Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book about intercommunal conflict. However, no real space is devoted to defining this concept because there is now an extensive literature on this complex problem. It should be pointed out, however, that a significant number of political scientists would be uneasy with the idea of transformation, and would feel more comfortable with a pragmatic approach that takes for granted the inevitability of violent conflict and does not believe that greed and exploitation can easily be replaced with justice and truth. It can be argued that the idea of transformation is embedded in many peace traditions from Christian ideas about the healing power of forgiveness and reconciliation to Marxist ideas of class revolution. Transformation is what the international community is attempting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia, but in each of these cases this has become a slow and painful process.