Guest Editorial: New Perspectives on Conflict Resolution
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Development. Copyright © 2000 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200009) 43:3; 5–9; 014204.
Upfront
Guest Editorial New Perspectives on Conflict Resolution Y E H U D A H PA Z
ABSTRACT Guest editor Yehudah Paz outlines three stages towards conflict resolution highlighting the important role of civil society in two new approaches to conflict resolution: the People-to-People Peace Process and linking peace to sustainable human development. KEYWORDS people to people; peace process; sustainable human development
(Rabbi) Hillel said: ‘Be of the disciples of Aaron, love peace and pursue peace’. Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), The Talmud.
From enemies to neighbours, to partners, to friends This issue of Development sets out the conceptual approaches and practical programmes designed to create constructive alternatives to conflict in a peace process that will lead people from enemies to neighbours, from neighbours to partners, from partners to friends. The journal aims to contribute to the search for an end to the violent conflict that is threatening people in many parts of the world. The tensions and frictions, within nations and between them, require pre-conflict resolution if they are not to degenerate into violence. Global peace may be the order of the day, but peace on the globe has yet to be achieved. New perspectives The journal offers two new perspectives on conflict resolution: the people-topeople peace process and the link between conflict resolution and sustainable human development. These two new approaches to conflict resolution reflect and express the emergence of civil society as a major factor in achieving sustainable peace at all levels.
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Development 43(3): Upfront The people-to-people peace process The people-to-people peace process (P2P) depends on and derives from the ‘political peace process’ undertaken by governments and political institutions. This is true of conflicts between nations and also between ethnic, religious, tribal or social groups within one country. We now recognize that governmental/political agreements cannot, by themselves, serve as the creators and guarantors of a long-term process of conflict resolution. Conflict resolution must find expression in the economic and social realities of people’s lives. Peace will take root and flourish only in conditions of growing mutual confidence, of deepening mutual understanding and knowledge and of effective co-operation. The achievement of all of these requires direct interaction between broad sectors of society. For this to come about, the organizations and institutions today grouped under the heading of the ‘civil society’ must become actively involved in the peace process. What is required is the development of a civil-society-centred people-to-people peace process, parallel to the political peace process carried out by governments and political institutions.
Stages on the path to conflict resolution: the initial st
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