Notre Dame, Yale partnership yields high-stakes policy brief on sustainable peacebuilding strategies
A new policy brief, released Tuesday (April 11) by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, offers insight on how sustainable peacebuilding can be practiced.
Drawing on case studies from civil wars, such as those in Colombia, Central African Republic, Guatemala and Northern Ireland, the brief was written by a team of scholars, practitioners and policymakers and edited by Josefina Echavarría Alvarez of the University of Notre Dame and Catherine Panter-Brick and Bisa Williams from Yale University. The policy brief builds on conversations generated during the Colloquium on Strategies for Sustainable Peacebuilding: Implementation and Policy, an event held last November that attracted a diverse pool of attendees with wide-ranging experience as academics and practitioners.
Echavarría Alvarez, who convened last year’s colloquium, is an associate professor of the practice at Notre Dame and director of the Kroc Institute’s Peace Accords Matrix.
“Peace agreements represent the beginning — not the end — of a reform and reconciliation process that must be inclusive and participatory throughout its duration,” she said.
“Evidence shows that public buy-in of an agreement by a range of stakeholders, including those of local communities directly affected by violence and armed groups, leads to better outcomes.”
“This brief crystallizes new ideas in the field of peacebuilding — such as ways to support the meaningful inclusivity, legitimacy and sustainability of peace agreements,” said Panter-Brick, the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health and Global Affairs at Yale University.
The timing of the policy brief’s release complemented President Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland this week, marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict that began in the late 1960s.
In another nod to the anniversary, the Kroc Institute and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies will co-host an in-person roundtable on the Good Friday Agreement at 3:30 p.m. April 14 at the University of Notre Dame. Echavarría Alvarez will join panelists from the University of Oxford to discuss peace processes and treaties in a comparative framework. More information can be found here.
Originally published by at kroc.nd.edu on April 13.
Latest International
- CANCELED: University to host Cardinal Pedro Barreto of Peru and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana as part of Notre Dame ForumAs part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, S.J., of Peru and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana will visit the University of Notre Dame to participate in a conversation with President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., at 11:30 a.m. April 25 in the Smith Ballroom of the Morris Inn. The conversation is open to the public and will also be livestreamed for both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking audiences.
- ‘Who the messenger is matters’: Cultural leaders can positively influence population growthFertility rates across the world have been steadily dropping since 1950. Pinpointing the reasons is at the heart of Lakshmi Iyer's work as a professor of economics and global affairs. Her research exemplifies the kind of population-level research that Notre Dame Population Analytics (ND Pop), a new research initiative at the University, seeks to foster.
- Lessons from Venezuela’s democratic collapse: How opposition movements can defy autocratic leadersLaura Gamboa, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, explores how opposition movements navigate authoritarian regimes in a study of Venezuela's political transformation. The research analyzes the effectiveness of various strategies, including electoral participation, in the face of eroding democratic norms.
- U.S. Ambassador to the EU visits Notre Dame as second Nanovic Forum Diplomat in ResidenceMark Gitenstein, U.S. ambassador to the European Union (2022-25), will join the University of Notre Dame between March 22 and April 4 as the Nanovic Forum Diplomat in Residence at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, part of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.
- Diverging views of democracy fuel support for authoritarian politicians, Notre Dame study showsA new study from Marc Jacob, assistant professor of democracy and global affairs at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, found that diverse understandings of democracy among voters shape their ability to recognize democratic violations and, in turn, affect their voting choices.
- Through respectful dialogue and encounter, students learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and work for peaceA recent intercultural encounter in Rome enabled Notre Dame students to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by meeting and talking with people who have lived through it. The trip, which built upon a Notre Dame class and a related Notre Dame Forum Series, reflects the University's larger focus on civil dialogue and the empathetic, people-first approach it has taken to teaching and learning about the conflict.
