IMAGINE: Reflections on Peace

When battlefield prowess and political manipulation are not enough to achieve peace through victory, we summon our best and brightest to negotiate an end; we celebrate peace settlements; and we give prizes, if not to victors, then to visionaries. We exalt peace as a human achievement, and justly so. But the reality of peace is flawed. The rewards of peace are elusive for the men and women who live in the post-conflict societies of our time. Why is it so difficult to make a good peace when it is so easy to imagine? That is the question behind Imagine: Reflections on Peace. In this stunning collection, photographic essays make grippingly palpable the stakes during war and peace. Samantha Power, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Justice Richard Goldstone, ICTY prosecutor, and Jonathan Powell, chief negotiator for the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement, are joined by world-renown writers Jon Lee Anderson, Philip Gourevitch, Jon Swain, Robin Wright, Anthony Loyd and Martin Fletcher in revealing the complexities of redemption and rebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda. We hear first person accounts of survival and the search for inner peace that bring the big picture to the personal. With added insights from scholars and practitioners, the book offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into the unvarnished story of peace and a window into what it takes for societies and individuals to move forward after unspeakable brutality.

About the Author :
Gary Knight (Editorial Director) is the principal architect and founder of the VII photo agency and the director and co-founder of the VII Foundation. He began his career as a photojournalist in southeast Asia in the late 1980s and has covered most major global conflicts since, including the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Knight is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He has chaired World Press Photo twice, was a brand Ambassador for Canon for ten years, and in 2018 founded the VII Academy to train students from the majority world in documentary practice. He was the director and founder of the Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice at Tufts University. Knight’s exposure to war was the catalyst for this exploration into post-conflict societies and analysis of what it takes to build and keep the peace. He is an articulate, impassioned, and charismatic speaker. Other journalists from the project will be available for interviews.

Review :
"The searing images and moving essays contained in this book teach us much about the lessons of history, the costs of war, and the overlooked challenges of achieving lasting peace. The honesty and introspection of the contributors also reminds us that the gaps that exist between peoples can be bridged; wounds can be healed; hatreds can be dissolved; and the once unthinkable can become reality if there is a willingness to pursue dialogue and embrace our common humanity. Imagine: Re-flections on Peace is a timely and important call to action." --Former US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright "Powerful, persuasive and forensic, this book will open your eyes, challenge your assumptions, and deepen your understanding of war and the people who survive it. At a time when more people are displaced by war and oppression today than at any period since the Second World War, this book is an urgent call for a new generation of negotiators to step forward. Above all, it is a tribute to the victims of war, and to all those who never give up the struggle to achieve stability, justice and good governance in their countries." --Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Special Envoy "For anyone who has consumed narratives of war and violence, who has gazed into the whirlpools of history and violence, who craves beautiful writing and life-changing images, Imagine is an essential book." --Mark Danner, author of Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War "This magnificent collection of photography and narrative gives us a searing portrayal of war-torn places in the aftermath of violence. The result is a stirring meditation on peace as an unfinished project, precariously poised between memory and forgiveness." --Michael J. Sandel, author of Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? "This book is powerful in its evocation of the great suffering of the last half-century's wars, wise in recognizing that their painful legacy long endures, and inspiring in showing reconciliation in action. Most moving to me: seeing those who negotiated South Africa's transition to democracy help bring Northern Ireland's warring factions to the bargaining table. Peace, like war, can be contagious." --Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion