 |
In the last decade, the world has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of ethnic conflicts worldwide. But what do nations that have been in bloody conflicts do when the shooting stops? How can people who have been engaged in terrorist genocidal wars ever return to a situation of peaceful coexistence?
Imagine Coexistence is a groundbreaking program that grew from the joint initiative and conference sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Harvard University, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Imagine Coexistence seeks to enhance prospects for coexistence and break the destructive cycles of intergroup violence. This important book, Imagine Coexistence— which was named for the program— offers a unique perspective grounded in research and outlines the invaluable lessons learned from numerous war-torn societies. The authors address the common problems that the people of these devastated nations face when the conflict subsides and examine how initiatives in education, the arts, sports, and economic development can offer refugees, returnees, and other survivors of group conflict reasons to work together and can create a base for relating constructively over time.
Growing out of a project of the same name that was initiated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, this text contains theoretical and practical considerations of the possibilities of getting previously warring groups coexisting through interaction. Presented by Chayes (public policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard U.) and Minow (Harvard Law School), the 15 papers examine UN pilot projects that have stressed coexistence over the harder-to-obtain reconciliation, explore evaluation tools for the assessment of projects, and explore underlying theoretical concerns.
