A Handbook of International Peacebuilding: Into the Eye of the Storm Tapa dura - 2002

When the telephone rings (or the e-mail, fax, or letter arrives), the journalist's time-honored questions present themselves: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?

More and more, mediators and conflict resolution professionals are traveling the world to resolve ethnic, religious, political, economic, and organizational conflicts. Often these professionals find themselves moving quickly into exotic settings of apparently intractable and often violent conflict. However, the training and experience they've gained on the home front do not always provide sufficient guidance and assure success in the more complex arena of international conflict resolution.

This much-needed handbook offers conflict resolution professionals working (or planning to work) in foreign countries a critical, step-by-step guide for dealing with difficult and potentially dangerous disputes in other nations. The editors, John Paul Lederach and Janice Moomaw Jenner, have gathered a stellar panel of seasoned experts who illustrate how to approach international peacebuilding with effective actions and approaches gained through experience that will contribute ultimately to a more positive outcome. Based on the experience of the contributors-- work as global peace brokers, the book includes a wide array of guidelines, pragmatic approaches, and models of constructive, culturally appropriate ways to respond to conflict.

A Handbook of International Peacebuilding will go a long way to address the vital questions that international conflict resolution professionals need answered, including:

• How do I find out what's really going on in an unfamiliar culture with long-standing historical and social context?
• How can I understand the way they're thinking?
• What is an appropriate time frame?
• What is the role of the local government and other indigenous institutions?
• How can I identify and assess the various principals?
• How can I accommodate the local mores, ethics, and traditions?

This indispensable handbook provides the framework, techniques, range of potential interventions, and realistic guidelines for building and bringing to closure a peaceful process-- from the first phone call to the last plane home--that could take place anywhere in the world.