Opting Out of War: Strategies to Prevent Violent Confict

How do "ordinary" people, neither pacifists nor peace activists, come to decide collectively to eschew violent conflict and then develop strategies for maintaining their region as a nonwar area despite myriad pressures to the contrary? Mary Anderson and Marshall Wallace analyze the experiences of thirteen "nonwar" communities that made conscious—and effective—choices not to engage in the fighting that surrounded them. Tracing the steps that these communities took, the strategies that evolve...