Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality: Organizations and Institutions

by Albrecht Schnabel, David Carment, Medardo C. Abad, Rafis Abazov, Shahram Akbarzadeh

Overview

In response to the shaky record of the international community's peacekeeping and conflict management efforts, academics and policymakers have begun to re-examine conflict prevention as a key instrument for the advancement of peace in a war-torn world. In Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality, Volume 1: Organizations and Institutions conflict prevention specialists from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with professional experience in regional organizations, the UN, and various NG's and research organizations, argue that, as a concept as well as a policy, conflict prevention is moving beyond rhetorical commitments and symbolic, ad hoc, activities. Institutional, long-term efforts specifically targeted at the prevention of violent conflict have become more than just wishful thinking. Together with local actors, many governments, regional organizations and the UN are embracing preventive action as a viable path towards sustainable peace. The contributions to this volume trace conflict prevention efforts in various regional contexts and explain how preventive thinking is being successfully mainstreamed into the activities of regional organizations and the UN. They show that, while conflicts may not always be prevented, even in cases where reliable monitoring triggers effective early warning and preventive action, the likelihood of an outbreak of violent conflict can be greatly reduced by determined, systematic efforts to address the root causes of potential violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739107386
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	07/02/2004
Series:	Conflict Prevention from Rhetoric to Reality
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	9.14(w) x 8.84(h) x 1.32(d)

About the Author

Albrecht Schnabel is senior research fellow at swisspeace, Bern. David Carment is director of the Centre for Security and Defense Studies and associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Defining Preventive Diplomacy in Europe: September 11 and its Impact on the EU's Common Foreign and Security Chapter 2 Mainstreaming Conflict Prevention: From Rhetoric to Reality Chapter 3 NATO and the EU in the Eastern Mediterranean: Conflict Preventers or Conflict Managers? Chapter 6 The Conflict Prevention Agenda in Central Asia Chapter 7 Status Quo Policy and Conflict Prevention in Central Asia Chapter 8 Conflict Prevention in South Asia Chapter 9 The OSCE as Primary Instrument of Conflict Prevention in Europe: Frameworks, Achievements, and Limitations of OSCE's Preventive Action Chapter 9 Conflict Prevention in East Asia Chapter 10 Conflict Prevention and Management in Africa Chapter 12 Conflict Prevention: Responses by Subregional Organizations and Civil Society Organizations in Eastern Africa Chapter 13 Conflict Prevention is Happening: Learning from "Successes" as Well as "Failures" Chapter 13 The European Union and Conflict Prevention Chapter 14 Early and Late Warning by the UN Secretary-General of Threats to the Peace: Article 99 Revisited Chapter 14 The Role of the Organization of American States in Conflict Prevention Chapter 15 UN Strategic and Operational Coordination: Mechanisms for Preventing and Managing Conflict Part 16 Mainstreaming Conflict Prevention at the United Nations Part 19 Causes, Consequences, and Prevention of Conflict: Developing Capacity at the Regional Level Part 20 Mainstreaming Conflict Prevention at Regional Organizations: The Institutional Record Chapter 20 Building UN Capacity in Early Warning and Prevention Chapter 21 Conflict Prevention Mainstreaming: A comparison of Multilateral Actors

What People are Saying About This

Franke Wilmer

The scholarship is first-rate, thorough, and comprehensive. This work will be a significant contribution to the study, training and practice of conflict prevention. . . . Overall the original evidence, comprehensiveness, and integrative nature of the work are its best features.

William Zartman

These two volumes form an encyclopedic study of the means of conflict prevention. The first volume examines agents and institutions, the second causes and capacities. The choice of chapters to encompass the components of the subject is careful and comprehensive, and there is much bredth and wisdom in the chapters themselves. The volumes deserve a wide and bifocal audience. For analysts, the two volumes push back the frontiers into new aspects to study; for practitioners, they show that the challenge is in applying what we know aplenty, not in hiding behind claims of ignorance.

Editorial Reviews

It is always a pleasure to come across volumes with the breadth and scope as the ones edited so perceptively by David Carment and Albrecht Schnabel. Their gumption illuminates the patterns of mainstreaming conflict prevention in the post-Cold War period. In this respect, these tomes are not simply a reassessment of extant analytical frameworks, but an inspiring mapping of politics and policy of conflict prevention. Thence, the two parts of Conflict Prevention are a lasting testimony of the encyclopedic endeavor to chart the gist of different conflict prevention approaches, while presenting a cornucopia of insight and best-practice.

Panorama

The scholarship is first-rate, thorough, and comprehensive. This work will be a significant contribution to the study, training and practice of conflict prevention.. .. Overall the original evidence, comprehensiveness, and integrative nature of the work are its best features.

Franke Wilmer

These two volumes form an encyclopedic study of the means of conflict prevention. The first volume examines agents and institutions, the second causes and capacities. The choice of chapters to encompass the components of the subject is careful and comprehensive, and there is much bredth and wisdom in the chapters themselves. The volumes deserve a wide and bifocal audience. For analysts, the two volumes push back the frontiers into new aspects to study; for practitioners, they show that the challenge is in applying what we know aplenty, not in hiding behind claims of ignorance.

William Zartman

These two volumes form an encyclopedic study of the means of conflict prevention. The first volume examines agents and institutions, the second causes and capacities. The choice of chapters to encompass the components of the subject is careful and comprehensive, and there is much bredth and wisdom in the chapters themselves. The volumes deserve a wide and bifocal audience. For analysts, the two volumes push back the frontiers into new aspects to study; for practitioners, they show that the challenge is in applying what we know aplenty, not in hiding behind claims of ignorance...

I. William Zartman

It is always a pleasure to come across volumes with the breadth and scope as the ones edited so perceptively by David Carment and Albrecht Schnabel. Their gumption illuminates the patterns of mainstreaming conflict prevention in the post-Cold War period. In this respect, these tomes are not simply a reassessment of extant analytical frameworks, but an inspiring mapping of politics and policy of conflict prevention. Thence, the two parts of Conflict Prevention are a lasting testimony of the encyclopedic endeavor to chart the gist of different conflict prevention approaches, while presenting a cornucopia of insight and best-practice.--Panorama

The scholarship is first-rate, thorough, and comprehensive. This work will be a significant contribution to the study, training and practice of conflict prevention. . . . Overall the original evidence, comprehensiveness, and integrative nature of the work are its best features.--Franke Wilmer, Director and Professor, Political Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, Director and Professor, Political Science, Montana State University, Bozeman

These two volumes form an encyclopedic study of the means of conflict prevention. The first volume examines agents and institutions, the second causes and capacities. The choice of chapters to encompass the components of the subject is careful and comprehensive, and there is much bredth and wisdom in the chapters themselves. The volumes deserve a wide and bifocal audience. For analysts, the two volumes push back the frontiers into new aspects to study; for practitioners, they show that the challenge is in applying what we know aplenty, not in hiding behind claims of ignorance.--I. William Zartman, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

From the Publisher