CHAP T E R 1 Introduction to Conflict Resolution: Concepts and Definitions In this third edition of our book we bring the survey of the conflict resolution field up to date at the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Conflict resolution as a defined specialist field came of age in the post-Cold War era. It also found itself face to face with fundamental new challenges, many of which have come into even sharper focus since the first and second editions of this book. Why a Third Edition? The first edition of the book (1999) was written at a time when, despite setbacks, conflict resolution approaches in peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding were widely seen for the first time to be central in global politics in the …show more content…
Institutions to study the field were established, and their number rapidly increased. The field developed its own subdivisions, with different groups studying international crises, internal wars, social conflicts and approaches ranging from negotiation and mediation to experimental games. By the 1980s, conflict resolution ideas were increasingly making a difference in real conflicts. In South Africa, for example, the Centre for Intergroup Studies was applying the approaches that had emerged in the field to the developing confrontation between apartheid and its challengers, with impressive results. In the Middle East, a peace process was getting under way in which negotiators on both sides had gained experience both of each other and of conflict resolution through problem-solving workshops. In Northern Ireland, groups inspired by the new approach had set up community relations initiatives that were not only reaching across community divides but were also becoming an accepted responsibility of local government. In war-torn regions of Africa and South-East Asia, development workers and humanitarian agencies were seeing the need to take account of conflict and conflict resolution as an integral part of their activities. By the closing years of the Cold War, the climate for conflict resolution was changing radically. With relations between the superpowers improving, the ideological and military competition that had fuelled many regional conflicts was fading away. Protracted
Conflict Resolution is an essential element of life but a task filled with so many diverse issues that not many can engage it without feeling a bit unprepared. Through the grace of God we have been given a wonderful ministry of reconciliation and direct commands to live at peace with others. The core outcome of this project is to allow you to practice the principles of conflict resolution laid forth in the Peacemaker text.
Although in the past, Canada vastly supported the United Nations, a peacekeeping group, Canada’s rank in the UN Peacekeeping contributions chart has decreased from the 20th to the 21st century. Canada used to be ranked 8th in 1990 sending an average of 1000 forces, whether they be police, military experts, or troops. However in comparison to the other countries that provided thousands of Peacekeepers, in the year 2015, Canada was only ranked 68th sending a total average of 116 forces. From the major decrease of Canadian peacekeepers, it is observed that Canada has scaled back their role as a peacekeeping nation, allowing Canada to uncover its peacemaker within. Secondly, United Nations added an online mediation support tool called Peacemakers. Designed for use by peacemaking professionals, the tool consists of peace agreements, knowledge for guidance as well as material involving the United Nations mediation support services. Peacemaker is used to provide information on various topics revolving around peace mission. The UN’s efforts to try to resolve the worldwide conflict are presented through UN Peacemaker. The UN added peacemaker to inform others of peacemaking, showing that it is not just peacekeeping. Thirdly, the United Nations collects money from its members, Canada may be 9th in the top ten providers, however Canada used to
Against a backdrop of an ever increasing number of internal conflicts and the crash of conventional means of conflict resolution to attain a resilient peace in divided societies, this paper presents a two-track approach to peacekeeping and conflict resolution. One track is represented by peacemaking, defined as endeavors at finding a resolution to the issues in conflict at the political leadership level. The other track, peacebuilding, refers to contact proposals at the grassroots level targeting at the enhancement of intergroup relations. After a conversation of role of grassroots peacebuilding in a peace process some groundwork findings on the bond between peacemaking and peacebuilding in two divided societies, Palestine and Israel, will be discussed.
Theoretically significant to conflict is social identity theory. It allows “predictions to incorporate who is likely to perceive and act in group terms, to remain committed to the group in times of crisis” Turner (1999), Doosje & Ellemers, (1999). Bar-Tal stresses conflict exists when an incompatible goal exists between two groups. The question of when incompatibility sets become important in understanding the cause of inter-ethnic or communal conflicts for instance, even more importantly; conflict within ingroup. Inter-ethnic or communal conflict because within the scope of peacebuilding, that is the point where building peace thrives the most. There is an assumption that for peacebuilding to be
Humanitarian crises and international politics goes hand in hand. One can cause the other, while the only way to fix the other is to rely on politics. This paper will highlight the cause of genocide, violent massacres and crisis, how to solve them, and key roles politicians and nations must take up wholeheartedly in order to make a difference. Personal and political reconciliation must occur in the parties involved ever want to have a mutual co existence.
Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.
Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.
Sierra Leone had been considered a fragile state even before its civil war from 1991-2002, this is because it had “weak capacity and will to provide security and deliver services to its population” (Pickering, 2009, p20). The decade during the civil war was overwhelmed by huge human rights abuses, lack of coherent governments, weak social security structures and masses of violence (Evoe, 2008, p2).. A number of peace efforts were generated by international institutions, none of which were extensively effective throughout all of Sierra Leone. Despite these difficulties, the intervention in Sierra Leone is considered a noteworthy success for the United Nations peacebuilding mission. The main objective of peacebuilding missions is to ‘rebuild’ failing and weak states (Cubitt, 2013, p91) and to “prevent violence from recurring in countries that are just emerging from civil conflict” (Paris, 2002, p637). The UN mission in Sierra Leone is widely regarded as an example of successful peacebuilding in a war torn country. The mission facilitated a transition from, a failing state to a moderately peaceful state. This mission is held as an example of successful intervention, and is often used as a means to justify the benefits of UN peacebuilding and peacekeeping missions.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Northern Ireland case had many similar elements in conflict drivers and elements that gave rise to conflict; however ,the two cases also had differing salient points. The Israelis were a diasporic community while the Ulsters in Northern Ireland were a minority group living on their own land. The Palestinian and Israeli saw each other as more of a threat than the unionist and nationalists saw each other in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland crisis did not threaten the existence of England while the PLO had motive to destroy Israel. These were some of the several differing factors that accounted for this variation in outcome; however the main issue was threat and incentive. The actors in the Good Friday Agreement had more incentive, or less threat in accepting the agreement. Actors in the Oslo negotiations believed that was more threat for Israel-Palestine to integrate. Also, there were significant gaps in goals and incentives they had. An attempt to understand the failure of the Oslo process can be explained with a Realist lens.
I will shed the light on the Security Council which is the keystone of the United Nations system of collective security, and its role in maintaining international peace and security by settling disputes pacifically under chapter VI of the UN Charter and by taking action regarding threats, breaches, and acts of aggression under chapter VII. I will then discuss the several options that Nation states had resorted to in the past to intervene in order to protect civilians. And I will finally highlight the notion of the responsibility to protect which emerged in 2001 and its implication on populations under
In presenting the rationale behind the publication of the third edition to their book, Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall, explain how the field of conflict resolution has emerged as a specialization in the post-Cold War era. The authors “argue that it is an integral part of work for development, social justice, and social transformation”. As the fundamental challenges linked with state fragility surface, the development of conflict resolution and the related perspectives gain relevance, and will increasingly become more relevant when responding to changing societies; particularly where social bounds are weak due to a lack of consensus between values and traditions. This evolution in conflict analysis is a reflection of the evolution of classical
Analyse a conflict of your choice since the end of the Cold War, identifying the main parties (direct and indirect actors) and issues, explaining the conflict and relating it to its social or international context and how these factors have evolved over the life-cycle of the conflict. This should be done with a conceptual underpinning of the type of conflict being examined and within the organisational framework of conflict mapping.
“Give War a Chance” is an article written by the American economist, historian and military strategist Edward Nicolae Luttwak in 1999, in the American magazine Foreign Affairs. It make an easily understandable “buzz”, since its main assumption is that most kind of peacekeeping or humanitarian operations are, in an objective point of view, a bad thing for the peace, and that it tends, paradoxically, to slower its establishment. We will analyze here the main hypothesis that Luttwak is developing among the article, the first one being the destruction of the legitimacy usually accorded to peacekeeping operations, led by the UN or by other military organizations, and the second one being the obstacle to a durable peace establishment, created
The United Nations, with its rigid moral and political limitations against force, has become a benchmark of peace and a social achievement of modern times. From war torn Europe, the United Nations developed from five major powers with an initial goal to prevent the spread of warfare through peaceful means and to establish and maintain fundamental human rights. Through the past fifty years, this organization has broadened its horizons with auxiliary organizations from peace keeping missions to humanitarian aid, to economic development. However, in a modern example of ethnic cleansing, the UN faces new a new role as a bystander as its power is bypassed by NATO forces. The UN, however, promises to be an
The primary instrument that engages the prospect of war, peace, and the balance of power is the amount of actors who possess power on the international stage. There are three main systems to classify the allocation of power in the international community. The three systems include a unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar world. Many realists’ theorists correlate multi-polar systems as destructive and problematic in causing wars. Meanwhile, it is widely agreed that bipolarity encourages stability and a unipolar world is the most ideal in maintaining peace. The objective of this paper is to analyze these three concepts of distribution of power and how it has affected the international stage after World War II.