Sustainable Peacebuilding

original description by TV3 CCMA: Andreu Ginestet és un mediador per la pau català instal·lat a Alemanya que intervé en alguns dels principals conflictes del món. Hem aprofitat per parlar amb ell de com es veu el procés català a les altres instàncies mundials, del conflicte entre Rússia i Ucraïna, per Ginestet "el que més preocupa en aquest moment", i també s'ha referit a l'organització Estat Islàmic.

Description by Andreu Ginestet: In this film on Catalan State television we concentrate on the Catalonia versus Spain conflict, Ukraine, IS, Iraq and the mesh of conflicts and interests. Conflicts are explained as connected networks of conflict that are overlayed by networks of interests.

For the many years of Colombia’s civil war, youth have been trying to find their way in complicated and dangerous situations. A central component of this is their relationship with armed groups, something that has evolved considerably over the past ten years. This practice note examines the context within which these connections are formed and the implications this has for self/social identity and meaningful resistance. The ideas in this practice note are based on consultations with young Colombians, particularly those displaced from 2000-2013. These sessions included art activities, focus groups and individual interviews. Art activities involved descriptive and expressive projects so that participants could explore their feelings and memories of situations and experiences. This provided a base for group discussions where youth exchanged information and debated issues. A total of 34 workshops were held over a twelve year period. These consultations revealed how war flows all over young people, touching every aspect of their identity. The boundaries between the personal and political no longer exist in today’s civil wars, if indeed they every truly did. Young people growing up inside Colombia’s war understand this at a deep level. An acknowledgement of this pain – showing the connections between the personal and political dimensions of war – is, they would maintain, the basis for their personal healing as well as an important tool for the building of sustainable peace.

In this study an analysis has been undertaken of the factors which encourage fruitful negotiations, namely: timing; engaging spoilers; choosing the right people to negotiate with; and working in partnership with civil society organisations. The conclusion drawn is that policy makers should engage in genuine talks with the relevant stakeholders on Afghanistan’s political stage, even if those organisations have been labelled as ‘terrorist’ (chief amongst these being the Taliban).

"This paper will adopt a critical stand on relevant theoretical perspectives.

The first section will present the current framework of Education and Learning in South Africa, including relevant dynamics, actors, and challenges.

Section Two will introduce the theoretical development perspectives affecting South African Education and Learning policies. It will examine Populism and Modernization as the two major influences on South Africa’s context, and present Lifelong Learning as a viable approach.

Section Three will discuss the interplay between local and global dimensions of Education and Learning with a specific reference to the Learning Region model.

Section Four will consider ways to overcome tensions and dilemmas by presenting a future scenario based on Third-Culture Building that may stem the emergence of a new paradigm for Learning and Development
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"Survival on Earth has become a general concern for today's generation, and many people are struggling to reach a new understanding of the world. It seems to me that the world has reached a critical point, which does not allow for easy solutions. If we are to survive in peace we have to change those habits and conceptions, which brought us to the present critical stage, and proceed on a path of paradigmatic transformation.

Accordingly, peace is not a static phenomenon but rather a continuous process of developing structures and relationships to meet our needs and strengthen our perception of well-being. To discover peace, we need to move away from a conflict-encouraging system and pursue a culture of both cultural and conflict transformation. 

The emergence and spread of an increasing number of violent, very often intractable conflicts clearly signalize that we have reached an evolutionary turning point that requires our full attention. In an unprecedented show of interdisciplinary solidarity, many scientists, scholars, social activists, aboriginal leaders and others have embarked on a search for a different level of global participation that would bring about a higher degree of consciousness.

In this paper peace will be presented as the result of a process of cultural transformation that would promote a qualitatively more balanced way of life. 

The paper will be structured around the following themes:

• A brief historical overview of the idea of peace according to the energetic/organic tradition;
• An introduction to the mechanistic world view and its effects on Western attitudes and mind;
• Applicable concepts: Noosphere, Omega Point, Bioregionalism, Spaceship Earth, the Gaia Hypothesis, Dialogue, Macroshift.
• A brief overview of General System Theory, Integral Philosophy, Self-organizing Systems.
• David Bohm’s Dialogue and Ervin Laszlo’s Macroshift
I will review issues of cultural and environmental sustainability; cultural and biological diversity; and political responsibility presented within a peaceful, dialogue-based integrated model.
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This paper examines the importance of tourism for sustainable peace as sustainable peace and development are essential element for peacebuilding process. This paper aims to examine how tourism facilitates to meet basic concerns of peacebuilding. This is emphasized to promote the importance of tourism to become peace-tourism. It elaborates the emergence of the concept of peace-tourism in global scenario. Further, it explores information about the peacebuilding process, its components, aims and roles of conflict transformation process, emergence of multi-track diplomacy and how peace-tourism enhances peacebuilding process in conflict affected society. Tourism plays vital role to foster peace. The tourism literature is not absolutely one-sided when it comes to the question of tourism promoting peace. This paper aims establishing relationship between peace-tourism and peacebuilding process to transform conflict, balancing both the positive and negative sides of tourism.

This paper is an executive summary of research conducted in Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango Guatemala from 24 July to 3 September 2004. I conclude workers were illegally terminated during the privatisation of the Guatemalan postal service managed by the Canadian state enterprise Canada Post. Furthermore those terminations contributed to poverty, child labour, unrest and violence in Guatemala.

Until recently, the term “political settlement” has been used almost interchangeably with “peace agreement”. But it has broader implications: political settlements span the continuum from negotiated peace agreements to long-term historical development -- in the latter sense approaching the concept of a social contract. Generally speaking, every political regime that is not in the midst of an all-out civil war over its basic parameters is based on some kind of settlement. The adoption of a political settlement lens could therefore bridge conceptual differences between the approaches and endeavours of peacebuilding and statebuilding.

Commissioned by INCAF, this publication provides an overview of key definitions, components and concepts of political settlements, based on existing literature. It also examines the potential impact of donor activities on political settlements and highlights possible implications for donor engagement and support.

Keywords: political settlement; statebuilding; peacebuilding; foreign aid

"The purpose of this inquiry was to investigate the role, experiences and perceptions of popular educators actively involved in civil society, non-governmental organizations, and social movements to bring about social transformation. This research answered questions regarding the causes of the conflict, the learning experiences of popular educators, and their educational strategies.

Conflict perspective guides this research. This study filled the gap in the research by including the voices of popular educators regarding their actions that promote just peace. In this inductive study, the data collection methods include participant observation, interviews and self-report, focus groups, artifacts, and archival document analysis. For its data analysis, this research used open coding from which themes emerged and a grounded theory was generated, which shed new light upon the phenomenon.

Data analysis reveals that there are historical and social problems that lead to conflict, dissent, repression, and armed hostilities. Using a human rights-based social change framework that promotes social justice, popular educators working at the grassroots level promote sustainable peace. Examples of such activities include advocacy, development work, relief work for survivors of human rights violations and armed conflict, welfare, and volunteer community service, such as interfaith sports and dance activities and environmental protection. These activities promote social justice, human rights, inter-ethnic and interfaith understanding, environmental concern, and the cessation of the culture of war.

These findings have implications for policy, research and practitioners. Funding agencies may consider providing more assistance to civil-society projects that promote social justice. As practitioners, popular educators must not focus on abstract concepts. Rather, they must continue to respond to actually existing contexts grounded on the historical, economic, political, and cultural situations and needs. The Ty spiral development model grounded on the data will be useful for policy makers, academicians, and practitioners when they conduct social analysis with a view to engage in concrete actions that promote social transformation. This research argues that ordinary people working at the grassroots level matter, as they are the ones who struggle against injustice to bring about positive social change."

What is the potential for statebuilding interventions to foster domestic legitimacy? This article advocates a shift in current approaches to statebuilding. Rather than inserting modern institutions that create external legitimacy, statebuilding should focus on closing the gap between civil society and the state. More emphasis should be placed on building domestic legitimacy by fulfilling basic welfare needs. This approach would stimulate local-level state legitimacy while formalising social justice and positive peacebuilding

This edited volume explores and evaluates the different roles played by corruption in post-conflict peacebuilding.

The problem of corruption has become increasingly important in war to peace transitions, eroding confidence in new democratic institutions, undermining economic development, diverting scarce public resources, and reducing the delivery of vital social services. Conflict-affected countries offer an ideal environment for pervasive corruption. Their weak administrative institutions and fragile legal and judicial systems mean that they lack the capacity to effectively investigate and punish corrupt behaviour. In addition, the sudden inflow of donor aid into post-conflict countries and the desire of peacebuilding actors (including the UN, the international financial institutions, aid agencies, and non-governmental organisations) to disburse these funds quickly, create incentives and opportunities for corruption.

While corruption imposes costs and compromises on peacebuilding efforts, opportunities for exploiting public office can also be used to entice armed groups into signing peace agreements, thus stabilising post-war environments. This book explores the different functions of corruption both conceptually and through the lens of a wide range of case studies. It also examines the impact of key anti-corruption policies on peacebuilding environments. The dynamics that shape the relationship between corruption and the political and economic developments in post-conflict countries are complex. This analysis highlights that fighting corruption is only one of several important peacebuilding objectives, and that due consideration must be given to the specific social and political context in considering how a sustainable peace can be achieved.

This book will be of great interest to students of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, criminology, political economy, war and conflict studies, international security and IR.

Reviews

'In this book Cheng, Zaum, and colleagues show how corruption control must be integrated within broader peacebuilding goals, and how we must adapt our choices to both history and rapidly-changing circumstances. The result is an essential guide to the challenges confronting citizens, and those who would aid them, in some of the world’s most troubled areas.'
- Michael Johnston, Colgate University

'It is well known that conflict-affected states are prone to corruption, which in turn undermines faith in public institutions. What is less well known is how corruption can shape the possibilities and character of a transition to peace. By approaching it as a political rather than technical problem, this important book takes a clear-eyed look at the ways in which corruption can threaten — but also, on occasion, facilitate — post-conflict peacebuilding.'
- Simon Chesterman, National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law

This study aims to identify regions in the Zambezi River Basin in Southern Africa that are prone to risk of violent conflicts (collective violence, popular unrest) induced by climatic changes/variability. The Zambezi River is 575 kilometres long and the basin covers eight coun- tries: Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, Mo- zambique and Namibia.Besides the ecological impact, the study argues that socio-econom- ic and political problems are disproportionately multiplied by climate change/variability. Climate change/variability amplifies stresses on the socio-political fabric because it affects the governance of resources, and hence, is linked to the weakened mitigation and adaptation capac- ity of societies, that are already facing economic challenges (rising food prices, etc.). Society becomes highly vulnerable to climate induced con- flicts when it suffers from poor central leadership, weak institutions and polarized social identities. Taking all these factors into consideration, this study identifies Bulawayo/Matableleland-North in Zimbabwe and the Zambezia Province in Mozambique as the most likely regions to experience climate induced conflicts in the near future. The reasons for arriving at this conclusion are: a) Climatechange/variability will have a significant impact on these two regions; due to increasing water scarcity in Bulawayo/Matabeleland- North; and intensified flooding, sea-level rise, and costal erosion in the Zambezia Province. b) Due to climate change/variability, agricultural production in these two regions will become highly volatile, leading to severe food insecurity. c) Both regions are suffering from low quality political governance, having unscrupulous elites, weak institutions, and polarized social identities.