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I am thrilled to share the release of Youth Leading Change: Emerging Sites of Knowledge in Peace and Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), a volume I co-edited with Erika Isabel Bulan Yague and Helen Berents. This book is part of Palgrave’s Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies series and marks a milestone as the first knowledge product of its kind created for and by young peacebuilders working to advance the global Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda.
What makes this book so special is the authorship. Every chapter is written by young peacebuilders who are simultaneously activists and academics, straddling both worlds at once. Their lived experience informs their scholarship, and their scholarship strengthens their activism. This dual perspective means the book goes beyond theory or policy analysis: it captures the realities of young people working on the frontlines of conflict and peacebuilding. Alongside these chapters, we invited established scholars—committed allies to the YPS agenda—to write reflections, creating a genuine intergenerational dialogue. Together, this structure challenges traditional hierarchies of knowledge and demonstrates what it means to co-create research across boundaries.
The volume is structured into three parts. The first explores emerging trends in youth and peacebuilding, from digital peacebuilding by young women in the Philippines, to youth discourse in Cameroon, to Moldovan youth navigating conflict and instability. The second focuses on youth and states, highlighting the fraught but vital relationships between youth-led initiatives and government frameworks, with case studies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and Nigeria. The final section highlights regional perspectives, examining how youth are shaping peace processes in Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and West Africa. Each section concludes with reflections from established scholars, situating these practitioner-scholars’ contributions within broader academic debates.
As the book demonstrates, young people are not just the “leaders of tomorrow.” They are already leading change today—whether through grassroots mobilisation, digital activism, policy advocacy, or regional collaboration. The case studies and reflections together show that youth are indispensable knowledge producers, whose insights are vital to both scholarship and practice in peace and conflict studies.
For me, the process of co-editing Youth Leading Change was as meaningful as the final product. It created space for young scholar-practitioners whose voices are too often marginalised, and it placed them in conversation with senior academics who value their expertise. This structure reflects the very spirit of the YPS agenda, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025: it is not only about inclusion, but about justice, recognition, and transformation.
The book is also closely tied to my own journey in engaged scholarship and knowledge mobilisation. Supported by Research Impact Canada, I have been building the Youth, Peace and Security Library (forthcoming), a digital resource to make research and policy knowledge more accessible to youth peacebuilders and their allies. Like that initiative, Youth Leading Change is about more than producing knowledge—it is about ensuring that young people themselves shape, own, and use it.
As we approach the YPS agenda’s milestone anniversary, this book stands as both a celebration and a call to action. It celebrates the incredible innovation and leadership of young peacebuilders globally, but also challenges policymakers, academics, and practitioners to move beyond tokenism and to truly partner with youth. Funding gaps remain wide, exclusion persists, and hierarchies of expertise endure, but this book shows that young people are already reshaping the field.
I am deeply grateful to my co-editors, Erika Isabel Bulan Yague and Helen Berents, for a collaboration that was a joy from start to finish. My thanks also go to all the contributors and supporters who made this book possible—their insights, dedication, and creativity bring the YPS agenda to life on every page.
I hope Youth Leading Change will inspire scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike, while also serving as a resource for young peacebuilders themselves. It affirms that their voices and experiences are not only valid but critical to building more just and sustainable peace.
The book is now available through Springer Nature (20% discount available with code: PALAUT): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-95862-5
About the author:
Katrina Leclerc is a peacebuilding specialist, published researcher, and PhD candidate in Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University, where she also teaches as a part-time professor. She is also a sessional lecturer in Human Rights at the University of Winnipeg and adjunct faculty at Senghor University in Egypt. Her research focuses on the intersections of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agendas, with a particular emphasis on meaningful participation. She is the co-editor of Youth Leading Change: Emerging Sites of Knowledge in Peace and Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), the first volume of its kind to centre youth peacebuilders as knowledge producers.
Katrina has advised the UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO), including leading an internal review on gender equality and young women’s empowerment, and previously served a decade with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), where she oversaw programmes in over 30 countries. She currently chairs the Women, Peace and Security Network – Canada (WPSN-C) and advises the Canadian Coalition for Youth, Peace & Security (CCYPS) that she co-founded. In 2025, she received the Research Impact Canada Engaged Scholarship Award (Doctoral).