How to achieve a more peaceful world

1
How to achieve a more peaceful world?

• The discipline of international relations answers
  this question by talking about
• Use of force
• Deterrence
• Arms Control
• International law
• Use of diplomacy / Negotiation
• Functionalism

2
Governments may make peace agreements but only
people can make peace.
3
Definition of Citizens / Track Two Diplomacy
Unofficial and informal forms of conflict
management between members of adversary
groupsoften facilitated by a neutral third party
intermediarywhich is aimed at reducing anger and
fear, improving communication, and helping them
to develop strategies to better manage and
resolve their conflict.(Montville, 1987 Fisher
1997 McDonald, 2002)
4
Many Terms of Art

• Track Two Diplomacy (Montville, 1987)
• Problem Solving Workshop (Kelman)
• Sustained Dialogue (Saunders, 1999)
• Interactive Conflict Resolution (Fisher 1997)
• Unofficial Diplomacy (Volkan, 1991)
• Peace-Building Workshops (Burton)

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Conflict Intervention NGOs Include

• Search for Common Ground
• Seeds of Peace
• Community Wide Dialogue of Syracuse
• Institute for Multitrack Diplomacy
• Seeds of Peace
• The Carter Center
• Consensus Building Institute
• INCORE
• TRANSCEND
• Catholic Church
• Bonn International Center for Conversion
• And hundreds more

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Central tenets of the Track Two approach

• Unofficial contact or encounter between people
  from adversary groups if properly managed
  improves relations, increases understanding,
  breaks down stereotypes and negative images, and
  can lead to positive changes that cant happen
  during official negotiations.
• The benefits of this contact can be transferred
  and incorporated into society and/or the official
  policymaking processif properly channeled.

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The many forms of Track Two

• Track II can be both hard and focused on
  outcomes (discussions designed to reach political
  agreements that can be transferred to political
  leaders) OR soft and focused on relationships
  (discussions aimed at increasing familiarity and
  decreasing stereo-types and dehumanizing beliefs
  about the other)
• Can address cognitive, emotional, interest-based
  or structural concerns (or any combination)
• Can take place prior to conflict escalation, at
  the height of escalation, or during post-conflict
  reconciliation

8
Forms continued

• Participants can include officials acting in an
  unofficial capacity (Track 1.5), influential
  persons with the ability to sway public opinion
  leadership, or representatives of grass-roots
  communities (people to people)
• Can be one-shot or long-term interactions
• May target change upward, downward, or
  laterally
• But in all cases carried out by citizens not by
  governments

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Narrowest sense

• Track two is a way for decision makers to
  interact outside of formal negotiations, not to
  make agreements, but to explore possibilities and
  bring them to the table when formal negotiations
  do take place.

10
Broadest sense, include multiple tracks
(Diamond McDonald, 1991)

• Diplomacy (government) Track I
• Professional, nongovernmental conflict resolution
  organizations
• Business exchanges
• Private citizens initiatives
• Educational initiatives
• Peace activism
• Religious group outreach
• Philanthropic activities
• Media initiatives

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In the end all track two activities seek to

• Create the conditions necessary for formal
  agreements to take hold
• Increased understanding among polarized groups
• Break-down of stereotypes and ethnocentrism
• Encourage pre-negotiation softening
• Develop consensus-based proposals that can be
  fed into the Track One process or that can
  illustrate what is possible when official
  diplomacy is stuck

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WORKING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT SOCIAL CONFLICT HELD
BY TRACK II PROPONENTS(Burton, Azar, Fisher,
Kelman)

• A state-centric approach to conflict management
  is not appropriate or productive when it comes to
  many conflicts in the world today because
• Most modern conflicts are not inter-state
  conflicts over territory, power, etc. but
  intra-state conflicts often revolving around
  issues of identity (religious, ethnic,
  linguistic, etc.).
• Identity conflicts are often intractable
  because they are usually coupled w/ generational
  cycles of violence retribution, structural
  inequalities, and unintegrated social and
  political systems.
• The root of such conflicts often revolve around a
  quest for the satisfaction of human needs

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Continued

• These basic needs cannot be suppressed nor
  compromised because they are at the heart of our
  sense of self and sense of community.
• Coercive attempts to resolve such conflicts by
  state actors are doomed to failure (even if
  capitulation seems the rational course of
  action for the weaker party).
• Moreover, such conflicts are often not ready to
  be settled through formal mediation or
  negotiation because these formal tools
  traditionally only deal with objective interests.
• Carefully facilitating contact between groups
  involved in such conflicts towards increased
  understanding, trust, recognition and sometimes
  forgiveness is a necessary prerequisite to formal
  diplomacy and a lasting settlement.

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The process

• Repeated Contact via Track Two interventions ?
• Breakdown of preconceived stereotypes and
  hostility as the other is humanized ?
• Construction of new (jointly held) conflict
  narratives ?
• Transfer of new narratives and new options for
  settlement to institutions beyond the initiative
  ?
• Ripening of conditions for peace ?
• Formal and lasting settlement _at_ Track one becomes
  Possible

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STAGES OF Citizens Diplomacy ARIA (From
Rothman, 1997)

• Adversarial The parties positions on major
  issues
• Reflexive The underlying needs and interests of
  each party (why they hold each position).
• Integrative Brainstorm consensual ideas based
  on shared needs and compatible interests
• Action Brainstorm action steps on how to
  transfer track two insights to track one
  processes

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• I take open-mindedness to be a willingness to
  construe knowledge and values from multiple
  perspectives without loss of commitment to ones
  own values. Open-mindedness is the keystone of
  what we call a democratic culture.
  -Jerome Bruner
• Out of a democratic culture comes a willingness
  to accept the compromises, trade-offs, and
  creative solutions that make sustainable and
  peaceful civil societies possible.

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Tension in the Field

• To what extent can / should track two work focus
  on structural violence verses improving
  relationships and trust?
• Are there really universal models for track two
  interventions that can be applied across
  cultures?
• Doesnt Track Two work only at the margins? That
  is, isnt track one work really the most
  important variables in any conflict situation?
• How to credential track two practitioners?
• How to evaluate / assess the impact of track two
  interventions?
• Negative impacts?
• Transfer
• Individual transformation vs. peace writ-large
• Short vs. long-term transformation