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Preventive Trends

But what exactly does conflict prevention work entail? For some, “conflict prevention” means looking at root causes of strife (like poverty and resource scarcity) and trying to do something about the many social inequities that cause conflict. For others, it may mean monitoring and analyzing early warning signs—like data collection on the systematic targeting of certain groups—and taking “preventive diplomacy” measures when a situation appears likely to deteriorate. Or it could mean implementing peace building processes in post-conflict areas to ensure that fighting doesn’t recur. (As UN reports indicate, half of all states emerging from conflict relapse into violence within five years.)

Conflict prevention is now a regular subject of discussion among and between institutions like the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Group of Eight dominant industrialized nations (G-8). NGOs are certainly part of that dialogue too. According to one report, regional conferences on conflict prevention in Africa and Asia alone have brought together more than 1,000 NGOs since 2001.

Some continue to argue that internal conflicts are a matter for individual nations to deal with on their own terms and even preventive work is seen as

Has all the verbal support for conflict prevention translated into tangible commitments?

an infringement on state sovereignty. Many others—especially in the humanitarian community—point to the necessity of stopping atrocity crimes as a moral imperative that should concern everyone. Still others come to the same conclusion by recognizing that failed states can destabilize regions and threaten countries around the world. For all of these reasons, conflict prevention has become the topic du jour in international circles.

There has clearly been no shortage of dialogue about preventive work, not to mention plenty of diverse opinions about its definition. More importantly though, has all the verbal support for conflict prevention translated into tangible commitments to this work? According to Menkhaus, it has not. A decline in development assistance since 1990, he notes, has worked against efforts to address the root causes of conflict. Additionally, consensus among diverse groups working in conflict situations has tended to deteriorate as the process moves from “the drawing board to the political arena,” he adds. Why? Among other reasons, conflict prevention work can ruffle the feathers of host governments and many aid agencies still have little specialization in this work.

The Role of NGOs

Because they operate more informally than do governments, and usually at grassroots levels, civil society groups are sometimes able to engender more trust and legitimacy in conflict situations than are government actors. Consequently, they can be more successful at what are known as “track two” diplomatic initiatives, which foster dialogue—and conflict resolution—between private citizens.

Take the work of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy (IMTD), which has brought together individuals in a neutral setting and empowered them to create their own solutions to conflicts in places such as Cyprus, Ethiopia, and Israel-Palestine. IMTD leaders were central to helping establish a “People’s Bus” route that, in April 2005, linked divided families from the Indian- and Pakistan-administered sides of Kashmir for the first time in 40 years.

In 1999, the Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights in Croatia developed a trust-building exercise called the Listening Project. Just listening to the pains, anger, and fears of the more than 2,000 people interviewed—and affected deeply by the war in the 1990s—created space for dialogue between Serbs and Croats. It has led to evident change in the region, says Katarina Kruhonja, who was involved with the project, adding that many interviewees continued the peace building work after the project concluded.

© Search for Common GroundSearch for Common Ground’s work shows how media can be instrumental in conflict transformation. One of their current projects, for example, involves working with broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa to develop new skills and techniques for peace building, including training talk show hosts to use language that does not foster conflict. International Alert, based in London, has long been at the forefront of building “sustainable peace in areas affected or threatened by violent conflict.” Endeavoring to understand the root causes of conflict from those that live and work in conflict-prone areas like the African Great Lakes, the Caucuses, and Sri Lanka is an important part of their work, as is building confidence across ethnic and religious lines in small communities.

Efforts like these may take many years to develop and, as such, they are not often recognized. They can also be a hard “sell” to funders, as one human rights advocate in the field told OneWorld. It’s extremely difficult to measure impact, he noted. After all, how does one prove that they stopped a conflict from occurring?

Over time, however, these initiatives can make important differences to building trust and understanding between diverse groups. Ultimately, notes Al Santoli of the Asia America Initiative (and a contributor to the “Frontlines” section of this magazine), conflict—and also terrorism—must be stopped at its root in local communities. The most important thing, he adds, is to be able to give people hope for a future. (For additional success stories about the work that civil society organizations are doing around the world to prevent and resolve conflicts, you can order “People Building Peace II” at: http://www.conflict-prevention.net/.)

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