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About Diana Francis

Diana Francis has worked as a consultant on conflict transformation with local activists in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She is a former President of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and Chair of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support. At home in the UK she writes and campaigns about issues of war and peace. Her first two books, People, Peace and Power (2002) and Rethinking War and Peace (2004) were published by Pluto Press who, in March 2010, will bring out her latest: From Pacification to Peacebuilding: A Call to Global Transformation. More information can be found on Diana's website.

 

Articles by Diana Francis

Monday 16th May

A story of moral abandon

Diana Francis and Celia Mckeon, 16 May 2011
Nonviolent power is quickly forgotten when the tried, tested and endlessly catastrophic option of violence re-presents itself to Western powers. Nonviolence is what we applaud. Violence is what we do
Tuesday 23rd November

Prophecy is suggesting the possible

Diana Francis, 23 November 2010
"Our values of interdependence are no longer crazy talk. Our language has been mainstreamed." Diana Francis reports on a discussion between peace academics about how to globalise the work of conflict transformation
Monday 18th October

Religion, peace and gender

Diana Francis, 18 October 2010
As the number of interfaith and faith-based peace initiatives grows, women peace activists from twenty one countries met in Nicosia to discuss how to use faith to build peace
Monday 13th September

How can we build an effective global peace movement?

Diana Francis, 13 September 2010
If we are to present a credible challenge to the system of interlocking interests that combine to entrench militarism, our movement needs to be able to engage with that complexity. Celia McKeon, Judith Eversley and Steve Whiting join the conversation.
Tuesday 24th August

Building a global peace movement

Diana Francis, 24 August 2010
How can we build a strong and effective global peace movement?’ Cynthia Cockburn, Howard Clark and Dave Webb reply to Diana Francis
Monday 28th June

A platform for humanity - The UK's Bath experiment

Diana Francis, 28 June 2010
Positive peace is more than the absence of war. Groups campaigning to advance the causes that are vital to building it would find greater synergy if they recognised their interdependence. A local experiment confirms this.
Tuesday 25th May

UK election outcome: lessons for peacebuilding

Diana Francis, 25 May 2010
Inclusive democracy is a key constituent of positive peace. Does the surprise coalition government in Britain have lessons for the peace movement?
Tuesday 27th April

The strongest power of all

Diana Francis, 27 April 2010
If violence is out, what power can nonviolence offer? Courage, numbers and solidarity are vital to confront oppressive power, but macho dynamics perpetuate aggression. Human connections are the key to transformation
Thursday 18th March

Eat or be eaten: courting disaster

Diana Francis, 18 March 2010
Two very different ways of viewing the world result in radically different ways of approaching conflict. When we come from the viewpoint of ‘eat or be eaten’, the whole of life is a contest for control; when we ground ourselves in the notion of interdependence we work to a very different agenda.
Monday 22nd February

Gender, war and conflict transformation

Diana Francis, 22 February 2010
As Shelley Anderson suggests, war and gender are intimately related. Gender lies at war’s heart and the conduct and impact of war are equally gendered. Although conflict transformation is based on values traditionally regarded as ‘feminine,’ it struggles to implement them in a world shaped by masculinity.
Thursday 21st January

War: justifiable or simply catastrophic?

Diana Francis, 21 January 2010
The global phenomenon of war distorts our ongoing attempts to build peace in conflict after conflict and in many different ways. Diana Francis looks at some of the evidence and asks if war can be justified
Monday 21st December

Beyond stalemate: replacing the vicious with the virtuous circle

Diana Francis, 21 December 2009
What is conflict transformation? How do you begin to approach the mutual hurt of conflict embedded in systems and culture? There are many strands to a challenging and delicate process. Here are some of them
Thursday 10th December

The human cost of war

Diana Francis, 10 December 2009
Diana Francis finds in an exhibition of quilts and arpilleras made by women from Ireland to Chile, a rallying call to say no to violence, public and private, on any scale; to work for the abolition of war and to transform the culture of violence in which women are objectified and subjugated.
Tuesday 24th November

Conflict Transformed? The start of a debate

Diana Francis, 24 November 2009
In the first article of her series, Diana Francis reviews the aspirations and achievements of conflict transformers over the past twenty years, and argues that the only realistic response to the global phenomenon of war is to develop ‘nonviolence’ as a just and effective way forward.
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