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Over 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can disrupt this pattern over time. Addressing this concern, the developmental peace-building model calls for a dynamic, multi-level and longitudinal approach. Using an innovative statistical approach, this study aims to investigate the associations among four youth peace-building dimensions and quality peace.

Multi-level time-series network analysis of a data set containing 193 countries and spanning the years between 2011 and 2020 was performed. This statistical approach allows for complex modelling that can reveal new patterns of how different youth peace-building dimensions (i.e. education, engagement, information, inclusion), identified through rapid evidence assessment, promote quality peace over time. Such a methodology not only assesses between-country differences but also within-country change.

While the within-country contemporaneous network shows positive links for education, the temporal network shows significant lagged effects for all four dimensions on quality peace. The between-country network indicates significant direct effects of education and information, on average, and indirect effects of inclusion and engagement, on quality peace.

This approach demonstrates a novel application of multi-level time-series network analysis to explore the dynamic development of quality peace, capturing both stability and change. The analysis illustrates how youth peace-building dimensions impact quality peace in the macro-system globally. This investigation of quality peace thus illustrates that the science of peace does not necessitate violent conflict.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of cross‐communal cooperation and its contribution to peacebuilding and reconciliation in Northern Ireland through the opinions of 752 respondents.

A multivariate analysis of the respondents' opinions was gathered through a Public Opinion Survey (MBU 2006), which addresses the issue of physical separation of the Catholic and Protestant communities in the context of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Findings indicate that religion is a key variable in any discussion of the sustainability of the Northern Ireland peace process in relation to cross‐community initiatives, social and economic integration as well as existing divisions between both communities. Moreover, professional and skilled worker respondents disagreed that the impacts of physical separation between both communities supports the peace process. Catholic Nationalists and respondents from Belfast city and the Western region of Northern Ireland were less likely to perceive the physical separation of both communities as negatively impacting the peace process.

The implication for practice necessitates that the liberal peacebuilding model includes hybrid approaches to harness external economic aid in post‐accord societies that are inclusive of local people, ideas and concerns.

The value of the paper to practitioners and policymakers is that the research on the impact of external economic aid on cross community conflict must include the triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative methods to fully grasp its complexity.

The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize how managers of multinational enterprises (MNEs) manage risk, particularly in fragile and/or conflict-affected areas of operation. The authors suggest that MNEs consider reducing risk at its source rather than trying to avoid or react to risks as they occur. By incorporating peacebuilding strategies, managers may not only reduce investment risk but also contribute to stability and prosperity in the communities where they operate, and gain a competitive advantage in doing so.

The authors show how firms can take a more holistic approach to working in conflict-affected areas. They do so by overlaying conceptualizations of risk with those of peacebuilding and then use case examples to illustrate how such actions work in practice.

Using a series of examples, the authors find that MNEs that incorporate peacebuilding frameworks in their risk calculations in complex settings tend to have a better understanding of local environments and how they affect firm operations and profitability. These same MNEs may hold a long-term advantage over international competitors that do not share the same understanding.

The authors argue that the study of relationships between international businesses and society in conflict-affected or fragile areas of operation is under-developed and tends to focus on negative (risk-aversion) aspects as opposed to positive (value-added) opportunities. This paper offers new ways in which these relationships can be reconceptualized. The authors’ main takeaway is that a peacebuilding approach does not require corporations to be arbitrators of peace at the expense of profit. Rather, it is instead a broader way to conceptualize and weigh risk when working in the world’s most challenging regions. This approach is more likely to be in the long-term interest of both the firm and the local society where the firm operates.

This paper aims to present a new survey data set of 9,065 private sector respondents and other stakeholder groups, in Myanmar. The primary aim of this paper is to offer new insight avenues on local business–conflict–development interactions, and offer the full survey data set itself as an open-source research tool for scholars and practitioners.

The survey was conducted over smartphone in 2018. It asked questions that aimed to better understand the relationships between business, ethnic conflict, investment, corporate social responsibility and the United Nations sustainable development goals in Myanmar and in Rakhine State in particular.

The data set captures a series of significant differences in corporate leadership perspectives on the role of business in society, across sectors (e.g. banking, agriculture, retail, manufacturing, extractives) and variations across firm country of ownership (e.g. national firms, Global North firms, Indian firms, Chinese firms).

The authors conclude with a brief discussion of possible research findings from the survey, offering suggestions for possible forward analysis. The authors offer here the raw survey data as an attachment for full global open-source use and application.

This data set offers a unique window into stakeholder perceptions and understandings of working through conflict, and the role of business in development in a fragile conflict-affected state (Myanmar). The authors also conduct two example analyses of the data set using ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests to illustrate possible uses and findings of the data set.

The authors briefly discuss social implications as well, particularly regarding the role of business in peacebuilding and development.

This data set offers a unique window into stakeholder perceptions and understandings of working through conflict, and the role of business in development in a fragile conflict-affected state (Myanmar). The authors also conduct two example analyses of the data set using ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests to illustrate possible uses and findings of the data set.

This section highlights the varied roles and contexts in which women contribute to both conflict resolution and conflict transformation. Three of the five chapters feature or include indigenous or traditional women's activities. Tursunova and Stobbe conduct primary research in their countries of origin, illustrating the traditional contexts in which women build and sustain social networks that contribute to conflict resolution and empowerment. Their studies not only widen the spectrum of potential conflict resolution settings but also broaden narrow conceptions of women's empowerment, such as gender mainstreaming that focus primarily on women's direct involvement in political systems overlooking traditional community means of decision making. Snyder's research expands peacebuilding models by putting the transnational social networking of refugee women's organizations at the center of her analysis and in the process, challenges the meaning of “local,” traditional conflict resolution by focusing on indigenous peoples in the context of a refugee camp or host country. Snyder, Tursunova, and Chawansky integrate development literature, bridging interdisciplinary fields and highlighting the interest of international development agencies in women's peace activities in the context of protracted conflict. Chawansky, in particular, critiques the ideology, both feminist and post-feminist, of peace and development agencies offering sports activities to girls in conflict arenas. Finally, Snyder, Graybill, Stobbe, and Chawansky include in their analysis the impact of UN mandates (e.g., UNSCRs on women, peace, and security, and the UN Millennium Development Goals) on gendered peacebuilding strategies from the grassroots to the transnational level.

Psychological trauma has not been considered to be a primary factor in reconciliation, peacebuilding, and (re-)integration into society during and after conflict and with vulnerable groups. Frequently, it is seen by those in leadership “soft” and often has been characterized as “irrelevant” in comparison with such factors as politics and economics.

We believe that bottom-up work is equally important as top-down work, if not more so, in creating viable societies, particularly during and after conflict and with marginalized groups as refugees, people with mental health reactions, former prisoners, and other vulnerable groups. We have seen that people whom we call “peer supporters” under good supervision can function extremely well. In our experience, in many cases, “experts” do not understand the issues and cultural aspects vital to such groups and thus function less well than people with less formal education but who are within the communities concerned.

The CWWPP has developed a highly participatory method known as Pragmatic Empowerment Training (PET) to train and supervise such people.

We stress that these are long-term processes and that current expectations of donors and others for short-term solutions have been unrealistic. We see such work as preventing violence and encouraging integration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural factors responsible for why “donor darling” has not changed the pitfalls of stagnation and lifted post‐conflict Sierra Leone out of poverty.

The study adopts a bottom‐up approach (“through the eyes of the poor”) and a combination of primary and secondary research methods – substantial desk research to investigate and review documentation related to the project and field interviews with development stakeholders at the national, district, and community levels with humanitarian aid workers, local civil society organisations, international non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and national government officials.

It is argued that aid without the necessary local institutional structure for effective coordination and stringent aid conditionality – and therefore narrow focus – has stifled sustainable socio‐economic development initiatives. The international community's narrow definition and support for liberal peace, in tandem with the overarching neoliberal economic paradigm and failure to embrace an inclusivist approach to peacebuilding, has further stonewalled effective reconstruction, growth and development.

The paper calls the attention of development NGOs to be self‐reflexive, “wear native spectacles”, coordinate their actions and avoid “development as dependence”, by prioritizing what matters most to the beneficiaries of development. The basis of effective and sustainable socio‐economic development is institutional building.

This study aims to understand how the coevolution of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and emerging economy institutions affects social and economic (in)equality in an ambiguous, emerging economy context from a political actor perspective.

Qualitative in nature, the study builds on conversations with 20 political actors involved in the peacebuilding process in Myanmar/Burma. It analyzes their perceptions of interaction of MNEs and host economy institutions from a social constructionist viewpoint.

The study identifies four coevolution patterns which portray the evolving interaction between MNE activities and different elements of their host institutional environment as well as their consequences for social and economic (in)equality.

This study contributes to critical international business research on emerging economies by emphasizing the different and partly conflicting host institutions of various stakeholder groups involved in the coevolution of MNEs and host institutional environments. The more nuanced conceptualization of the complex institutional environment enables the analysis of inequality as a direct and indirect outcome of MNE–institution interaction. Thus, the study connects to the business and human rights discussion and provides insight into the consequences of MNEs’ adoption of social and environment standards.

The purpose of this paper is to promote communication by using music, and through mutual understanding and culture exchange to establish world peace.

The research explains why music promotes world peace and gives examples through empirical research and statistics.

Music (those genres with harmonious melodies, with peaceful purposes and without religious, political objectives) can break down the borders of nation states and bind humanity together. Quoting J.J. Keki’s words: “Peace will begin with simple people.” “We should use whatever we have to create peace. If you think you have the body, use the body to bring peace; if you have music, use your music.” Music contains huge potential of contribution to peacebuilding, such as removal of direct and indirect violence, igniting hope and will of life and help integrating peacefully among communities.

Peacebuilding should not remain as a theoretical idea, as it is argued that it is useful to implement within daily life. Music is a language of communication which can remove hostility. While potentially a good tool for constructing harmony, music can, however, also result in deleterious effects, if it is misused.

Conflict resolution theory and practice have often neglected the contributions of women in peacebuilding. To obtain a more balanced perspective, the work of women's movements, peace movements, and other social movements have attempted to highlight the importance of women's roles in society and their active participation in peacemaking activities throughout the world. This study hopes to contribute to recognizing gender in conflict resolution by examining the rituals of conflict resolution in Laos and the legacy of women working for peace. Through this gender lens, it highlights the importance of Lao women's work in the soukhouan ceremony, a conflict resolution ritual that is integral to Lao culture. The soukhouan ritual demonstrates characteristics that are vital to any peacebuilding effort, specifically how women are actively working to repair harm, restore relationships, and organize support networks that are essential for reconciliation in communities experiencing conflict. This research adds to conflict resolution literature that validates how women are playing a vital role in all stages of peacebuilding.