Guest blogger Derek Brown is Executive Director of the Peace Appeal Foundation. In this two-part blog entry, he describes the state of the art in the field of peacebuilding as we leave behind an extraordinarily conflict-ridden decade and enter a new and hopefully more peaceful one.

Exploring Touchstone's "If": The State of Peacebuilding - Part 2

(Click here to read Part 1 of this essay)

The need for skilled, sustained, on the ground peacemaking, working with political leadership to develop new alternatives in conflicts remains acute. Historically, technical advice in this arena was provided sporadically by international diplomats (and occasionally independent solo practitioners), who often parachuted in and out of conflict zones, with mixed results. Today we recognize the need for more robust, comprehensive initiatives that can address the adaptive complexity of our world’s most challenging conflicts.

With this recognition, the predominance of such short term diplomatic initiatives has receded in favor of more systemic, comprehensive approaches.  One aspect of this transition is visible in the evolution from the efforts of the earliest UN special representatives (Count Folke Bernadotte and his successor Ralph Bunche, who served as mediators to the Arab Israel conflict in the late 1940’s) to the Secretary General’s Special Representatives of today, whose mandates are much broader, and whose supporting institutions often entail hundreds of staff working in countries in conflict with multi-million dollar budgets.

Another aspect of this evolution to a more comprehensive approach has been the recent growth of independent practitioner organizations, with the ability and access to work in a sustained fashion directly with key leaders in societies in conflict.  While too few of these emanate from regions and countries in conflict themselves, there are several well known international organizations, including the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, and Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari’s Crisis Management Initiative. Both were founded in the late 1990s.

Predating these new players in our field is the tradition of religious peacemakers, often operating in loose networks but over long periods, who have played critical constructive roles in conflicts around the globe. Among the most notable are the efforts of the many Quaker peacemakers of the Society of Friends, and the contributions of the Catholic lay person society, the Community of St. Egidio, founded in 1968. 

The cumulative experiences of all these organizations highlights the potential for independent organizations to make substantive contributions to peacebuilding alongside the official diplomatic efforts of governments and multi-lateral institutions.

Yet, despite the impact of many of our field’s organizations, the predominance of violent intrastate conflicts suggest that they have yet to amount than more than the sum of their parts. For the promise of the field to be realized, much more will be required: increased innovation and collaboration among growing numbers of institutions spread widely throughout our globe, a much more nuanced legal and regulatory environment, enhanced research and training institutions, more responsive and pro-active funding mechanisms, and most certainly a vastly increased public awareness. 

Only as the field matures in these and other ways will it be able to serve the needs of societies in conflict – helping communities explore the possibilty of “if”, and leading to a peaceful, just and promising future.