Persistent Peacebuilders: Sustaining Commitment During Violent Conflict

• In Event: 129 - Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Paper Session. New Directions in Peace, War and Social Conflict

Abstract

While peacebuilding in a situation of protracted conflict is a long-term process (Lederach 1997; Adwan and Bar-On 2004), there is a dearth of literature in the peace and conflict studies field focused on how peacebuilders and peace activists maintain commitment in protracted and violent conflict environments. The organizational and social movement studies literatures highlight various factors that can allow individuals to maintain persistence, but even in the above mentioned literature, very little attention is given to what allows individuals to persist over a long-term period and in a high-risk environment (Nepstad 2004). This article addresses this gap by using longitudinal field research data and surveys of the major educational peacebuilding initiatives in Israel and Palestine between the years 2000 and 2010, to examine what allows peacebuilders and peace activists to persist in a hostile, violent, and protracted conflict environment. Building on the above mentioned literatures, I contend that organizations can take various actions to help foster commitment, but perhaps the most critical thing that these organizations can do is to recognize that persistence is not simply an attribute of an individual, but is socially structured, and one’s social location in the environment (e.g. what conflict group an individual belongs to) greatly shapes the reasons for one’s persistence. This recognition is fundamental for being able to devise organizational actions that successfully foster commitment amongst peacebuilders across conflict lines.

Author

• Michelle I. Gawerc, Loyola University-Maryland