This book is not an easy read in any sense of the term and hardly anyone emerges from its pages with much credit. It lays bare, in great detail, the origins of the present conflict in Darfur and how it has unfolded in recent years. Needless to say, the true picture is considerably more complex than that presented by the mass media which, in any event, were somewhat late upon the scene.
“Until March 2004, Darfur’s crisis unfolded in the typical manner of African civil wars, unremarked…
This upbeat documentary begins with the observation that, despite contrary perceptions, there is actually less armed conflict in the world today than ever before. The film contends that there is a wave of co-operative, nonviolent responses emerging throughout the world to the growing challenges posed by climate change, resource depletion, population growth and economic inequality.
The film surveys some of these initiatives, flitting across the globe from Kenya to Colombia, from the…
This month sees the launch of a new interactive website from Conscience The Peace Tax Campaign. From 2 March, visitors to PeacePays.org will be able to see how nonviolent peacebuilding initiatives are not only desirable, but are actually less costly and more effective than current approaches to security.
The UK is the third largest military spender in the world and almost 10% of our taxes go to the military. Out of a military budget of over #33 billion, only 3% is spent on conflict…
Peacekeeping has changed a lot since 1956, when Lester B Pearson--then Canadian Foreign Minister--proposed that the UN send an international force to the Sinai desert to prevent fighting.
The Canadian government established the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) in 1994. Its Peace Operations Summer Institute (POSI), which I attended, offers an overview of the whole array of peace operations, and while I was there several other courses were underway on such top-ics as humanitarianism…
The word at the UN is that there is a “commitment gap” - that is, the world's militarily most powerful countries want to see more military intervention around the world, but are reluctant to send their troops on missions run by the UN.
Each month the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operation (DPKO) publishes a list of how many troops, military observers and police each country supplies to UN operations (see following “tools” pages for latest details). Who heads the list of…
This offering from Peace Direct uses personal narratives to celebrate and give voice to a very different type of hero: individuals who have taken the frequently traumatic decision to reject the path of conflict in favour of the often more difficult but ultimately far more fulfilling route of active peace-making.
The subjects of these fifteen accounts would not characterise themselves as heroes, and it is this humility that gives the book much of its force. The stories are told with…
As its subtitle suggests, this ain't exactly bedtime reading.
But if you've ever wanted a clear, concise guide to how exactly peace processes work, this is it. Who gets to be involved? What do they talk about, and how is that agenda set? How are these decisions translated into practice? And how are transparency and ethical process observed?
Illustrated by examples from Tajikistan to Guatemala via Burma and Mozambique, the book looks at the common themes of success and failure…
“So how was Pakistan?” Friends eager to know more about my recent work in the Islamic Republic have had to wait patiently as I search my vocabulary for the appropriate words. My silence surprises me as well. Usually words do not escape me but this rare moment finds me struggling to do my experience justice.
Shall I take this brief exchange to explain that not all Pakistani women wear burqas (as some Americans believe) that cover their entire face? Shall I seize this opportunity to…
As popular support waned in the 1980s, guerrilla groups made various attempts to switch to unarmed political struggle. The FARC itself, seeking to negotiate peace in the period 1984-87, set up a political party, the Patriotic Union. In the next five years, at least 2,000 of its leaders and activists were killed by paramilitaries, security forces and members of the drug cartels.
In the early 1990s there was a new wave of negotiations with the government involving guerrilla groups such…
Cooperation for development has long ceased to be the prerogative of states. Apart from the big NGOs and church organisations, there are more direct ways in which citizens of countries in the North - be it through unions, small NGOs, or sup-port committees - have been playing an active part in building solidarity between peoples.
In step with the growth of civic consciousness and commitment, local and regional administrations have become more involved. The sum of these social…
Who said all is lost in Colombia? Women propose stopping the war now
We women saw the unsuccessful peace process between the government and the FARC as exclusionary, not based in the grass roots. Now we view with terror the spectacle of war: a patriarchal concept, both retrogressive and obtuse, has elevated war to the role of midwife of history and humanity, and unfortunately, at present, is defining the destiny of this country and of the world. We know, by the wisdom gleaned from centuries…
Cyprus isn't in the headlines much these days but, 26 years on from the nationalist-inspired fighting that resulted in its partition, it remains a sharply divided country. The UN-guarded Green Line is all but impenetrable, except by tourists and other internationals.
South of the Line is the actual Republic of Cyprus, now monoculturally Greek. North of the Line is an unrecognised entity known as the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, remote-controlled from Ankara.
Heavy…
Alice Ackerman's case for the Republic of Macedonia, as a rare - if not unique - example of conflict prevention by preventative diplomacy, makes a welcome addition to a relatively small body of literature which looks at how we can prevent war.
By way of introduction, she includes a brief survey of preventative diplomacy - and its critics - from cold-war attempts by the UN to keep the superpowers out of local conflicts, to the Boutros Ghali doctrine of preconflict prevention and early…
