Analysis Of John Paul Lederach s The Moral Imagination

John Paul Lederach’s The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace goes could only have been written by someone who had spent many years in the field of conflict management. With its underlying focus of the essence of peacebuilding, it looks far beyond what one may learn in any textbook or seminar. While the first 8 chapters of the text are ripe with areas for further analysis, here I will focus only on theme, found in one chapter, in the interest of brevity. In chapter 2 of The Moral Imagination we are introduced to real life micro-case studies. The cases aim to help the reader understand how people experiencing violent conflict throughout the world have worked to â€Å"transcend the cycles of violence that bewitch our community,† building on Lederach’s statement on why the book was written. That being said, we can see that Lederach is operating under the assumption that current day peacebuilding and conflict management is not working as well a s it should. It is clear that he thinks there is something more that needs to be involved in current strategies and models. He believes we must move from looking at actors in a conflict as separate involved parties and instead view parties as â€Å"a web of relationships which include our enemies.† This requires a shift in thinking for those in thefield of peacebuilding and for those involved in the conflict, but in making this shift, we can look at conflicts as existing within our communities rather than between our