MEDIA RELEASE Ending Holy Wars

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Ending Holy Wars: Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars is the first book that ... smaller case studies (Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia). In Ending ...
Ending Holy Wars:

Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars by Isak Svensson Non-fiction (Academic) | ISBN: 978 0 7022 4956 3 | late November 2012 | C Format Paperback | 232pp | $39.95 From the internationally acclaimed academic Dr Isak Svensson, comes an important and timely book that explores how religious dimensions affect the possibilities for conflict resolution in civil war.

MEDIA RELEASE

Ending Holy Wars: Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars is the first book that systematically tries to map out the religious dimensions of internal armed conflicts and explain the conditions under which religious dimensions impede peaceful settlement. It draws upon empirical work on global data, based on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), and complements this quantitative data with several smaller case studies (Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia). In Ending Holy Wars, Dr Svensson addresses a number of timely questions, including: What is the relationship between religion and conflict? Does religion promote peace or war? Why does religion hinder conflict resolution of armed conflicts? Which conflicts around the world can be seen as ‘religious’? How should we resolve conflicts with religious dimensions? Can the war in Afghanistan, for example, be ended through peace negotiations? Has the ‘War on Terror’ since 9/11 led to more or less ‘religious conflicts’? This important book shows how religious identities and incompatibilities influence the likelihood of agreements and the mechanisms through which parties and third-party mediators have been able to overcome religious obstacles to negotiated settlements. The findings in Ending Holy Wars pave the way for a discussion on how conflict theory can better incorporate religious dimensions, as well as how policy can be designed to manage religious dimensions in armed conflicts. ABOUT THE SERIES The ‘New Approaches to Peace and Conflict’ series builds on the wisdom of the first wave of peace researchers while addressing important 21st century challenges to peace, human rights and sustainable development. Each book in the series contributes to new theory, new research and new strategies for effective peacebuilding and the transformation of violent conflict. The series controverts orthodox perspectives on development, conflict transformation and peacebuilding by interrogating old theory and publishing innovative research within an ethical framework of doing no harm while doing good. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Isak Svensson is Associate Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, University of Uppsala, Sweden. He has published in several high-ranking journals, such as Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, Negotiation Journal and International Interactions. He is the coauthor of The Go-Between: Jan Eliasson and the Styles of Mediation (USIP, 2010). He has been the Director of Research National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand.

To request a review copy or to arrange an interview, please contact: Meredene Hill | [email protected] | 0401 575 143 www.uqp.com.au