The Emerging Field of Peace Leadership

Challenging violence & aggression. Creating positive, just change.

Peace leadership draws from various fields of study, such as peace and conflict studies, leadership studies, peace psychology, and criminal justice. It has evolved over the last decade to become a recognized sub-field in leadership studies. While the area of peace leadership is still relatively new, the principles of peace leadership and its practitioners have been present in literature for far longer. This includes the practices of mindfulness, nonviolence, compassion, and unity, as exemplified in leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 

As the literature and scholarship around peace leadership have grown, there has been a clear shift away from a focus on the skills and practices of individual leaders to a more collective, collaborative framing toward a more holistic leadership approach. Diverse perspectives have and continue to shape the ways scholars think about and define peace leadership and how it is conceptualized in theory and practice. However, many peace leadership scholars utilize Galtung’s (1996) distinction between positive and negative peace as a guiding frame, where negative peace marks the absence of violence, and positive peace expands to include the absence of indirect and structural violence. In the descriptions below, we highlight some of the emergent peace leadership models and ideas. While there are distinct differences in each, these ideas reflect the collective nature of peace leadership and highlight the need to address both negative and positive peace.

Overview of Peace Leadership Scholars and Ideas

  • Integral Peace Leadership

    Conceived by McIntryre Miller and Green (2015), and then honed by McIntyre Miller and colleagues, the Integral Peace Leadership framework considers the relationships between four interrelated sectors of peace skills and practices: Innerwork, Knowledge, Community, and Environment. Within these distinct areas, individuals strengthen personal peace practices through self-reflection, apply conflict transformation practices through mindful interaction with others, engage the community in peacebuilding through collective action, and address peace at the systemic and structural levels. More details here.

  • The 4Hs and Peace Dwelling

    For Amaladas (2024), peace leadership is the interaction between four ways of being: being a guardian, being a curator, being a welcoming presence, and being a neighbor. He maps these principles of being alongside what he calls the 4Hs: the Head, the Heart, the Hands, and the Holy. Amaladas uses this structure to invite us to live into the ways of being and the 4Hs to create spaces where we might all dwell in peace, with this peace dwelling being the ultimate goal for humanity and the world.

  • Peace Leadership for a Culture of Peace

    Schellhammer (2018) promoted an approach to peace leadership that aims to create a Culture of Peace, including respect for life and non-violence, acknowledgment of human rights and freedoms, and dialogue and understanding across societies and nations. Where traditional leadership favored a top-down, authoritarian, linear style, Schellhammer sees current leaders as now needing to unify diverse individuals and communities with varied worldviews under a shared vision of peace. This requires leaders to align their personal values with those of the larger society, and in so doing, a leader must employ both humility and self-awareness.

  • Intergenerational Peace Leadership

    The Intergenerational Peace Leadership model was formed by Lee-Koo and Pruitt (2024) and serves to recognize the importance of engaging members of society across generations to produce strong communities of peace for all. Within the model, peace initiatives are inclusive and collaborative and recognize the unique contributions across generations and contexts, including women and youth who are habitually excluded despite their many contributions to peace efforts worldwide. This model includes both formal and informal leadership positions, creating opportunities for members of all generations. 

  • Conscious Peace Leadership Model

    Dinan’s (2018) Conscious Peace Leadership model highlights the importance of positive intention, methods, and values; self-awareness; and deep connection with others, all to create harmony, interconnectedness, and the higher evolution of humanity. Based on the principles of Ubuntu, this model emphasizes leading with compassion, reciprocity, dignity, and humanity. It highlights the critical task of collaboration within economic, social, and environmental contexts to sustain forward movement, change, and justice for all humanity; leans on concepts found in systems and relational theories; and shares facets of servant and transformational leadership.

  • PEACE Powers Model

    Chinn and Falk-Rafael (2018) created the PEACE Powers model to reflect a notion of critical caring, or a sense of strongly prioritizing the care for others. PEACE is an acronym for Praxis, Empowerment, Awareness, Cooperation, and Evolvement, and involves powers of the whole, sharing, nurturing, and consciousness. These PEACE powers prioritize inclusive and collaborative empowerment rather than power-over practices. PEACE leaders are, therefore, those who are reflective change-makers who build solidarity to transform conflict.

  • Indigenous Ways of Knowing

    Higgins Parker’s (2018) Indigenous Ways of Knowing principles emphasize a deep respect for and recognition of the connections between all living beings and the environment, underscoring the practice of storytelling in preserving traditions and information across generations. Proponents of Indigenous Ways of Knowing acknowledge the active role all individuals within society play in cultivating and sustaining peace. Rooted in a deep appreciation of the land, and reminds individuals of the importance of maintaining an internal balance of physical, spiritual, and emotional selves and a connection to the greater whole. 

  • Servant Leadership Perspective

    The Jesuit Worldwide Learning’s Peace Leadership Certificate program, based in refugee camps around the world, utilizes a servant leadership view of peace leadership. As described by Topuzova and Horsman (2022), this peace leadership lens prioritizes servant leadership values and skills as foundational principles for establishing a culture of peace. These principles align with a notion of heartfulness - the centering relationship between the heart and the mind, and Jesuit education ideals around educating the whole person. Taken together, these ideas present a view of peace leadership that is holistic and collective in its efforts to promote justice and peace.

Authors: Cristie Clancy and Whitney McIntyre Miller