Peace and Conflict

Strengthening Peace through Pluralism

With the global disruptions that have occurred in the past decade, the international community is more entrenched in long term conflicts than ever before. Conflicts today have longer lasting effects on societies and divisive narratives and policies all contribute to this troubling context. Many of these conflicts stem from marginalization, exclusion, inequality – from negative responses to diversity in society.

More than ever, new approaches and tools of peacemaking are needed to address these challenges. Existing inclusion efforts are insufficient in scope and vision. There is a need for more fulsome change to peacemaking approaches. Pluralism offers a transformative approach, predicated on valuing diversity as a foundation for a more durable, lasting peace. Building peace agreements that lead to changes at the levels of ‘hardware’ (institutional change) and ‘software’ (change in perceptions and behaviour) will create more sustainable agreements and prevent future conflict.

A growing programming stream for the Centre, our work in this field focusses on supporting a wide range of peace practitioners and stakeholders to place pluralism at the centre of peace processes and conflict prevention efforts.

Practitioner Resources & Papers

Read:

Our foundational paper: Pluralism and Peace Processes: An Overview
(Spanish version forthcoming)
Pluralism and Peace Processes: Refugees and Displacement (in collaboration with HD)

Forthcoming Papers:

A Pluralism Lens on Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) (in collaboration with HD)
Pluralism and Peace Processes: Power-sharing and Ceasefires

Related Resources

Using Research to Support Peace Processes

The Centre’s Global Pluralism Monitor (formerly Global Pluralism Index) is an action-oriented tool designed to provide a holistic assessment of the state of inclusion in a society and illuminate pathways to address the drivers of exclusion.

The Monitor can inform conflict prevention efforts, by identifying early signs of division and exclusion, to contribute to upstream conflict prevention efforts before conflict becomes imminent. As a conflict analysis tool, the Monitor can be used to identify the underlying sources of structural exclusion and marginalization in society. With its holistic focus, the tool can highlight which groups are facing social, political and economic exclusion, the role of different actors in advancing or hampering pluralism, levels of trust amongst people and societal attitudes towards different groups. Applied at the early stages of peace process design, this tool can be a useful “baseline” about the state of inclusion and exclusion for conflict parties, as well as mediators and advisors. It can also inform the development of benchmarking and monitoring for peace process implementation.