Description
The academic field of Peace Studies and peacebuilding practice / policy face significant challenges with respect to how they respond to 21st century war, its causes and consequences. Said challenges go beyond the now well versed critiques of liberal peacebuilding, given that liberal peacebuilding itself now appears, at best, mortally wounded, or, at worst, dead. In such a context, this has precipitated nostalgia for the good old days of liberal peacebuilding, even from those of us who were its strongest critics. Today, while the way we think and practice peacebuilding remains lodged in 20th century ideas and practices, the way war is waged has shifted dramatically over the last three decades. Environmental conflict, the gender impacts of political violence, autonomous weapon systems, the political / criminal violence nexus and piracy, to name a few, have emerged as forms of violence that states and societies are struggling to address in an effective and sustainable manner. Such hybrid warfare and often accompanying polycrises drive forward the nature of war and its consequences,
