Feminist and queer perspectives on peace challenge binary ways of thinking about peace, thereby contributing to a reimagination of what peace means.
peacebuilding
The PAP played an impactful role in conflict resolution in Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Somalia through its internal debates, fact-finding missions, convening of various stakeholders, meetings with diplomatic representations, and periodic communications.
The presence of private military and security companies promotes militarization in humanitarian spaces and undermines non-militarized approaches to security.
Social cohesion is best facilitated when bottom-up and top-down efforts—local, national, and international—are integrated and responsive to the relational nature of these societies.
Working in partnership with the Colombian Truth Commission (Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition), the Everyday Peace Indicators are seeking to support state-wide efforts to assess and improve Colombia’s implementation of peace processes.
The disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) program in the Nigerian oil region brought forth changes for ex-insurgents and community members across four levels to some extent—cultural, intrapersonal, structural, and interpersonal (CISI)—though interpersonal change did not extend to all conflict parties, hindering the conflict transformation potential of the program.
Since relationships are so critical to peacebuilding processes and outcomes, peacebuilding practitioners should focus on building strong relationships with local partners and stakeholders informed by genuine dialogue, cultural sensitivity, and self-reflection.
Because the United Nations (UN) places higher value in the career advancement process on professional skills like business management than on local knowledge, and the career trajectory of peacebuilders often includes rotations through various UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the broader field of peacebuilding is discouraged from valuing and integrating local knowledge.
A Western ideal of “the local” can be a site of exclusion where local actors have different levels of power, enabling some locals to govern the conduct and participation of other, less powerful locals.
We are pleased to present our special issue on the relationship between local, national, and international peacebuilding in partnership with Peace Direct. The recent reorientation towards local peacebuilding represents a radical shift in whose voices are centered in the work of creating a more peaceful and just world. The grievances that lead to war are rarely, if ever, addressed through violence. Instead, after war these grievances persist, joined by the immeasurable loss of human life and the all-encompassing trauma, fear, polarization, and neglect that violence begets. When countries emerge from war, the very act of peacebuilding constitutes a rethinking of the social and political problems that gave rise to these grievances. It matters, therefore, that decision-making power in peacebuilding rest with those directly affected by these problems and their potential solutions.