New Book and Course: "Conflict Assessment and Peacebuilding Planning"

3P Human Security is proud to announce the release of Director Lisa Shirch’s new book titled “Conflict Assessment and Peacebuilding Planning: A Strategic, Participatory, Systems-Based Handbook on Human Security.”  Readers will learn a simple conflict assessment framework to identify key concepts; practice designing rigorous research to conduct conflict assessment, and monitoring and evaluation based on collecting and prioritizing data that is valid, accurate and triangulated; identify key components of strategic planning - including conflict assessment, self-assessment, theories of change, and monitoring and evaluation; and prioritize information and make complex decisions to design a comprehensive peacebuilding strategy. For more information about the book, please click here.

"Conflict Assessment and Peacebuilding Planning" is also being offered as a 7-day training course at Eastern Mennonite University's Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Harrisonburg, VA from May 27, 2013 to June 4, 2013.  This course is geared toward planners and policy teams at peacebuilding organizations, government agencies, and regional and international organizations. For more information on this course, click here.  To apply for this course or other courses at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, click here.  Shorter workshops, presentations, and tailored trainings on "Conflict Assessment and Peacebuilding Planning" are available upon request.  If interested, contact  Lisa Schirch.

Dr. Lisa Schirch is the founding director of 3P Human Security, a partnership for peacebuilding policy at the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP). AfP connects policymakers with global civil society networks, facilitates civil-military dialogue, and provides a conflict prevention and peacebuilding lens on current policy issues.

Schirch is also a Research Professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and a liaison at the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict. She has worked as a consultant to facilitate national peace processes and write a peacebuilding strategy for the UN Development Program. She teaches local civil society capacity assessment and civil-military guidelines at the US Foreign Service Institute and many military academies.

A former Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa, Schirch has worked in over 20 countries in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, most recently in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Lebanon.

Schirch has written six books and numerous articles on conflict prevention and strategic peacebuilding.

Schirch holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Waterloo, Canada and a MS and PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University.

3P Presents at UNITAR's Seminar on the Prevention of Genocide

3P Program Manager John Filson presented at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research’s (UNITAR) Seminar on the Prevention of Genocide in New York City on January 23, 2013.  The seminar was a collaborative effort between UNITAR and the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect that aimed to give its participants a deeper understanding of the definitions of genocide as well as strategies for the prevention of genocide.  

John spoke about the comparative frameworks of 1) Genocide Prevention focused on Early Warning and preventing outbreaks of mass atrocities, and 2) Conflict Prevention focused on the long-term structural conditions that lead to violent conflict, including episodes of mass violence.

Genocide and mass atrocities do not happen in a vacuum, but always in the context of long-standing dynamics between groups in conflict such as political exclusion, economic exploitation, mutual mistrust and demonizing between groups, and historical grievances. As an analytical framework, Conflict Prevention provides additional tools that compliment Genocide Prevention and Early Warning mechanisms to prevent not only atrocities but also address the long-term conditions that cause them.

The practical benefits of linking Genocide Prevention and Conflict Prevention frameworks is an on-going area of work for the Alliance for Peacebuilding and 3P Human Security. 3P Director Dr. Lisa Schirch is currently conducting research on how these frameworks operate similarly or differently in practice, and how prevention scholars and practitioners can build better synergies between these two important approaches to increase the overall effectiveness of violence prevention in settings of conflict.  

Event: Somalia - Fresh Approaches to Peacebuilding

March 13, 2012

This months Conflict Prevention & Resolution Forum (CPRF) was organized by 3P and the Life & Peace Institute and took place on Tuesday, March 13 from 9:30 - 11:30am at Johns Hopkins SAIS.  The forum addressed the impact of current policies isolating blacklisted groups in Somalia and proposals for alternative perspectives that could encourage the design of an inclusive peace process in Somalia.

Scholar-practitioners from the Life and Peace Institute in Nairobi and the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies discussed a recent report: “Somalia: Creating Space for Fresh Approaches to Peacebuilding” that illustrates why the dominant strategy of isolating proscribed terrorist groups like al-Shabaab has a counter-productive effect on reducing violent extremism and building lasting stability in Somalia.

An afternoon roundtable discussion echoed the talking points of the morning forum.  Kay Guinane of Charity and Security Nework (CSN) joined the group in the afternoon to provide an update on proposals in the works for possible licensing mechanisms for track II peacebuiding and development. 

Click here for speaker bio's and a brief background on Somalia.

Laura Weis, Kroc Institute; Shamsia W. Ramadhan, Life&Peace Institute (LPI);  Kristen Wall, Kroc Institute; John Filson, 3P Human Security; and Michele Cesari, LPI

     LPI and Kroc speakers participate in a rountable discussion on Somalia and the options for legalizing peacebuilding and development

Kay Guinane, Charity and Security Network and Michele Cesari, Resident Representative for the Life & Peace Institute

(L to R): Shamsia W. Ramadhan, Programmes and Communications Advisor, Life & Peace Institute; Laura Weis, Ph.D candidate, Kroc Institute/Notre Dame and David Cortright, Director of Policy Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

Kony 2012 & the Failed Fantasy of Fire Power

March12, 2012

Kony 2012 and the Failed Fantasy of Fire Power in Libya, Syria, Uganda...

In her most recent Huffington Post article, Lisa provides a look at how the West can work towards ending civilian suffering in Syria, Uganda, and elsewhere and why it is important to so without supporting a military intervention.

"The fantasy of firepower rests on a faulty assumption that 'evil' resides in a group of people that need to be killed in order to restore peace. A realist understands the civil wars in Libya, Syria and Uganda are far more complex than killing some 'bad guys.' Like pouring toxic chemicals into an oil spill, the solution of pouring weapons into a civil war just doubles the agony for civilians and prolongs instability."

To see the full Huffington Post article, click here.