70-year Track Record for Trust-building and Reconciliation

For seventy years, Initiatives of Change (IofC) has worked for trust and reconciliation at all levels of society. Notable contributions to international peace building include Franco-German reconciliation after WWII, re-building relationships between Japan and her Asian neighbours during the 1950s, conflict mitigation in Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Cyprus and Zimbabwe during their independence struggles, and trust-building in Papua New Guinea that contributed to the resolution of the Bougainville issue. Evaluations of Initiatives of Change’ efforts towards peace, trust and reconciliation include:

• War Prevention Works: 50 Stories of People Resolving Conflicts (Dylan Matthews, Oxford Research Group, 2001) Presents stories ‘from all over the world of what ordinary people are doing to stop war and killing – armed only with integrity, stamina and courage’. The book gives three case studies drawn from the work of Initiatives of Change (formerly Moral Re-Armament). The first is from North-East India (1967-1972), around the creation of the new state of Meghalaya, springing from the personal transformation of Stanley Nichols-Roy. The second is from Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (1974-1980), and the third is the role the IofC Conferences in Caux, Switzerland played in the Franco-German reconciliation (1946-1950). For more information about the book, and how to purchase it, click here
• Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (Edited by Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995) Examines the role of religious actors in conflict prevention and resolution. The book is the result of a 7-year research project headed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies  and features case studies from around the world. Despite the fact that religion and religious leaders have played an important role in many contemporary conflicts, material factors remained a privileged explanatory factor in most studies of diplomacy. Case study chapters illustrate how religion has played a positive role in conflict resolution episodes. Edward Luttwak describes the role of the Moral Re-Armament movement in facilitating discussions on Franco-German reconciliation after WWII and there is an evaluation of IofC's role in the peaceful transition to majority rule in Zimbabwe. For more information about the book, and to purchase it visit our online shop.
• People Building Peace II: Successful Stories Of Civil Society (Edited by Paul Van Tongeren, Malin Brenk, Marte Hellema, and Juliette Verhoeven, European Centre for Conflict Prevention, 2005) Individuals can make a difference working for peace worldwide. That is the message of People Building Peace II, an inspiring collection of stories of how 'ordinary' men and women have played a crucial part in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The resulting rich tapestry, an outcome of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, is a compendium of best practices and lessons learned, and at the same time a stirring call to action. Includes over 60 stories of civil society successes, most written by practitioners involved in the initiatives themselves. IofC expertise is documented in two chapters: one on the process towards national Reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of Australia, the other on the contributions of the IofC conferences held at Caux in Switzerland. In addition, several of the other stories involve people who have attended IofC conferences in Caux. These stories are accompanied by personal anecdotes from a number of high-profile peacebuilders such as President Xanana Gusmao, Desmond Tutu, Her Majesty Queen Noor, together with a foreword by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. To purchase the book, click here