Peace Leadership Research Articles

Editorial: Role of Leadership in Sustainable Development and Peace

The role of leadership in sustainable development is crucial to make a balance between development, society and environment, and ultimately peace. By prioritizing ethical, inclusive, and adaptive leadership, societies can create a virtuous cycle where sustainable development and peace reinforce each other, ultimately leading to a more equitable and harmonious world. This interconnectedness underscores the need for leaders at all levels—local, national, and global—to commit to the sustainable practices and policies that benefit both current and future generations.

M – 00459Research & Analytical Article The Practices of Peacebuilding in South Omo: A Qualitative Case Study in Hammer, Dassanech, Nyangatom Woreda and the Turkana Kenya Community

The study examined the practices of peacebuilding in the south Omo zone pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities of Dassanech, Hamer, Nyangatom, Woreda of Ethiopia and the Kenya-Turkana cross-border resource-based conflicts. The study investigated internal and cross-border peacebuilding practices. To achieve the objective of the study, a qualitative research approach and case study research design were used. The study revealed that peace is the highest priority of the pastoral and agro-pastoral community who view conflict as synonymous with starvation, and poverty. The study also revealed that peacebuilding efforts between the two communities involve a range of actors and approaches. Key actors include: the Government, non-state actors, international organizations, public administrators, intergovernmental organizations and indigenous community-based institutions. They play a significant role in conflict management, prevention, and resolution as part of the broader peacebuilding process. While the outcomes of these practices have been less effective, these initiatives are recognized as valuable foundations for advancing peacebuilding efforts. The study also finds that there is relative peace in the study area and the trends of conflict are reduced. However, the objective of building peace is still not achieved because of the lack of government commitment to engage in peacebuilding and the complex nature of conflicts. Factors such as environmental changes, land disputes, resource scarcity, drought, the proliferation of small arms, livestock raiding, and killings are identified as key causes and triggers of conflict and violence between the two communities The peacebuilding practices need to be done by various peace actors to create peace in the area. Moreover, developing new peace initiatives and peace leadership could play a vital role in the realization of peace in the area.

The Mutuality of Adaptive Leadership and Integral Peace Leadership

Peace leadership is an adaptive challenge, thus the authors demonstrate the mutuality that exists between Peace Leadership and Adaptive Leadership. The authors also argue that peace leaders would be more effective in mobilizing groups by utilizing both theories, and also demonstrate how it can be done in practice.

Symposium on leadership competencies for peace leadership: An overview and invitation

Symposium on leadership competencies for peace leadership: An overview and invitation

Systems Thinking as a Critical Competency for Peace Leadership

Systems thinking is an essential leadership capacity, particularly in complex contexts like peacebuilding, which involves interdependent and evolving systems of communities, cultures, and political structures. This article explores the intersection of systems thinking with the Integral Peace Leadership Model (IPLM), examining how systems thinking can enhance peace leadership. Systems thinking, which focuses on the interrelationships and patterns within systems, provides a valuable framework for identifying leverage points and addressing complex, wicked problems in peacebuilding. By examining the four key domains of IPLM—Innerwork, Knowledge, Community, and Environment—the article demonstrates how systems thinking skills, including mindset, content, structure, and behavior, can deepen leaders’ understanding of peace processes and foster more effective, collective approaches to peacebuilding. The integration of systems thinking into peace leadership promotes a shift from command‐and‐control models to collaborative, community‐driven strategies that reflect the dynamic, multifaceted nature of peace efforts.

Social Network Competence for Peace Leadership

Social network approaches have been widely applied to understanding leadership, emphasizing the relational processes that influence group dynamics and effectiveness. Despite this extensive application, research integrating social network approaches with peace leadership remains limited. Social network approaches emphasize that individuals are embedded in webs of relationships that influence access to resources and shape individual and collective outcomes. The current article explores how social network concepts, theories, and methods can advance peace leadership by enabling a deeper understanding of conflict, informing targeted interventions, and promoting long‐term social stability. We discuss how network analysis can diagnose conflict patterns and identify leverage points for intervention. We conclude with practical recommendations and future research directions for integrating social network approaches and peace leadership.

Facilitative Leadership: Re‐Framing Narratives to Navigate Conflict and Difference

The current paper explores the facilitative role of leadership in the context of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. It highlights the importance of skilled facilitation in navigating complex, multi‐stakeholder environments characterized by divergent perspectives and interests. The authors suggest that conflicts can sometimes be unlocked by re‐framing the kind of narrative that parties and peacemakers jointly inhabit; in these cases, peace leadership works at two levels—to enable a narrative re‐framing and to facilitate appropriate peace‐making within‐the‐frame. When successful, these two rather different leadership functions enable constructive dialogue toward shared understanding and commitment. The paper develops the notion of hybrid configurations of leadership, illustrating how various leadership styles and processes coexist and interact. It suggests how peace‐leaders may use narrative re‐framing to help create more inclusive narratives that transcend divisions and locate conflicts in a wider context. The conclusion calls for further research into the hybrid styles of leadership appropriate to varied types of facilitation and suggests practical implications for leadership research, development, and practice, particularly in sustaining adaptive spaces for open communication and develop mutual respect in contexts characterized by conflict and difference.

Without Humility, There Can Be No Peace Leadership

Humility is an essential foundation for peace leadership, serving as a critical lens through which leaders can navigate the complexities of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. The article Without Humility, There Can Be No Peace Leadership explores the indispensable connection between humility and peace leadership, positing that without humility, effective peace leadership is unattainable. Drawing on Sowcik's (The H‐Factor: The Intersection Between Humility and Great Leadership. New Degree Press) definition of humility as “a proper perspective of oneself, one's relationship with others, and one's connection to something bigger,” the article integrates existing research on humility with the Integral Peace Leadership Model, which emphasizes self‐awareness, interpersonal connection, and systemic awareness. The paper underscores how humility fosters self‐reflection, adaptability, and resilience, while enabling leaders to engage in inclusive, relationship‐centered practices essential for trust and collaboration. It also emphasizes humility's role in counterbalancing power dynamics, mitigating ego‐driven behaviors, and anchoring leadership in a commitment to collective well‐being. By examining diverse perspectives, including non‐Western and spiritual frameworks, the paper highlights how humility transcends cultural boundaries to support transformative peacebuilding.

Developing peace leadership: lessons from the peace practice alliance

ABSTRACT In 2020, Euphrates Institute piloted the Peace Practice Alliance (PPA), a virtual six-month program that brings together an international cohort of peacebuilders to learn peace leadership theories and develop related skills and practices. The program framework is based on integral peace leadership, which focuses on four interrelated areas of Innerwork, Knowledge, Community, and Environment. As part of an emergent field, limited research has documented the application of integral peace leadership in peacebuilder training and development programs. This paper, therefore, examines the pilot PPA program to understand the ways in which an online, global peace leadership training program can support the development of community peace leaders. Findings from interviews with 14 of the program’s first cohort of 18 peace leaders revealed that the PPA supported their development through the content of the curriculum, the creation of a strong learning community, and the dual focus on theory and practice. This paper concludes with suggestions for further improvement, including additional spaces for participant interaction and experiential learning and the creation of further training and development opportunities.

Emotional Intelligence: A Cornerstone—and Foundation—for Peace Leadership

This article explores the integration of emotional intelligence (EI) and the emerging field of peace leadership. Highlighting the critical need for intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual awareness and competencies, the manuscript connects EI and the emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) framework to peace leadership. The author discusses key EI and EIL dimensions and competencies alongside peacebuilding skills (e.g., self‐awareness, relationship‐building, conflict management, and systems thinking). Emphasizing EI and EIL as foundational frameworks for peace leadership, the author advocates for a focus on EI and EIL for fostering leadership that promotes justice, inclusivity, and sustainable change in communities and organizations.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging for Peace Leadership

This paper examines the integration of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) principles with peace leadership to address societal divisions and foster sustainable harmony. By defining DEIB concepts and their interconnectedness with social justice, the authors highlight their critical role in shaping inclusive leadership practices. Diversity is presented as the acknowledgment of social differences; equity as the provision of fair opportunities tailored to individual needs; inclusion as the transcending of barriers to build coalitions; and belonging as a reciprocal sense of community and purpose. Rooted in Johan Galtung's distinction between negative and positive peace, peace leadership is positioned as essential for addressing structural violence and envisioning equitable societies. Through historical examples such as Nelson Mandela's leadership in post‐apartheid South Africa and the Northern Ireland peace process, the study underscores how DEIB‐driven frameworks advance mutual respect, reduce systemic inequities, and promote reconciliation. The paper argues for a peace leadership model that addresses root causes of conflict by intertwining social justice and moral imperatives, aligning with ethical traditions and sustainable development goals. The authors propose peace leadership as a transformative force capable of uniting diverse communities under shared principles of justice and inclusivity. By adopting DEIB principles, peace leaders can navigate contemporary societal challenges and catalyze progress toward a more harmonious global society.

Practice Opportunities in Peace Leadership Education

The complexities in leadership challenges have evolved as have human conceptions of leadership. Advancing from a deepened understanding of human systems, leadership work pushes beyond a leader‐centric model and to a new horizon that disrupts the leader–follower‐dyad to focus on practice. A practice orientation—fully adopted by educators—can impact leadership work on peace, a pervasive, ongoing human challenge. Educators may lean on pedagogy from the scholarship of teaching and learning to pull from established practices for learning. Peace Leadership and Leadership‐As‐Practice (L‐A‐P) direct leadership educators toward practice work, offering practice as an approach to leadership work in the classroom.

How teaching about peace and conflict in Northern Ireland reformulated our leadership teaching and learning philosophy.

In this reflective article, we offer innovative approaches to creating opportunities for leadership learning through questioning the intentions versus impacts of leading short-term study abroad courses. We consider the critical relevance of approaching a course like this from a learning disposition-recognizing our roles as learners, as well as facilitators of learning. We note the impacts of hegemony and identity, the effort and skills of dialoguing across difference, the complexities of constructive ambiguity, and the necessity to be adaptable as we navigate liminal spaces, concepts, and efforts for peace leadership. In the end, although this was a brief, 10-day experience, we came to realize our entire outlook on facilitating leadership learning shifted to recognize and grapple with these complexities.

Prospects for intergenerational peace leadership: Reflections from Asia and the Pacific

In this article, we develop a model of intergenerational peace leadership (IPL) with a particular focus upon young women’s peace leadership. IPL remains under-theorised and under-recognised in both global policy and academic scholarship. We therefore outline and advocate for a young women-focussed IPL model as an opportunity for robust and sustainable peace leadership that aligns with broader UN-driven inclusive peace agendas. We begin the article with efforts to theorise IPL and situate it at the centre of inclusive and sustainable peace agendas. Second, we look at the challenges facing IPL, drawing from three case studies (Papua New Guinea/Bougainville, Nepal and Myanmar) of women’s peace leadership in Asia and the Pacific. While we do identify commitments to IPL in the region, we find significant barriers that undermine its transformative potential. These emerge from contested power dynamics and hierarchies between older and younger generations, which result in young women being marginalised, ignored and silenced within ostensibly intergenerational peace forums. We therefore argue that while IPL is an important link necessary for advancing inclusive peace agendas, we must identify and engage with the hierarchies that hinder its transformative potential.

Japanese Business Leadership: Business for Peace in Practice

ABSTRACT This empirical study draws from the extensive academic literature on leadership as a phenomenon and a topic of study, the leadership and peace nexus, and business leadership theories such as resistance leadership, system leadership, and wise and ethical leadership. It examines actual leadership through in-depth interviews of three Japanese business leaders under three themes: how they understand the existing system, connect or envision connecting people, and care for human dignity. The study finds that the leaders appraise the existing system from a broad perspective, attempt to use business to change it, and connect people transnationally. In this process, they illustrate care for the dignity of the people involved. Their vision of transforming their businesses into transnational communities across stakeholders and to change the world for the better can be a model for peacebuilding through business. We also posit that the flexibility and speediness of business leaders’ decision-making and actions are advantageous for peace leadership and that businesses have the potential to engage in peacebuilding sustainably.

Tracing the legacy of peace leadership from an Asian perspective: Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh

ABSTRACT This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the ‘father of mindfulness’. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence.

Daoist feminist leadership for international peace: the case of Jeannette Rankin

ABSTRACT Introducing the concept of Daoist–feminist hybridity to international relations (IR) scholars, this article makes a novel contribution to current debates over global feminism concerning the relevance and attractiveness of feminism in non-Western societies, the need to build transnational feminist solidarities, and the urgent need to decolonize feminism. Drawing upon the Daoist philosophy of Laozi’s Daodejing, which expresses an early and Indigenous form of non-Western feminism, the article constructs a model of Daoist feminist pacifist leadership as illustrated through the case of Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973), an influential women’s suffrage advocate and global peace activist who was the first elected congresswoman in the United States (US) and the only congressional representative to vote against US involvement in both World Wars I and II. As the article demonstrates, Rankin’s unwavering commitment to pacifism not only reflects core values of Daoist philosophy intermeshed with her twentieth-century feminism, but also illustrates the value of empathic engagement between Daoist thought and modern feminism, as making such connections can help to build alliances and partnerships among international feminist peace leaders today in the US, China, and elsewhere.

Charismatic leadership and political mediation for peace. Some biological, anthropological, and psychological factors of charisma and populism

A situação política atual parece conciliar-se com a existência de líderes carismáticos e populistas, que aparecem dando voz a várias dificuldades da sociedade. Abordaremos neste artigo o carisma e o populismo nas suas manifestações públicas e examinaremos a sua relação com as personalidades psicopática e esquizotípica. A nossa época impõe uma abordagem integrada destas realidades, não somente para impedir que voltem a associar-se a manifestações coletivas e afetivas extremas como no séc. XX, mas também porque a psicologia dos líderes carismáticos precisa de se enriquecer com os conhecimentos da biologia evolutiva, da antropologia e da psicopatologia. Só assim poderemos conceber formas eficazes de mediação política e construção durável da paz.

Understanding integral peace leadership in practice: Lessons and learnings from women PeaceMaker narratives.

Understanding integral peace leadership in practice: Lessons and learnings from women PeaceMaker narratives.

Societies within peace systems avoid war and build positive intergroup relationships

A comparative anthropological perspective reveals not only that some human societies do not engage in war, but also that peaceful social systems exist. Peace systems are defined as clusters of neighbouring societies that do not make war with each other. The mere existence of peace systems is important because it demonstrates that creating peaceful intergroup relationships is possible whether the social units are tribal societies, nations, or actors within a regional system. Peace systems have received scant scientific attention despite holding potentially useful knowledge and principles about how to successfully cooperate to keep the peace. Thus, the mechanisms through which peace systems maintain peaceful relationships are largely unknown. It is also unknown to what degree peace systems may differ from other types of social systems. This study shows that certain factors hypothesised to contribute to intergroup peace are more developed within peace systems than elsewhere. A sample consisting of peace systems scored significantly higher than a comparison group regarding overarching common identity; positive social interconnectedness; interdependence; non-warring values and norms; non-warring myths, rituals, and symbols; and peace leadership. Additionally, a machine learning analysis found non-warring norms, rituals, and values to have the greatest relative importance for a peace system outcome. These results have policy implications for how to promote and sustain peace, cohesion, and cooperation among neighbouring societies in various social contexts, including among nations. For example, the purposeful promotion of peace system features may facilitate the international cooperation necessary to address interwoven global challenges such as global pandemics, oceanic pollution, loss of biodiversity, nuclear proliferation, and climate change.