Even in places of deadly national enmity, some very ordinary people are routinely doing peace. In this highly original study, Cynthia Cockburn deepens our understanding of the processes sustaining conflict in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia/Hercegovina by means of a close involvement with three remarkable women‘s projects that have chosen co-operation. How, she asks, do they fill the dangerous space between them with words instead of bullets? How do they make democracy out of difference? The book brings fresh insight to theories of the self in relation to collective identities, and of gender in nationalist thought and practice. Observing, in words and photographs, how these women‘s alliances create a safe space in which to work together, we learn more about the dangers of essentialism and the problematic relationship between identity and democracy.

'Cynthia Cockburn, both the activist and the writer, has been important for feminists all over the world for many years now. She is one of the all too rare people who combine a sharp analytical mind, unwavering feminist and anti-militaristic political commitment and a warm and caring heart. They are all reflected in this fascinating book which is based in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia-Hercegovina with activist women's groups working across ethnic and national boundaries.' - Nira Yuval-Davis, University of Greenwich/Australian National University. 'In three gritty, nuanced, feminist-informed case studies, Cynthia Cockburn reveals what sort of political acts it takes to build and sustain - through dangerous days, over wearying weeks - that elusive thing called a 'civil society'. Now, when I recommend that students and friends read Arendt and Havel, I'm going to give them Cockburn too.' - Cynthia Enloe, author of Maneuvers: The international politics of militarizing women's lives. 'Filled with photos, this is another important book from the folks at Zed.' - Feminist Bookstore News 'What is new about Cockburn’s book - which should come with a warning that 'this book changes lives' - is that it aims to challenge prevailing identity processes including those of ethnicity and nationalism.... moving and powerful... the book has many strengths: the excellent summaries of the three conflicts and the women targeted by them, the well teased out discussion of ethnicity, nation(alism) and gender, and Cockburn’s research methodology which is always collaborative, always mindful of the needs of the three projects and the women who make them... A beautiful and necessary book.' - Women's Studies International Forum

Cynthia Cockburn is a research professor in the Department of Sociology, City University London. She is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books, including In the Way of Women: Men's Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations (1991) and Machinery of Dominance: Women, Men and Technical Know-how (1985).