Professionalizing Peace Leadership

This story is about the world's first competency-based assessment method for accrediting peace professionals/leaders using core values and key competencies. The chapter begins with the rationale for peace professionalism as an essential tool for peace leaders and, as in other professions, the need for demonstrated readiness to serve. It shows how the Accreditation for Peace methodology takes shape, is endorsed by Johan Galtung, tested, and revised (Certification Mark received in 2025). While most challenging, the innovative values component makes the greatest contribution in line with Onguny's observations (2020) that: “Peace scholars and practitioners increasingly acknowledge the pitfalls of focusing primarily on peace programming and related technical skills” (Galtung, 2015; Millar, 2020)” leading to a “growing tilt toward equipping peace workers with a set of skills (soft skills), competencies, and values to increase the implementation of peace goals, drawing on ‘hybrid peace’ models and the ‘everyday forms of peace’” (Autesserre, 2017; Fridman, 2020; Mac Ginty, 2014). The chapter ends by envisioning peace leaders playing a key role in building Infrastructures for Peace to propel humanity towards the global culture of peace endorsed by UN Resolution (ARES/53/243).