Quotes from the book:

“The lessons that emerge from these chapters indicate that peacemaking ‘after liberalism’ needs to build upon the key elements of solidarity, empathy, networks, sustainability, and recognition of rights in evidence during the liberal era. This approach needs to be combined with a very substantial, polyversal global dialogue (top down, bottom up, fluid and networked). Dialogue of this kind resulted in the loosening of the dominance of the ‘victor’s peace’ as seen through the state, geopolitics and regional power structures. This has shifted peace towards a closer attachment, in today’s scholarship and some policy doctrine at least, to global justice questions: environmental, gender, racial, economic, and historical, among others. Global political, economic, and social reform is required by extension.” – Oliver P Richmond, lecturer in Peace Studies

“Turkey is experiencing human rights violations on a scale unprecedented in its history. The 1990s were also a bad period in terms of human rights. Especially in the Kurdish provinces, gross human rights violations were constantly taking place. Today, human rights violations have increased all over Turkey and are much more widespread. Law has been completely instrumentalised. The concept of the rule of law no longer exists in Turkey. The courts are completely politicised. If you send a single tweet criticizing the President, that night your house can be raided by heavily armed special teams, and you can be immediately arrested. Court processes do not work to protect citizens from abuse…

We are all under heavy pressure. Journalism which reflects the real state of affairs is now very difficult in Turkey. Today, because most Turkish media is under the control of the Turkish government, social media has become the only means of understanding what is happening in Turkey, and, simultaneously, it is a danger zone. The pressures on us to be extremely cautious in our use of social media increase every day. These increasing restrictions cause not just ordinary citizens to censor themselves, but also journalists and writers. It is now exceedingly difficult to write about what’s happening in Kurdish cities, a task requiring exceptional courage. Because every word that I write affects not just my life, but also the life of my children. Every word that I write returns to them in the form of raids, fear, and trauma. Today in Turkey, it requires a lot of courage to use those most beautiful words, ‘peace, life, freedom, justice, equality.’ Many journalists and writers, including me, practise self-censorship. Most of us have a list of ‘objectionable words,’ and when we write, we take care not to use these words or we choose not to write at all on certain topics.” – Nurcan Baysal, Kurdish human rights defender and activist

“Too often, I have seen advocates enter the field believing they already know what is best – what should be said, how issues should be framed, and how advocacy should be conducted. But the reality is, you are not the expert on someone else’s life. The people whose rights you are advocating for are the real experts. They know what they need, and they should be the ones setting the priorities. Your role is to amplify their voices, not dictate the message.” – Corey Levine, human rights and peacebuilding advocate, researcher and writer.

“I go into one of these interrogation rooms, and this intelligence officer, very nice guy, explains to me that Prime Minister Rabin established a team of five intelligence officers to advise him on the peace process. It was top secret because the intelligence service isn’t supposed to work on a peace process. That’s not their job. But Rabin didn’t trust the politicians in his own government, and he needed experts. He was a military person his whole life. He needed experts from the military who could advise him.

There I went and spent more than 200 hours with this team as an advisor to them. Until Rabin was killed, and then Peres took over and it continued. When Netanyahu, when Sharon, came into power, he cancelled the team.” – Gershon Baskin, writer and activist, Middle East Director of International Communities Organization.

“One of the worst things I’ve ever experienced was during the protests in Mazar-i-Sharif. Demonstrators, upset over the burning of Qurans, stormed the UN Assistance Mission office. Among the crowd were insurgent groups who seized weapons from security guards, ultimately leading to the deaths of five UN staff members, including one of my close colleagues, a military advisor.

This tragic event left a deep impact on me. It was one of the most difficult times that I have endured, and it underscored the immense risks we faced while trying to carry out our duties.” – Latif Fayaz, translator and Director of the Hazara Cultural House in Finland.

“Progress in peacekeeping has been slow. The UN is hindered by the veto card in the Security Council, but the organization remains essential. The UN regulates global systems beyond conflict resolution. UN agencies like the World Health Organization dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the UNHCR handles refugees. The UN has 97 permanent agencies. If they disappear, there would be a worldwide collapse. Only some countries will have conditions to survive. But, again, that was not the main reason the UN was created. It was created for conflict resolution and in those terms, while there are five countries in the Security Council with veto rights, that will hardly be solved. While the veto right prevents wars among superpowers, it also promotes proxy wars and stalls resolutions.” – Paulo Goncalves, writer and former Colonel in Portuguese Airforce.

“I don’t know how to say it better than, “Put your money where your mouth is.” When a government claims that girls and women have the right to health and education, I would say, show us where the health services and education actually are. What we see instead are little girls working at home, not attending school, women unable to access obstetrician or gynecologist care, and girls who are raped, forced to carry the children of their rapists, and denied an education.

So, put your money where your mouth is. When a government says it has signed conventions and agreements – like the Istanbul Convention, or commitments to gender equality – then show us the results.” – Sandra Melone, expert in peacebuilding.

“Israelis often say they want to teach Palestinians a painful, kinetic lesson. I think they’ve massively overplayed their hand. They’re losing a lot of support. I’m not sure what it’s like in the UK right now, but in the United States, there’s unprecedented criticism. The credibility of Hasbara and the Israeli security establishment is hitting new lows. It’s heartbreaking what’s happening. In the short term, the big losers are the Palestinians. But in the medium to long term, the real losers will be Israel and the United States, which honestly doesn’t surprise me.” – Patrick McGrann, educationalist in conflict zones, Voices from the Void.

“While training Kurdish soldiers on a base, I discovered that ISIS was using mustard gas – and not just that, but also radioactive material. Kurdish fighters were describing a strange, glowing, sticky substance. When they brought their cell phones near it, the devices would malfunction.

I asked, “What did you do with it?” They told me that Western advisors had instructed them to dig a hole and cover it with sand. That was shocking. Western military advisors were telling frontline fighters to bury radioactive material on their bases, instead of properly handling it.

To make things worse, the Kurds were fighting on the front lines without gas masks. I went up into the mountains to see the badly wounded – no medical support had reached them, no doctors, nothing, I was the first and I think the only. All they wanted was to recover so they could fight again. I examined their injuries, inspected a weapon that had deployed mustard gas, interviewed the deputy head of intelligence and base commander and immediately knew this had to be escalated.

I called a close friend, a SEAL Team commander working on the ISIS desk at the Pentagon, and told him exactly what was happening. But the response from U.S. advisors was complete denial. Instead of acting, they questioned me: “What are you doing there again, Tony?”

At that point, I was beyond frustrated. It was clear they didn’t want to acknowledge the reality on the ground. I hung up and focused on getting gas masks to the Kurds immediately.

I reached out to Prince Ali of Jordan, then to King Abdullah, and arranged for the delivery of gas masks. Ironically, these were American-made masks, as Jordan’s military supply comes from the U.S.” – Tony Schiena, intelligence expert, MOSAIC

“I see an opportunity in these places to do meaningful work to raise the profile of these conflicts as much as I can, to bring to bear in these places the power of journalism. And so yes, my position, my work – it focuses on remedying and restoring some of the balance that should exist in the world. Lives should be valued equally; conflicts in Africa and conflicts in indigenous communities should be reported on as fully as conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East, yet they aren’t. That’s kind of been a core focus of my work over the last 20 years and probably will continue to be over the rest of my writing career.” – Anjan Sandaram, war correspondent and writer.

“The global environmental war is a key opportunity for the world to transcend historical legacies of racism, classism, and colonialism and to realise that we are all in this together. We all rely on the climate, on ecosystems, on nature, for our survival, and we’ll need to start working together even with the people we’ve historically seen as lesser, the people we haven’t devoted as many resources to supporting. All of that will need to change if we’re going to protect this global good that is the environment.” – Anjan Sandaram, war correspondent and writer.

“When women and young women are involved in peace processes, there’s a 30% chance of the peace agreement or implementation process being more successful… While war affects both men and women, peace processes have historically been dominated by men. I’ve witnessed countless instances, especially in UN meetings, where male delegates from conflict zones adopt rigid, non-collaborative attitudes, refusing to engage on certain issues. In contrast, young women tend to approach these discussions with greater collaboration, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to listen.” Heela Yoon, women’s rights activist and peacebuilder

Online event with researchers Across Borders 16th May - Eventbrite

In person event at Quaker library and bookshop, London - Eventbrite

In person event at Books on the Rise, London in Sep/Oct date tbc

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