PPSCR

Dept.of Intl Relation, University of Karachi

Program on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution

DECEMBER 22-23, 2001 - CONFERENCE ROOM
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI

ABSTRACT

LINKAGE BETWEEN CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACE PROCESS

FARHAN HANIF SIDDIQI*

Conflict Resolution and Peace Process have become the buzzwords of the post-Cold War era. Ever since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there has been a growing insistence on the part of international community of states on the need and desirability of resolving conflicts by way of peace processes. The most noteworthy of examples is the Arab-Israeli peace process. Although peace processes are an important tool of resolving and managing conflicts, it seems that in many cases peace processes have failed in resolving conflicts. The most obvious factor in this regard has been an overt emphasis on the techniques and methodologies to resolve/manage conflicts rather than on the factors that cause conflicts in the first place. Stated simply, parties to the conflict and other interested parties need to transcend from how conflicts can be resolved and managed questions to why conflicts occur in the first place questions.

The discipline of International Relations furnishes a weak foundation and basis of conflict resolution and peace process. Although primarily arising as a response to the normative question of 'how to make peace and eradicate war', the discipline of International Relations has emerged as one centering on policy level analysis, specially in South Asia. Here it is argued that the essential element is to read and debate 'theory'. The present paper is an attempt to dwelve on the theoretical basis of conflict resolution and peace process. As such, it endeavours to move forward from the simple hypothesis that 'peace process is a necessary and sufficient condition for managing and resolving conflicts'. The focus of the paper is on the way that the discourse of conflict resolution and peace process is constructed in the present world and how can an alternative discourse be conceptualised to escape the inhumanity of a power-realistic world.

* Lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Karachi.

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