Building Peace through Knowledge

This groundbreaking volume documents a comprehensive peacebuilding initiative in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reviews the broad theoretical base underlying these efforts. Theory chapters discuss intrinsic peace-related concepts, including the nature of conflict, elements of individual and group identity, the long-term psychological effects of prolonged political hostilities, and the mechanisms of reconciliation and inclusiveness. Central to the coverage is the ambitious Building Peace through Knowledge Project, a four-year multidisciplinary program featuring a diverse palette of professional and community interventions to reduce the occurrence and trauma of political violence. The author reveals powerful insights connecting knowledge to peacebuilding by analyzing:

·         The relationships between attitudes and ideology in intergroup conflict.

·         The psychosocial impact of political violence among Israelis and Palestinians.

·         The literature on people-to-people interventions (P2Ps) in conflict reduction.

·         The roles of forgiveness, reconciliation, and fairness in conflict resolution.

·         The methodology and findings of the Building Peace through Knowledge Project.

·         The potential of knowledge-based interventions in building sustainable peace in other regions.

Practitioners, mental health professionals, and scholars with interests in multicultural mental health, cross-cultural psychology, political violence, and peace education will look to Building Peace through Knowledge as an ideabook, a mission statement, and a road map toward a more stable world.