This paper explores the leadership journeys of Christian women peacebuilders in Myanmar amid ongoing conflict and political instability. Employing qualitative life story analysis, it examines how these women navigate entrenched gendered and religious barriers while advancing inclusive peacebuilding. Their leadership is deeply rooted in Christian faith, drawing strength from values such as compassion, resilience, humility, and service, and challenging male-dominated and patriarchal peace paradigms. Beyond descriptive accounts, the study critically engages with the ethical, spiritual, and relational dimensions of women’s leadership, highlighting the tensions, contradictions, and agency strategies they employ in conflict-affected contexts. The findings underscore the essential and enduring role of faith-driven women in fostering sustainable peace and social cohesion, demonstrating the broader significance of women’s leadership in conflict resolution and community healing. By illuminating the intersection of gender, faith, and peacebuilding, this study affirms the vital contribution of Christian women to inclusive and sustainable peace in Myanmar.

Kim Jong-Un’s recent remark that redefined inter-Korean relations as hostile and belligerent ignited debates over whether the reunification goal should remain within Republic of Korea. In the context of this changing dynamic, the study explores the ways in which both Koreas could coexist in the face of pervasive antagonism, drawing on case studies of Germany and Ireland, both of which have experienced and peacefully maintained antagonism and managed resulting challenges. To this end, we argue that thinking of inter-Korean relations agonistically opens up a new epistemology for the relations, providing a realistic and peaceful ground for transforming antagonism to political negotiation; namely, agonistic relations. Envisioning the two states argument agonistically does not mean abandoning the special relationship between the two Koreas or the goal of unification but builds a new opportunity to develop it from unification-oriented relations to political relations that require the continuity of negotiations.

At age 43, Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, who brands himself as a “philosopher king,” enjoys a 90 percent approval rating. His popularity is due to his transformation of a country that was once the murder capital of the world into a nation that is safer than Canada, according to his government’s data. Residents are free to walk in streets and lounge in parks that were former gang-controlled areas.By the end of August 2015, almost 4,000 people had already been murdered in El Salvador that year—on average one killing every hour. Largely fueled by warring gangs, by 2016, the country became the “murder capital of the world,” with a killing rate twenty-two times that of the United States. Violence had become normalized, schools were protected by barbed wire and patrolled by soldiers, armed private security guards stood at entrances to businesses, fear permeated daily life, shopping trips were circumscribed by safety concerns, and shopkeepers were commonly extorted by the gangs. Previous government “Iron Fist” crackdowns were deemed a failure at dismantling gang structures. However, Bukeley has taken the “Iron Fist” approach to a new level of human rights violations. The resulting calm on the street raises the question: at what cost has the apparent peace come.

The Latinx community has long been impacted by historical trauma, systemic injustices, political discrimination, racial, cultural, and linguistic violence. Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS), a community-based organization, regarded as a “miracle from God” in the community, serves the faith and socio-cultural needs of a Latinx community in rural California. The current qualitative study, employed a Thematic Analysis framework, to examine the impact of systemic and direct forms of violence on members of the Latinx-identified workforce at ALAS (n = 9). Findings from three focus group discussions identified several themes, three discussed in this essay include community nonviolent resistance, faith, and the strength of ALAS. This work highlights the importance of understanding forms of nonviolent resistance and activism via cultural wealth, faith-based resilience, and strength-based factors assisting marginalized communities. ALAS stands as a beacon of hope for many in the community and allows healing and community building to increase cultural wealth against direct forms of violence and oppression.

The Naga nationalist movement for self-determination in Northeast India spans more than seven decades. The movement has witnessed several phases of violent conflict, which has tremendously impacted the Naga society. The Naga movement for sovereignty has a deep relation to Christianity, as evident from the cry of all Naga nationalist groups—“Nagaland for Christ.” The violence between the Indian armed forces and Naga rebels and between different Naga rebel factions that intensified in the 1960s and 1980s led to the emergence and intervention of Naga civil society groups besides the Church. This paper discusses the efforts of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council and civil society organizations, such as the Forum for Naga Reconciliation and Naga Mothers Association, in faith-based mediations between the rebel groups and between the government and rebel groups. The paper is based on in-depth interviews conducted with members of the above-mentioned civil society groups in Nagaland in November 2023.

Education is often seen as a panacea for shaping, developing and/or fundamentally changing the trajectory of one’s future or that of a nation. However, education can also be a means to reproduce social inequalities or even serve as an oppressive and ideological apparatus of the State. Thus, it is critical to consider the roles and purposes of education, in particular in times of revolution as we are witnessing in Burma/Myanmar today. This thought piece explores the role of education in Burma’s revolutionary journey. It includes a) excerpts of a conversation with three Burmese community members physically situated in the United States at a time of sustained military violence and oppression in Burma, in particular after the military coup of February 2021; and b) a conceptual frame for three respective educational efforts that they share about. This piece shines a light on ways in which education is being employed as part of revolutionary, liberatory and future building educational strategies as part of the movement for freedom and democracy in Burma today.

This interview is a reflexive exchange with Suyheang Kry, Executive Director of Women Peace Makers, a local non-governmental organization in Cambodia working at the intersection of gender equality and peacebuilding. A leader and experienced practitioner of feminist and conflict transformation programming, she has pioneered various novel efforts, including interventional community research, in responding to social justice and conflict issues in Cambodia and throughout the region. Having worked with the interviewer (Hyma) for a decade, the two co-developed a community engaged research approach known as Facilitative Listening Design to engage communities in inquiry as leaders and to ultimately contribute toward paradigmatically shifting who is consequently considered the researcher in more participatory research.

The development of autonomous weapons systems is ongoing, and in the future, there may be a serious risk of deployment of these weapons without human control. The world is facing a possible new way of warfare separated from human intervention. This raises the urgency for conceptual, moral thinking on this matter. In this essay, care ethics provides constitutional elements to this moral reflection. According to care ethics, humans are intertwined, dependent on each other, and always related. In these relations, care is the central notion. The overarching goal of providing care is promoting and sustaining human dignity. The violation of this human dignity is the main argument to oppose the deployment of fully autonomous weapons.