Ep 10: People Power in Peace Processes: Harnessing the Influence of Social Movements

This conversation explores the roles of popular social movements in relationship to national transitions from conflict to peace. Peace processes and other types of national political transitions are often criticised for not being sufficiently inclusive of the concerns of the public, or particular marginalised groups and issues. How can protest movements, civil disobedience campaigns, issue-based coalitions, and other forms of social movement support the negotiation and implementation of peace and transition processes that are more sustainable, and reflective of public concerns.

 

The conversation explores Veronique's background in non-violent movements, the limitations and power assymetries of top down peace and transition processes, types of social movements and how they can respond to these, varying elite and subaltern conceptions of peace, how social movements can evolve through steps of conflict transformation beginning with awakening, transfer strategies and other design challenges for the inclusion of social movements, the ethics of violence and non-violence for achieving peace, and more. We draw upon examples in Guatemala, Colombia, Myanmar, Israel and Palestine, Ukraine, and elsewhere. 

 

To dig deeper on these topics, we recommend reading Veronique's papers:

- on a twin framework for civil resistance and conflict transformation with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in "Powering to Peace". 

- on the roles and strategies of social movements in national peace processes in "From the Street to the PeaceTable" with the United States Institute of Peace.

- providing statistical evidence that more inclusive political processes lead to stabler democratic transitions in "Nonviolent Action and Transitions to Democracy," also with USIP

- a practical action "SNAP guide" with strategies for nonviolent movements to advance peacebuilding (with USIP, by Nadine Bloch and Lisa Schirch)