Levels of Action: Additional Resources

These references supplement the Knowledge Base Essay, Levels of Action.

Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:

Online (Web) Sources

Rieff, David. Charity on the Rampage: The Business of Foreign Aid. Foreign Affairs, Volume 76, Number 1.
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]
Summary: Aid organizations today are businesses as interested in market share as the Fortune 500, Michael Maren claims in "The Road to Hell." Maren's book oversimplifies as it enlightens. Modern humanitarianism is still the best tool for saving lives.

Weiser, Ricky. Constructive Confrontation: Nuts and Bolts Advice for Activists.
Available at: Primary Link  [Backup Link]
This paper is an edited transcript of a talk given by Ricky Weiser for the Intractable Conflict/Constructive Confrontation Project on April 10, 1993. It talks about the micro-level of citizen advocacy and how a single, private citizen can interface with the political realities of city councils, county commissioners, and even higher-level governmental organizations. But, primarily it focuses on how to accomplish things at the local level. This will also include methods of resolving conflicts in the local political sphere.

Reilly, Ben. "Democratic Levers for Conflict Management." The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance , 1998.
Primary Link  [Backup Link]
This chapter of Democracy and Deep-rooted Conflict edited by Peter Harris and Ben Reilly, addresses the need to inform domestic political actors about the options available to them in terms of democratic institutions. It outlines the way in which basic institutions and policies can be purposely designed to maximize the prospects of democracy taking root in post-conflict societies. It also aims to draw these issues to the attention of interested external actors in the international community, who may be charged with the responsibility of crafting a settlement or supervising a period of state reconstruction. Sections of this chapter include: Power-sharing; Federalism and autonomy; Presidentalism versus parliamentarism; Electoral systems for divided societies; Legislatures for post-conflict societies; Human rights instruments; Language policy for multi-ethnic societies; transitional justice; Truth commissions and war crimes tribunals; Nation machinery for gender equality.

Offline (Print) Sources

Lederach, John Paul. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, December 1997.
Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond "traditional" diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside. Primary Link [Backup Link]

Burton, John W. Conflict and Communication: The Use of Controlled Communication in International Relations. London: Macmillan, 1969.
This groundbreaking work is an early example of a discussion advocating what is now known as Track Two diplomacy.

Mitchell, Christopher R. and Michael A. Banks. Handbook of Conflict Resolution: The Analytical Problem-Solving Approach. London: Printer Pub. Ltd., 1996.
This book seeks to to bridge the gap between the theory and the practice of intervening in violent conflict. The authors describe analytical problem-solving and outline its major goals and benefits. They also describe how to arrange and conduct a problem-solving workshop. Problem-solving workshops are meetings that take place between unofficial representatives of conflicting parties and a third party panel. The overall aim of workshops is to analyze the sources of conflict and invent new solutions.

Fisher, Ronald J. Interactive Conflict Resolution. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, June 1997.
This book examines a number of issues, techniques, and processes connected to the field of conflict resolution. This includes human rights workshops for conflict resolution, the third party consultation model, and interactive problem solving.

Lederach, John Paul. "Structure: Lenses for the Big Picture." In Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, December 1997. Pages: 37-61.
In chapter four, Lederach discusses the hierarchical structure of populations affected by conflict and suggests that we view this hierarchy in terms of a pyramid. This pyramid features top-level leaders, mid-level leaders, and grassroots leaders. Each level of leadership is uniquely positioned to pursue certain types of peace building activities. Primary Link [Backup Link]

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Examples Illustrating this Topic:

Online (Web) Sources

Faith-Based NGOs and International Peacebuilding.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr76.html [Backup Link]
This report discusses the importance of faith-based non-governmental organizations in international peacebuilding. These organizations deal with high-level mediation to training and peacebuilding through development at grassroots levels.

Offline (Print) Sources

Hemmer, Bruce. "Bottom-Up Peacebuilding in Bosnia." PARC News Spring, 1997.
This article argues for empowering Bosnians with the means and tools to build a democratic civil society. It also maintains that peace building and reconciliation processes need to support these empowerment initiatives. Primary Link [Backup Link]

Kelman, Herbert C. "Creating the Conditions for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations." Journal of Conflict Resolution 26:1, 1982.
This article conceptualizes a prenegotiation process that may create the proper political and psychological conditions for initiating Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for a mutually acceptable settlement. The goal is to attain direct negotiation of a win-win formula for sharing the land, within a framework utilizing the legitimacy achieved by each side. The paper outlines relevant considerations for facilitating stable peace and reconciliation.

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