest being a study of 18 programs. The composition and activities of the graduate field as a whole are not well understood, yet are hotly debated. This research attempts to fill part of this knowledge gap by specifically examining all known graduate programs in Peace Studies (PS), Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Conflict Resolution (CR) in the United States that award verifiable graduate credentials (i.e., certificates, masters, or doctoral degrees) in PS, ADR, or CR. The participants in this study therefore constitute the entire known population (N=94) of graduate credential granting programs in the United States that collectively award roughly 164 certificate and/or degree options. The results of this study constitute a baseline from which to specifically examine and compare program factors including: program location, size, student composition, faculty credentials and areas of expertise. This study also examines program content, including curriculum content, design, and delivery, areas of training specialization; and those elements that participants report make their programs unique. These and other results provide a means of comparing program types and individual program innovations in regard to curriculum, service, research agendas, and areas of practice. The study concludes with participants’ ideas on what program development trends we can expect to see in the coming years as well as where the academy is or is not meeting social needs.

In my view, during the coming decades, research in peace and conflict studies will be characterized by work on nonstate actors, identities, structural inequalities, and multilateral action. Our interdisciplinary research in these areas will be aimed at consolidating our understandings of these factors at all levels of society, from the individual to the macro. It will then: (i) develop understandings of how the dynamics of actions at each level affect and are affected by the other levels, and (ii) develop strategies as to how to promote constructive change in these dynamics, leading to the integration of theory with practice. I turn to some brief comments on each of these areas.