Can a Peacebuilding Strategy, Framed by Regional Cooperation, Lead to Sustainable Peace?

Research Paper from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Methods, Research, grade: A, Free University of Berlin, course: International Organization, language: English, abstract: The target of "building peace" is a long lasting challenge for regional and international organizations in order to overcome instability and suffering caused by conflict, and reconcile divided societies. As the traditional statist diplomacy can not address the roots of most contemporary conflicts, resulting of ethnic, religious and cultural tensions often exacerbated by competition for resources,1 new approaches linking both diplomatic and grassroots levels have been developed in the perspective to deconstruct conflicts and reconstruct or reshape societies which have harboured them. However, once the "black box" has been opened, it appears that a large number of contemporary conflicts is not confined to the borders of one state, rather, regional conflict dynamics, based on common socio-economic needs and living conditions, similar environment as well as ethnic and religious ties, confer to such conflicts high complexity.