Kings of Peace Pawns of War: the untold story of peacemaking

(Hardback)

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The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is an international non-governmental organisation based in Geneva trying to reduce human suffering in war by preventing and resolving armed conflicts. The HD Centre is an independent and impartial organisation active in a number of conflict resolution projects around the world, promoting and facilitating dialogue among belligerents. They are funded by a number of governments and foundations and have worked in close collaboration with the UN, ASEAN and the African Union. They were the facilitators of the Aceh Peace process from 2000-03 and were active in bringing the belligerents in Darfur to the negotiating table. They have also been active in Burundi, Nepal, Uganda and are currently facilitating peace processes in the Philippines. Harriet Martin is a talented young journalist who has brought to life attempts to create peace from an angle the public never hear about. The mediators she interviews tell of their unique experiences, the highs and lows, the personalities and challenges and the tense events that lurch from crisis to cliff hanger in trying to end conflict in South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, and Aceh. The stories are told by some of the world's most eminent mediators including Alvaro de Soto and Lakhdar Brahimi working as UN Envoys, General Lazaro Sumbeiywo of IGAD, and Vidar Helgessen and Erik Solheim of the Norwegian Government none of whom have ever spoken so frankly in public before. The book also includes an interview with Martin Griffiths, Director of the HD Centre, who mediated in Aceh. It is a small tonic of hope for all those who survey the modern world in gloom and despair.

Reviews

"Few professions are more needed today -- and less understood -- than the job of an international conflict mediator. Harriet Martin's vivid story-telling helps us get inside the minds and hearts of six master mediators so we can learn what they do, why they do it, how they fail, and how they succeed. A wonderful read - I recommend it highly!" William Ury, co-author "Getting to Yes" and author, The "Third Side". -- William Ury
"A fascinating read...the inside story of some of the world's most intractable conflicts, Harriet Martin has secured access to some of the world's most impressive diplomats and she tells their stories with flair." Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC Newshour presenter and author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm -- Owen Bennett-Jones
In this highly readable book, Harriet Martin has shed a bright light on the personalities and tactics of modern conflict mediators -- individuals who are rarely heralded, and almost never studied, and yet whose decisions affect the lives of millions. Martin's tales from the front will change the way we see the role of foreigners in conflict. The lessons she draws - if heeded - could dramatically improve the peace-makers' odds." Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide" -- Samantha Power
"Kings of Peace is a straightforward account of the experiences of those engaged in conflict resolution" South China Morning Post, 3/9/06 -- Tim Cribb
"As an academic who is interested in the field of conflict resolution, I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to review this book. The book is well written and interesting and contains fine analytical thinking about her interviews and other material she selected concerning the mediations she discusses in her book. Her narratives are excellent, thoughtful narratives by a knowledgeable journalist with access to the mediators whose mediations she discusses." -- PsycCRITIQUES
'Kings of Peace, Pawns of War is well written and interesting and contains fine analytical thinking.' 'Her narratives... are excellent, thoughtful narratives by a knowledgeable journalist with access to the mediators whose mediations she discusses.' - Morton Deutsch, PsycCRITIQUES -- Morton Deutsch
"Building on the author's conversations with six mediators, members of their teams and representatives of the parties they have worked with in Iraq, Cyprus, Aceh, Sri Lanka and Sudan, this book offers a unique glimpse into the secluded world of international peacemaking.... While contributing to an understanding of the everyday trials and tribulations of mediation in track-one peacemaking, a world where glamour appears conspicuously absent, Martin's book also invites reflections on the nature of peace processes.... Unwittingly or not, Martin's fascinating book lends support to the contention that mediation is as much an art as a science..."- Ann-Sofi Jakobsson Hatay, Journal of Peace and Research, Vol. 44 No. 1 January 2007 -- Journal of Peace and Research
"Regardless of their relatively obscure public personae, the book's subjects are captivating. Here are men who have forged careers in civil service and who, together with "a phenomenal ability to listen," bring to the negotiating table their diplomatic savoir faire...Antonia Potter's analytical and well-informed epilogue does much to put the subjects in a more academic context and to encourage further reading and research. It is perhaps the greatest asset of this balanced book that, while not being an exhaustive study of any one of the cases it deals with, it employs wit and the seemingly effortless writing of a journalist to bridge the gap and engross us all in these fascinating and current stories. Furthermore, at a time when foreign intervention is more topical than ever, it makes a convincing case for mediation and the power of diplomacy as a way of embracing our collective responsibility to protect nations emerging from conflict." -Katya Leney-Hall, Ph.D., International Journal on World Peace, December 2008

Author Bio

Harriet Martin covered the war in Bosnia for the Financial Times and the Economist in the mid-1990s, and subsequently worked at the BBC in London. She was a correspondent for the Independent in Geneva before joining the United Nations as a speech writer and political analyst.