Happy Conflict Resolution Day! As part of our special series for Conflict Resolution Month this October, this is our third article where we have highlighted the following international conflict and security organizations across the world:
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)
The WANEP was formed in 1998 in response to the civil wars that took place in West Africa in the 1990s. They have a strong network of more than 500 organizations across West Africa and believe in engaging in conflict resolution with a collaborative approach. Hence, they routinely work with diverse actors in the ecosystem: from civil society organizations to governments, women’s groups, etc. WANEP collaborated with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2002 in a historic agreement and have been renewing their memorandum of understanding every 5 years since. WANEP also offers courses in peacebuilding for governments, businesses, and practitioners in the West Africa region and beyond. Their projects include the West Africa Early Warning and Early Response Network (WARN) which focusses on issues of security and the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) Programme which was launched in November 2001, amongst many others.
U.S-German Collaboration: George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
Started in 1993, The Marshall Center is a renowned international security and defense studies institute. It is one of the five U.S. Department of Defense Regional Centers that is the only bilateral one and also a regional center for Germany. The center’s mission is to solve regional and transnational security challenges through capacity building, access, and a global network of experts. Having support both from the U.S. and Germany, the center has representatives from 10 partner nations and supports five South and Central Asian States: Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Being an educational institute, they also offer a well-known master’s program in Security Studies.
India: China-India Foundation
China-India Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission to increase mutual understanding between the people of India and China. Founded in 2018, they study the strategic relationship between the two countries and believe in advancing inter-country dialogue across sectors. Being globally recognized emerging economies who are geographically close, it is crucial that these two countries foster a healthy working relationship on bilateral, regional, and global issues. The CIF aims to do so through education, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, thereby building deeper ties between the countries.
Germany: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK)
Founded in 1991, and housed at Heidelberg University, HIIK is a fully student-run independent, not for profit research organization studying the emergence, dynamics, and settlement of political conflicts worldwide. Their annual dataset and publication series “Conflict Barometer”, which reports on global conflict developments, has been cited by numerous publications across conflict studies. Developed out of a DFG-funded research project at Heidelberg University, they are now one of the largest student-led think-tanks with more than 200 voluntary student researchers working on their projects. The conflict regions that they study are: Asia, the Middle East & Maghreb, the Americas, Sub-saharan Africa, and Europe.
Conflict Resolution Month
Conceived by The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) in 2005, October is observed as the month of Conflict Resolution each year. The third Thursday of October is celebrated as Conflict Resolution Day, which falls on the 15th of October this year, i.e- today.
The goals of the month are to:
- Promote awareness of mediation, arbitration, conciliation, and other creative, peaceful means of resolving conflict;
- Promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, businesses, communities, governments, and the legal system;
- Recognize the significant contributions of (peaceful) conflict resolvers;
- Obtain national synergy by having celebrations happen across the country and around the world on the same day.
We will be featuring a new set of organizations globally each week, so stay put.
