Four major challenges facing peace education in regions of intractable conflict.

Abstract

Although peace education all over the world faces numerous challenges, such as conflicting collective narratives, historical memories, contradictory beliefs, and severe inequalities, there are additional challenges that transcend content and method. Four such major challenges that pertain to the very core of peace education are discussed: (a) the creation of a “ripple effect” whereby the impact of peace education programs spreads to wider social circles of society; (b) increasing the endurance of desired program effects in light of their easy erosion; (c) the need for differential programs given the differences in culture and in the role that each adversary plays in a conflict; and (d) the need to find ways to bridge between general dispositions, principles, and values and their application in specific situations where competing motivations are dominant. I argue that the four major challenges are also common to other kinds of programs, such as human rights, antiracism, and tolerance.