ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the broad context to the next ten chapters, each of which deals with educational leadership at the individual school level in a particular post-conflict society. In keeping with the specific emphasis on post-new war societies, it opens by differentiating between ‘old wars’ and ‘new wars’. The range of issues relating to education in post-new war societies that can be identified in the current literature is then considered. This is followed by a brief exposition on the importance of focusing on the individual school level when planning for the promotion of educational development in such societies, while not losing sight of the equally important task of promoting leadership at the system-wide level. Finally, the question of what kind of leadership is required at the individual school level in post-new war societies is examined. Here, emphasis is placed on the notion that it would be folly to seek answers in the form of sure-fired prescriptive blueprints from the existing range of leadership theories without also considering the variety of contexts within which post-new war societies can be located. This then sets the scene for the exposition in the following chapters on the great variety of contexts which, in fact, do exist around the world.
