This book provides a unique personal perspective on the field of peace research. It not only highlights Luc Reychler’s significant contributions to the theory and praxis of sustainable peacebuilding, but also offers important reflections on the evolution of peace research as an independent discipline. The central concept of this book – and of Reychler’s academic career, for that matter – is sustainable peacebuilding architecture. Reychler introduced this concept in order to draw attention to the architectural principles and considerations that have to be addressed in sustainable peacebuilding processes. Reychler’s work on sustainable peacebuilding architecture has been groundbreaking and has not lost any of its relevance in the twenty-first century. By bringing together Reychler’s seminal texts on sustainable peacebuilding architecture, the current book aims to offer academics, students and policymakers an essential guide to understanding, studying and applying this crucial concept.
• Provides a unique personal view of the development of peace research• Lists the necessary building blocks for sustainable peacebuilding• Offers tools for monitoring and evaluating interventions• Discusses the scientific nature and often provocative findings of peace research • Discusses ten lessons learned and the future (Peace Research III)
Author Biography:
Luc Reychler, PhD (Harvard, 1976), is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He was previously Director of the Centre for Peace Research and Strategic Studies (CPRS) and Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) from 2004 to 2008. He has published widely on sustainable peacebuilding architecture, planning and evaluation of violence prevention and peace-building interventions, and multilateral negotiations. His books include Patterns of Diplomatic Thinking: A Cross-national Study of Structural and Social-psychological Determinants (New York: Praeger, 1979), Le défi de la paix au Burundi (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999), Democratic Peace-building and Conflict Prevention: the Devil is in the Transition (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999), Peacebuilding: A Field Guide (Boulder, CO: Lynne Riener, 2001), and Time for Peace: The Essential Role of Time in Conflict and Peace Processes(Australia: University of Queensland Press, 2015). Since becoming Emeritus Professor in October 2010, he has dealt with ethics, good governance and conflict resolution in sports, especially Taekwondo, and he is currently working on a book concerning the role of humour in deep-rooted conflicts.
Professor Arnim Langer is Director of the Centre for Research on Peace and Development (CRPD), Chair Holder of the UNESCO Chair in Building Sustainable Peace, and Professor of International Politics at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He is further a Research Associate at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) at the University of Oxford and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth. He was recently awarded a highly prestigious Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, which he took up in September 2017 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. His research focuses ongroup behaviour and identity formation, the causes and consequences of violent conflict, the dynamics and persistence of horizontal inequalities, post-conflict economic reconstruction processes for sustainable peacebuilding and peace education in post-conflict countries, as well as national service programmes in Africa. He has conducted extensive field research and is overseeing large research projects on these topics in a range of countries, in particular Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has published extensively on issues of ethnicity, inequality and conflict, including in a range of top journals such as Political Analysis, World Development, Foreign Affairs and Social Indicators Research.
