Bangladesh in International Peacebuilding : Discourses from Japan and Beyond

Peacebuilding has gained currency since the zeitgeist of the twentieth century's war-torn history, especially in the backdrop of the two Great Wars. However, it was not until the end of the Cold War, there was buoyancy for peace. The post-Cold War era was marked by the emergence of discourses on peacebuilding based on the changes in the UN peace operations. The world community has been witnessing a number of changes in world politics. The war on terror in the post-9/11 era, the rise of intra-state conflict, increasing importance of human rights concept in the international arena, and of late the rise of populism, inequality and violent extremism in the Global North, influx of refugees from the Global South to the North, etc., allowed this transition. The 2030 agenda for sustainable development also supports the idea that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. In this backdrop, BIISS organized an international conference in collaboration with the Japan Foundation, titled "Bangladesh in International Peacebuilding: Experience from Japan" with a view to exchanging ideas and sharing the experiences of Japan. This international conference provided an opportunity to enrich and contribute to the current academic discourse on peacebuilding. The present edited volume is a compilation of revised and edited version of the papers presented in that international conference. It aims to enrich the current discourse on peacebuilding in relation to changing global socio-political realities and Bangladesh's place in global peacebuilding effort. To think beyond the conventional approaches to peacebuilding, it also offers an opportunity for interplay among a broad range of perspectives. It intends to review existing theories and practices of peacebuilding with a particular focus on South Asian and Japanese practices and to explore its new approaches to adapt with changing dynamics of global politics.