Fostering Hope through Peace Leadership: A Reflective Review of the Field

This reflective review posits that the emergent area of peace leadership may be the beacon of hope needed in a world riddled with conflict and divisiveness. Exploring over 60 pieces of peace leadership literature, this review highlights the skills, practices, and competencies spanning the continuum of personal and interpersonal peace leadership and describes the existing conceptual models and frameworks of peace leadership. Core traits, characteristics, and behaviors embodied by effective peace leaders are identified through analyses of renowned leaders throughout history, alongside Indigenous, religious, and spiritual philosophies that continue to influence peace leaders today. Interpersonal peace practices are described through the intentional application of these embodied peace leadership traits, characteristics, and behaviors, fostering peace through intentional connection, shared decision-making, conflict resolution, and a collective view of the world. The peace leadership models and frameworks guide leaders in implementing the delineated peace leadership traits, characteristics, and behaviors through approaches to fostering personal peace, interpersonal peace, and connecting both personal and interpersonal peace perspectives. Taken together, this literature considers the importance of promoting individual peace toward building and sustaining collective peace, positioning the work as a guide to foster hope for creating collective and sustainable peace in our world.