Today’s conflicts are no longer restricted to a local or national level. Instead they are perpetuated by our global system and local communities have increasingly become intertwined. Emma Leslie, CPCS, reminds us to not fear complexity and use our interconnected world to create new visions and possibilities for sustaining peace.

All physical violence comes from a deep structural violence. As our world has become increasingly interconnected, conflicts cannot be tackled in isolation but need to be addressed from a global perspective. Local communitites are thus not so local anymore as they have access to international media, which raises question of social and political injustice. Emma Leslie, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS), however states that we should not fear complexity. Instead, this interconnectedness needs to be actively acknowledged when planning new appraoches to sustainable peace.

The role of peacebuilders

Partnerships need to be of an all-embracing characacter. They are based on cultural humility and rely on the desire to listen to one another. This could lead to more transformative types of justice and result in a future-focused approach, which has been missing in the past. Leslie argues that FriEnt provides the space to collectively reflect upon mistakes that could limit progress in reaching sustainable peace.