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  • © 2020

Visions of Peace of Professional Peace Workers

The Peaces We Build

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides an empirical account of how military, governmental and civil society peace workers define the peaces they work on
  • Develops a four-dimensional model to compare different concepts of peace
  • Puts the idea of a liberal peace consensus to an empirical test – which it fails

Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies (RCS)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
  2. Introduction

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 1-25
  3. Peace in Peace Studies: Beyond the ‘Negative/Positive’ Divide

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 27-64
  4. Military Visions of Peace

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 95-109
  5. Diplomats: Peace as Governance

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 111-126
  6. Dutch Civil Society: Peace Writ Large

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 127-147
  7. Lebanon: Civil Peace

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 149-169
  8. Mindanao: Justice, Harmony and Peace of Mind

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 171-197
  9. Conclusion: Visions, Divisions, Tensions and Solutions

    • Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten
    Pages 199-238
  10. Back Matter

    Pages 239-285

About this book

This book explores the meaning of peace according to (some of) the people who make it. Based on some 200 interviews, it empirically studies the visions of peace that professional peaceworkers from the Netherlands, Lebanon and Mindanao (Philippines) are working on. As such, it seeks to add a strong empirical element to the debate on liberal peacebuilding. The main argument of the book is that amongst practitioners, there is no liberal peace consensus at all. Rather, peace professionals work on a distinct set of peaces, that differ along four dimensions. In five case study chapters, the operational visions of peace held by Dutch military officers, diplomats and civil society peace workers, as well as civil society peace workers from Lebanon and the Philippines are explored and compared to each other. Differences are observed along both geographical and professional lines, but also within each group.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gijsbert M. van Iterson Scholten

About the author

Gijsbert van Iterson Scholten is Lecturer in political science and conflict studies at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he was previously a researcher. Before his academic career, he worked for a number of years at leading Dutch peace NGO, Pax for Peace.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access