RSSNews from our Partners – Accord Issue Complementing Dialogue Issue 8 on Peacebuilding in Contexts of Fragile Statehood
Conciliation Resources has published, in the latest issue of its Accord Series, an in-depth analysis of the Somali peace processes: Whose Peace Is It Anyway? This issue discusses, for the case of Somalia, many of the points raised in our own Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 8 – Building Peace in the Absence of States.
The issue editors of Accord 21, Mark Bradbury and Sally Healy, have brought together over 30 articles including interviews with Somali elders and senior diplomats with the African Union, the UN and IGAD, and contributions from Somali and international peacemaking practitioners, academics, involved parties, civil society and women’s organisations. The contributions illustrate that while for many people Somalia is synonymous with violence, warlordism, famine, terrorism, jihadism, and piracy, Somalia is not an entirely lawless and ungoverned land. On the one hand, nearly 20 years of foreign diplomatic, military and state-building interventions have failed to build peace. No government emerging from any internationally-sponsored peace process has established its authority or legitimacy among Somalis. On the other, Somalis have used their own resources and traditions of conflict resolution to re-establish security and governance in many communities.
We find: highly recommended reading.