Peace Terms is an extensive glossary with short definitions of a wide range of complex and often confusing terms used in the field of peacebuilding. Authoritative but accessible, Peace Terms has been used by a wide audience, from peacebuilding practitioners and scholars to students in college courses, from participants in USIP Academy courses and trainings to high school students doing research.

Peace Terms is an invaluable contribution to the literature and is comprehensive and concise. The revised edition does an excellent job of expanding and updating the glossary entries in order to make the publication more comprehensive and to reflect changes in the peacebuilding field since the appearance of the first edition.

Matthew Levinger, Research Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University

To help these readers navigate this cross-disciplinary field, the USIP glossary answers such questions as: What exactly is a “conflict entrepreneur”? What do we mean by “refoulement”? And perhaps most importantly, what is the difference between peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding?
 
As with the first edition, the editor has consulted a wide range of online and print sources, as well as the senior staff at USIP, in the process of producing the latest version of the glossary.

  • Contains over 350 short definitions, including over 70 new or revised terms.
  • Covers a wide range of complex and often confusing concepts.
  • Used by practitioners, scholars, and students.

Dan Snodderly is an editor and publishing consultant who served as USIP’s director of publications from 1993 to 2004, and previously worked as an editor and writer at Cornell University Press and Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Words matter. In the art of peacemaking, where failure can be deadly, words matter even more. With lucid, elegant prose, Dan Snodderly’s Peace Terms delivers a powerful antidote for the buzzwords and fuzzy concepts that sometimes confound even the most insightful discourse about peace and conflict. The glossary is also a wonderful resource for newcomers who want to learn core concepts for the first time and for old hands who strive to keep their thinking fresh, simple, and clear.

John T. Crist, Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University Korea

Latest Publications

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Keith Mines

With the governing structure now collapsing, Haitian gangs “have the country in a stranglehold,” says USIP’s Keith Mines, and that the best path to re-establish stability is “to form a new transitional government that would be more inclusive, that would have better connections to the Haitian people.”

Type: Podcast

Global Policy

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Kee B. Park

The United States needs to address the existing trust deficit with North Korea if it wants to coexist peacefully with that country. Trust building through health cooperation may be the least contentious way politically and the most likely to succeed. However, engagement on health and humanitarian assistance with North Korea, like security negotiations, has been undermined by geopolitics.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

War and the Church in Ukraine

War and the Church in Ukraine

Thursday, March 14, 2024

By: Peter Mandaville, Ph.D.

Vladimir Putin’s war to reverse Ukraine’s independence includes religion. For centuries, the Russian Orthodox Church bolstered Moscow’s rule by wielding ecclesiastical authority over Ukrainian churches. Since early 2019, Ukraine has had a self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has sharpened tensions between it and the rival branch historically linked to Moscow. Any conciliation between them could shrink areas for conflict — and the Kremlin’s ability to stir chaos — in a postwar Ukraine. It would bolster Ukraine’s future stability and reinforce a decline in Russia’s historically massive influence across the Orthodox Christian world. But can Ukrainians make that happen?

Type: Analysis

Religion

Lauren Baillie on the ICC’s Latest Warrants for Russian War Crimes

Lauren Baillie on the ICC’s Latest Warrants for Russian War Crimes

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

By: Lauren Baillie

For the first time, the International Criminal Court has charged high-level Russian commanders with crimes against humanity — showing that Russia’s assault on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine is “not sporadic, it’s systematic, it’s purposeful, it’s part of a policy,” says USIP’s Lauren Baillie.

Type: Podcast

View All Publications