Author(s): Luc Reychler

Culture Ideas Politics

There is still too much violence in the world. As well as the armed conflicts around the globe, violence exists in our social and economic structures, not to mention in our destruction of the environment. How can we build a more sustainable peace? In this innovative, ambitious book, Dr Luc Reychler argues that we must drastically change our 'temporament', or the way we deal with time. He surveys the vast temporal landscape, and considers its many dimensions, such as how we experience time, how it relates to emotions and religion, and how it affects the natural world. Using real-world examples, including Hurricane Katrina and the regime change in Libya, Reychler shows how time is misused in conflicts - be it the failure to anticipate a disaster, or the manipulation of time to create a false sense of urgency. Ultimately, he proposes a more adaptive attitude to time, so that we can be proactive rather than reactive in our efforts at conflict resolution. Based on Reychler's 40-year experience in the field, Time for Peace is an original and important contribution to the literature on peace research.