Imagine: Reflections on Peace and the travel community’s role

How do you imagine hope when all seems lost? And once you dare to dream of peace, how do you anchor it into reality? These are the urgent questions explored in Imagine: Reflections on Peace, a compelling photographic and narrative journey by the VII Foundation, co-founded by award-winning photojournalist Gary Knight.

In this episode, Gary Knight joins us to talk about the making of Imagine: Reflections on Peace—a remarkable book that documents the long, often invisible road from war to reconciliation. With haunting testimonials and searing war photography, the book explores six post-conflict nations—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Colombia, and Lebanon—through the eyes of those who survived, and those who helped rebuild.

“Powerful, persuasive and forensic, this book will open your eyes, challenge your assumptions, and deepen your understanding of war and the people who survive it. It shows that war doesn’t end with the signing of a peace treaty, or when a situation has faded from the news headlines…”

—Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Special Envoy

Each chapter pulls back the curtain on what it truly means to forge peace after war. Journalists who once documented these conflict zones return decades later to ask: Has peace held? What scars remain? And what can the rest of the world learn?

As Gary Knight shares stories from the ground, we also reflect on how travel can help restore cultural identity, bridge fractured communities, and support healing in places scarred by violence. All of the countries featured in Imagine are open to travelers today—and each offers a deeper opportunity to engage with peacebuilding through responsible, intentional tourism.

If you care about the intersection of war, justice, and human resilience—and if you believe in travel as a force for good—this conversation will challenge and inspire you.

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