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The emergence of intrastate conflicts has not only laid bare the limitations of ‘liberal peace’ strategies but has also raised questions on the utility of such ‘top-down’ strategies in societies that use traditional methods for conflict resolution and transformation. Such limitations in liberal peace strategies have also generated interest in the utility of traditional conflict resolution and transformation methods, especially in the Global South. Using Volker Boege's framework of traditional conflict transformation and employing case studies from Papua New Guinea (PNG), Rwanda and Timor-Leste, this chapter argues why traditional methods of conflict resolution and transformation still bear relevance in societies where culture and custom play an important role in social harmony and peace. By discussing these cases and using the lessons learnt from their discussion, the chapter concludes that even with their apparent utility and use in ‘hybrid’ models of peace, such traditional methods should be employed with care and after understanding of various social, cultural and historical variables.

This paper aims to explain how peace research has influenced a re-conceptualization of the international relations (IR) notion of security and conflict, the nature of the global arena, how to effectively negotiate conflict resolution and strategies for peacebuilding. The paper argues that – although peace research had contributed to reducing the threat of interstate conflict – IR scholars have failed to recognize the need for a more inclusive theoretical strategy for dealing with the new challenge imposed by intrastate conflict.

The paper uses Cyprus as a case to compare the conflict management strategies of the liberal peace agenda and the integrative, multi-level, multi-dimensional approach to peacebuilding that is proposed by peace research. The Cyprus case is also used as an example of how the alternative approach to participatory political communication has moved the Cyprus situation off deadlock and in the direction of more promising outcomes.

The research reveals that although the liberal peace agenda (i.e. the state-centric and established diplomatic approach to conflict management) is effective in getting the two sides of the conflict to the negotiating table, it is inadequate in addressing the underlying cause of conflict; thus, in many instances, there is a reoccurrence of conflict and violence.

The paper is limited in its ability to place peace research within the context of theoretical developments in the field of IR (e.g. this is even more-so true in regard to researching international politics). Although peace research has made enormous contributions in reducing the threat of interstate conflict (e.g. it is acknowledged that peace research contributed to ending the Cold War, thus bringing about new perspectives on how the global arena is defined, the nature of conflict and the role of communicative action in global relations), there has not been a corresponding development in the theory and practice of IR.

The paper explains how recent developments in communication theory and information communication technology have altered the nature of the global arena and the factors impacting global social movements. Thus, the paper indicates factors that are vital to cross-border interactions, cross-border social movements and alternative approaches to interstate social-political activities that deserve further research.

The research analyzes the contribution to participatory political communication in conflict management, reconciliation and peacebuilding processes. The paper also highlights the role of alternative media as a component of the infrastructure for peace (e.g. in the Cyprus context, it provides a forum in which agents from an otherwise divided community can participate in establishing shared values and common objectives).

Cyprus represents one of the longest running conflicts and, in addition, one of the longest running peacekeeping missions of the UN. This paper explains how unique features of the peace research approach to peacebuilding contributes to producing more positive results in what has heretofore been a deadlock in the divided community of Cyprus. Thus, this paper provides an indication of how the lessons learned by peace researchers in the Cyprus micro context contribute to addressing macro-level IR challenges (e.g. north-south and east-west challenges that occur because of outlooks in the proverbial other).

Purpose – This paper aims to explain the concept of post-conflict peace education that has been implemented in East Aceh.

Design/Methodology/Approach – This research used the qualitative method where data were gathered by deep interview and study of documents.

Findings – The results show that the Aceh government education agency has not yet developed a standarized concept of peace education to be implemented throught out the schools in East Aceh. However, non-governmental agencies both national and international have stepped ahead and implemented it in formal and non-formal educational institutions. UNICEF and AusAID had facilitated the preparation of a peace education textbook which was written by academicians at UIN Ar-Raniry in 2005. It has been applied to many schools in East Aceh by incorporating peace education in to Aqidah Akhlak subject.

Research Limitations/Implications – The paper does not examine students’ understanding of peace education that can be learnt by incorporating concepts of peace education.

Practical Implications – The concept of peace education is feasible to be adopted at whole senior high school in Aceh.

Originality/Value – This paper offers a new concept of peace education, the liberal peace, religious peace, and traditional values that have been integrated in one subject to be taught at once.

In their chapter, ‘A method to compute a peace gross world product by country and by economic sector’, Jurgen Brauer and John Tepper Marlin present a novel method to assess the economic value of peace, in both the domestic and international realms. This is not only a tool for assessing and forecasting the potential benefits of reduced violence, but it is an example of best social science practice in that by design it incorporates the best existing knowledge on the effects of peace. This approach combining meta-analysis with a novel integrating framework is quite promising. For the purposes of the book, it sets the stage nicely for the subsequent chapters by highlighting the big picture of expected welfare gains from peace, within a rigorous scientific context, rather than one of advocacy. Estimating the potential economic benefits of internal and international peace is also fundamental in understanding the potential economic incentives which might drive political and business leaders to avoid deadly conflict, and pursue peace.

This Chapter is written in an era in which the United Nations (UN) routinely deploys Missions to environments that satisfy the armed conflict threshold. Such Missions often require personnel to employ significant levels of force, whether to safeguard mission and humanitarian personnel, to protect civilians, to neutralise violent armed groups or, in pure self-defence. But use as well as non-use of force can readily frustrate the very objectives these troops are deployed to uphold, in turn creating gaps between the Promises they make and the Outcomes they actually secure. On the other hand, current Missions such as MINUSMA in Mali have proven to be amongst the deadliest for UN troops in the entire history of UN Peacekeeping. The thin line between use and non-use of force must therefore be trodden with utmost care. This Chapter tries to find answers to this dilemma from a moral perspective and considers how the peculiar nature of the morality of resort to force by the UN influences that of its use of force. It assesses why the latter should be calibrated or adjusted to comply with the former, and how this can consequently channel UN troop conduct towards the objectives pursued through deployment. It is only where these realities are understood and addressed, the Chapter submits, that the aforementioned Gaps between Promises and Outcomes can be redressed and closed.

Capacity development in fragile environments in Africa has often proven to be a complex undertaking. This has largely been because of existing knowledge gaps on what exactly causes fragility of states, the economy and society. The liberal peace development model that generally informs post‐conflict reconstruction and capacity development has a limited conception of fragility by narrowly focusing on the national dimensions of the problem, promoting donor‐driven solutions, emphasizing minimal participation of beneficiary actors in the identification and prioritization of capacity development needs, and by subcontracting the design and management of projects and programs. The resulting capacity development impact has generally been disappointing. In the absence of homegrown strategic plans, stakeholder participation and ownership, international development partners have all too often addressed capacity gaps by financing training, supply of equipment and professional exchanges of parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers. These efforts usually achieved their presumed number targets but tended to ignore addressing the larger issues of political economy within which capacity development take place. However, the recent re‐conceptualization of parliamentary capacity development as a development of nationally owned, coordinated, harmonized, and aligned development activities seems to be gaining growing attention in Africa. As the experience of Rwanda eloquently demonstrates, capacity development is essentially about politics, economics and power, institutions and incentives, habits and attitudes – factors that are only partly susceptible to technical fixes and quantitative specifications. These structural factors have to be negotiated carefully and tactfully.

Purpose – This chapter assesses the extent to which ‘Econophoria’ (all problems seen as surmountable though development and economic growth) is justified with regard to the maintenance of peace in Northeast Asia where, despite ongoing tensions, outright war has been averted for half a century. Given that peace talks, international organisations and democratic dyads (alternative explanations for the absence of war) are in short supply, and in the context of regional economic ‘miracles’, the various economic peace mechanisms are addressed through analysis of Northeast Asian data.

Design/methodology/approach – The impact of economic development in relation to war and peace is seen to operate at both the macro-level between states (trade, interdependence) and at a micro, transformative level within them. This chapter applies Northeast Asian data to each of the theoretical traditions of economic peace to assess whether there is sufficient fit to provide grounds for optimism and therefore econophoria.

Findings – Owing to the limitations of socio-economic transformation and interdependence the impact of the spread of commerce is felt more at a socially constructed rather than rational cost–benefit level. Peace in Northeast Asia has not come through trade, but trade has facilitated improved conditions for the construction of a peaceful regional community.

Originality/value – This chapter offers grounds for cautious optimism with regard to the relative stability of the peace regime in a region considered one of the most dangerous in the world. However, it also warns levels of economic development and interdependence which are insufficient to take an econophoric determinist stance.

As of November 2021, six out of the 12 United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are in Sub-Saharan Africa, spread between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Western Sahara, Mali, Central African Republic, Abyei, South Sudan and Darfur. When considered alongside other recent conflicts in Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Mozambique, many of these conflicts are driven and sustained by resource looting of oil, minerals, timber, gas and fertile land and sand. Although other factors, particularly colonialism, the creation of poorly governed states, ethnic polarization, greed and extremism contribute to violence, the author argues that resource looting is central. Taking the DRC as the case study, the purpose of this paper is to examine why traditional UN peacekeeping, grounded in the international liberal order, has failed to efficiently deescalate wars and armed conflicts that are driven by resource looting and how alternative homegrown peace strategies can be more effective.

Deploying peacekeeping, peacebuilding and resource governance and theories, this paper examines the current UN peacekeeping efforts to increase our understanding of how alternative peacekeeping strategies found in African cultures, particularly indigenous epistemologies can be used to engender sustainable peace and security. The second argument is that sustainable peace and security cannot be solely exogenous, without integrating African cultural heritage, specifically African indigenous knowledge systems or epistemologies, a factor that is consistent with people’s right to self-determination and agency.

Peacekeeping that is exogenously enforced has failed to create sustainable peace and security in the DRC.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is original, based on the research conducted in the DRC. Following the academic writing norms, the data is backed up by literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent the economic interdependence can affect the likelihood of conflict between States. Specially, over the past few decades, there has been a huge interest in the relationship between economic interdependence and political conflict. Liberals argue that economic interdependence lowers the possibility of war by increasing the weight of trading over the alternative of aggression; interdependent states would rather trade than invade; realists dismiss the liberal argument, arguing that high interdependence increases rather than decreases the probability of war. In anarchy, states must constantly worry about their security.

This paper highlights the content and level of economic interdependence between China and the USA since the beginning of China’s economic reform in 1979 and examines the impact of economic interdependence between them on their relationship toward Taiwan since 1995 and the probability of conflict.

Economic interdependence is proved to significantly decrease the onset of conflict between the two parties. This can be shown by comparing the number of armed conflicts during the pre-interdependence period to the number of armed conflicts after the economic interdependence there was an overage of 0.79 militarized interstate disputes (MIDs)/year, compared to 0.26 MIDs/year following China’s economic reforms; also, the length of the hostilities was longer during the pre-interdependence period (with an average of 11.13 months versus 5.33 months).

This means that economic interdependence does not completely prevent the outbreak of international conflicts, but it also plays a major role in influencing the conflict in terms of the conflict’s intensity, the use of armed force and the number of conflicts that occur between the economic interdependence states.