Peacebuilding is about more than just stopping violence—it's about creating long-lasting peace by tackling the root causes of conflict, like inequality, injustice, and discrimination. It involves building trust, improving relationships, and making sure everyone has a voice, especially those often left out.
Education plays a huge role in this. Schools and universities help students understand different perspectives, learn how to resolve conflict peacefully, and become leaders who can bring about positive change.
Peacebuilding is a long-term, multi-layered endeavor. It combines grassroots trust-building with institutional transformation, nurtures inclusion and reconciliation, and champions local ownership. It looks beyond mere cessation of violence, striving instead for a positive peace built on justice, dialogue, resilient institutions, and shared human dignity. When effectively integrated—from academia to sport, from policy to mediation—peacebuilding becomes less an abstract ideal and more a sustainable, lived reality.
VU Amsterdam Summer School strives to integrate the main tenets of peacebuilding into its programming. Check back here often to stay up to date with new developments.