David Cortright is the Director of Policy Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He has written widely on nonviolence and issues of peace and armed conflict. He has provided research services to the foreign ministries of Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and other countries on the use of UN Security Council sanctions. He is the author or editor of twenty books, including Civil Society, Peace, and Power (2016) and Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (Cambridge, 2008).

Introduction: governance and conflict prevention; 1. When governance is 'good'; Part I. Capacity: 2. The security paradox; 3. Social capacity; Part II. Qualities: 4. Inclusion and social equity; 5. Gender equality; 6. Countering corruption; Part III. Dimensions: 7. Democracy; 8. Development; 9. Markets, development and peace; 10. Global governing; 11. Governance present and future.

An evidence-based analysis of governance focusing on the institutional capacities and qualities that reduce the risk of armed conflict.