28. Personal Identity and Peacebuilding: A Critical Reflection

This chapter discusses the complex setting of a person’s identity and how it interferes with the process of peace building. The wide range of potential character strains is highlighted and it is pointed out, in which way an individual’s background supports the building of a specific personal’s identity. The author places a crucial focus on how to deal with this wide-range of potential diversity during professional dialog facilitation that ought to lead to peace building in the long run. In this course, he challenges traditional, mostly academic approaches towards peace building, in order to address the urgent necessity to equip people on all levels of society with an understanding of conflict management that finds its place beyond strategies, methods, structures, and models.