Books by Timo Kivimaki

Knowledge can create peaceful realities in addition to serving as an intellectual tool for peace-making. This is why pragmatist assessment of social science should avoid looking exclusively at the instrumental value of different paradigms. This book investigates the realities that positivism, anti-determinism, symbolic interactionism, social constructivism and critical theory create, and the tools they offer for a peace researcher and a peace practitioner. In essence, Paradigms of Peace looks at what social science can give to the humanity''s search for peace and then offers an agenda for peace research.Using constructivist pragmatist metatheory to guide the assessment of the merits of different social science approaches to peace, this book suggests completely new ways of looking at the theory of peace and war. Difficult theoretical and philosophical constructs are presented but always supplemented with real-life examples, making it practical and relevant to both a research and policy-making level.Perfect for students and professionals of international relations, political science, peace and reconciliation studies, conflict and war studies and history.

During the past three decades, East Asia has been more peaceful than Europe, the Americas or any continent, in terms of battle deaths per capita. When generating theories on peace and war, studies almost never look at the experiences of East Asia. Since East Asia is a spectacular case of pacification.

This book is about the process and, more generally, about the opportunities that peace research and the teaching of conflict resolution can offer academic diplomacy. As such the book is both an empirical and a theoretical project. While it aims at being the most comprehensive analysis of the conflict in West Kalimantan.