Image on right: A little girl draws a white pigeon, signifying a cry for peace, on a street in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 15, 2001. A group of peace activists drew for peace at the site where bombs have previously exploded. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

As recent events in the Middle East amply demonstrate, peace processes are subject to derailment by many kinds of violence. In the The Effects of Violence on Peace Processes, a recent USIP Press book written by former Institute Senior Fellow John Darby, Darby delineates the impact of violence by states, political violence by zealots, and internal paramilitary violence. To expound upon some of the themes within the book, the Institute has gathered a panel of experts on peace processes to explore the lessons learned from peace negotiations and related political violence in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, and Israel-Palestine.

Webcast live on May 29. the discussion was moderated by policital extremism specialist and director of the Instititute's Fellowship Program Dr. Joseph Klaits.

Speakers

  • John Darby
    Professor, Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame and former Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
  • John Wallach (Via Phone from New York)
    President, Seeds of Peace; Executive Director, Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity; author The Enemy has a Face (USIP Press 2000); and former Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
  • E. Valentine Daniel
    Director, Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University

Moderator

  • Joseph Klaits
    Director, Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program, U.S. Institute of Peace

Related Publications

The Latest @ USIP: Peacebuilding Lessons from Northern Ireland’s Religious Actors

The Latest @ USIP: Peacebuilding Lessons from Northern Ireland’s Religious Actors

Monday, June 26, 2023

One of the keys to the Northern Ireland peace process was patience — and with it, a long-term commitment from religious actors to pursue nonviolent avenues of ending the conflict. Reverend Gary Mason, a senior research fellow at Maynooth University, discusses how longstanding relationships between religious actors and their communities can open doors for dialogue that might be unavailable to other peacebuilders and how his experience in Northern Ireland can inform his new work to promote peace in the Middle East.

Type: Blog

Peace ProcessesReligion

What Can We Learn from Northern Ireland’s 25 Years of Peace?

What Can We Learn from Northern Ireland’s 25 Years of Peace?

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Next week marks 25 years since Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants. What can we learn from that breakthrough to strengthen peace efforts today? A Northern Irish peacebuilder argues a that a vital step in his homeland’s peace process placed civil society — and, critically, civil society’s religious participants — at its center in a way that other peace efforts (between Israelis and Palestinians, for example) have not. Northern Ireland continues to build reconciliation, a demonstration that, while religious factors sometimes fuel conflict, a fuller engagement of religious leaders and groups contributes powerfully to lasting peace.

Type: Analysis

Peace ProcessesReligion

Music, Poetry, Film: Shoring Up Identities for Peaceful Ends

Music, Poetry, Film: Shoring Up Identities for Peaceful Ends

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A Somali master poet reconnects citizens to their government. A Lebanese filmmaker collects fighters' stories to dramatize the cost of war. Police in Northern Ireland adopt symbols of peace to signal a new ethos. In places simmering with long-standing social tensions and alienation, common cultural understandings can help ease hostility, suggesting a potentially powerful role for a mechanism still under-used in peacebuilding: the arts.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionViolent ExtremismNonviolent Action

Reconciliation as the Road to Durable Peace

Reconciliation as the Road to Durable Peace

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Apology. Confession. Truth-telling. Forgiveness. These are elements of reconciliation, perhaps the most important underpinning for turning a violent conflict into durable peace. Yet building peace is complicated by a reality that human cultures have no agreed definition of reconciliation. Indeed many may resist it as an imposed Western value, USIP scholars said.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionReligionReconciliation

View All Publications