The present selection of his writing represents a sample of John’s constant challenge to think anew about the nature of ‘peace’, about the basic sources of conflict, about conventional ideas on war, power and deterrence, about possible peace-making roles for third parties, and about how the world might be better organised to cope with anincreasingly complex and dangerous set of problems and conflicts. They arose from his thinking undertaken over the years in a variety of research institutions and centres, many of which John had helped to set up, from the pioneering Centre for the Analysis of Conflict established in London the mid-1960s, to the Centre for Conflict Analysis & Resolution [now the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution] in Virginia twenty years later. The writings give a flavour of John Burton’s thought – analytical, challenging, practical – and a sense of what it was like to work with him – surprising, occasionally disturbing, but never boring.