This project will explore the use of music as a tool for building peace by various actors in the United Nations system, including the Secretariat, peacekeeping missions, UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme. To date, the ways in which UN actors have used music for peace have not been systematically documented, analysed and categorised.

This research project aims to fill this gap in our collective understanding by achieving two objectives:

• Identifying which UN actors have used music to support peace, and then documenting the various programmes they have carried out.
• Analysing all the projects identified in order to isolate the mechanisms through which UN-supported music programmes could facilitate peace. This analysis aims to create a classification system that can be used to categorise the different UN music for peace projects according to their contributions to peacebuilding.

This study of music for UN peacebuilding will be the first contribution to a broader, collaborative project that Dr Gledhill is planning, which will explore the political roles, functions, and impacts of music in the arc of conflict and peace.