2006 books
74) Helen Ware, ed., The No-Nonsense Guide to Conflict and Peace, 2006
One of the New Internationalist's range of concise guides to world current affairs. Useful as a primer to see how non-violent kinds of action can make a positive difference, and illuminating as to how politics-as-usual, when it comes to international peacekeeping, usually has the opposite effect. It is sad, though, that there are so few good examples on which we can base resolutions of conflicts to come, leading almost anyone to believe that we as a species tend to take a depressingly long time to learn by our collective mistakes. Conflict in itself is not necessarily a bad thing: it is how nations gain independence and is the medium by which justice emerges. It's how it is handled and contained that will make any kind of difference to future generations, which is why I've long held to the importance of also teaching kids to be peacemakers, an idea that, in Europe at least, only the Norwegians seem to take seriously.