Citizens in our deeply, angrily divided world desperately need peaceful and productive ways of relating to each other. Rooted in four decades of intense experience in deep-seated human conflicts, Saunders presents a peaceful way of transforming destructive relationships and designing change.

Many of the deep-rooted human conflicts that seize our attention today are not ready for formal mediation and negotiation. People do not negotiate about identity, fear, historic grievance, and injustice. Sustained dialogue provides a space where citizens outside government can change their conflictual relationships. Governments can negotiate binding agreements and enforce and implement them, but only citizens can change human relationships. Governments have long had their tools of diplomacy - mediation, negotiation, force, and allocation of resources. Harold H. Saunders' A Public Peace Process provides citizens outside government with their own instrument for transforming conflict. Saunders outlines a systematic approach for citizens to use in reducing racial, ethnic, and other deep-rooted tensions in their countries, communities, and organizations.

Jon Van Til is professor emeritus of urban studies and community planning at Rutgers University. He is also past president of ARNOVA, the former editor in chief of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, executive secretary of the Civil Society Design Network, and author of publications that include Mapping the Third Sector: Voluntarism in a Changing Social Economy; Growing Civil Society: From Nonprofit Sector to Third Space; and Breaching Derry's Walls: The Quest for a Lasting Peace in Northern Ireland. --Book Jacket.

Many of the deep-rooted human conflicts that seize our attention today are not ready for formal mediation and negotiation. People do not negotiate about identity, fear, historic grievance, and injustice. Sustained dialogue provides a space where citizens outside government can change their conflictual relationships. Governments can negotiate binding agreements and enforce and implement them, but only citizens can change human relationships. Governments have long had their tools of diplomacy - mediation, negotiation, force, and allocation of resources. Harold H. Saunders' A Public Peace Process provides citizens outside government with their own instrument for transforming conflict. Saunders outlines a systematic approach for citizens to use in reducing racial, ethnic, and other deep-rooted tensions in their countries, communities, and organizations.

Jon Van Til is professor emeritus of urban studies and community planning at Rutgers University. He is also past president of ARNOVA, the former editor in chief of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, executive secretary of the Civil Society Design Network, and author of publications that include Mapping the Third Sector: Voluntarism in a Changing Social Economy; Growing Civil Society: From Nonprofit Sector to Third Space; and Breaching Derry's Walls: The Quest for a Lasting Peace in Northern Ireland. --Book Jacket.

This volume examines the many dimensions of dialogue as a key driver of peaceful personal and social change. While most people agree on the value of dialogue, few delve into its meaning or consider its full range. The essays collected here consider dialogue in the context of teaching and learning, personal and interpersonal growth, and in conflict resolution and other situations of great change. Through these three themes, contributors from a wide variety of perspectives consider the different forms dialogue takes, the goals of the various forms, and which forms have been most successful or most challenging. With its expansive approach, the book makes an original contribution to peace studies, civic studies, education studies, organizational studies, conflict resolution studies, and dignity studies. Contributors: Susan H. Allen, George Mason University * Monisha Bajaj, University of San Francisco * Andrea Bartoli, Seton Hall University * Meenakshi Chhabra, Lesley University * Steven D. Cohen, Tufts University * Charles Gardner, Community of Sant'Egidio * Mark Farr, The Sustained Dialogue Institute * William Gaudelli, Teachers College, Columbia University * Jason Goulah, DePaul University * Donna Hicks, Harvard University * Bernice Lerner, Hebrew College * Ceasar L. McDowell, MIT * Gonzalo Obelleiro, DePaul University * Bradley Siegel, Teachers College, Columbia University * Olivier Urbain, Min-On Music Research Institute * Ion Vlad, University of San Francisco Distributed for George Mason University Press and published in collaboration with the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue