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In this issue of Peace Policy, we reflect on the importance of centering young people in peace processes, and ensuring that conflicts of any form and stage can be successfully transformed into social worlds with the capacity to continually nurture and reproduce peace. Centering young people is not something we can just talk about or highlight from the ivory tower, as doing so privileges the voices of scholars whose voices have already been established. We must practice what we preach, which means taking young people seriously not just in theory, but actively creating and ceding spaces in which the voices of not-yet-established peacebuilders can be heard.
We utilize this issue of Peace Policy as a platform for hearing young peacebuilders reflect, in their own words, on conflict, generation, and the importance of youth to sustainable peace.
Catherine Bolten, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Peace Studies; Guest Editor for this Peace Policy issue
A Case for Focusing on Youth in Peacebuilding Efforts
I grew up in the midst of a civil war in Sri Lanka. I have lived through the curse of violence and seen the prejudice and hate passed on by one generation to another. Sri Lanka has experienced many cycles of violence over the years. At each cycle, it was the youth...
Youth and Sustainable Peace
Youth are key to creating sustainable peace, a just peace that is locally self-renewing, because they have roles, needs, and ideas that shape communities and cultures and they are uniquely-positioned change agents. As liminal actors connected to childhood and...
Youth Provoking Peace: Lessons From Colombia
Recent scholarship has demonstrated that youth are not mere subjects of policy interventions, but vital actors in peacebuilding. I place this finding as the central starting point for peace research with youth in Colombia. For nearly a decade I have engaged in...
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Research-based insights, commentary, and solutions to the global challenge of conflict and systemic violence
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Each issue features the writing of scholars and practitioners who work to understand the causes of violent conflict and systemic violence and who seek to contribute solutions in service of building more just and peaceful societies.
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University of Notre Dame
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