Definition:

Peacebuilding is the "normalization" of relationships between people previously in conflict. It establishes sustainable peace by addressing root causes of conflict through reconciliation, institution building, and political and economic transformation.

Users:

Anyone recovering from or trying to prevent a long-term conflict.

Description:

Peacebuilding attempts to create sustainable peace by going beyond conflict management to try to solve the core problems in a society. Stable peace must be built on strong social, economic, and political foundations as well as interpersonal and inter-group relationships. Often, crises arise out of things like unequal land distribution, lack of political representation or poverty. In addition, a successful state needs strong executive, legislative, and judicial institutions. Democratization and economic reforms such as economic development, health care, and land reform are part of many successful peacebuilding programs.

Peacebuilding also usually involves efforts to increase "normal," cooperative contacts between opponents. It differs from "peacekeeping," which involves the placement of neutral forces in between the disputants to stop further bloodshed, and peacemaking, which is the formal negotiation of peace agreements, carried out by leaders or other high-level officials. Scholar Stephen Ryan explains that peacekeeping "builds barriers between warriors," while peacebuilding "builds bridges between the ordinary people."

In peacebuilding, efforts are made to open channels of communication, get people involved in joint projects, work with the media and the educational system to try to break down stereotypes, and reduce prejudice and discrimination. The goal of all of these efforts is reconciliation – getting the people to accept each other as part of their own group or be reconciled to mutual co-existence and tolerance.

Repairing damaged relationships is essential. Reconciliation requires conflicting parties to voluntarily acknowledge their responsibility and guilt. (While one side may be more "guilty" than another, in long-standing conflicts that require peacebuilding, both sides usually share some responsibility for the problem.) What has happened must be exposed and then forgiven. It is crucial to address past wrongdoing, while simultaneously promoting healing and rule of law. To respond to past human rights violations and genocide, peacebuilders can establish truth commissions, fact-finding missions, or war crimes tribunals. However, Western retributive justice systems often ignore the needs of victims and exacerbate wounds. The alternative, restorative justice, is future-oriented and emphasizes the relationship between victims and offenders. Therefore, community-based restorative justice processes can help build a sustainable peace.

The Personal Dimension

This dimension of peacebuilding centers on individuals. Traumatic events might include threat or harm to one's family or friends, home or community, or one's own physical being. Such events overwhelm an individual's coping resources, making it difficult for the individual to function effectively in society, even after a peace agreement has been signed and the fighting has stopped. One way to promote healing is for a community to pay tribute to the suffering of the past through ceremonies or memorials. Additionally, strong family units are crucial for the healing process. Individual counseling is also helpful, but has limitations when large numbers of people have been traumatized. If ignored, victims of past violence are at risk for becoming perpetrators of future violence.

Timing

Although it can be done at any time, peacebuilding efforts usually follow peacekeeping and peacemaking initiatives. Unlike peacekeeping which can be implemented relatively quickly, and peacemaking, which can occur over a period of a few months, peacebuilding usually takes a number of years. John Paul Lederah, an expert on peacebuilding, has observed that it takes people at least as long to get out of a conflict as it does to get into one – and some of the conflicts he has been involved in have gone on for decades, or even centuries. So peacebuilding is a very long, slow process.

Peace Builders

Peacebuilding efforts should include all levels of society in the post-conflict strategy. Important actors include government officials, lawyers, economists, scholars, educators, teachers, and religious leaders. Few peacebuilding plans succeed unless other international actors support them with aid and humanitarian relief. Often peacebuilding programs are carried out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but the United Nations and regional organizations such as the Organization of American States or the African Union have engaged in peacebuilding efforts as well. However, while external agents can support peacebuilding, ultimately it must be driven by internal forces. Unfortunately, funds are often difficult to secure when they are intended for preventive action, even though it may have the greatest potential to sustain long-term conflict transformation. External actors must ensure that funds aren't swallowed up by corrupt leaders or channeled into armed conflict.

Examples:

A Vermont-based NGO called Conflict Resolution Catalysts helped create a multi-ethnic community center in Ilidza, a suburb of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. At the end of the Bosnia war, control of Sarajevo was transferred from Serbs to the Muslim-Croat Federation. The aim of this project was to establish communication between returning Muslim refugees and resident Serbs. This was done through activities of common interest such as computers, English classes, and chess matches. Bosnians were encouraged to take leading roles in project development and were soon put in charge of running the center. Other projects offered money to help rebuild homes in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the requirement was that Croats, Muslims, and Serbs all work together in the rebuilding efforts. These efforts were accompanied by efforts to develop new governmental and economic institutions, and the war crimes tribunal at the Hague, which was attempting to expose and punish past atrocities.

Similarly, in Sri Lanka multiethnic teams have been formed to dig wells and rebuild houses in an effort to bring these warring groups together. In Northern Ireland the Mid-Ulster Basketball Club brings together children and parents from both Protestant and Catholic communities while leaders continue to try to implement the Good Friday peace agreement.

Importance:

Conflicts cannot be resolved unless the people that are affected by the conflicts want to resolve them. It is not enough for leaders to sign a peace agreement, if the people "on the ground" do not support it. (This is a primary reason why the Oslo agreement on the Palestinian conflict failed, and why the Israelis and the Palestinians have yet to make peace.) In order for peace to really be achieved, peace must be accepted both by the leaders, and by their followers – the "ordinary" people. (Many peacebuilders are actually quite extraordinary people – but this is using the word in a different way.) It is the peacebuilding efforts of hundreds or even thousands of peace builders that actually brings peace to the people.

Application:

While these example are drawn from international conflicts, peacebuilding can also be done in the United States between groups involved in long-standing conflicts. For example, efforts are often being made to bring students of different races together in schools to try to develop better understandings between them. Many dialogues have been held to try to "build peace" between pro-choice and pro-life advocates, even without being able to come up with a resolution to their "fundamental" conflict. The same is true between homosexuals and those who oppose homosexual rights.

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