I have been wanting to read much more of John Paul Lederach’s work, but just haven’t made it happen – until now. I read through his Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, which was written close to twenty years ago.
Since I began my academic journey in peace studies a bit over 3 years ago, there’s a lot of peace lingo. There’s peacemaking, there’s peace keeping, and peace building. Peace keeping has a unique literature set, but much of what I’ve explored has fallen under the peace making umbrella. I’ve been wanting to read more in the peace building arena and Lederach is one of the key figures in this arena.
Lederach represents an approach to conflict that is transformational – in that it is not just about addressing substantive issues, but about transforming relationships. Lederach offers a model of how to approach building the social and relational infrastructure at all levels of an entrenched conflict or even war. There are multiple conceptual frameworks he pulls in to illustrate how conflicts need to be transformed at elite and grassroots level and the space between. His model is unique because on many levels he argues that the key to peace building and a sustainable peace infrastructure is the middle. While grassroots folks are ravaged by the impact of war and entrenched conflict and elites are removed from the field, the middle level of scholars and respected practitioners are those that have the ears of the elites and the trust and networks among the grassroots.
Lederach illustrates the dynamics of conflict in entrenched dynamics and the role power plays in navigating change and what is required to build the equity that can lead to sustainable peace. Sustainability, according to Lederach, must come through transformed relationships and peoples and transformed ways of relating and interacting. Lederach moves out of some of the abstract and seeks to unpack what those new ways of relating and interacting are. Sustainability, infrastructure, and transformation are three key concepts in this book.
This book is key for big picture strategy and foundational principles for building the relational infrastructure necessary for developing peace.
