research proposal on peace and conflict

Methodology

20+ years of impact, where we work, our cross-cutting themes, publications, testimonials.

The Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (CPPF) strengthens the knowledge base and analytic capacity of the UN community in the fields of conflict prevention, conflict management, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. Founded in 2000 as a program of the Social Science Research Council, CPPF grew out of a recommendation of the Panel Report on Peacekeeping (the “Brahimi Report”) of the same year, which highlighted the need for the UN to have quick and unfettered access to external expertise about the geographic and thematic areas in which the UN operates.

CPPF helps bridge the gap between evidence and UN policymaking. It gives UN decision-makers rapid access to leading scholars, experts, and practitioners outside the UN system through a range of formats, such as off-the-record meetings, informal briefings, and commissioned research. Called upon when policy processes require an injection of external, contextual, and in-depth expertise, CPPF has a tested methodology for translating academic research into knowledge that can be directly applied to ongoing policy processes.

CPPF uses its honest-broker convening authority to strengthen system-wide coherence through shared analysis and by ensuring that all relevant stakeholders across the system are represented. We help connect UN programs and country teams with each other and with external experts who can inform UN operations and offer regional and thematic context. Recent structural reforms at the UN, as well as the growing complexity of conflicts and peace interventions have only raised the need for regular internal coherence-building

CPPF systematically supports executive-level review processes by providing expert analysis to the Executive Office of the Secretary-General; enhancing the capacity of regional directors and their teams to understand conflict patterns, improve regional strategies, and review mandates; and by strengthening the work of resident coordinators and other field-based leadership to promote system-wide coherence and deepen their knowledge base.

CPPF provides support to its donors through a range of offerings, such as commissioned reports, meeting notes, and expert briefings. CPPF draws on its extensive experience supporting UN strategic priorities in order to help inform and guide delegations seeking Security Council representation, and to those serving on the Security Council.

The Great Lakes, Central Africa, and the Horn of Africa have been a longstanding focus of CPPF programming, given the organization’s deep knowledge and experience, and the breadth of UN investments in these areas. CPPF has supported the development of regional strategies in these regions and the good offices of various UN Special Envoys.

CPPF has established a strong body of work and expert networks on Myanmar and on issues related to the South China Sea. CPPF’s work on Myanmar continues to focus on a range of issues such as human rights violations, democratization processes, and media freedoms.

Mediterranean as a resource and market for natural gas and energy-security cooperation has grown since the discovery of large-scale natural gas deposits. In response, CPPF activities aim to help inform a greater understanding of the multidimensional dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean, which, given the region’s geographic positioning, cut across multiple UN regional divisions and field presences.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been areas of continued engagement for CPPF. CPPF has worked on Colombia and the Andean region for almost two decades, with Central America—specifically the Northern Triangle—a more recent priority.

In the decade since the Arab Uprisings, CPPF has expanded its MENA programming, including convening an annual forum of UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) that brings together over 15 heads of UN field presences across the region to exchange with experts on and from the region.

Our Global Reach

Six decades ago, in his book Political Protest in the Congo (Princeton University Press, 1967), Herbert Weiss first used the term “rural radicalism” to describe the rural dimensions of independence struggle in the Belgian Congo. Weiss overturned the conventional wisdom, as reflected in the arguments of Rupert Emerson and others during the “wave” of African independence, that “the rural masses supply neither leaders nor political impetus in African nationalist movements” (Bennett 1968). While peasant revolts in Asia were studied as such, most studies of independence movements in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s and 1960s undervalued the role of the rural, as well as the fact that the rural masses did not consist only of peasants.

The SSRC Academic Network on Peace, Security, and the United Nations, an initiative of the Council’s Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (CPPF) and its Understanding Violent Conflict Program (UVC), was established in 2019 out of a request from the United Nations Secretariat to provide UN entities and departments charged with responsibility for peace and security with better, more systematic access to new and emerging research in the academy.

China’s economic and geopolitical rise over the last two decades has included a growing presence and influence across the globe, not least in the Global South, where it is an important investor across multiple sectors. The UVC and CPPF, through a decade of activities, is a leading node for a growing, yet fragmented interest in China’s engagement with the world.

Prevention is at the core of CPPF’s work and activities. Renewed interest in getting prevention right, as outlined in the UN Secretary General’s Vision for Prevention, requires a deliberate effort that brings together multi-stakeholder and multi-level engagement that emphasizes early investment in community-based prevention supported by structural peacebuilding at the local level and reforms at the national level. 

Researchers and practitioners working in conflict-affected areas have long debated how to best manage the ethical, political, methodological, and technical challenges of working in insecure contexts. Under Covid-19 these challenges took on a redoubled importance given the constraints that the pandemic have had on fieldwork-based social research around the globe.

CPPF helps deepen the UN’s and other multilateral stakeholders’ understanding of how disinformation impacts the UN prevention agenda, and how the UN system can better identify, track, and respond to the negative impacts of disinformation and hate speech where the UN is engaged. Disinformation and hate speech are raising urgent and complex geopolitical questions that challenge the UN and its international partners. These emerging challenges are transforming how societies grapple with democratic processes, as well as how and when violence emerges and occurs. 

CPPF’s growing work on environment and conflict provides the UN with external expertise in the mapping of hotspots and priority areas, helps the UN better integrate environment and climate change into its prevention programming and planning, and promotes coherence and collaboration across the UN system to fill gaps and address overlaps in the UN’s environmental security initiatives. 

Human rights protection is a cross-cutting theme in all of CPPF’s work, ranging from targeted sessions on human rights and democratization throughout CPPF’s workshops and country deep-dives, to including the diverse perspectives of civil society organizations and human rights practitioners in all activities.

CPPF has a long record of programmatic activity on Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration (DDR) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Our work on migration, return, and DDR expands across most regions we work on with our UN counterparts. In addition to providing an evidence-based understanding of what has worked and not worked in DDR interventions, CPPF and UVC have led research collaborations in Central Africa that advance our understanding of where ex-combatants and displaced communities return to and why; and of the challenges that displaced people face in accessing systems of justice.

Women, Peace, and Security is a theme across all of CPPF’s programming, especially under the framework of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. CPPF investigates the role of women in peace and security issues and helps the United Nations translate this imperative into practice by promoting the inclusion of women in conflict prevention and resolution, peace negotiations, peace operations, peacebuilding, and post-conflict transitions.

"[CPPF's] very able moderation of the sessions enabled participants to substantially enhance the Organization's regional analysis...[CPPF] provided an important space for participants to enhance coherence between the UN presences in the region and headquarters in taking action on the Secretary-General's prevention agenda."

"[CPPF's] very able moderation of the sessions enabled participants to substantially enhance the Organization's regional analysis…[CPPF] provided an important space for participants to enhance coherence between the UN presences in the region and headquarters in taking action on the Secretary-General's prevention agenda."

Senior UN Official, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs

"The thorough preparations and fruitfulness of the discussion ensured that the meeting was successful. [CPPF's] role in ably facilitating the discussions was instrumental in guaranteeing that new and critical ideas were expressed."

Former Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General

"[CPPF was] instrumental in forging consensus on a wide range of issues among many stakeholders, helping to bridge an analysis gap on cross-cutting themes such as women and youth in the transition as well as region-specific issues."

Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General

"[CPPF was] instrumental in forging consensus on a wide range of issues among many stakeholders, including consensus on a wide range of issues among many stakeholders, including Special Representatives and Envoys of the Secretary-General, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Regional Directors of UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes, and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators. Many participants noted how skillfully you facilitated the meeting which greatly contributed to achieving a desirable outcome."

News & Events

CPPF Workshop on Political Economy Analysis in Central Africa

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Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene pp 187–207 Cite as

Transformative and Participative Peace: A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal of Epistemology for Peace and Conflict Studies

• Esteban A. Ramos Muslera 4  
• First Online: 26 January 2021

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Part of the book series: The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science ((APESS,volume 30))

Among the most recent theoretical and methodological proposals in peace studies that have transcended the foundational paradigm of a science initially disconnected from social participation, the proposal of ‘Transformative Peace’ epistemologically justifies the need to integrate the population in the processes of research, education and action for peacebuilding and conflict transformation as subjects – and not objects – of study and/or beneficiaries of the actions designed by others. This chapter describes the conceptual evolution that has enabled the development of an epistemological perspective in peace and conflict studies that is concerned with and occupied by participatory action-reflection from a socio-praxical perspective.

Esteban A. Ramos Muslera, Peace Studies Programme Coordinator, Instituto Universitario en Democracia Paz y Seguridad (IUDPAS), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH); Co-Secretary General Consejo Latinoamericano de Investigación para la Paz (CLAIP). Email : [email protected], [email protected]. Telephone : +504 97862636. This chapter summarises the work developed by the author (Ramos 2013 , 2015 , 2019 ) on the epistemological foundation of the ‘transformative peace’ approach and its participatory method for peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

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Reality as a permanent inference of sense made on the ongoing flow of experiences (Varela 2002 ). “We usually believe, naively, that there is a world independent of us. Due to a lack of attention training, we do not realize the co-dependence and dynamics of the inside and the outside, in an original and indissoluble unity in permanent flow” (Montero 2009 : 151).

The book Pax Crítica: Theoretical Contributions to the Post-Liberal Peace Perspectives , coordinated by K. Pérez de Armiño and Zirion ( 2019 ), presents several critical theoretical and methodological approaches to the ‘Liberal Peace’ perspective.

The study of action research as a tool for peacebuilding made by Geoff Harris and Sylvia Kaye in their book Building Peace Via Action Research ( 2017 ) is a good example of this. The book analyses several case studies of participatory peacebuilding processes made over brief periods of time, involving small populations or restricted geographical areas.

Coexistence models for attending to needs (Ramos 2016 : 519):

Violator coexistence model : articulated from the production, reproduction and imposition of satisfiers that not only annihilate the possibility of addressing the need they seek to meet, but also make it impossible to address other needs (one’s own and those of others);

Inhibitor coexistence model : articulated from satisfiers through which coverage is given to a specific need, making it difficult to meet other needs (one’s own and those of others);

Pseudo-satisfactory coexistence model : articulated from the construction, reproduction and/or imposition of pseudo-satisfiers that feed the false sensation of addressing a certain need;

Singular coexistence model : articulated from attention to a single need without taking into account the rest of one’s own needs or those of others, although not inhibiting or violating possible attention to those other needs.

Synergic coexistence model : articulated from the construction and reproduction of satisfiers that propitiate attention to a need, being able, in turn, to contribute to attention to other needs and the needs of others.

Social networks are configured from the links (or nodes) existing between a set of elements – persons, actors (Garrido 2001 ). There are different types of networks or social groups (family networks, production networks, networks that are articulated in leisure time or in the neighbourhood area, personal networks, telematics networks, etc.) and all of them influence the behaviour of their elements, as they are constituted by as well as constituent of each element.

This is, indeed, the fundamental problem that has manifested itself recurrently in the so-called ‘peacebuilding operations’ promoted by the United Nations and conducted in accordance with the amalgam of currents of ‘Liberal Peace’ that ends up assimilating peace with governance (peace-as-governance) (Mateos 2011 ).

Neologism coined by Fals Borda; translated as sensing-thinking by Laura Rendón in her book Sentipensante (Sensing/thinking) pedagogy: educating for wholeness, social justice and liberation ( 2009 ) and conceived by Eduardo Galeano, a delicious writer, as “the language that speaks the truth, the one able to think by feeling and feel by thinking”.

This term is taken from the ornamental technique created by Antonio Gaudí, consisting of the configuration of mosaics from fragments of ceramic tiles. In their likeness, the discursive trencadís is configured from the discursive fragments and the debate on the observed inferred senses that were collected for the configuration of the self-diagnosis.

Note that if we only proceeded by means of the configuration of a classic technical diagnosis – based, for example, on surveys – without taking into account the reflections of human beings that give sense to the lived reality, there would be no guarantee that the suggested action proposals would attend to the needs of the population. This is essentially because the configuration of a technical diagnosis based on the distributive method “makes grouped decisions taken by the ones taken by those who have the power to group, be considered as group decisions” (Montañés 2006 : 262). In a survey, the answers are implicit in the questions and issues addressed by the questionnaire, preventing even the intermediate positioning between alternatives (Ortí 1986 ).

Linkage with Sustainable Peace proposal is evident, as it refers to the “processes of recovering from environ-mental destruction, reducing the human footprint in nature through less carbon-intensive – and in the long term possibly carbon-free – and increasingly dematerialised production processes that future generations may still be able to decide on their own resources and development strategies” (Brauch/Oswald Spring 2016 : 8).

However, this does not mean that the process is at the expense of improvisation. The way of proceeding must be organised according to the principles of “complex, dialogic, hologrammatic and recursive logic” (Morin 1994 : 106).

Depending on the specific context in which the process is carried out, these strategic lines acquire some or other specific contents, and it is advisable to incorporate others if considered pertinent.

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Ramos Muslera, E.A. (2021). Transformative and Participative Peace: A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal of Epistemology for Peace and Conflict Studies. In: Oswald Spring, Ú., Brauch, H.G. (eds) Decolonising Conflicts, Security, Peace, Gender, Environment and Development in the Anthropocene . The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62316-6_3

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Peace and Conflict Studies: Evolution, Relevance, and Approaches for Change

Originally emerging from the amalgamation of varied disciplines, the field of Peace and Conflict Studies has evolved and transformed throughout the years. In its current configuration, it boasts a plethora of analytical tools, theories, and formal as well as informal processes for achieving lasting peace. The following paper details the different historical phases making up the field. It also explores international war, deconstructs conflict, examines theories of Peace and Conflict Studies, and distinguishes between conflict management, resolution, and transformation. It additionally elaborates on informal methods for conflict resolution while making the case for multileveled and collective efforts to transform societal structures, cultures, and mindsets, and to instill transformative peace

Related Papers

Martina Fischer

Christopher Morris

Science For All Publications

Mohammed Saaida

This comprehensive discourse explores the vital realm of conflict resolution applications within the ambit of peace studies. Conflict, an inherent facet of human interaction, has persistently challenged societies throughout history, hindering peaceful coexistence and impeding collective progress. The study delves into the theoretical foundations and practical implications of conflict resolution paradigms, elucidating their instrumental role as essential constituents of peace studies. By fostering a profound understanding of these applications, this investigation advocates for proactive conflict transcendence, nurturing sustainable harmonious environments. Through a comprehensive analysis, the interplay between conflict resolution and peace studies is illuminated, emphasizing their pivotal symbiosis in ameliorating global affairs and establishing lasting tranquility.

Theophilus A D E N Y I Okechukwu

Thiyagaraja Waradas

berghof-handbook.net

Volker Boege

Jessica Hawkins

Exciting and transformative changes are taking place in the field of peace and conflict work. By expanding current paradigmatic thinking, more holistic interpretations of peace, methods for transforming conflicts, and implications for peaceworkers are being introduced. However, contrary to its intent, much of peacework is still predominantly conflict-focused. This runs the risk of contributing to further imbalance in conflictive systems, and missing important opportunities for transformation. This thesis seeks to counterbalance that tendency by providing an alternative approach to conflict analysis. Drawing on the epistemological framework of transrational peace philosophy and its corresponding method of elicitive conflict transformation, and combining this with assumptions underlying solution-focused practice, the proposed approach encourages practitioners to make experiences of peace the primary point of focus. To this end it asks: How can elicitive conflict transformation and solution-focused practice be brought together to enrich the current practice of elicitive peacework in constructive and innovative ways? Based on cross-disciplinary, literature-based research, coupled with a personal exploratory case study, this thesis expands on current practices by contributing a peace-focused approach. Augmented by practical application, conclusions are drawn which support the idea that a peace- focused approach may lead to more constructive processes than what has historically been the result of the dominant, problem-focused approach.

Peace and Conflict Studies

Kevin Clements

The world clearly needs some new ways of thinking about old problems and new ways of acting if we are going to survive into the 21st century. It is vital, therefore, that students of peace and conflict work out ways of harnessing the creative imagination of everyone so that all ...

Dumlupınar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

Burak ERCOŞKUN , Emrah Konuralp

Although the themes of peace and conflict have been the central area of interest in almost all religions, cultures, and ethnic debates, the historical and empirical reality of peace has remained utopian when actual wars and conflicts are considered. This situation led to a limited number of thinkers who directly discussed peace. Their evaluations had been stuck into ideological boundaries and lost their connection with the empirical world. Departing from the hypothetical assumption that the content of “peace” has changed along with the modernity, the main objective of this study was to come to terms with the theme of peace from the works of the Enlightenment thinkers up to pioneers of Peace Studies. In this respect, methodologically speaking, this study examined the conceptualizations of peace in reference to the political philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant and their contextual evolution through and in the contemporary era. In the final analysis, this examination sheds light on the transformation of peace understanding that no more interstate rivalry through the actions of political actors inspires the way out for peace. Nonetheless, a more comprehensive analysis of the social phenomena, including social change, justice, and structural violence, gives spirit to real peace.

Heidi Burgess

Assumptions Although the peace and conflict field has made great strides in the last 40 years, we believe that destructive conflict remains one of the greatest threats to human welfare. We simply must develop better ways of handling difficult and dangerous conflict situations, if large-scale catastrophes are to be averted. Based upon work already done in many different conflict-related fields, we now know a great deal about the nature of destructive conflict processes and more constructive alternatives. Yet, there are far too many situations in which this knowledge is not being translated into constructive conflict practices.

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Sample proposals

MSCU Peace Advancement Challenge proposal summaries, 2013

Winner 2013: Emma Stainton

Public transportation is a means of transportation that has the potential to advance peace. It protects the environment as it requires fewer resources than an individual in a private vehicle. It promotes an opportunity for interaction with one’s community and requires cooperation on the part of all riders to ensure a smooth and safe travel to several destinations. However, the interior of busses are often littered with negative advertisements about drug use, debt issues and disease, this barrage of signs and images leave the rider feeling distressed. This feeling of distress may prompt the rider disengage with the community of people around them and withdraw into themselves.

Runner-up: Nadine Hiemstra

Western society places a strong emphasis on the economic value of human existence, applauding hard working, productive individuals and applying the label of “burden” to those who are less able to contribute to the economic system. As a result, people living with disabilities and mental illness are often devalued and marginalized. However, such individuals often are exemplary models of other, intangible aspects of human characteristics such as compassion, generosity, sincerity, and courage. This proposal suggests a peacemaking initiative that would provide support and opportunity for individuals with disabilities and mental illness to share their experiences, passions and opinions in an official workshop forum with others without the challenge of disability or mental illness. This process would reverse the power roles and place the marginalized in a position of authority and instruction while the “abled” learn humility and the deeper value of humanity by taking on the role of the learner.

Other entries:

The relationship between religion and evolutionary biology is a divisive one that is inhibiting both scientific and spiritual progress. It is important to break down barriers of fear by encouraging people of faith to explore the intricacies of creation, and be open to understanding new scientific theories. This proposal seeks to provide a platform where discussion between these two groups can take place. The ultimate goal is that religious and scientific schools of thought need no longer be ‘on the verge of an ideological battle’. The Waterloo-based online forum will provide a space for these two groups to find common ground and also seek to engage more community members in the conversation.

Once you know and understand another person’s perspective you are more likely to be able to engage with him or her peacefully. For communities in Canada, a nation built largely on immigrants, and even around the world, to be able to respond to increasing diversity in a positive and constructive manner we must move beyond tolerance and instead towards mutual respect based on understanding. My idea for practical peacemaking is implementing education about religions and interfaith dialogue into elementary or middle school curriculums. Finding ways that students can engage with one another, rather than following a didactic teaching pedagogy, will empower young people to become peacemakers and change-makers in their own right. Ultimately, this broadening of perspectives, and communities rooted in trust and respect, will help to foster a safer, more peaceful society.

Educational Experience for Acceptance is an educational peace experience project. It will take the form of a miniature world’s fair that can travel from place to place. The project is directed towards youth aged 11 to 15, and can be used in any educational setting; including schools, summer camps, and after-school programs. The project is based on the idea that learning about different cultures can help the audience members grow into people who are accepting of different cultures and who promote peace between cultures.  

For the Peace Advancement Challenge I propose we create a monthly paper that will encourage and inspire every generation to continue to work for peace. The paper will emphasize the ability to create change regardless of how big the problems seem. This source of information will highlight different issues that seem too big for the individual and break them down in a way that makes the ultimate goal more realistic. The paper will be accessible and appealing to a vast age range by having elements that attract the young as well as the older population. It will have multiple outlets so it can reach each different demographic easily. The paper will encourage, give ideas, and motivate individuals to act for peace regardless of a bombardment of negativity surrounding them.

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Marquette.edu  //  Center for Peacemaking  // 

Peace Research Areas

What is peace education and peace research.

Peace education and research occurs in—and at the intersections of—traditional and emerging disciplines. Peacemaking is less a distinct field and more a conceptual framework with broad application.

The table below—adapted from "Social, Political, and Cultural Influences on Peace Studies" by George A. Lopez—shows an early conceptual map of some peace studies disciplines.

The Peacemaking and Peacebuilding Research Areas graphic — adapted from "Peacebuilding 2.0: Mapping the Boundaries of an Expanding Field" by the Alliance for Peacebuilding — identifies additional established and emerging areas of peace research. Areas depicted include Academic, Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution & Transformation, Democracy & Governance, Development, Environment, Food Security, Genocide Prevention, Health, Human Rights, Human Security, Humanitarian Aid, Nuclear Proliferation, Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons, Religion, Rule of Law, Science & Technology, Security, Women, and Youth.

Center for Peacemaking priority research areas

The center has identified the following research areas as priorities for advancing peacemaking scholarship at Marquette:

• The process of healing and reconciliation after the use of violence (random, terror, sexual, premeditated, military).
• The reasons for the success or failure of peace agreements and accords in building nonviolent peaceful communities.
• Reasons for the success or failure of nonviolent social movements.
• Best practices for teaching about peace and conflict resolution.
• The role of religion and ethnic sources as a motivator for the expansion or the incitement to violence.
• The role of economic, governmental and international organizations (UN, EU, WHO, etc.) policy in promoting peace.
• The use (positive or negative) of communication, technology and social media to influence perceptions of peacemaking, of the identities of the "other" or of violence.
• The effect of language and advertising in cultural values and ethics toward gender or ethnic perceptions.
• The efficacy of peacemaking and conflict resolution in schools, the workplace, the government or international conflicts.
• Role of literature and entertainment influencing society's attitudes toward social welfare, justice and violence.
• Research related to the reduction of violence against women, including evaluations of efforts by health care and social service providers to reduce familial and societal violence in at-risk populations.
• The effects of environmental degradation on regional conflict and migration and methods of promoting sustainable use of resources.
• The impact of handgun availability on interpersonal conflict and community health in Milwaukee.
• The impact of violence prevention and community organizing on community efficacy and neighborhood development in Milwaukee.

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Gaza cease-fire alone won’t repair larger enduring rift, political scientist says.

Einat Wilf, who is also former Knesset member, says shift needed in Palestinian ideology on legitimacy of Israel

Christina Pazzanese

Harvard Staff Writer

Einat Wilf speaks with Tarek Masoud.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Calls for a cease-fire in Gaza may be well-intentioned, but a halt to the current fighting will not repair the enduring rift between Israelis and Palestinians. That can only happen once the Palestinians abandon an ideology that rejects the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish state, said Israeli political scientist Einat Wilf ’96.

During a conversation Friday with Tarek Masoud , Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance and faculty director of the Middle East Initiative at HKS, Wilf spoke about the war in Gaza and why she thinks there’s been so little progress reaching a resolution over the years. The talk was the fifth in an ongoing Middle East Dialogues series at Harvard Kennedy School , organized by Masoud, which aims to showcase a range of viewpoints on the current crisis and promote informed dialogue.  

Describing herself as “the poster child of the Israeli Two-Stater Left,” Wilf served in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, from 2010 to 2013 as a member of the Labor Party, which supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state. She said she still favors such a goal, but no longer believes the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is just about land.

“I voted for [Yitzhak] Rabin; I voted for [Ehud] Barak,” she said of the former Labor prime ministers. “I was euphoric in the ’90s, like many Israelis … when Barak goes to Camp David,” she said. “I believed in the vision of a new Middle East.”

“Sometimes you have to do things that don’t feel good but will actually begin to do good. So, if we want to get out of this conflict … we need to go to the core ideology that sustains it and begin to transform it.” Einat Wilf, Israeli political scientist

But in 2000 and again in 2008, she watched Palestinian leaders refuse the terms of proposals from the Israelis for a state in the West Bank in Gaza.

“And I began to ask myself, ‘What is going on? What do the Palestinians want — because it’s clearly not a state,’” said Wilf, a former intelligence analyst.  “They could have had that, and they walked away” without being criticized by the Palestinian people.

She came to that realization after conversations she’s had with many highly educated, moderate Palestinians over the last 20 years. “They basically tell me things like, ‘The Jewish people are not a people. You’re only a religion. This idea that you have a connection to this land, you invented it to steal our own,’” she said.

“And I realized from the conversations with them that how they think about the conflict, and how I think about it, don’t even meet. For them, the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state is illegitimate.”

Masoud said some might agree that walking away from the Camp David summit in 2000 and the Ehud Olmert peace deal in 2008 was “a huge error.” But he suggested the Palestinian leadership may have felt there wasn’t enough specificity in the Israeli proposals and turned them down on that basis, not because they couldn’t accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state.

If that were true, Wilf argued, Palestinians in the leadership and intellectual classes would have criticized those decisions and urged a return to the bargaining table. “There [were] no such voices, and there are still no such voices,” she said.

All of the factors cited by today’s critics of Israel — its occupation of the West Bank, the settlements, the blockades, or the existence of Palestinian refugees — are not to blame for the current failure to achieve peace. None of these existed in 1947 when the United Nations adopted the partition plan for Palestine, Wilf said. At its crux, this is a conflict about the Jews who want a state and the Palestinians who don’t want them to have one, she said.

Palestinian leaders have expressed support for the two-state framework over decades of negotiations. They have also argued, however, that “the right of return is holy, sacred, non-negotiable, [and] belongs to every Palestinian in perpetuity,’” which, if fully exercised by all Palestinians, would preclude the possibility of a Jewish state, Wilf said.

The right of return is a United Nations principle that would permit displaced Palestinians  and their descendants, a group estimated at nearly six million , to return to their former or ancestral homes.

As for the obstacles to peace, the Israeli settlements are “not helping the matter.” But they are “not the reason we do not have peace.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has this “catastrophic failure on his watch,” Wilf said.

“And unfortunately, it’s not just him. There are so many people who refuse to engage with the Palestinian ideology and to understand that we can never move forward without that ideology changing.”

That’s why simply calling for a cease-fire right now in the midst of a century-long war without such changes would be ineffective at best, she said.

“A lot of people in foreign policy, they want to feel good,” said Wilf. “But it doesn’t always do good.” In governance, “Sometimes you have to do things that don’t feel good but will actually begin to do good. So, if we want to get out of this conflict … we need to go to the core ideology that sustains it and begin to transform it.

“Peace has to be based on the mutual recognition of the two sides to the right of self-determination,” she said. “There’s a clear Jewish state that is embraced, that is accepted, and there is an Arab Palestinian state that is embraced and accepted.”

The next Dialogues , slated for April 29, will feature Bret Stephens, opinion columnist for The New York Times and founder and editor-in-chief of SAPIR, a quarterly devoted to issues of Jewish concerns. Past events have included conversations with Jared Kushner, former senior adviser to President Donald Trump; Matt Duss, executive director of the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; Dalal Saeb Iriqat, professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution at Arab American University Palestine and columnist for Al-Quds newspaper; and Salam Fayyad, former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority from 2007-2013.

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Tarek Masoud, organizer of Middle East Dialogues, wanted to show that Harvard could confront the tensions around Israel-Gaza without vitriol or shouting. So far, it’s worked.

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Ex-Trump adviser criticizes Biden’s pre-Oct. 7 engagement in the region, defends Israel’s actions in Gaza

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U.S. Vetoes Palestinian Bid for Recognition as Full U.N. Member State

The move blocked a resolution to support a status that Palestinians had long sought at the United Nations, where it is considered a “nonmember observer state.”

By Yonette Joseph

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The United States blocked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday from moving forward on a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, quashing an effort by Palestinian allies to get the world body to back the effort.

The vote was 12 in favor of the resolution and one — the United States — opposed, with abstentions from Britain and Switzerland.

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, had described the bid for full-member status as an effort “to take our rightful place among the community of nations.”

After the vote, Mr. Mansour, visibly upset, delivered a passionate address asserting the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

“Our right to self determination is a natural right — a historical right — to live in our homeland Palestine as an independent state that is free and that is sovereign,” he said.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said after the vote: “The shameful proposal was rejected. Terrorism will not be rewarded.”

The Security Council has consistently called for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a result that has failed to materialize during negotiations between the two sides. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in Tokyo on Friday morning that the new resolution would not have brought a two-state solution closer.

“The resolution provides for the Palestinian Authority to be a member of the U.N.,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield told reporters. “Right now, the Palestinians don’t have control over a significant portion of what is supposed to be their state. It’s being controlled by a terrorist organization,” she said, referring to Hamas.

The United States, along with the four other permanent members of the Council, can veto any action before it. On Thursday afternoon, during a high-profile Council meeting to address issues in the Middle East, including the Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership, the United States, a staunch ally of Israel’s, wielded that veto.

The resolution had asked the 15-member Security Council to recommend to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations,” diplomats said. To pass, the application needed to be approved by the Security Council with at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China. Then, at least two-thirds of the General Assembly would have had to approve it.

Full Palestinian membership in the U.N. would be an important if largely symbolic victory for the Palestinian Authority, which has long sought a nation-state. Had the Palestinian application been accepted, the new status would have brought the privileges of U.N. membership, including voting rights and a rotating seat on the Security Council.

Many of the most critical issues regarding a Palestinian state, however, would not have been resolved, including physical borders and recognition by individual countries with which it would have needed to establish diplomatic relations.

Israel was admitted as a full U.N. member in 1949. The Palestinian Authority has been seeking a state made up of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for decades; those territories have all been captured or annexed by Israel.

Little progress has been made on achieving Palestinian statehood since Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, which established a peace process aimed at a two-state solution. In 2007, Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority, which President Mahmoud Abbas leads and which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, from power in the Gaza Strip.

Complicating the Palestinian application for statehood is the war that began when Hamas led terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people and prompted Israel’s retaliatory attacks in Gaza, which have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and displaced more than one million people. The conflict has spilled into the occupied West Bank and neighboring countries like Lebanon and has drawn Iran into the fray.

The statehood push also comes as Israel expands settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinians asserted statehood in 1988 with a declaration of independence. In November that year, the General Assembly voted to upgrade their status from “observer” to “nonmember observer state.”

The push for Palestinian statehood has picked up momentum around the world, with politicians in countries like France, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Sweden signaling their support to formally recognize a Palestinian state as a way to try to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict. As of April 2022, 138 countries and the Holy See have recognized the State of Palestine.

There are two ways to become a full member state at the United Nations. One can apply to the Security Council and the membership committee will consider it. A Council member can also introduce a resolution on membership for a vote.

The Palestinian Authority applied to upgrade its status in the United Nations in September 2011, but it dropped the bid less than two months later because of a lack of support and pressure from the United States, which said it would veto any application.

After Mr. Abbas revived the bid this year, the Biden administration sought to persuade him to shelve it, according to Axios and The Times of Israel . But Mr. Abbas rebuffed those efforts, the reports said.

“All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations — to be treated as equals, equals to other nations and states, to live in freedom and dignity, in peace and security in our ancestral land,” said Mr. Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations.

“Recognition of the State of Palestine and its membership are not enough by themselves to end this illegal occupation,” he added. “But they are the first step towards this urgent and long-overdue goal.”

The Council’s committee on the admission of new members met twice last week to discuss the Palestinians’ application, but it could not reach a unanimous decision. Under Council guidelines that allow a member to introduce a resolution for a vote, Algeria, the Council’s only Arab member, put forward the Palestinian application.

Algeria’s foreign minister, Ahmed Ataf, said on Thursday that statehood “is a historic right which has not been implemented, and the lack of implementation of this right is the cause of the prolongation of this Arab-Israeli conflict.”

During the Council meeting on Thursday, a representative of the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Amr, asked, “How could granting the State of Palestine full membership at the United Nations, similar to other countries around the world, how could this damage the prospect of peace between Palestinians and Israelis?”

He added, “This resolution will grant hope to the Palestinian people, hope for a decent life in an independent Palestinian state.”

In his speech on Thursday, Mr. Abu Amr, of the Palestinian Authority, pointed out that Israel itself had been established through a U.N. resolution, not through negotiations. He was referring to Resolution 181, which called for a Palestine state to be partitioned into a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was passed by the General Assembly in 1947.

But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, on Thursday denounced the resolution that went before the Security Council as a “prize for terror.” He added, “The only thing that forced, unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state will do is to make any future negotiations almost impossible.”

China was one of the countries that voted in favor of the proposal, and its ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, said he found the U.S. veto “most disappointing.”

The vote was supposed to take place on Friday, but Algeria and the Arab Group of nations wanted it on Thursday during a scheduled session on the Middle East conflict attended by many foreign ministers from regional countries, including Iran and Turkey.

Reporting was contributed by Anushka Patil , Farnaz Fassihi , Richard Pérez-Peña , Michael Levenson and Motoko Rich . Jack Begg contributed research.

Yonette Joseph is a senior news editor on The New York Times’s International Desk. More about Yonette Joseph

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

The United States blocked the U.N. Security Council from moving forward on a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, quashing an effort by Palestinian allies  to get the world body to back the effort.

Gazans released from Israeli detention described graphic scenes of physical abuse  in testimonies gathered by U.N. workers, according to a new report.

Britain, the United States, France and other allies of Israel have voiced their anger over the death toll in Gaza, but when Iran launched a missile barrage at Israel, they set it aside . At least for the moment.

The Israel pavilion at the Venice Biennale is closed this year, since its creative team decided not to exhibit work  until there was a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza, but it was nonetheless the site of a large demonstration .

A Surprising Rift: The Israel-Hamas war, which has roiled cultural and political institutions far beyond the Middle East, is causing divisions in a prominent Japanese American group .

Mobilizing the American Left: As the death toll in Gaza climbed, the pro-Palestinian movement grew into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States . Democrats are feeling the pressure.

Riding Rage Over Israel: Jackson Hinkle’s incendiary commentary  has generated over two million new followers on X since October — a surge that some researchers say is aided by inauthentic accounts by the online celebrity.

Psychedelics and Trauma: Thousands of festival-goers were using mind-altering substances when Hamas-led fighters attacked on Oct 7. Now, scientists are studying the effects of such drugs at a moment of trauma .

Kremlin says 2022 draft document could serve as starting point for future Ukraine peace talks

M OSCOW (AP) — A draft peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine negotiated in the early days of the conflict could serve as a starting point for talks to end the fighting , the Kremlin said Friday, reviving a proposal that Ukraine had rejected.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the draft document that was discussed in Istanbul in March 2022 could be “the basis for starting negotiations.” At the same time, he noted that the possible future talks would need to take into account the “new realities.”

“There have been many changes since then, new entities have been included in our constitution,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

In September 2022, Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions in a move that Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected as an unlawful.

The document discussed in Istanbul weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 reportedly included provisions for Ukraine’s neutral status and put limits on its armed forces while delaying talks on the status of Russian-occupied areas. No deal was reached and the negotiations collapsed soon after that round of talks.

Russia has dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula which would require Moscow to pull back its troops, pay compensation to Ukraine and face an international tribunal for its action.

Ukraine, in its turn, has categorically rejected the possibility of negotiating with Russia at this stage in the conflict, especially without guarantees that Moscow will withdraw from occupied areas which currently encompass a fifth of the country. Ukraine and its allies believe Russia is seeking a ceasefire agreement now in order to buy time and bolster its forces to capture more territory.

On the domestic front, accepting negotiations with Russia would be a deeply unpopular move and a blow to national morale after over two years of war and tens of thousands of war dead. At the same time, Ukrainian forces are struggling to fight a better resourced and more powerful Russian military, as a new U.S. military aid package has got stuck in Congress .

So far, Ukrainian officials say they have not faced pressure from Western allies to negotiate with Russia.

Peskov’s statement followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments Thursday, in which he mocked prospective Ukraine peace talks that Switzerland is set to host in June, warning that Moscow will not accept any enforced peace plans.

“We are ready for constructive work, but we wouldn't accept any attempts to enforce a position that isn't based on the realities,” Putin said during a meeting in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, adding that the Istanbul draft document could serve as a basis for negotiations.

“We can work with it,” he said.

Putin has repeatedly said that he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to protect Russian interests and prevent Ukraine from posing a major security threat to Russia by joining NATO. Kyiv and its allies have denounced Russia’s military campaign as an unprovoked act of aggression.

Putin has vowed to extend Moscow's gains in Ukraine, claiming that Russian forces have the upper hand after the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and that Ukraine and the West will “sooner or later” have to accept a settlement on Moscow’s terms.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced the bodies of 99 Ukrainian soldiers were repatriated from Russia on Friday. Among them, 77 of the returned had fought in Donetsk region, 20 in Zaporizhzhia region, and two in Kharkiv region.