Conflict Resolution

Conflict Management trough

Preventive Diplomacy
 What is Preventive Diplomacy?
• The term “preventive diplomacy” was proposed
by Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General
from 1953 to 1961, over half a century ago and,
since then, the concept has continued to evolve
in response to new challenges.
• In the United Nations context, preventive
diplomacy is regarded as an integral part of
broader conflict-prevention efforts and refers
particularly to early diplomatic actions aimed at
preventing new disputes and the escalation of
existing tensions into violence, as well as limiting
the spread of ongoing conflicts.
 Cont..
• Preventive Diplomacy may also be defined as
the diplomatic course of actions aimed at
stopping armed conflict before they escalate
into widespread violence, through use of
various diplomatic tactics.
 Factors Promoting Preventive
Diplomacy
• A number of factors an be found that played a role in
promoting preventive diplomacy, specially in the later
half of the 20th century.
• The concept of mass destruction as well as collateral
damage after WWII, mainly due to development of
non-conventional weapons has played an important
role in this regard. During the most tense years of cold
war, both the super powers avoided a direct military
confrontation to a larger extent since both had nuclear
and missile technologies. Cuban Missile Crisis is a good
example of preventive diplomacy during cold war when
the world was at the brink of a nuclear war, however, it
were the preventive diplomatic efforts that worked.
 Cont..
• Another important factor has been the rise of
debates like individualism vs nation/state
sovereignty and human rights. Mostly having
support from Liberals, such debates promoted
awareness about securing the individual rights
and liberties that potentially could be harmed
due to conflicts between states. Stressing on the
need to prevent the crisis at earliest possible
stages to avoid human causalities and violation of
human rights specially during crisis and war time,
proponents of human rights thus supported the
trend of preventive diplomacy.
 Cont..
• Another important factor, again having Liberal
basis, has been the integrated global and regional
economic systems. The increased economic
interdependence increased the scope and range
of potential harms that crisis, conflicts and wars
between two or more states could bring to the
rest, hence, not only making states more keen to
get over the disputes at initial stages but also
increased the room for external interference and
intervention, by other states as well as by
regional and international institutions.
 Levels of Preventive Diplomatic
Actions
• Preventive diplomacy might be practiced at
the bilateral level, involving the immediate
parties to a crisis/conflict having an urge to
prevent the conflict from getting intensified to
an uncontrollable level.
• It might be multilateral, involving some
neutral/other states as well as regional and
international institutions working in
collaboration to prevent the conflicts from
escalating into more violent ones.
 Bilateral Preventive Diplomacy
• States, mostly through Confidence Building
Measures try to normalize the bilateral terms,
first aimed at bringing the terms to pre-war/pre-
conflict state and then making further possible
improvements.
• Mostly commonly practiced CBMs might be
categorized into following groups.
 Political (ranging from statements by political
leaders stressing the need to promote peace to
direct/indirect communication channels between
heads of states, e.g.Hotlines, visits etc
Cont..
 Military (ranging from declaration of
ceasefire, avoiding skirmishes in
sensitive areas to meetings between
border security forces and direct
communication lines between military
leadership. Nuclear and non-
conventional CBMs have also become
very important in this regard, including
informing each other in advance before
conducting nuclear tests, test ban or
moratorium, informing each other in
case of accidental use, theft etc, arms
control and arms reduction
agreements/treaties etc
 Cont..
Economic CMBs, ranging from conclusion of
MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) to
promote bilateral trade to joint ventures, visits
by industrialists, communication between
chambers of commerce to economic
leverages offered to each other up to the level
of granting the status of Most Favored Nation
etc
Cultural CBMs, including interaction between
societies, civil citizens, media groups,
exchange of students, scientists, doctors,
artists etc.
 Multilateral Preventive Diplomacy
• Multilateral Preventive Diplomacy is generally
practiced at to levels: Global and Regional
 Preventive diplomacy has been an enduring idea at the
United Nations for many decades. Since Dag
Hammarskjöld first articulated the concept over half a
century ago, it has continued to evolve in response to
new challenges. An integral part of broader conflict
prevention efforts, preventive diplomacy refers
specifically to diplomatic action taken, at the earliest
possible stage, “to prevent disputes from arising
between parties, to prevent existing disputes from
escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the
latter when they occur”.
 Preventive diplomacy remains highly relevant along the
entire conflict spectrum.
 Cont..
U.N. has been using various tools/instruments
for preventive diplomacy, e.g. Mediation
Support Unit, Peace making/keeping/building
Missions etc.
A number of cases can be found where U.N.
intervened to prevent the conflict from
further intensification. These include South
Sudan, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Kenya, Congo etc.
 Cont..
 At regional level, in addition to regional powers
and other states, regional organizations have
been playing an important role to minimize the
tensions between member states through
preventive diplomatic actions.
 An important example is E.U. that has been quite
successful in this regard.
 Similarly, various other regional organizations
have become active over the years, e.g., African
Union replaced it’s policy of ‘non-interference’ to
that of ‘non-indifference’ to enhance it’s role in
regional disputes/conflicts.
Tools and Mechanisms for Preventive
Diplomacy
• Early Warning Systems
• Mechanisms for rapid response
• Establishment of dedicated preventive
structures at bilateral, regional and
international level
• Use of special envoys
• Mediation units
• Fact-finding commissions
• Peacemaking commissions
• Resident political missions
 Success/Failure of Preventive
Diplomacy
• There are a number of factors that determine
the success/failure of preventive diplomatic
efforts in any particular case. Some major
factors are
Definition of the ‘threshold’ or ‘red-line’
(assessing the sensitivity of the matter and
deciding when to start the efforts for peace
and normalization)
 Cont..
Communication and partnership (continuous
communication between all the stakeholders
and parties to the conflict, agreement and
collaboration for reducing tensions)
Sustainability (ensuring not only continuity of
the ongoing diplomatic process for peace but
taking it to next levels)
Resourcing (channelizing all the available
resources, materials, skills, channels and
forums to prevent the escalation)