I’m thrilled to share that Youth and Sustainable Peacebuilding is now officially published through Manchester University Press! Co-editing this volume with Professor Siobhan McEvoy-Levy and Professor Catherine Bolten over the past few years has been an incredibly rewarding experience. The journey has been marked by collaboration with a diverse and talented group of contributors, including academics from various career stages and geographies. We are especially proud to include several chapters authored or co-authored with youth peacebuilders themselves, bringing authentic and grounded voices into the conversation.
This project holds particular significance for me. Nearly 20 years ago, Siobhan edited the groundbreaking volume called Troublemakers or Peacemakers?: Youth and Post-Accord Peace Building. It was one of the first efforts to seriously engage with the role of youth in post-conflict settings. As a postgraduate scholar at the time, her work had a profound impact on my own research, showing me that youth experiences of war and peace deserved serious academic attention. Now, working alongside both Siobhan and the exceptional Catherine Bolten (I highly recommend her book Serious Youth), it feels like coming full circle.
The premise of our new volume goes beyond simply including youth in peacebuilding processes. Instead, it advocates for a fundamental shift in how we perceive young people as actors in security and peace. Drawing on case studies from around the world, our contributors explore why many states fear their young people and why official attempts to include youth in peacebuilding are important yet insufficient. More crucially, the book highlights how youth themselves are creating and nurturing peace on their own terms—often working outside formal structures to build sustainable peace in innovative ways.
The book addresses a critical disconnect between institutional expectations of youth as peacebuilders and the actual leadership and contributions of youth in fostering long-term peace. By taking a critical approach to peacebuilding with, for, and by youth, we aim to provide valuable insights and guidance for bridging this gap.
Key questions explored
The international agenda on Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) has formalised the inclusion of youth in peacebuilding processes, which has shifted the landscape. However, it also raises new questions and challenges, particularly around tokenism and the concept of “meaningful” participation. Our contributors engage with three major issues that emerge at this crucial point:
- Whose security does YPS promote? Is it aimed at security for youth or security from youth?
- Does the UN’s inclusion of youth in peacebuilding address or perpetuate the problem of youth securitisation and stereotyping? Or does it create new issues altogether?
- How are youth building peace outside of institutional frameworks? How do their efforts challenge traditional discourses of inclusion and securitisation?
Why sustainable peace requires youth
For peace to be truly sustainable, as we frame it in this volume, it must be understood as interconnected across multiple scales—local and global—and multiple timeframes. We must consider the policies, historical narratives, and socio-political conditions that foster insecurity and conflict, both in past and present contexts. By understanding peace in this way, it becomes clear that youth are essential to the equation. They offer invaluable insights into what peace should look like in their communities and on the global stage.
It is our hope that this book not only contributes to the growing body of knowledge on youth and peacebuilding but also inspires further reflection on how we can better support and integrate youth perspectives into sustainable peace efforts worldwide. We’re excited to see how these ideas will resonate with both scholars and practitioners in the field.
Dr Helen Berents is a member and Hub Lead, Governance and Diplomacy Hub, Griffith Asia Institute.