Navigating the War on Gaza
The surge in violence in Israel and Palestine has deeply unsettled and horrified us. In moments of acute crisis, it is difficult to meaningfully respond in a way that rejects a militarized approach and affirms the dignity and humanity of those most affected by violence.
Selected Essays Announced in Feminist Foreign Policy Essay “Un-Contest”
The War Prevention Initiative is pleased to announce 11 essays on feminist foreign policy selected for publication.
Perspectives on Feminist Foreign Policy: Revealing New Narratives, Challenging The Status Quo
Read our summary report of our feminist foreign policy essay “un-contest” where we published 11 essays from emerging thought leaders around the world.
Costs and Considerations for Meaningful Ceasefires
Ceasefires represent strategic deliberations for conflicting parties— when honored, ceasefires reduce violence immediately and create opportunities for meaningful conflict de-escalation and resolution.
Forgiveness as Acts of Everyday Co-existence
In the context of focus groups with ethnic Croats and Serbs in Croatia, formal apologies and forgiveness might not be necessary to build peaceful, intergroup relationships between ethnic Serbs and Croats, but the “exchange of mutual social gestures showing readiness for contact and moving on with everyday living” are meaningful.
Functional Coexistence to Manage Conflicts in a State of Nonresolution
A decades-long process of conflict intervention reveals that conditions that appear to be unchangeable can change over time, even in conflicts with no resolution in sight and where no mutual recognition exists between parties.
War Results in Adverse Health Outcomes for Children
Across 52 developing countries, children exposed to armed conflict score significantly lower on key measures of childhood health compared to those who are not exposed to armed conflict.
How Women’s Situation Rooms Harness Gender to Prevent Political Violence
In various West African countries, women’s situation rooms (WSRs) monitor election-related violence and more, which enables them to respond to emerging crises.
Local Capacities for Preventing and Rejecting Violent Conflict
The very existence of peaceful societies demonstrates that communities have options and agency even in the broader context of wartime violence.
Volume 3, Issue 5
Inside this issue, we examine research analyzing hundreds of civil war peace agreements that concludes that “complex” agreements are not necessarily better at keeping the peace than simpler ones. Next, we take a critical look at research on public support for military interventions and the motivations behind support for interventions conducted for “humanitarian” reasons. Third, through examining civics textbooks in Sri Lanka in the context of global peace education efforts, we consider how specific omissions and emphases in these textbooks have served the government’s goals, while failing to address the injustice and inequality still plaguing post-war Sri Lanka. Next, we discuss research finding that the primary peacekeeping tasks associated with preventing violence and protecting civilians can be effectively undertaken by unarmed peacekeepers, who are, furthermore, often able to address some of the shortcomings of their armed counterparts. Finally, the last analysis reflects on possible reasons for why past attempts at peace in South Sudan have failed, calling for more psycho-sociologically informed conflict interventions in the future.
Exploring the Complexities of Peace Agreement Design
More complex peace agreements with a greater number of provisions correspond with a greater probability of failed implementation and of armed conflict recurrence.
Weaponized Sexuality: Sexist and Homophobic Propaganda During the Russo-Ukrainian War
When supplemented with the promise of reseating Russia as a great world power, propaganda infused with state-sanctioned homophobia and praise for the traditional “macho” masculine ideology has successfully maintained public support for Russian military action against Ukraine.
Volume 3, Issue 4
In this issue, we examine research on the successful nuclear weapon free zone treaties that helped pave the way to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and how approaching nuclear weapons prohibition through regional stepping stones may be the key to global abolition. Next, by looking at a study on levels of weapons imports, we see a direct relationship between the influx of weapons and the likelihood of a specific classification of countries engaging in civil war. In the third analysis, we learn that less than one in five nonviolent uprisings in the past 45 years has attempted mediation to resolve the conflicts they seek to address. It turns out that higher risks and costs associated with a nonviolent uprising—either the presence of radical flanks or high levels of state repression—are closely related to mediation attempts. Next, we are taken to post-war Liberia where we explore the role of trust, norms, and social networks play in the ability of former combatants to reintegrate into society. The research highlights additional perspectives on the devastating toll war plays on individuals and societies, even after the fighting ends. Our last analysis focuses on why different organizations in the same movement choose the specific nonviolent tactics they do, resulting in a consideration of resource availability, interdependence, and strategic decision-making.
