Social Sciences
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2021): El Rio
Peace Education as a Post-Conflict Reconciliation Method: The Case of Bosnia and Rwanda and the Importance of State Development
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Submitted
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February 5, 2021
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Published
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2022-01-10
Abstract
The implementation of peace education after civil conflicts is a difficult task for governments. Peace education is a tool of reconciliation that states can use. This paper will focus on reconciliation, methods of reconciliation, and the role education plays in conflict resolution. Then it will introduce the case studies of Rwanda and Bosnia that experienced a genocide in the 1990s and how they have dealt with reconciliation through peace education programs. After that the paper will focus on the circumstances that led to the peace education programs to be more or less successful. It will find that the state development has a bigger influence on peace education than literature portrays. Without sufficient funding for schools and access to learning material, efforts of the government can only reach small parts of the population. Because of their development Bosnia has a better chance at implementing a successful peace education program than Rwanda.
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