PART TWO: CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Conflict Resolution is a process and the first and most necessary piece of that process is getting all the significant players related to the conflict to talk about peace.  Without a significant commitment from all parties to talk about peace, there will be no peace process.  By ‘significant players’, I mean those parties actively involved in the conflict.  Civilian victims will have a role in the process, but the process is political and that means involving the key active players, namely, the governments involved, any self-directing militia on the ground and, preferably, a neutral third-party supporting the process to act as a go-between and as an independent arbiter. 

Once the parties are on board, with a willing commitment to thrash out the issues, the key ingredients for conflict resolution are; i) resolution of injustices where possible, ii) an overhaul of any organisations or systems that enable and encourage systemic injustice, iii) a ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ forum for hearing the injustices to victims that went unpunished, iv) the release of hostages and/or incarcerated political prisoners, if any, and v) an opportunity for the general electorate(s) to vote on the changes, including any necessary constitutional changes, that arise as a result of the talks.

The point of the peace process, while ultimately to secure peace for all, is to do away with the “need” for conflict, by hearing and responding to all of the issues facing the aggrieved (and the aggressors).  For instance, historically, Irish was the only language spoken for thousands of years in Ireland until a succession of laws enacted by the English banned the language in official settings.  During the Great Hunger, parents were paid by the English not to teach their children Irish and the language dwindled further.  The Good Friday Agreement enshrined the Irish language as an official language in the north and, instead of it being a subject for persecution, it recently it has become a subject for cross-community learning.  The conflict resolution in the north brought all sides together to agree a power-sharing executive that gave everyone equal say in the governing of their state.  The state itself can be reunited with the rest of Ireland if 50 percent, plus one, vote for that.  And the sectarian state bodies were overhauled to ensure an equality and a system for all of the people living there.  After 25 years of peace, it’s not perfect, but the war is over and everyone’s politics and political aspirations are represented.

APPLYING WHAT WE KNOW

Most active conflict zones around the world today, historically, originated over land and/or power, between the conquerors and the conquered.  Many European nations had empires at one time or another, the influence of which remain today.  The effects of the global slave trade, many generations later, are still in place.  Wherever we look, we can find symptoms of humans being inhumane towards one another.  Conflict arises from one side feeling superior to another and behaving accordingly with violated boundaries, whether they be international boundaries between countries, or personal boundaries between individuals.  

One nation, or people, or person is not ‘more valuable’ than another and we all innately know this.  It is when this universal truth is violated that we get unrest and resistance.  As the world moves through this most difficult stage in its evolution, we must face up to the inequalities of the past and address them as best we can.  If we wish to avoid or resolve conflict, we must embrace each other with equality as a given right and adhere to that with respect, compassion and conviction.  It is only when we see each other as equals with equal rights, and we protect those rights and furnish them with equal access to resources, that we can live in harmony, all different, all equal. 

In war, as with all conflict and even in personal disagreement, we suffer an ‘illusion of separation’ from each other that undermines our humanity and our responsibility to each other.  No person is an island, cut off from the rest; we are all part of a much greater physical intelligence belonging to the natural world that is constantly in a state of evolving synchronistically. 

So, while we think of our world as ours, it is not just ours, or even just the world of our children and our children’s children.  The earth is home to 10 million other species, alongside humans, and it is our duty to protect our planet, to nurture it and restore it.  We are not individual parts alone, we are many parts of the whole, living with and alongside one another, and we must protect each other if we are to protect the global ecosystem within which we all belong.