Zahid Shahab Ahmed and Michelle Antonette Baxter (New Delhi: WISCOMP, 2007, 102pp)

This cooperative research carried out by a young Pakistani and a young Indian, both working for international non-governmental organizations, explores how textbooks help determine political and social attitudes, especially attitudes toward India and Pakistan. Through an in-depth analysis of history and social studies textbooks from India and Pakistan, the authors highlight how certain textbooks have been modified to serve political ends.  read more »

Jonathan Power
Like Water on Stone : The Story of Amnesty International
(London: The Penguin Press, 2001, 332pp.)

"We live in a world which, on balance, despite all its many wars, poverty, refugees, weapons development, arms sales and human rights abuses, is actually changing for the better at a rate quite unprecedented in human history. Amnesty has been both part-instigator and part-beneficiary of this tide. What is needed at this time is men and women with the necessary insight to seize the moment: to take the rising tide and push the boats even further out to sea; to be demanding of our institutions, systems and traditions; above all, to challenge our orthodoxies."  read more »

Elizabeth F. Boardman
Taking A Stand : A Guide to Peace Teams and Accompaniment Projects
(Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2005, 159pp.)

Taking A Stand joins a useful collection of books dealing with peace teams as a form of third-party crisis intervention by non-governmental organizations: Ed Griffin-Nolan Witness for Peace (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) deals with efforts on the frontier of Nicaragua. Liam Mahoney and Luis Euguren Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights (Kumerian Press, 1997) studies the efforts of Peace Brigades International especially in Central America.  Tricia G. Brown(Ed); Getting in the Way (Herald Press, 2005) is a collection of essays on individual experiences and reflections by members of Christian Peacemaker Teams.  Arthur Gish Hebron Journal (Herald Press, 2001) is drawn from his journals in Hebron, Israel also with Christian Peacemaker Teams.  read more »

Tricia Gates Brown
Getting in the Way: Stories from Christian Peacemaker Teams
(Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2005, 160pp.)

There are a number of interpretations possible for the motto of the Christian Peacemaker Teams "Getting in the Way".  A Taoist would recall the words of Lao Tzu "Let the Tao (Way) be present in your life, and you will be genuine.  Whoever is planted in the Tao will not be uprooted."  A Christian might recall the way as a pilgrimage on which the Pilgrim must have an awakened eye, an open ear, a giving hand, and a steady foot.  Others, looking at the work of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) will see "getting in the way" as people who put their bodies in the way of others who are trying to get things done, often violently.  read more »

Liam Mahony and Luis Enrique Eguren
Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights
(West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1997, 288pp.)

 "I envision an international ideal of service awakening in an emerging class of people who are best called evolutionaries.  I see them come together in the name of people and planet to create a new environment of support for the positive growth of humankind and the living earth mother.  Their mission is to protect the possible and nurture the potential.  They are pioneers, not palace guards."  Jim Channon on his vision of the 1st Earth Battalion.  read more »

Douglas Mattern
Looking For Square Two : Moving from War and Violence to Global Community
(Salt Lake City, UT: Millennial Mind Publishing, 2006, 176pp.)

“The crisis today in human affairs is represented not by the absence of human capacity, but by the failure to recognize that the capacity exists. What gives hope its power is the release of human energies generated by the longing for something better” Norman Cousins

Douglas Mattern, president of the Association of World Citizens, here presents some of the ways to tap the capacity of people and to move from our current “Square One” of outdated balance-of-power relations between states to “Square Two” — a world society of peace and justice.  read more »

Devi Prasad
War is a Crime Against Humanity : The Story of War Resisters' International
(London: War Resisters' International, 2005, 555pp.)

Devi Prasad, General Secretary of the War Resisters' International (WRI) in London from 1962 to 1972 and then chairman from 1972 to 1975, has written a useful study of the organization, highlighting the period in which he had direct responsibility. His history ends in 1975 when he passed on his chairmanship to Myrtle Solomon, chairperson from 1975 to 1985.  read more »

Paul R. Dekar
Creating the Beloved Community:  A Journey with the Fellowship of Reconciliation
(Telford, PA: Cascadia Publishing, 2005, 326pp.).

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) began symbolically on the eve of the First World War as Henry Hodgkin, a British Quaker, and Friedrick Siegmund-Schultze, the German pastor of Potsdam and chaplain to the Kaiser , parted after the creation of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches.  They said "We are one in Christ and can never be at war." A few weeks later, Germany and England were at war. Henry Hodgkin helped draft a statement first for the Quakers and then for the creation in England of the Fellowship of Reconciliation which said in part "That the Power, Wisdom and Love of God stretch far beyond the limits of our present experience, and that He is ever waiting to break forth into human life in new and larger ways."  read more »

Oliver P. Richmond and Henry F. Carey (Eds):
Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of the NGO Peacebuilding
(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, 267pp.)

As Kim Reinann writes in this useful overview of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the peacebuilding field “In the past two decades, the number and influence of NGOs has grown dramatically, leading many scholars and observers in recent years to argue that a paradigm shift has taken place in politics and international relations theory.  read more »

William E. De Mars -
NGO and Transnational Networks
(London : Pluto Press, 2005, 250pp.)

"The 1990s were heady days for international NGOs, which expanded their numbers, increased their budgets, and extended their mandates into hitherto untouched areas.  NGOs seemed to be rising in status and influence, taking a 'place at the table' with states in international decision-making, and gaining leverage over states to make them embrace new norms."

 read more »