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Art has long been a powerful tool for fostering understanding, reconciliation, and healing in conflict-affected societies. By transforming cultural, political, and ideological boundaries, artistic expression allows individuals to communicate, reflect, and envision new possibilities for coexistence. This issue of Peace Policy highlights the diverse ways that art contributes to peacebuilding, demonstrating its ability to cultivate empathy, challenge oppressive structures, and create spaces for dialogue.
Alison Ribeiro de Menezes explores the transformative role of theater in peacebuilding, emphasizing an “embodied dramaturgy of care” that fosters deep emotional connections. Vera Brandner discusses generative picturing, a photographic method that encourages self-reflection and dialogue. Jessica (Doe) Mehta highlights the role of poetry in Indigenous peacebuilding, illustrating how language preservation and storytelling are acts of resistance against colonial erasure. Paula Ditzel Facci introduces dancestorming as a method for decolonizing peacebuilding and peace education.
Together, these perspectives reveal that art is not just a supplementary tool in peacebuilding but a fundamental force for transformation. By engaging the senses, emotions, and intellect, artistic expression nurtures empathy, challenges injustice, and re-imagines pathways to peace, making it an essential component of sustainable reconciliation efforts.
Norbert Koppensteiner, guest editor
The Continuing Cycle of Violence in Gaza
Asher Kaufman Since the mid-1990s, Israel has attempted to separate the fate of Gaza from that of the West Bank. The 2005 “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip was the most dramatic step of this policy. There were at least two reasons for the decision to withdraw from...
The Pope’s Appeal to Conscience
Patrick Gaffney, C.S.C. In terms of media reporting, public debate, and partisan polemics, the recent conflict in Gaza can be characterized like its predecessors as a military confrontation and diplomatic poker game between Israel and Hamas. But on a deeper level this...
Ethical Challenges of Global Zero
Gerard F. Powers Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Catholic bishops and other religious leaders have given much greater attention to the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament. But a gap exists in the ethical analysis needed to sustain this moral imperative....
Catholic Universities and the Nuclear Threat
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. Fifty-one years ago, Pope John XXIII issued his encyclical Pacem in Terris, which declared that “the arms race should cease” and urged that “all come to an agreement on a fitting program of disarmament.” In revitalizing the Catholic voice...
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Research-based insights, commentary, and solutions to the global challenge of conflict and systemic violence
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Searching for Policy Solutions to Pressing Global Issues
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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