Visions of International Peace

On 24 January 2020, VCDNP Senior Fellow Angela Kane spoke at a roundtable discussion at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna titled “Visions of International Peace.” The event served as a kickoff discussion for a workshop sponsored by the Austrian Research Association (ÖFG) that focused on peaceful change. She was joined by Michael Asiedu (Diplomatic Academy), Susanne Jalka (University of Applied Arts Vienna), Walter Kemp (OSCE), Lukas Wank (Shapka). The panel was moderated by Diplomatic Academy Professor of International Relations Markus Kornprobst.

During the discussion, Ms. Kane recounted her experience with building peace in El Salvador, Nepal and Haiti. She explained how negotiations for a peaceful resolution require real concessions from both sides and that different actors may have competing visions of peace. She noted that conflicting visions of post-conflict society can make achieving peace difficult.

Other panelists discussed how visions of peace can vary in different cultures, how non-violent conflict can provide opportunities for change, how international organizations conduct protracted negotiations for peace settlements and strategies to create lasting peace from conflict.

Ms. Kane concurred with her fellow panelists that international professionals need to be aware of local histories and power dynamics in order to find solutions tailored to the specific circumstances of a conflict. She also agreed that finding sustainable ways to provide for people’s material circumstances, especially natural resources, will be one the main challenges to ending violent conflict in the future.

The panel’s discussion was followed by a question and answer session, where Ms. Kane reiterated that some of the most important elements of making peace is to “listen, listen, listen."