Advancing the Peace and Conflict Resolution Fields: A Next-generation Brainstorming Project Developing 20-year Strategies for Addressing the Hard Questions (original) (raw)

Conflict Resolution Applications to Peace Studies

Science For All Publications, 2023

This comprehensive discourse explores the vital realm of conflict resolution applications within the ambit of peace studies. Conflict, an inherent facet of human interaction, has persistently challenged societies throughout history, hindering peaceful coexistence and impeding collective progress. The study delves into the theoretical foundations and practical implications of conflict resolution paradigms, elucidating their instrumental role as essential constituents of peace studies. By fostering a profound understanding of these applications, this investigation advocates for proactive conflict transcendence, nurturing sustainable harmonious environments. Through a comprehensive analysis, the interplay between conflict resolution and peace studies is illuminated, emphasizing their pivotal symbiosis in ameliorating global affairs and establishing lasting tranquility.

Examining history and evolution of contemporary conflict resolution

Drawing on the insights of a variety of academic disciplines and traditions, contemporary conflict resolution, since its beginning, has shown its development and expansion in terms of theories and practical methods. This paper examines the history and evolution of contemporary conflict resolution since 1960’s.

Perspectives on Conflict Resolution

2019

I examine two paradigms that have informed the large and growing literature on conflict resolution. The first, the Believer paradigm, draws from liberal ideas and values, and argues that conflicts are best remedied by way of negotiation, democracy, and markets. The second, the Skeptic paradigm, draws from political realism, and argues that conflicts can be managed only through authority or allowing belligerents to fight to exhaustion. This examination reveals the contrasting—even contradictory—assumptions about the means by which conflict should be understood and remedied. The lack of consensus says that not only experts and practitioners do not sufficiently understand their subject matter but that they are unable to conceptualize complexity in ways that will produce peace.

Conflict prevention : path to peace or grand illusion? (revised MS)

2003

This document looks at all aspects of conflict prevention and contributors reflect on how existing mechanisms and instruments for conflict prevention can be properly evaluated and improved. Conflict Prevention evaluates the institutional record on conflict prevention, identifies current trends in conflict prevention practice, and makes recommendations on improving organizational capacity.The first part of the book looks at what is successful conflict prevention? Conflict prevention can be understood as an important but understated element of statecraft and coercive diplomacy, as the physical presence of a deterrent force, or as a rehabilitative action taken to prevent the re-emergence of violence. Collectively, these interpretations point to the malleability of conflict prevention as a theory and as a policy.In the second part of the volume how existing mechanisms and instruments for conflict prevention can be properly evaluated and improved are assessed. They focus on several insti...

Peace and Conflict Studies: Evolution, Relevance, and Approaches for Change

2021

Originally emerging from the amalgamation of varied disciplines, the field of Peace and Conflict Studies has evolved and transformed throughout the years. In its current configuration, it boasts a plethora of analytical tools, theories, and formal as well as informal processes for achieving lasting peace. The following paper details the different historical phases making up the field. It also explores international war, deconstructs conflict, examines theories of Peace and Conflict Studies, and distinguishes between conflict management, resolution, and transformation. It additionally elaborates on informal methods for conflict resolution while making the case for multileveled and collective efforts to transform societal structures, cultures, and mindsets, and to instill transformative peace

Conflict Resolution Interventions in the Conflict Cycle

Working Paper CESA CSG 185, 2021

The objective of this article is to describe the Conflict Resolution interventions used throughout the conflict cycle. The article first presents five levels of conflict intensity of the conflict cycle, namely the levels of Stable Peace, Unstable Peace, Conflict, Crisis, and War. Each level of conflict intensity is characterized by analyzing the variables of Galtung's conflict triangle (behavior, attitudes, and goals), actors' perceptions (friend, rival, and enemy), and the dominant strategy of interaction between actors (positive-sum, compromise, zero-sum, and negative-sum). Each level is illustrated with typical events associated with civil wars and wars between states and proposes threshold events of a possible change in the level of conflict intensity. The article then presents a set of Conflict Resolution approaches that can be carried out in each of the conflict intensity levels of the escalation and de-escalation periods of the conflict cycle. Conflict Resolution is subdivided between interventions whose main objective is to contain violent conflict, here called Conflict Management, and interventions with a main objective of solving political problems, which can be Conflict Prevention, if they occur in the period of conflict escalation, or Conflict Termination, if they occur in the period of conflict de-escalation. In Conflict Management we identify the interventions of: Crisis Management; Unilateral and Joint Internal Management; External Management in the form of Peacemaking or Peace Enforcement, and Traditional Peacekeeping. In Conflict Prevention we identify Structural and Direct Prevention. In Conflict Termination we identify Multidimensional Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Peace Consolidation (associated to Conflict Transformation). Additionally, we present two alternative approaches, Cosmopolitan Peace and Critical Approaches.