Interactive Peacemaking: A People-Centered Approach

Abstract

Susan H. Allen’s Interactive Peacemaking: A People-Centered Approach is a response to the limitations of state-centric and institutional approaches in the peace and conflict field. In line with recent scholarship in the field, a people-centred approach to conflict resolution means challenging the exclusive focus on top-down approaches that privilege states and institutions as the drivers of conflict resolution. Without discarding the importance of such processes completely, Allen makes the case for focusing on local women and men who, far away from the spotlight, engage in long-term peacemaking efforts that yield tangible results for the populations living in conflict-affected or divided societies. Drawing for her extensive experience in facilitating peacemaking efforts between Georgians and South Ossetians, Allen argues that even in the absence of an official political settlement, individuals from those communities have effectively built peace. The book provides stories of people who have engaged in conflict resolution processes step by step, addressing practical and humanitarian issues first – such as recovering bodies across the frontlines or cleaning a river that runs through contested borders – which leads to building confidence over time between opposing parties. This is what Allen calls the ‘peace that is possible’. While this peace does not necessarily lead to an official peace accord in the short or even medium term, Allen urges attention to those small steps for peace because ‘when peace is possible, we have an obligation to build it. Lives depend on that effort’ (p. 16). One of the main contributions of the book is how it seeks to close the gap between conflict resolution scholars and practitioners. Drawing again on her continued engagement in Georgia/South Ossetia peace efforts, Allen shows how practice can build theory of peacemaking. Allen argues that the peace and conflict scholarship should rely on practice and be more action-oriented – that is, aiming to contribute to solving concrete social problems. At the same time, she calls for conflict resolution practitioners to reflect on the theories that underpin what they do and how they do it. The overall message of the book is that we should build the theory of conflict resolution from what has worked and has not worked for peacemakers to make the theories better suited for the real world. While this is understandable given the aim of the book to bridge practice and theory, the reader is left wondering whether critical