To me has fallen the great honor of writing a preface for this fine book:‘‘Johan Galtung, A Pioneer of Peace Research’’. For the last 15 years I have had the privilege of working closely with the person the book is about. His contagious passion has motivated me to be a ‘‘girl scout’’for peace, dreaming big and working hard to fulfill the ideals that are most meaningful and most transcendent for our communities and nations. Trying to approach my task creatively, trying to be fair to all, and trying to write the adequate preface this book deserves, I ask myself the question, What makes Johan Galtung special, outstanding? What defines him as a genius? A genius is someone who, among other things, achieves a paradigmatic shift. His or her ideas shake up and reconfigure the foundations of the field written about and worked in. This is precisely what the ideas of Johan Galtung have done in the field of peace and conflict.

His deep and precise thoughts and concepts have shaped the science he has founded. He has made constitutive contributions to its methodological, philosophical, social, and historical underpinnings. With his passionate way of being-inthe-world, charismatic and profound, he has changed the way we see conflicts. He has changed the way we ‘‘read’’conflicts. He has changed the way we think about and approach political and social situations, especially for those of us who have the high honor to be his disciples.