We understand “peacebuilding,” to be the establishment or restoration of cooperative and collaborative relationships among people in conflict.  In both political conflict and inter-personal conflict peacebuilding is that which brings sustainable resolution.

PEACEBUILDING:  Political

Peacebuilding amid political conflict seeks to prevent the outbreak of war, to stop the fighting, and to sustain peaceful relations after the fighting ceases.  As highlighted by John-Paul Lederach in Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, peacebuilding can occur at each strata of societies in conflict.  Grassroots actors can prevent conflicts through human rights promotion and utilizing business as an opportunity through commerce to bring together peoples across ethnic or cultural divides.  Elite actors, such as politicians and military leaders build peace through conferences, and negotiations.    Through problem-solving workshops and joint conflict assessments, relationships middle-level leadership, eminent persons, political party leadership, and the heads of prominent NGOS and businesses, provide a critical link between elites and grassroots leadership.

PEACEBUILDING:  Inter-Personal

Interpersonal peacebuilding seeks to rebuild and restore healthy human relationships among individuals or groups of individuals, yet is distinct from peacebuilding work that seeks to bring together groups torn apart by political strife.  Within the United States inter-personal peacebuilding typically is referred to as “violence prevention and intervention.”  The work includes efforts such as mentoring programs that support at-risk young people secure healthy bonds, rather than continually gravitate toward the deceptive bonds of the gang life style that surrounds them.  Interpersonal peacebuilding work includes programs such as the Nurse Family Partnership program that works with mothers during both the prenatal period and then into the first two years of their child’s life to teach healthy parent-child relations.  Interpersonal peacebuilding includes efforts such as Challenge Day that challenges young people studying in fear-ridden environments to establish loving, positive relationships with each other.

We, The Student Peace Alliance, believe that to create a sustainable peace, both political and inter-personal peacebuilding is necessary.