The ideas in this course apply, with adjustments, to conflicts between whole communities and nations. This final level looks at how peace is built at larger scales, and then at how you can practice these skills yourself.
Negative and positive peace
The Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung, a founder of the academic field of peace research, drew a distinction that is now standard. Negative peace is the absence of direct violence: the guns are silent. Positive peace is something more: a society with the justice, cooperation and fair structures that make violence unlikely to return. Galtung linked this to his idea of structural violence, meaning harm built into social arrangements, such as poverty or exclusion that shortens lives. A ceasefire achieves negative peace; building schools, courts and trust aims at positive peace.
Tracks of diplomacy
Official negotiation between governments is called track one diplomacy. In 1981 the American diplomat Joseph Montville helped coin the term track two diplomacy for unofficial dialogue between influential people from conflicting sides, such as academics, retired officials, religious leaders and journalists. Track two meetings can explore ideas that officials cannot yet say in public, build relationships, and test possible solutions. The secret talks that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization began as an unofficial channel involving academics before officials took over.
The peace scholar John Paul Lederach described peacebuilding as needing work at three levels: top leaders, middle-range leaders such as religious figures and heads of organizations, and the grassroots. Agreements signed at the top often fail unless the middle and the grassroots are prepared to live by them.
Truth commissions, briefly
After civil wars or repressive rule, societies must decide how to deal with past crimes. One approach is a truth commission: an official body that investigates and publicly records past abuses. Argentina's National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons reported in 1984 on people who vanished under military rule. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established in 1995 and chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, heard thousands of testimonies and could grant amnesty for politically motivated crimes in exchange for full disclosure. Supporters say truth commissions give victims recognition and create a shared record. Critics say amnesty can deny justice, and that truth does not always bring reconciliation.
Practical exercises
Skills grow through practice. Here are exercises to try:
- Map a conflict. Pick a conflict you know. List the parties, their positions, and the interests you think lie beneath. Identify which of the five sources from Level 1 are in play.
- Know your style. Recall three recent disagreements. Which Thomas-Kilmann mode did you use? Was it the right one?
- Prepare a negotiation. Before your next significant request, write down your BATNA, your reservation point, their likely interests and two objective criteria.
- Practice reflecting. In your next disagreement, restate the other person's view to their satisfaction before giving your own.
- Rewrite a complaint. Turn an accusation into an observation, feeling, need and request.
- Find a superordinate goal. For a divided group you belong to, name a goal that both sides want and neither can reach alone.
A closing thought
Conflict resolution is sometimes mistaken for being nice or avoiding hard truths. Its best practitioners are firm about interests and honest about injustice. What they refuse to do is forget that the person across the table is a person. That conviction, that every party to a conflict has a worth that does not depend on which side they are on, is where the craft and Universal Humanism meet.
Worked example: after a civil war
Imagine a fictional country, Velaria, emerging from a ten-year civil war between two regions with different languages. A ceasefire has held for six months. What would building peace involve?
Negative peace first. The ceasefire, monitored by international observers, is the precondition for everything else. Fighters must be disarmed and given a path back to civilian life.
Track one and track two. Official talks between the government and the rebel leadership address power-sharing and elections. Alongside, a university hosts quiet meetings of teachers, clergy and business owners from both regions. Free of official pressure, they discuss sensitive issues such as which language schools will teach.
Lederach's levels. The top leaders sign an agreement. Middle-range leaders, such as heads of churches, mosques and unions, explain it to their communities. At the grassroots, local committees mediate disputes over land abandoned during the fighting.
Truth. Velaria debates a truth commission. Victims' groups want the full story of what happened to their relatives. Some argue for trials; others fear that prosecutions would make former commanders return to war. A compromise might combine public hearings with prosecution of the gravest crimes.
Positive peace. Over years, the aim is schools that teach both languages, fair access to jobs and land, and courts that both regions trust. These address the structural causes that fueled the war.
Notice that every skill in this course appears here, scaled up: understanding sources, recognizing escalation, separating interests from positions, mediating, listening to grief, and finding goals that neither side can reach alone.