In conversation: David Hostetter and Matt Meyer on the pasts and futures of peace research

Peace & Change, Volume 46, Issue 3, Page 229-240, July 2021.

Abstract

Peace & Change is nearing fifty years as a vehicle for disseminating new research in peace history and peace studies. The Peace History Society has sponsored the journal since its founding in 1972 and it has grown and evolved through its partnerships with fellow organizations. The International Peace Research Association (IPRA) became a partner organization to Peace & Change in late 2020, expanding the journal’s community of scholars, readers, and reviewers to include more diverse disciplinary, international, and transnational perspectives. To mark this fruitful new partnership, Peace & Change editor Heather Fryer hosted a Zoom conversation between Peace History Society president David Hostetter and IPRA Secretary General Matt Meyer on the state of the field in our present historical moment. Awakened to activism by President Jimmy Carter’s call for a military draft in 1980, both Hostetter and Meyer have been deeply engaged in peace activism, scholarship, and leadership in the academic societies that have shaped the conversations in Peace & Change over many years. Here, they reflect on the past to propose next steps forward for the journal, for peace research, and for our organizations. Throughout their wide-ranging discussion is a call to resist the urge to hastily enact new post-2020 agendas and to concentrate instead on building trust—everywhere.

This was originally published on Wiley: Peace & Change: Table of Contents.