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.

A story of moral abandon

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

By Diana Francis and Celia Mckeon

/ 16 May 2011

Prophecy is suggesting the possible

"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

By Diana Francis

/ 23 Nov 2010

Religion, peace and gender

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

By Diana Francis

/ 18 Oct 2010

How can we build an effective global peace movement?

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.

By Diana Francis

/ 13 Sep 2010

Building a global peace movement

How can we build a strong and effective global peace movement?’ Cynthia Cockburn, Howard Clark and Dave Webb reply to Diana Francis

By Diana Francis

/ 24 Aug 2010

A platform for humanity - The UK's Bath experiment

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.

By Diana Francis

/ 28 Jun 2010

UK election outcome: lessons for peacebuilding

Inclusive democracy is a key constituent of positive peace. Does the surprise coalition government in Britain have lessons for the peace movement?

By Diana Francis

/ 25 May 2010

The strongest power of all

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

By Diana Francis

/ 27 Apr 2010

Eat or be eaten: courting disaster

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.

By Diana Francis

/ 18 Mar 2010

Gender, war and conflict transformation

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 masc

By Diana Francis

/ 22 Feb 2010

War: justifiable or simply catastrophic?

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

By Diana Francis

/ 21 Jan 2010

Beyond stalemate: replacing the vicious with the virtuous circle

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

By Diana Francis

/ 21 Dec 2009