Scholarly Article Business, Human Rights and Peace: Linking the Academic Conversation John E. KATSOS* Abstract The fields of business and human rights (BHR) and business for peace (B4P) have overlaps in how they view business in society and in their multidisciplinary nature. This paper seeks to build on the work of BHR scholars in connecting with the B4P scholarly community, to bridge the divide by explaining the elements of the B4P literature that might be of interest for BHR scholars, and to describe a joint research agenda for scholars in both fields. The paper begins with a literature review of the major assertions and findings of B4P on the role that business can and should play in enhancing peace. Similarities and differences in approach and theories between BHR and B4P are then noted. A common research agenda is proposed that BHR and B4P scholars may use as a starting point for broader collaboration. Keywords: business and human rights, business for peace, business in society, peace through commerce I. I Over the past 20 years, business and human rights (BHR) as an academic field has grown exponentially, 1 largely in line with practitioner interest in the subject. 2 BHR is a multidisciplinary attempt to define and create scholarship and practice guidelines around the role of business with respect to human rights. 3 The permeable boundaries * Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics, School of Business Administration, American University of Sharjah. Conflicts of interest: The author declares no conflicts of interest. 1 S. Deva, A. Ramasastry, F. Wettstein, and M. Santoro, ‘Editorial: Business and Human Rights Scholarship: Past Trends and Future Directions’ (2019) 4 Business and Human Rights Journal 201–12; F. Wettstein, ‘From side show to main act: Can business and human rights save corporate responsibility?’ in D. Baumann-Pauly and J. Nolan (eds.), Business and human rights: From principles to practice (New York: Routledge, 2016) 78–87. 2 D. Baumann-Pauly, ‘Bridging Theory and Practice through Immersion: Innovations for Teaching Business and Human Rights at Business Schools’ (2018) 3 Business and Human Rights Journal 139–144; D. Cassel, The Third Session of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on a Business and Human Rights Treaty (2018), 3 Business and Human Rights Journal 277–283; L. Preuss and D. Brown, ‘Business Policies on Human Rights: An Analysis of Their Content and Prevalence Among FTSE 100 Firms’ (2012) 109 Journal of Business Ethics 289–299. 3 F. Wettstein and J. Schrempf-Stirling, ‘Business, Peace, and Human Rights’ in J. Miklian, R. Alluri, and J. Katsos (eds.), Business, Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development (New York: Routledge, 2019). Business and Human Rights Journal, (2020), pp. 1–20 © Cambridge University Press 2020 doi:10.1017/bhj.2020.5 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2020.5 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.163.42.124, on 09 Jul 2020 at 02:50:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at