Strategies for Building Capacity for Regional Peacemaking Paper presented to the conference on: “Consultation on a Strategy for Peace and Security in the IGAD Region” Khartoum SUDAN October 1-3, 2005 By Lieutenant General (Retired) Gebretsadkan Gebretensae

(Abstract)

Deliberations about regional peacemaking require considered analysis of the international political system since global political realities are increasingly impacting on regional peace and security outcomes. The starting point in international relations, especially when it comes to peace and security is the existence of sovereign states, or independent political communities. States in general defend their sovereignty and prohibit external forces from interfering in areas of internal affairs and functions of state. A second and countervailing consideration in the international political system is the existence and continued importance of acceptable standards of state behavior in the actual interaction of states. These acceptable standards of state behavior are usually brought about by concurrent factors involving the process of political democratization, the impacts of economic globalization, the increased importance of international civil society, and the increased density, scope and range of international institutions. Those processes impact on the desire of states to legitimacy themselves in the prevailing political environment both internationally and within their own constituency. These parallel forces are, in my opinion, the two fundamental processes that ultimately shape the outcome of any political interaction at the international or regional level in general, and regional peacemaking initiatives in particular. Understanding these processes and the means by which they interact to create a specific political environment in a particular region is of key importance. In this regard any sub-regional peacemaking initiative needs to be grounded in the full understanding of the objective international context and move forward from this point of knowledge.
This presentation will therefore briefly consider the international political system with a particular focus on how the system affects the peace and security of regions. This will be followed by an exploration of the trends and changes in the nature of conflicts. Recent evidence points to a visible shift in the typology of conflicts from those characterized as ‘external’ conflicts among states, to conflicts within the states themselves. The altering nature of conflicts is another important consideration when dealing with the creation of regional peacemaking capacities. The paper will conclude with a discussion on critical issues for building peacemaking capability within the IGAD sub-region. Under this section I will argue that since states are the most important actors in the international political system and the nature of conflict has transformed, at least since the end of the cold war, a two pronged strategy framework is required to attain the desired level of sub-regional peacemaking capacity. The first thrust is to create peace and stability at the ‘national’ level where the majority of conflicts in the sub-region take place. The second interrelated thrust is to develop capacity at the level of sub-regional institutions. Those two processes reinforce each other and have a synergetic effect on peace making capacity in the sub-region. Hence by actioning on the identified strategies in tandem it will become possible to gradually and progressively establish and grow the necessary capacity for peacemaking in the sub-region.