This book analyzes seven Latin American thinkers who have contributed to building bridges for reconciliation and peace: Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Alfonso García Robles, Óscar Arias Sánchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Juan Manuel Santos, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. Working within an eclectic conceptual approach to systematize the circulation of ideas embraced by each one of the thinkers, the various contributions delve into the current literature of leadership and intellectuals in Politics and Global International Relations (GIR). Overall, the central premises of the analysis are based on three fundamentals of mainstream constructivism: a) change across time and space in the lifetime of each thinker under analysis in this book; b) socialization through changing norms, rules, and language; and c) processes of interaction in which actors make choices in selecting networks and strategies). Coming from different walks of life, the seven thinkers examined in this book have accessed the global public square and discussed ideas to reduce conflicts at different scales. In their respective historical times, they circulated their views and ideas beyond the confines of Latin America to influence global political thought and produce change in favor of peace.

Patrick Iber tells the story of left-wing Latin American artists, writers, and scholars who worked as diplomats, advised rulers, opposed dictators, and even led nations during the Cold War. Ultimately, they could not break free from the era’s rigid binaries, and found little room to promote their social democratic ideals without compromising them.

Bodies of Peace argues that Christian nonviolence is both formed by and forms ecclesial life, creating an inextricable relationship between church commitment and resistance to war. In this volume, Myles Werntz examines the work of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, William Stringfellow, and Robert McAfee Brown, demonstrating how each thinker's advocacy for nonviolent resistance depends deeply upon the ecclesiology out of which it comes. The volume argues that any account of an ecclesially-informed resistance to war must be open to a multitude of approaches, not as pragmatic concessions, but as a foretaste of ecumenical unity.

This volume is the first English-language work to focus specifically on South America in the context of peace operations. The region of South America has been undergoing significant changes recently with regard to its attitudes towards participation in peace operations. Leaving behind a strong reluctance with regard to intervention, the states have recently taken on a much stronger presence among UN peacekeepers. The foremost showcase of this more robust and responsible stance has been MINUSTAH, the current UN mission in Haiti. South American contributors provide over half the operation’s troops, and the Force Commander is provided by Brazil. This book is intended as an introduction for researchers to the nexus of issues surrounding South America’s increasing influence as a contributor to peace operations. The authors provide the reader with a historically and theoretically grounded understanding of what motivates defence policy and decisions on intervention in the region. Featuring contributions from prominent thinkers in the field and a broad range of case studies, this volume successfully combines practical applicability with diversity of analysis. This book will be of much interest to students of peacekeeping, South American politics, peace and conflict studies, security studies and International Relations in general.

Put quite simply, the twin impacts of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security dangers and concerns. In this new work on global security thinking, 91 authors from five continents and many disciplines, from science and practice, assess the worldwide reassessment of the meaning of security triggered by the end of the Cold War and globalization, as well as the multifarious impacts of global environmental change in the early 21st century.

Online Activism in Latin America examines the innovative ways in which Latin American citizens, and Latin@s in the U.S., use the Internet to advocate for causes that they consider just. The contributions to the volume analyze citizen-launched websites, interactive platforms, postings, and group initiatives that support a wide variety of causes, ranging from human rights to disability issues, indigenous groups’ struggles, environmental protection, art, poetry and activism, migrancy, and citizen participation in electoral and political processes. This collection bears witness to the early stages of a very unique and groundbreaking form of civil activism culture now growing in Latin America.

The Routledge History of World Peace since 1750 examines the varied and multifaceted scholarship surrounding the topic of peace and engages in a fruitful dialogue about the global history of peace since 1750. Interdisciplinary in nature, the book includes contributions from authors working in fields as diverse as history, philosophy, literature, art, sociology, and Peace Studies. The book crosses the divide between historical inquiry and Peace Studies scholarship, with traditional aspects of peace promotion sitting alongside expansive analyses of peace through other lenses, including specific regional investigations of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world. Divided thematically into six parts that are loosely chronological in structure, the book offers a broad overview of peace issues such as peacebuilding, state building, and/or conflict resolution in individual countries or regions, and indicates the unique challenges of achieving peace from a range of perspectives. Global in scope and supported by regional and temporal case studies, the volume is an essential resource for educators, activists, and policymakers involved in promoting peace and curbing violence as well as students and scholars of Peace Studies, history, and their related fields.