Cultivating Peace: Contexts, Practices and Multidimensional Models

Peace building is an umbrella-term for many aspects of dealing with violent conflict. An early paper by Johan Galtung describes peacebuilding as activities used to reduce violence and promote all forms of justice (Galtung, 1967, p. 12). In a nutshell, peacebuilding is a means of achieving sustainable and durable peace. By peace, we mean an absence of all kinds of violence. In its original use, the term peacebuilding was associated with bringing about peace by peaceful means (Galtung, 1996). The term peacebuilding came into international affairs in 1992 when Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, announced his 'Agenda for Peace' (Boutros-Ghali, 1992). Peacebuilding is a widely used tenn in the peace industry but difficult to define because it means different things depending on its application. The term is used commonly today to refer to assisting recovery after armed violence has ceased. It also involves a range of activities used to establish or re-establish amicable relationships between adversaries (Lederach, 1997). In general, building peace requires a long-term commitment to a complex process involving actions that support peace, in all its forms. In recent interpretations, peacebuilding can happen "before" the violence begins - to prevent conflict, "during" violent conflict - to stop violence, and "after" the fighting ends - to transform the underlying conflict, assist with healing, recovery, reconstruction and the restoration of liberal peace.