Peacebuilding Initiative
The Peacebuilding Initiative advances faculty and student research, develops and supports curriculum and internship opportunities, and promotes collaboration between scholarship, practice, and policy on a wide range of peacebuilding-related issues, from conflict resolution to reconciliation.
Making and sustaining peace requires both social scientific training as well as harder-to-measure efforts that vary across cases. The Peacebuilding Initiative (PBI) at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs advances faculty and student research, develops curriculum and internship opportunities, and promotes collaboration between scholarship and policy on a range of issues crucial to peacebuilding, from conflict resolution to reconciliation.
Aside from convening scholars in discussion and facilitating exchanges between academics and practitioners, a central focus of the PBI is on enhancing student learning and training opportunities.
The Peacebuilding Initiative actively builds new courses and enhances current ones for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in understanding the dynamics of conflict resolution, non-violent change, and sustainable peace.
Through the Center for Peace and the Global Good, the Peacebuilding Initiative has a selective student fellowship program for students who undertake field research or applied projects abroad. The 2026 summer Peacebuilding Initiative student fellows investigated and documented how communities in Bosnia, Ecuador, Georgia, and Northern Ireland recover from conflict and pursue lasting peace. The PBI also supports innovative student projects; currently, for instance, the Initiative houses the ongoing, student-led development of an anti-human trafficking tool.
Students also receive support for organizing and holding events related to conflict resolution and peacebuilding through the PBI.
The Peacebuilding Initiative hopes to bring faculty and students together from across Yale’s campus and beyond, and maintains collaborations with the Humanitarian Research Lab, the International Leadership Center, the PEACE Lab (Public Health, Evidence, Action, Crisis Epidemiology, and Environment) at Yale’s School of Public Health, and several universities and external organizations.
The latest news from the Peacebuilding Initiative
Yale peacebuilding fellows reflect on summer fieldwork around the world
Four Yale students spent their summers as Peacebuilding Initiative student fellows, documenting how communities in Bosnia, Ecuador, Georgia, and Northern Ireland recover from conflict and pursue lasting peace.
Yale research on cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina reaches the United Nations
A Yale senior joined two Yale Jackson faculty members to present new findings on how cooperation across political divisions holds, and where it breaks down.
Researchers, negotiators, and policymakers convene at Yale to advance the science of peace
The 2026 Yale Peacebuilding Colloquium, “Peace, Power, and the Global Good,” convened scholars and practitioners to share evidence, test ideas, and prepare work for the United Nations General Assembly.
Željko Komšić, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina, speaks at Jackson
The February 9, 2026 event, “The World from the Periphery,” explored Bosnia and Herzegovina’s position in geopolitics — as a small country, a generation removed from war and genocide, still searching for stability.
Peacebuilding Initiative leadership
-
Bonnie Weir
- Executive Director, Center for Peace and the Global Good
- Director, Peacebuilding Initiative
- Senior Lecturer
Courses
The Peacebuilding Initiative develops peace-based courses that give students theoretical and methodological tools to critically analyze conflict and peacebuilding worldwide, informing their coursework, internships, and careers in fields like public policy, global affairs, and humanitarian work.
Learn more
Research and policy briefs
The initiative leads multi-site research with partners in Costa Rica, Jordan, Mauritania, Northern Ireland, and Turkey, as well as local communities in the U.S. and the United Nations.
Learn more