Civil society plays an increasingly powerful role in the global landscape, emerging as key actors in preventing and managing conflict, and building more peaceful and sustainable societies . The multiple case studies featured in this volume illustrate the growth of civil society involvement in national, regional, and international peacebuilding policy. The focus is on multi-stakeholder, systems-based approaches to peacebuilding and human security that involve diverse civil society groups (NGOs, religious organizations, media, etc.), government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and security forces. This unique comprehensive approach encompasses diverse stakeholders seeking to understand the drivers of conflict and the possibilities for working together to build peace. The book illustrates how the involvement of civil society can result in better informed, more inclusive, more accountable government decision making, and more effective peacebuilding policies. Importantly, a number of the case studies provide a gender perspective on peacebuilding and civil society issues, voicing and giving attention to women's perspectives without being focused only on gender issues. Further, authors from the Global South offer the perspectives of those directly immersed in ongoing struggles for justice and peace.

About the Author
David Cortright is the Director of Policy Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. Melanie Greenberg is the President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Laurel Stone is Program Manager for Policy Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

Reviews
This important book provides valuable insights about the expanding role of civil society in building sustainable peace. The wide-ranging authors expertly specify and analyze the complex relations within, as well as between, civil society and state organizations in transnational and societal settings. The book should be read by persons engaged in overcoming destructive conflicts, by students and scholars studying their efforts, and by all who would support the work of establishing inclusive and enduring peace. -- Louis Kriesberg, Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies
A timely contribution, combining new conceptual approaches on the power of civil society and human security with case studies examining diverse and innovative ways through which civil society organizations around the world have engaged with political and military actors in order to challenge and shape existing power structures. A very recommended reading! -- Thania Paffenholz, IPTI, Graduate Institute, Geneva/Switzerland



Book Information
ISBN 9781442258563
Author David Cortright
Format Paperback
Page Count 324
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 149mm * 20mm