**1. Introduction**

From the atrocities of Boko Haram and Daesh to the state-sponsored persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya, religiously framed violence dominates headlines and plagues lives. On the flip side, religious actors are also recognised for their efforts to disavow violence and support peace. Whilst both of these constructs are familiar, the roles that religious actors play in preventing outbreaks of political violence are largely unknown (Haider 2016). Based on case studies from Nigeria, the Solomon Islands and Zanzibar, this article introduces examples of faith-based conflict prevention at local and national levels. It considers the contexts in which faith-based conflict prevention occurs and the forms it takes, from reflexive offers of sanctuary and safe passage to early warning and response to long-term efforts to address structural conflict drivers and challenge cultures of violence. It investigates how faith-based approaches conform with, contradict and extend conventional "liberal peace" wisdom and what the implications of this are for conflict prevention as a field of practice.

Faith-based actors range in form, from local faith groups and places of worship, some informally constituted, to international development agencies and global religious movements. All derive inspiration and guidance from the teachings and principles of their faith or a particular interpretation or school of thought within that faith (Clarke et al. 2008). In times of violent conflict and in the aftermath, some seek to build peace and lay foundations for recovery, shaping their existing activities to support peacebuilding or taking on new roles. Some faith-based actors function very similarly to non-faith-based peacebuilding actors—in larger faith-based international development agencies, in particular, day-to-day working practices may be largely indistinguishable from others in the sector.

Recent years have seen major faith-based humanitarian organisations enter peacebuilding programming in a more sustained way. Organisations such as Islamic Relief, Christian Aid and Tearfund have recalibrated their activities in conflict-a ffected areas, supplementing conflict-sensitive development work with activities more explicitly framed as peacebuilding. This responds to growing donor interest, both in partnering with faith-based organisations (Du ff et al. 2016) and in peacebuilding. As engagemen<sup>t</sup> has increased, debates around working with faith-based actors have matured. Questions of appropriate forms of partnership have come to the fore, along with concerns over instrumentalisation of faith partners and low levels of faith literacy within the development sector. New platforms for partnership have been created, along with "principles" (DfID 2012) and "partnership notes" (UNHCR 2014) to guide interactions.

The growth in faith-based peacebuilding has coincided with the development of conflict prevention as a distinct global norm and field of practice. The latter provides a framework to consider the preventative contributions of faith-based actors, but so far, the literature on the two subjects remains largely separate. This contrasts with the wealth of literature on religion and countering violent extremism or religion and atrocity prevention, which both have a similarly proactive approach to addressing violence. Recognising this knowledge gap, the article integrates the literature on conflict prevention, liberal peace and faith-based peacebuilding and analyses the implications of faith-based initiatives for the prevention agenda and liberal peace more generally. It is significant in a number of ways. Firstly, it contributes to the knowledge base on conflict prevention by expanding the view to include faith-based initiatives, which opens up space for critical reflection of current prevention practice and reveals new pathways for reform. Secondly, it contributes to debates within the faith-based peacebuilding literature, as it sets out the parameters of faith-based conflict prevention, as ye<sup>t</sup> unestablished, and identifies avenues for further research in this underexplored area. Finally, this article recommends ways to adapt programming to enable deeper engagemen<sup>t</sup> as calls for prevention grow stronger.

The paper continues with a brief methodological overview. It then provides a brief overview of approaches to religion within peace studies, recognising the ambivalent heritage that religious actors have as instigators and inhibitors of violence. Section 4 examines conflict prevention, charting its evolution from generic aspiration to global social norm and field of practice, and Section 5 considers conflict prevention as an extension of the liberal peace agenda. Section 6 documents case studies of faith-based forms of conflict prevention, identifying common themes linked to the faith-based organisations' dual identities as local and spiritual actors. Three persistent weaknesses of conflict prevention are then unpacked in order to examine the extent to which faith-based initiatives conform with, contradict and extend conventional "liberal peace" wisdom. The final section concludes, reflecting on the extent to which faith-based initiatives can add value and identifying pathways for future research.
