{"id":284078,"date":"2025-01-06T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=284078"},"modified":"2025-01-02T09:24:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T09:24:45","slug":"remaking-contacts-to-end-violent-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/01\/remaking-contacts-to-end-violent-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Remaking Contacts to End Violent Conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Jan 2025 <\/em>– Edward Said, the late Palestinian-American scholar (and my Princeton University classmate) said,<\/p>\n

“Writing is the final resistance that we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, we see inhumanity, injustice, and armed violence in the wider Middle East: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen with an impact in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.<\/p>\n

In many of these Middle East conflicts, there were no contacts to be cut.\u00a0 The process of creating contacts must start from point zero.\u00a0 Thus, peacebuilders must develop political legitimacy by trying to develop contacts with politically active groups and by bringing in new voices such as feminist constituencies.<\/p>\n

There is a need to engage conflicting parties – governments, armed groups and militias – so that there can be negotiations in good faith and an end to armed conflicts.\u00a0 The increasingly complex nature of conflicts requires diverse forms and levels of peacebuilding.\u00a0 This complexity makes the remaking of communications difficult. There needs to be flexibility, innovation, and cooperation.<\/p>\n

Both formal and informal efforts are needed to create a web of alternative approaches with the ability to seize the initiative when there is an opportunity for action.\u00a0 Our focus here is on informal approaches which can be carried out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Association of World Citizens.<\/p>\n

Social media is a recent form of contact beyond the older face-to-face approach.\u00a0 Social media has become an important mobilizing force.\u00a0 It can drive debates and political change, but it can also be used to divide societies, incite violence and xenophobia.\u00a0 For peacebuilders, social media allows direct access to the general public.\u00a0 Thus for peacebuilders, they need to learn to use social media creatively.<\/p>\n

For NGOs, the first step is an analysis of the nature and the parties in the conflict.\u00a0 Information can be gathered from people already active on the issue such as academics and members of other NGOs.\u00a0 For the wider Middle East conflicts, there are citizens from these countries living in Europe and the U.S.A. as well as persons who visit Middle East countries regularly.\u00a0 It is important to get a wide range of views. For organizations such as AWC with consultative status at the United Nations, it is possible to discuss with U.N. Secretariat members and with diplomats.<\/p>\n

Resolving armed conflicts and lowering persistent tensions involves a change in the attitudes that are at the core of the conflict.\u00a0 We work to create possibilities for dialogue and confidence-building so as to increase mutual trust.\u00a0 Remaking contacts is a way of facilitating better communications between leaders holding antagonistic views, thus promoting cross-cultural communications.<\/p>\n

As we begin 2025 with tensions in the Middle East at a high level, creative action is needed. Join in this vital process.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues<\/em>, and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Jan 2025 – In many Middle East conflicts there were no contacts to be cut. The process of creating contacts must start from point zero. Resolving armed conflicts and lowering persistent tensions involves a change in attitudes. We work to create possibilities for dialogue and confidence-building so as to increase mutual trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1778,442],"class_list":["post-284078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-conflict-analysis","tag-conflict-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284079,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284078\/revisions\/284079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}