Our Pillars in Popular Media
Peace-building in Books
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A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide
This book contributed to a normative shift in international relations. It reinforced the idea that preventing genocide and mass atrocities is not just a matter of national interest but a global responsibility. This shift in norms has influenced the international community's approach to peacebuilding, emphasizing the importance of conflict prevention and the protection of civilians.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 20 February 2002
Author: Samantha Power
Content/Age Warning: 17+, descriptions of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Genre: Documentary
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Project Hail Mary
This is a near-apocalypse novel that considers the broader question of 'how will we react once we meet aliens'? It focuses the interconnected story of two stranded explorers from two very different worlds, one a man from Earth and the other an Alien from a far distant planet. It highlights how both have been sent by their respective authorities in order to save their own planets from a destructive radioactive amoeba. Both learn that this is a common threat and as such they begin to work together to find a solution as they realize technology from Earth, or the Alien planet alone are not enough. Together they must learn to communicate, to innovate, and to prosper.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 04 May 2021
Author: Andy Weir
Content/Age Warning: 13+, mentions of coercion, dangerous situations, and mild terror.
Genre: Sci-Fi
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This is a horror novel, but it addresses the importance of peacebuilding in order to maintain a societies standards and security. The focus on defeating the evil alien clown only reveals how influential it is that children are engaged in the process of peacebuilding as they may have views adults do not or have not considered. Peacebuilding in horror usually revolves around removing the monster causing the problems and disturbing the reality. Peacebuilding is a common desire throughout horror novels, the urge to return to security when one isn't being chased by a child-eating abomination.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 15 September 1986
Author: Stephen King
Content/Age Warning: 13+, language, depictions of violence, and gore.
Genre: Horror
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Cinder
This is the first in a fantasy series that uses the structure of retold fairy tales in a futuristic society. Throughout the series, especially in the first one, there is a conversation of potential rebellion, but the main character maintains a stance on seeking peaceful paths. Peacebuilding weaves itself into the progression of the plot in ways that are both subtle and incredibly apparent. Discussions between characters often times focus heavily on seeking paths to peace and the maintenance of peace following its reintroduction in certain places.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 03 January 2012
Author: Marissa Meyer
Content/Age Warning: 13+, depictions of violence and suggestive content.
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
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White Space
This is the first book in a duology that creates a vivid storyline of the characters as they navigate through their colliding universes. The results of these collisions creates a bounty of violent processes that the characters must address and correct. The peacebuilding paths chosen by all of the characters reveals how much influence the new universes hold over them. These books highlight the need we as humans have to reach peace in the ways most beneficial to everyone involved and across every society (or universe) we might encounter.
Additional Information:
Release Date: 06 May 2014
Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Content/Age Warning: 13+, depictions of violence, gore, aspects of horror, suggestive content, and language.
Genre: Fiction/Horror/Sci-Fi