Mediation and negotiation, personal transformation, non-violent struggle in the community and the world: these behaviors—and their underlying values—underpin the United Nations’ definition of a culture of peace, and are crucial to the creation of such a culture. The Handbook on Building Cultures of Peace addresses this complex and daunting task by presenting an accessible blueprint for this development. Its perspectives are international and interdisciplinary, involving the developing as well as the developed world, with illustrations of states and citizens using peace-based values to create progress on the individual, community, national, and global levels. The result is both realistic and visionary, a prescription for a secure future.

A sampling of topics covered in the Handbook:


Basic components of a culture of peace (including education, tolerance, gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development), and how each strengthens the whole.


The politics and socioeconomics of a culture of peace.


The relationship of personal to cultural change.


Applying peace concepts in the law enforcement, justice, and prison systems.


Community reconciliation and post-conflict reconstruction.


Achieving peace in the family.


Assessing—and learning from—modern cultures of peace.


Global in scope and far-reaching in its analysis, the Handbook on Building Cultures of Peace is a source of real-world ideas and lucid insights to enhance the work of social and peace psychologists, policy analysts, and the studies of graduate students in psychology and sociology.