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In this Dialogue, practitioners and researchers reflect on the conditions of success or failure in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The lead article expresses a lingering worry that complex economic and environmental crises, international factors of violence and war, and an underlying 'murkiness' of values may overwhelm the best efforts for social change and create a feeling that we are “just wasting our time”. The comments emphasize that values and approaches - as well as the international context, power politics and injustice - should be the objects of critical analysis. Investment in learning, honest self-reflection and critical peace research appear to be a must for effective practice. Others stress a need for more effective public mobilization for the effective prevention of violence. Many additional questions are raised and present food for thought for an ongoing debate.

• Year2009

This report sheds light on a key set of actors in peace processes: insider mediators. It is based on the experience that most official peace processes are initiated or supplemented by informal, non-official peace processes, and that such processes are often facilitated by people from the conflict regions, with in-depth knowledge and great dedication to work on the conflict.

In order to explore the specific role, potential and limitations of local and regional “insider” mediators in today’s peace processes, the Berghof Foundation (then BPS) in cooperation with the Mediation Support Project of Swisspeace/CSS-ETH Zurich invited a dozen insider mediators from different parts of the world (Algeria, Burundi, D. R. Congo, Germany, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mali, Mexico, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Uganda).

• Year2009
• Author(s)Simon Mason

The history of resistance to English/British interference in Ireland over eight centuries has gone through many different phases: passive resistance, agrarian unrest, armed uprising, setbacks, defeats and regroupings, temporary victories, mass movements and political agitation, language and cultural struggles, democratic gains, and constitutional and parliamentary engagement. The last is often the most challenging phase to any revolutionary movement.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Bairbre de Brún

The Acehnese and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Acheh Merdeka, GAM) have always described the nature of their rebellion against the Indonesian state as ‘politics, not guns’. According to the GAM leadership, they decided to take up arms because it was the only language that was available to them in order to make the central government in Jakarta understand the situation in Aceh, an Indonesian province located at the northern tip of Sumatra Island. It was a political action to counterbalance the language of the enemy. The GAM leadership, both in Aceh and in exile, has maintained that the conflict was never about violence per se, but rather a political conflict that required a political solution. Consequently whenever the other party to the conflict, the Indonesian central government, has shown the political will to negotiate a political solution, GAM has always responded positively.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Agus Wandi, Wolfram Zunzer

The conflict in Sri Lanka is one of the world’s most protracted and multi-faceted. It has been aptly described as a conflict “where economic, political and cultural deprivation and grievances of a minority have provoked a violent rebellion against a state that has come to be seen as representative of only the majority ethnic group” (Orjuela 2003:198). Since long-simmering tensions between the island’s Tamil community and the Sinhala-dominated state erupted into open confrontation between several militant groups and the Sri Lankan armed forces in the early 1980s, the conflict has grown in intensity and complexity. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which emerged as the dominant Tamil protagonist following a number of early confrontations within the broader Tamil resistance movement, has since developed both a conventional military force and a substantial civil administrative apparatus in the parts of the island it has established control over. Since the conflict began, there have been five formal attempts to resolve it through negotiations. All, including the Norwegian-facilitated peace process which began in 2002, have proved abortive, with the fighting resuming with greater ferocity each time.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Suthaharan Nadarajah, Luxshi Vimalarajah

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) launched an armed insurrection movement, the People’s War, on February 13, 1996. Six years earlier, this Himalayan kingdom had experienced a major political change. In April 1990, after nearly thirty years of direct rule by an autocratic monarchy, the Nepali people re-established multi-party democracy with a constitutional monarchy through a street movement lasting 50 days. On the left, the political landscape was divided into various communist factions, which went through a major phase of restructuring, leading to the formation of the CPN (United Marxist-Leninist), the biggest communist party in Nepal, as well as the CPN (Unity Center) and the United People’s Front Nepal (UPFN), both of which were formed by more radical groups. In the first general election held after 1990, the Nepali Congress (NC) party gained a majority in the House of Representatives and formed a government, while the CPN (UML) and UPFN became the second and third largest parties. Following several years of intra-party debates, two radical factions of the CPN (Unity Center) and its open political front, the UPFN, led respectively by Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, formally changed their party name to the CPN (M) in March 1995, with the primary objective of launching an armed rebellion: the People’s War.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Kiyoko Ogury

This article examines the contribution of nonviolent resistance to conflict transformation processes. It reviews conceptual and empirical developments in the field of nonviolent resistance (both ‘principled’ and ‘pragmatic’ trends), and examines the roles played by nonviolent action in support of peacemaking and peacebuilding, by transforming unbalanced power relations in preparation for conflict negotiations, and by using self-limiting conflict strategies which reduce inter-party polarisation and encourage democratic practices. Empirical illustrations are drawn from the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993).

• Year2008
• Author(s)Véronique Dudouet

Puts forth the claim that conflict transformation and peacebuilding need to be of a hybrid nature and combine traditional, state- and civil society-centred approaches in order to be successful. The authors critically discuss the discourse on failing states and the current state of the art in state-building. They review successes and failures in the context of Somaliland, Bougainville and East Timor.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Volker Boege, Anne Brown, Kevin Clements, Anna Nolan

It has taken a few feedback loops, and now we proudly present this Dialogue. Norbert Ropers’ lead article lays out a rich array of systemic ideas originating from both research and practice, applied in the context of Sri Lanka. The respondents reflect, among other things, on additional tools and techniques, comparative experiences in Nepal and Kenya and the added value and utility of systemic conflict transformation.

• Year2008

The case of Colombia is especially interesting as regards the transition of liberation or resistance movements from armed struggle to legal, political entities. Not only has it one of the longest guerrilla conflicts in the world (more than 40 years to date); it is also a place where experiments in peace-making with armed insurgents have been explored for more than 25 years. Various peace processes led to different peace agreements in the 1990s which made it possible for ca. 5,000 guerrillas to demobilise and reintegrate into social and political life. Although this did not signify the end of the armed conflict in the country, it entailed a series of political transformations which changed the context in which the nation developed and made a definitive solution to the conflict possible.

• Year2008
• Author(s)Mauricio García Durán, Vera Grabe Loewenherz, Otty Patiño Hormaza