When it comes to conflict resolution, is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure? Leading scholars lay out an analytical and methodological framework for evaluating this question, and case studies on global hotspots from Bosnia to Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and El Salvador (among others) put it to the test.

Terrorists and peacemakers may grow up in the same community and adhere to the same religious tradition. The killing carried out by one and the reconciliation fostered by the other indicate the range of dramatic and contradictory responses to human suffering by religious actors. Yet religion's ability to inspire violence is intimately related to its equally impressive power as a force for peace, especially in the growing number of conflicts around the world that involve religious claims and religiously inspired combatants. This book explains what religious terrorists and religious peacemakers...