Since the dawn of time, humans have been navigating and negotiating the complex tapestry of a fundamental challenge faced by every generation… How to live together. Through the centuries, the transmitters of culture have provided access to a growing pool of accumulated wisdom on how best to do this. We’ve learnt a great deal. And yet, it seems there is still so much to explore, understand and learn.
The world’s religions tell us to ‘treat others as we would wish to be treated’; with many religious texts and scriptures advocating for peace. Indeed it is well established that religious teachings tend to focus on how people can best live alongside one another – in non-judgement, acceptance and compassion. Some religions encourage complete pacifism – a blanket principle of non-violence and non-harm – including branches of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Yet, despite many similarities in core teachings of peace and stories of forgiveness as strength; the profusion of divergent religious views and beliefs have brought countless groups of humans to clash through the ages.
To ensure our survival as a species in an often hostile world, our brains are hardwired for a ‘flight or fight’ response (or mechanism) to perceived threats. While conflict occurs naturally in innumerable situations, we can learn to confront, respond, and deal with it in non-violent ways; without succumbing to an ancestral instinct to flee or fight… or indeed freeze (a sort of holding pattern of a flight-or-fight response; often referred to as ‘reactive immobility’).
To work effectively on conflict – whether interpersonally, governmentally or at a grassroots community level – we must first develop a deeper understanding of the human psyche. So often, conflict arises as a result of innate, shared tenets of the human condition, and feelings of fear and insecurity. As such, a robust examination of these facets of the human condition are vital to the understanding required to underpin efforts to prevent conflict and violence. Further to this, our tribal nature provides an often unconscious doorway to ‘us’ and ‘them’ thinking; facilitating or triggering an unhelpful conflict response to that which is different or perceived as ‘other’.
Beyond our shared, ancestral struggle and suffering; many of us have very personal wounds and trauma caused by direct, and tangible external events (like war and displacement) and interpersonal experiences (like domestic abuse and bullying). Rather unhelpfully, as a result, our intuitive response of self-protection, alongside the psychological mechanism of projection, can encourage conflict in situations that do not necessarily present a tangible or immediate threat to us. As such, working on ourselves, and seeking to heal old wounds is essential to achieving inner peace.
The good news is that (in many cultures at least) there is now a great deal more awareness around these pervasive issues and challenges. Many of our schools now teach peace and are consciously working to create more peaceful learning environments. There are countless individuals and organisations providing various tools and mechanisms to support us with and through these challenges (multiple therapies, anger management practice, conflict prevention endeavours and restorative justice activities and programmes). And on a broader, international level we have a number of established and robust institutions working for peace – from the United Nations and peace keeping forces – to the countless agencies and programmes for conflict prevention, mediation, dialogue, negotiation, peace building and post-conflict regeneration and development.
Exploring conflict through film
The Media and Peace. Individual journalists and media agencies affiliated with “Peace Initiative” dedicate to spreading news of peace to enhance human rights and protect democracy.
UN Peacekeeping – A Commitment to Peace, United Nations. The need for UN Peacekeeping has never been greater. Today’s UN Peacekeeping missions are unprecedented in scale of operation and scope of mandates with over 125,000 peacekeepers deployed in four continents.
Conflict – Use it don’t defuse it. Conflict is an Energy Source. The number one source of pain on a team, or in any relationship, is conflict. What if conflict wasn’t good or bad? What if conflict was an energy source your team could harness to produce innovative, creative, and transformational results? CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke have spent over 15 years working with hundreds of business leaders and their teams across many industries.
Repairing our schools through Restorative Justice. Relying on suspensions and zero-tolerance discipline doesn’t deter misbehavior in schools – in fact, it makes matters worse. Teacher Jean Klasovsky shares Farragut High School’s story, a model for how schools can improve the school’s culture and discipline by using restorative justice practices such as peace circles and peer juries. Such practices lead to reduced dropout rates and greater student achievement.
Restorative Justice in the criminal justice system in England – everything you need to know. How does restorative justice work? How can it help me?
Maria Engels on Non Violent Communication. One of the biggest buzzwords listed on a job application is being a ‘good communicator’ or having ‘strong communication skills’. However, we often see the opposite occur, especially during this current age of online trolls and messages of hate in the comments sections of online platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. In my opinion, being a good communicator means that you are actively practicing this skill.
Is the Future of Peacekeeping Peaceful? – Shannon Zimmerman is a peacemaker specialising in understanding how ideas of peace and security interact. The United Nations is an embodiment of a continually evolving international order and UN peace operations are the physical manifestation of that order. Though there is no international consensus as to what peace and security mean, the prevailing understanding of these ideas is modelled by what peace operations do and how they do it.