United Nations, African Union and other peacekeeping has grown. What are the kinds of interventions that create wars and make things worse for people? How can peacebuilding contribute to justice and development? How do war and peace cascade from one hot spot to another? How can peacebuilding be locally responsive and restorative as it transforms structural causes of war?

Peacebuilding Compared targets substantial fieldwork on these questions in 50 countries for at least 60 wars since 1990. Over 700 variables are coded for each war. Specific wars also stand alone as contextually rich accounts of successes and failures of peace.

The Australian Research Council has funded Peacebuilding Compared since 2004. 26 conflicts now have preliminary coding and sustainability of peace will be followed for 20 years (until 2030). The aim is a unique hybrid of ethnographic and quantitative research. Peacebuilding Compared is led by John Braithwaite, who drives all fieldwork in collaboration with more expert co-authors and PhD scholars, usually citizens of the wartorn society.