Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality

Development practitioners, foreign policy makers and NGOs come to the conflict prevention debate from different directions yet with common objectives. They need to be able to talk to each other and find ways of cooperation. Moreover, there is a widening range of organizations that are being called upon to "do" conflict prevention. These actors range from the corporate sector and NGOs to regional and multilateral economic and political organizations whose mandates were developed in very different times, historically speaking, and whose objectives and interests are quite different. The ways in which one can reasonably expect this range of actors to become involved in prevention needs to be informed by an understanding of their diverse mandates, leadership, funding, operational activities (functions) and the "entry points" to prevention that are part of these organizations' core.

In other words, mainstreaming prevention in these organizations means integrating it into what is core to their competence and mandate. This project brings together an international group of academics and practitioners who offer conceptual, regional and institutional perspectives on this evolving debate.

expected outputs / publications

In addition to several conference presentations and working papers, the project's first volume, Conflict prevention: Path to Peace or Grand Illusion? has been published in 2003 by UNU Press. Furthermore, two books entitled Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality: Opportunities and Innovations have been published in 2004 by Lexington Books.

project directors

David Carment (Carleton University, Ottawa)
Albrecht Schnabel (swisspeace)

project contributors

Pamela Aall (United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC); Medardo C. Abad, Jr. (ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta); Greg Austin (Bradford University, Bradford); Rafis Abazov (Columbia University, New York); Shahram Akbarzadeh (Monash University, Clayton); Annika Bjorkdahl (Lund University, Lund); Monica Blagescu (One World Trust, London); Derek Boothby (ret. UNDP, New York); Fraser Cameron (European Policy Centre, Brussels); Ashley Campbell (Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa); John G. Cockell (DFAIT, Ottawa); George D'Angelo (Consultant to UNDPA, New York); Walter Dorn (Royal Military College, Kingston); Rasheed Draman (Carleton University, Canada); Colleen Duggan (IDRC, Ottawa); Charles Dufresne (InterWorks, Madison); Simon Duke (European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht); Hans-Georg Ehrhart (IFSH, Hamburg); Symeon Giannakos (Salve Regina University, Newport); Michael Hertkorn (New York University, New York); Anton Ivanov (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow); Bruce W. Jentleson (Duke University, Durham); Troy Joseph (Envrionment Canada, Ottawa); Njeri Karuru (USAID, Nairobi); Teferra Shiawl-Kidanekal (UN Subregional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, Yaounde); Osvaldo Kreimer (ret. OAS, Washington, DC); Chetan Kumar (UNDP, New York); Beatrice Labonne (ret. UNDESA, Geneva); David Last (Royal Military College, Kingston); Michael S. Lund (Management Systems International, Washington, DC); Natalie Mychajlyszyn (Carleton University, Ottawa); David Nyheim (Shell Oil, Nigeria); Connie Peck (UNITAR, Geneva); Dianna Rienstra (Phoenix Ink Communications, Brussels); Dane Rowlands (Carleton University, Ottawa); Barnett R. Rubin (New York University, New York); Tatjana Sikoska (INSTRAW, Santo Domingo); Juliet Solomon (Commonwealth Secretariat, London); Yadira Soto (OAS, Washington, DC); Gerald Steinberg (Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan); Anara Tabyshalieva (Institute for Regional Studies, Bishkek); Andrea Kathryn Talentino (Tulane University, New Orleans); Luc van de Goor (Clingendael, The Hague); Raimo Väyrynen (University of Notre Dame, South Bend); Suzanne Verstegen (Clingedael, The Hague); Monika Wohlfeld (OSCE, Vienna)

partner organizations and funders

United Nations University, Tokyo
International Development Research Centre, Ottawa
Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa

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