Based on literature review and inputs from surveyed agencies, this book assesses the value and role of early warning for the prevention of violent conflict and identifies the most effective systems.

Based on literature review and inputs from surveyed agencies, this book assesses the value and role of early warning for the prevention of violent conflict and identifies the most effective systems.

The end of the cold war did not begin an era of world peace. The forces of marginalization, civil war, and genocide have uprooted whole societies in Africa, the Balkans and the Caucasus. In fact, the end of superpower competition means that the world now lacks external actors powerful enough to intervene successfully in local conflicts. The early 1990s saw the beginning of a search for possibilities for conflict prevention. This work is one of the first to set the analysis of early warning and conflict prevention firmly in the context of the changes and continuities in the structures of post-Cold War politics. Early Warning and Conflict Prevention proceeds from the position that sufficient early warning could enable governments and international organizations to intervene at an early stage, rather than waiting until disputes erupt into violence. It analyses the theoretical and practical complexities of timely warning and effective response in conflict resolution. It also investigates the extent to which conflict prevention has become a concrete element in the policies of governments, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations. The result of an international symposium on early warning and conflict prevention in November 1996, this work examines this significant issue in international relations within the unique political framework of post-Cold War developments, making it an important resource for academics, policymakers, government officials, and others interested in the present and future state of conflict resolution.

Conflict is inherent to all human and inter-state relations, but it is not inevitable. Since the end of the Cold-War, the prevention of conflict escalation into violence through management and resolution has become a fundamental objective of the international system. So how does prevention work when it works, and what can be done when tried and tested practices fail? In this book, I. William Zartman offers a clear and authoritative guide to the key challenges of conflict prevention and the norms, processes and methods used to dampen and diffuse inter and intra-state conflict in the contemporary world. Early-stage techniques including awareness de-escalation, stalemate, ripening, and resolution, are explored in full alongside the late or crisis stage techniques of interruption, separation and integration. Prevention, he argues, is a battle that is never won: there is always more work to be done. The search for prevention - necessary but still imperfect - continues into new imperatives, new mechanisms, new agents, and new knowledge, which this book helps discover and apply.

Contributing to the general pursuit of constructive and sustainable conflict solutions, and the achievement of both negative and positive peace, this book highlights the valuable role of scenario building processes in formulating viable strategies for electoral violence prevention, through tackling the structural roots of the electoral conflict. Conceptual elements, pioneered and widely promoted by the individuals and organizations referenced throughout the book, are linked in a manner that c...