Overview Conflict Prevention is the object of a wide range of policies and initiatives; its aim is to avoid the violent escalation of a dispute. Conflict Prevention includes: - Monitoring and/or intervening to stabilize a potentially violent conflict before its outbreak by initiating activities that address the root causes as well as the triggers of a dispute.
- Establishing mechanisms that detect early warning signs and record specific indicators that may help to predict impending violence.
- Using planned coordination to prevent the creation of conflict when delivering humanitarian aid and in the process of development.
- Institutionalizing the idea of preventing conflict at the local, regional, and international levels.
The concept and practice of Conflict Prevention evolved from being focused almost exclusively on Preventive Diplomacy, to a new more comprehensive approach that can be defined as Structural Prevention. This new approach includes long-term initiatives targeting the root causes of conflict. The evolution of Conflict Prevention as a practice will depend on the necessary resources being committed to Conflict Prevention initiatives in the future. Conflict Prevention faces serious problems in this respect because it is extremely difficult to evaluate whether conflict prevention initiatives have been responsible for a conflict not having happened. - It is possible to distinguish three sets of elements that compose the process of Conflict Prevention:
- The definition of the context with reference to the nature of a conflict, its causes, and its cyclical phases;
- The use of mechanisms to monitor indicators and signs to forewarn impending violence; and
- The selection of the specific initiatives to be taken.
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