Peace building is the development of constructive personal, group, and political relationships across ethnic, religious, class, national, and racial boundaries. It aims to resolve injustice in nonviolent ways and to transform the structural conditions that generate deadly conflict. Peace building can include conflict prevention; conflict management; conflict resolution and transformation, and post-conflict reconciliation. 

Peace building becomes strategic when it works over the long run and at all levels of society to establish and sustain relationships among people locally and globally. Strategic peace building connects people and groups “on the ground” (community and religious groups, grassroots organizations, etc.) with policymakers and powerbrokers (governments, the United Nations, corporations etc.) CRSD aims not only to resolve conflicts, but to build societies, institutions, policies, and relationships that are better able to sustain peace and justice.