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Reading the excellent article by Bernardo Arévalo de León and Ana Glenda Tager on armed social violence felt like a long walk in the mountains: challenging, invigorating – and definitely worth the effort. The three strands entwined in their rigorous discourse assert that armed social violence (including criminal and inter-communal violence) is a phenomenon distinct from conventional armed violence and different again from individual and terrorist violence – although they choose not to say much about these latter spheres. The second strand in their argument is that our developing field of peacebuilding has relevant experiences to offer to complement traditional criminal justice responses. Then they move to a call for a different strategic, systemic and operational response, one that fundamentally engages with the complex natures of social and conventional armed conflicts.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Andy Carl

Este informe es parte de un más amplio proyecto comparativo de investigación financiado generosamente por la Fundación Alemana para la Investigación sobre la Paz e implementado por la Fundación Berghof. El proyecto, titulado “¿Coexistencia pacífica? Mecanismos ‘tradicionales’ y ‘no-tradicionales’ de resolución de conflictos”, analiza los patrones de coexistencia de enfoques ‘tradicionales’ (indígenas, locales, basados en la comunidad) y ‘no-tradicionales’ (importados, liberales, basados en el estado, occidentales) de resolución de conflictos con base en el trabajo de campo realizado en Colombia, Liberia y el nordeste de la India.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Katrin Planta

This report is part of a wider comparative research project on “Peaceful Coexistence? ‘Traditional’ and ‘Non-traditional’ Conflict Resolution Mechanisms” to analyze the patterns of coexistence between ‘traditional’ (indigenous, local, community-based) and ‘non-traditional’ (imported, liberal, state-based, Western) approaches to conflict resolution. It addresses findings on the coexistence between the indigenous system of conflict resolution of Colombia’s most populous indigenous community, the Wayuu, and state-based intervention to solve conflicts over land within La Guajira department.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Katrin Planta

Samer Araabi’s and Leila Hilal’s innovative report focuses on one prominent framework for local mediation and de-escalation in Syria: local ceasefire negotiations. Based on research conducted between mid-2014 and March 2016, their report presents four in-depth cases of ceasefire negotiations that have taken place inside Syria since 2012. It explains the environment in which these negotiations occurred and offers observations on the obstacles and shortcomings they faced.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Samer Araabi, Leila Hilal

This report addresses findings generated from the Liberia case study on the coexistence of various conflict resolution systems in Liberia. Besides the traditional system of chiefs and elders, there are state-based mechanisms such as the formal justice system and the Peacebuilding Office, and various third-party initiatives, including the work of many different NGOs.

The study comes to the conclusion that the interaction and even cooperation of conflict resolution mechanisms in Liberia is happening on a massive scale, and provides recommendations on how this cooperation could be significantly improved.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Janel B. Galvanek

On the basis of empirical knowledge acquired through case studies in Myanmar (Burma), Southern Thailand, Lebanon, Colombia, Kenya and Mali, this study conceptualises and contextualises a specific set of religious and traditional peacemakers as tradition- & faith-oriented insider mediators (TFIMs). In considering their peace mediation roles, potential and the constraints under which they work, it also reflects on the opportunities for collaborative support linking various actors within conflict contexts.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Mir Mubashir, Luxshi Vimalarajah

This scoping report defines multi-track diplomacy (MTD) as a specific approach to EU foreign policy, alongside other intervention strategies such as security sector intervention, political reform support or socio-economic assistance. It places a primary emphasis on diplomatic initiatives aimed at supporting conflict prevention and peacebuilding, especially during the various (formal and informal) stages of peace processes.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Véronique Dudouet, Matteo Dressler

While the promotion of good governance has long been at the heart of EU’s assistance to peacebuilding, stability, and security, it has gained yet more prominence among the set of EU values upheld in the post-Lisbon EU (common) foreign policy agenda, closely associated – and sometimes used interchangeably – with related values such as human rights, democratisation, and the rule of law (Hout 2013).

• Year2016
• Author(s)Stina Lundström, Matteo Dressler

In some countries, more civilians are being killed by armed gangs and criminal organisations than in traditional combat. Still, these pockets of armed social violence – “Undeclared wars” marked, among other things, by criminal, gang and/or urban violence – have long received much less attention than politically motivated forms of armed conflicts. As their effects – social-political destabilisation, in some cases coinciding with high numbers of victims – are becoming more pressing, national and international actors have begun addressing the phenomenon.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Bernardo Arévalo de León, Ana Glenda Tager

The paper provides key insight on the factors that might explain why some armed groups undergo effective transformations from engaging in war and violence to participating in peaceful political processes, while others fail to implement or consolidate their political project. Highlighting the critical role played by the UN system in these contexts, in particular peacekeeping and political missions, it argues that development actors operating globally, such as UNDP, are also well placed to bring a broad range of expertise and instruments when supporting these transformative processes. However, it underscores that enhancing inter-agency collaboration between UNDP and actors directly involved in political processes will be essential in supporting this work, citing the Joint UNDP-DPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention as a particularly effective mechanism in this regard.

• Year2016
• Author(s)Véronique Dudouet, Katrin Planta, Hans-Joachim Giessmann