The Moral Imagination

John Paul Lederach''s work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia Northern Ireland the Basque Country and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding in his view is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art he says requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the moral imagination.