Psy/400 - Peacemaking

Peacemaking

In the modern world we are living in, understanding the different ways to promote peacemaking is crucial in both a personal way and a global way. Peacemaking can be defined as the action of bringing hostile parties into an agreement. The term can be applied in a family setting, between husband and wife, or between brothers and sisters, but also in a global setting, when nations across the world struggle to find peace amongst each other. Myers (2010) explains that when a group of people, large or small, interacts with each other, their needs and goals may conflict, causing social dilemmas to arise. It is usually easier to resolve these dilemmas within smaller groups, since they can self-manage more easily. There are many aspects of social life that can cause conflicts, the primary ones being the disagreements over the equality of contributions, justice, or the division of benefits. 

An article written by Julian Ouellet in 2003 explains a lot of the important elements that constitute the search for peace. The interesting article reviews peacemaking in different settings, but focuses on the conflicts that arise from different nations negotiating with each other. To start, the author explains the definition of the term “peacemaking”, and how the United Nations must constantly interfere to add to the conflicting parties’ own efforts to settle and come to an agreement. According to the author, when that agreement can’t happen without a third party being involved, the United Nations Secretary General is called and asked to exercise his “good offices”, in hopes of facilitating the resolution of the current dilemma in a peaceful way. 

The author moves on to explain that when a third party is called in to interfere and help the conflicting parties to reach an agreement, it is most likely that outside interveners will try to avoid sacrificing their own troops in the search for peace. Because of that, they usually try to focus on actions like negotiation, mediation and arbitration before resourcing to armed forces. Although nations can’t always interfere with another nation’s affairs just by not agreeing with what is happening at that certain place, there are explicit cases when States that are part of the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter are obligated to intervene, such as in case of genocide, disturbances to the international peace and cases of human devastation. 

The article also explains some of the most traditional methods of peacemaking, like the ones specified by the United Nations Charter, which lists negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, and resorting to regional agencies or arrangements as peaceful ways of intervention in the occasion of a violent conflict. However, non-peaceful methods like sanctions, blockading and violent intervention are also listed as methods to restore peace between conflicting states. As an example to an intervention that was successful in achieving peace between conflicting nations, the author gives the example of the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, that was “rife with civil violence”, as Oullet explains. The Operation Deliberate Force, which begun on August 29, 1995, was a bombing campaign against Serbia and Bosnian-Serb targets designed to halt Serbian attacks on safe areas and bring Serbia to the negotiating table. The plan was successful, and the active military intervention, combined with first-track diplomatic efforts and peacekeeping forces, let to the General Agreement Framework. 

With this example, the author explains that although peacemaking efforts can work differently, an effective peacemaking mission will use all the available possible ways to finally achieve peace. She then explains the difference between first and second generation peacekeeping: “First-generation peacekeeping was simply to guarantee ceasefires with neutral interposition forces. Second-generation peacekeeping has evolved to allow flexibility of function and mission, from guaranteeing ceasefires to election monitoring to subsequent peace enforcement” (Oullet, 2003). 

Conflict is a constantly present element in the social word, as it seems to be inevitable among individuals, groups and nations. When it comes to solving conflicts amongst international nations, the hope is that preventive diplomacy will stop and prevent violent conflicts. Since that is not always the case, it is important to understand that peacekeeping and peace building must work together with preventive diplomacy in hopes of finally achieving world peace. Peacemaking is a tool to be used against violent conflicts, but it can’t stand alone.

References

Myers, D. (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Oullet, J. (2003). Peacemaking.  Retrieved from http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/peacemaking  on September 15th, 2013.