War Destroys: Peace Nurtures presents selected papers form the 8th Somali Studies International Association congress held in Hargeisa in July 2001. This volume focuses on finding tools, solutions, and policies that speak to the need for building peace, establishing equitable and stable governance, and achieving reconciliation. The papers are of value not only to Somalis throughout the Horn of Africa but also to other African states that have suffered horrific disasters over the last few decades including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zaire/DRC, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and others. Contributors describe the role of women’s groups in reconciliation, peace-building, and economic development; potential linkages between traditional and modern governance models; alternative modes of decentralization; the role of language, poetry, and proverbs in cultural reconciliation; techniques of community participation for building peace at the community level; overcoming health concerns, especially HIV/AIDS and FGM; the role of local institutions in sustaining environmental resources; and ways in which Islam is compatible with democracy and can be an effective tool for building peace. The book opens with a section on the poetry of peace and reconciliation, written in Somali.