Peace by Piece

Chapter Five showcases a variety of communities that have built peace in the midst of extensive violence and provide important takeaways for the study and practice of peacebuilding. The inhabitants of Somaliland have created a stable and prosperous region in war-torn Somalia with very little international support, instead using bottom-up strategies. Their experience shows that locally-led peacebuilding efforts can make a difference not only on a small scale, but also over a large territory and at a quasi-state level. Other cases of success from across the globe, including the peace zone of San José de Apartadó (Colombia) and the Israeli-Palestinian village of Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom, illustrate that bottom-up conflict resolution has helped keep violence at bay in a variety of social and political contexts. Despite challenges and limitations, ordinary citizens, grassroots activists, and local leaders can promote peace at least as effectively as national and international elites.

The Home Front

Chapter Seven shows how the successful initiatives described throughout the book provide a blueprint for residents of ostensibly peaceful countries to address conflicts at home. It analyzes efforts that have effectively decreased gun violence, gang fighting, and inner-city conflicts in the United States, tackled extremism and hate crimes in Europe and North America, and reduced other kinds of racial, ethnic, religious, and political tensions throughout the Western and non-Western world. In doing so, this chapter demonstrates that putting insiders in the driver’s seat and acting from both the bottom-up and the top-down is the best way to resolve violent conflicts—whether they be private or public, local or global. It also explains how the other lessons from the book apply beyond war-torn places. Throughout, this concluding chapter discusses what readers who are moved by the analysis can personally do to improve the situations in their own communities.

Designed Intervention

Chapter Four further explores the limitations of “Peace, Inc.”: the traditional way to end wars. United Nations peacekeepers, foreign diplomats, and the staff of many non-governmental organizations involved in conflict resolution share a specific way of seeing the world. They often assume that the only path to peace is through working with governments and national elites and mediating formal agreements between world leaders. As a result, most international aid agencies use a top-down strategy of intervention, ignoring the crucial role of local tensions in fueling violence. Foreign peacebuilders also regularly rely on other widely held beliefs, such as the notion that education, elections, and statebuilding always promote peace. Anecdotes from places as varied as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Timor-Leste, along with a detailed story of the massive international efforts in Congo, highlight the possibility for devastating consequences while explaining why these detrimental assumptions and this flawed intervention strategy nevertheless persist.

Preface

When I was 17, my father brought me a tape recording of exploding bombs from Sarajevo. He was a sound technician for the French state radio, and he traveled the world reporting on wars, presidents’ visits, and revolutions. On the nights he returned home, he would always lay out the presents and memorabilia he had collected during his trip on our big wooden table. Then he would hold up each item and explain what it was, how he came by it, and what it meant. He would let me sample all of the strange food he had brought back (Japanese crackers, South African jerky, Lebanese pastries, American gummy burger candies) and he would laugh at the faces I made when I didn’t like the taste. Through these moments with my dad, I discovered new cuisines, new countries, new people, new cultures—each more fascinating than the one before....

Role Models

Chapter Two describes the work of the Life & Peace Institute, a Swedish peacebuilding agency that has been particularly successful in resolving conflicts in Congo. It tells the stories of the individuals behind this non-governmental organization, introducing a vivid cast of characters. It recounts the challenges they faced, the mistakes they made, and the innovative approach they found to address grassroots tensions. The Life & Peace Institute empowers local people to develop their own analyses of ongoing conflicts, and devise and implement solutions. Its effective work on the Rasta armed group and the herder-farmer conflict in the Congolese province of South Kivu shows concrete ways in which foreigners are already helping residents build peace. All in all, the Life & Peace Institute provides a model for international action—a bottom-up alternative to the usual top-down approach, and a better way for foreigners to help confront violence in war zones.

Recasting Roles

Chapter Six explains how people who work in war zones can learn from the success stories presented throughout the book. Building on the stories of remarkable individuals and organizations from various parts of the world, it offers concrete ideas that can inspire readers and give them models to follow. The chapter first identifies the main characteristics of effective peacebuilders (whether donors, diplomats, United Nations peacekeepers, non-governmental organization staff members, or grassroots activists), and explains how outsiders can best help host populations resolve conflicts. It then recognizes the need for international involvement, emphasizing the value that foreigners have as outsiders in conflict zones while acknowledging the challenges that their presence poses, and discussing the benefits and limitations of relying on local elites and ordinary citizens. Throughout, this chapter advocates for a different, more effective approach to building peace—both from the bottom up and from the top down.

Insiders and Outsiders

Chapter Three discusses the conventional but problematic way to end wars, which the author calls “Peace, Inc.” Using anecdotes from around the world, the chapter shows that peacebuilding often fails when, and because, it is exclusively designed and implemented by international interveners. The outsiders who come to help, such as United Nations peacekeepers, diplomats, and international non-governmental organization staff members, often assume that insiders (people living in conflict zones) do not have what it takes to build peace, but foreign experts do. This flawed assumption lies at the core of the traditional approach to resolving national and international conflicts. It causes tensions between foreign aid workers and host populations and creates multiple challenges for both domestic and international peacebuilders. It also results in numerous absurd situations—some of them funny and some disastrous. As a result, standard international strategies rarely work, and they are at times counterproductive or even harmful.

Island of Peace

Chapter One explains how the island of Idjwi has avoided the devastating violence in the rest of eastern Congo. For more than twenty years, Idjwi has remained a “haven of peace” even though civil and international wars raged around it and more than five million people died. This is all the more surprising because the island possesses all of the same preconditions for conflict that have fueled fighting in other parts of Congo, such as land scarcity, ethnic tensions, and aggressive neighboring countries. The chapter explains that the island is peaceful not because of the army, state, or police, or because of foreign peacebuilders, but because of the everyday involvement of all of its residents, including the poorest and least powerful ones. The story of Idjwi shows us that grassroots efforts, bottom-up conflict resolution, and local community resources can build lasting, resilient peace even in a country where traditional outside interventions have failed.