A new issue of Music and Arts in Action (MAiA) is now online. This is a theme issue focusing on the role of the arts and music in conflict transformation and peace building, covering a wide range of topics that are examined using novel case studies.

The topics range from power, politics and identity issues in an Israeli-Arabic orchestra by Solveig Riiser; the role of sing-alongs in sustaining anti-war movements in the U.S. by Jeneve Brooks; cultural identity theory as unpacked in action research in Craig Robertson's ethnographic study of a Bosnian multi-ethnic choir; the bureaucratic constraints on evaluating community theatre interventions in Northern Ireland by Matthew Jennings and Andrea Baldwin; and the combination of academic and practitioner intervention in conflict transformation work by Svanibor Pettan's look at applied ethnomusicology. A guest editorial by Arild Bergh and John Sloboda provides a review of the field and discusses the papers in this issue within the context of the challenges that the field of music and conflict transformation faces.

The papers in this issue together make an exciting and robust contribution to empirical work in this emerging research area. To read the complete issue online go here.