A project of the International Peace Institute. From Reaction to Conflict Prevention : Opportunities for the UN System

Though the prevention of conflict is the first promise in the Charter of the United Nations, it is a promise constantly betrayed by international organizations, governments, and local actors alike. At the same time, and in a more positive vein, recent studies provide much-needed information about why and how today's conflicts start and what sustains them. This ground-breaking book presents some of the best scholarly and policy-relevant work on the practical challenges of conflict prevention within the UN system. The authors consider the causes and dynamics of war, the tools that are being developed to predict the eruption of conflict, and what is being done--and what could be done better--in the effort to move from promise to practice Contents Preface 1 Introduction: Making Conflict Prevention a Priority Part I The Dynamics of War 2 Diagnosing Conflict: What Do We Know? 3 Containing Internal War in the Twenty-First Century 4 Measuring the Societal Impact of War 5 Horizontal Inequalities as a Source of Conflict Part 2 Conflict Prevention: The State of the Art 6 Preventive Diplomacy at the United Nations and Beyond 7 From Lessons to Action 8 Planning Preventive Action: Context, Strategy, and Implementation 9 Reassessing Recent Conflicts: Direct vs. Structural Prevention 10 Deconstructing Prevention: A Systems Approach to Mitigating Violent Conflict 11 Prevention: Theory and Practice Part 3 Comparative Advantages: Practitioner Perspectives Beyond the United Nations 12 The Role of Research and Policy Analysis 13 Development and Conflict: New Approaches in the United Kingdom 14 Addressing Conflict: Emerging Policy at the World Bank 15 Electoral Assistance and Democratization Part 4 Conclusion 16 Preventive Action at the United Nations: From Promise to Practice? Selected Bibliography The Contributors Index About the Book