When battlefield prowess and political manipulation are not enough to achieve peace through victory, we summon our best and brightest to negotiate an end; we celebrate peace settlements; and we give prizes, if not to victors, then to visionaries. We exalt peace as a human achievement, and justly so. But the reality of peace is flawed. The rewards of peace are elusive for the men and women who live in the post-conflict societies of our time. Why is it so difficult to make a good peace when it is so easy to imagine? That is the question behind Imagine: Reflections on Peace.

In this stunning collection, photographic essays make grippingly palpable the stakes during war and peace. Samantha Power, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Justice Richard Goldstone, ICTY prosecutor, and Jonathan Powell, chief negotiator for the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement, are joined by world-renown writers Jon Lee Anderson, Philip Gourevitch, Jon Swain, Robin Wright, Anthony Loyd and Martin Fletcher in revealing the complexities of redemption and rebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda. We hear first person accounts of survival and the search for inner peace that bring the big picture to the personal. With added insights from scholars and practitioners, the book offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into the unvarnished story of peace and a window into what it takes for societies and individuals to move forward after unspeakable brutality.

The resilience of the human spirit shines through in these photographic testimonies and gripping literary essays-dispatches from some of the world's darkest conflict zones.
In an increasingly violent and chaotic world, one fueled by raging culture wars and civil strife, finding the courage to identify, envision, and cultivate peace can seem the most elusive of capabilities. How do you imagine hope in a seemingly hopeless situation? And once that hope is imagined, how do you manifest those dreams into a sustained reality?


This collection is an illuminating and essential resource for anyone trying to understand the damage left by war and the hard but worthwhile path to peace.