The Chronicle Library Shelf
Turbulent Peace
Global Ethics in the Age of the Internet
Editors: Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall
United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC 1996
855 pages ISBN 929223-27-7
Reviewed by Fayth A. Ruffin
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Turbulent peace? No, it's not an oxymoron but a discourse on the management of global conflict. This compilation of essays, some poignantly and others optimistically written, leave readers with more questions than answers. The wide and varied perspectives make you ponder if prevention, management and resolution of conflict can ever be structured to outlaw turbulence and institutionalize peace. Replete with tables illustrating conflict management phases and conflict life cycles, the editors by their insightful writings sought to stimulate and provoke scholars, policy makers and practitioners alike.
Part I of the book explores how global conflict arises and changes. Examining its ever-changing sources begs the question of how to handle conflict. Parts II and III evaluate intervention strategies and gauge when and how negotiation, mediation and other instruments should be applied. Exploring institutions and security regimes that manage conflict, and evaluating peace-building from settlement to reconciliation, govern Parts IV and V.
"Since our predecessor book, Managing Global Chaos, much experience has been gained by the international community in the conflict management arena", Pamela Aall told the Chronicle. "Different perspectives have evolved and many issues are hotly contested, such as the debate about interventionism and the sometimes polarizing question of whether business should be involved in conflict management. We wanted students to know that there is no right answer; the complexity of the situation is real, not abstract. Even though we did not intend it, we have learned that our collective chapters provide a framework for practitioners analyzing their conflict in relationship to those discussed in the book. Our focus on the post-conflict period provides a broader response to conflict resolution," Aall indicated.
In his chapter about theories of interstate and intrastate wars, Jack Levy identifies three levels of analysis: individual, consisting of human nature, belief systems and psychological processes; nation-state, including governmental variables, societal factors and economic systems, ethnicity and political culture; and international system, involving the anarchic structure of the global system, distribution of political, economic and military power and patterns of military alliance and trade. Similarly, clusters in Part I are organized by systemic level (international), States and societies (nation-state), and leadership and human agency (individual). Before those levels of analysis, Michael Howard's "Causes of War" dispels the socio-biologist claim that warring between political groups stems from the "innately aggressive" behaviour of man. In his eyes, an arms race is a necessary surrogate for war, a test of will and strength where war emerges when the parties calculate that more is to be gained from war than peace.
In Nils Petter Gleditsch's "Environmental Change, Security and Conflict", environmental degradation may be seen as an independent cause of conflict, but its sources are identical to those of armed conflict, namely: authoritarian rule; lack of international cooperation; poverty; excessive consumption in rich countries; and globalization of the economy. In "Economic Causes of Civil Conflict", Paul Collier posits that inequality, political repression and ethnic and religious divisions do not explain or predict violent rebellions. Rather, economic characteristics, such as dependency on primary commodity exports, low average incomes, etc., significantly and powerfully predict civil war. Only by reducing these risk factors can conflict prevention be assured.
Edward N. Luttwak believes in "The Curse of Inconclusive Intervention". He touts war as having the great virtue of not being self-perpetuating but instead self-destroying, so external forces should not intervene. On the other hand, in "The Debate on Intervention", Stanley Hoffman concludes that the United Nations needs a contingent "force in readiness" put at its disposal by national Governments to implement intervention strategies and a revived trusteeship to restore and consolidate failed or new and shaky States. He believes that the sovereignty of the State needs to be curtailed rather than exerted at the expense of human beings. In this global world accelerated by technological progress, social and environmental problems cannot be solved by typical western legal framework, he says. Our evolution from an interstate anarchical society to a global one should be at the service of human beings.
Servicing human beings appears to be at the heart of Raymond Cohen's "Negotiating across Cultures". He calls for negotiation training to include sensitivity to cross-cultural differences and detailed coaching in individual national styles. No other agency, he says, is more uniquely equipped to cultivate cross-cultural skills and foreign languages than foreign ministries. Such a feat would empower diplomats to further the long-term relationships that increasingly underlie business transactions for the country and citizens with other actors in the global economic system.
Mary B. Anderson explains in "Humanitarian NGOs in Conflict Intervention" that non-governmental organizations can be categorized under four different mandates: humanitarian, social and economic development, human rights and pursuit of peace. She points out that solutions negotiated by peace-mandated NGOs have a direct impact on the distribution and allocation of resources in developing countries. NGO resources can be used to connect people across warring lines and move into the post-conflict, peace-building stage.
Virginia Haufler asks, "Is There a Role for Business in Conflict Management?", pointing out that companies are reaping the rewards of globalization's liberalized markets and outlines specific interventionist action that can be taken by the corporate community. She concludes that business needs to partner with other firms or legitimate actors, such as the UN and its Global Compact. Establishing the rule of law in the immediate post-conflict construction of peace, as discussed in Neil J. Kritz's "The Rule of Law in the Post Conflict Phase", buttresses coordination among sectors by institutionalizing pacific pledges and conciliatory rhetoric. In making the information cyberspace accessible, internal and international business organizations can be on the same page about post-war changes that are building peace.
Likewise, religion also services human beings and acts as an agent of conflict transformation and peace-building, so long as the activities are transparent and the aim is achieved through coalescing and not creating divides. R. Scott Appleby's article describes religious actors as effective peace facilitators when they act independently from but are acknowledged by the State, act on their own authority and are beholden to no larger governmental, cultural or religious power. He finds that the ultimate viability of truth and reconciliation commissions as tools of transitional justice depends in large part on the culture and society in question.
In much the same vein of managing conflict through the transformation of human beings in search of peace, John Paul Lederach brings civil society to the forefront of this process in "Civil Society and Reconciliation". Identifying truth, mercy, justice and peace as the social energies of reconciliation, he suggests that these elements are bound by a dynamic process and space where they are recognized as different and interdependent. They are not the static and abstract principles and values that we are taught, but continual sources of power and forces of change. Reconciliation and the building of civil society are actually the fundamental ingredients that make up the ecosystem in which dynamic peace must live. Peace can certainly be dynamic, but it need not be turbulent. For dynamism, not tumult, is inherent in conflict management.
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