This cluster of articles is comprised of the four talks given at a special plenary session during the NWSA 2000 National Conference at Simmons College, Boston, along with an introductory essay by the session’s organizers. The session began from the premise that war and peace are deeply gendered at the conceptual level as well as in their practical effects. In a series of non-technical reports from the field, these feminist activist-scholars map the broad terrain of women’s resistance in response to situations of armed conflict. They argue that a self-consciously feminist cultural politics, and in particular the creation of new “public” discursive spaces and processes, are needed to effect substantive change in the way diplomacy is practiced and to undermine the hegemony of war as a popular human activity. From their various points of engagement and expertise, each author suggests some emerging directions for future research on women’s organizational practices and networks as they operate to sustain civil society and increase human interaction across national and ethnic borders at the regional level.