Video: © GAPS, No women, no peace.

Map: © Wikipedia under Creative Commons
The fundamental issue in relations between people is how to manage conflict. That’s true for relations between individuals, between states, and at every level in between.
Whether people can manage their disputes productively and caringly will decide whether or their relationship – whether as friends, partners, colleagues, whatever – will continue.
Photo: © International Alert/Kashish Das Shrestha
Video: © Woodrow Wilson Center
As we look to summer, it is hard not to reflect on what an eventful spring it has been on the international stage.
From a historic revolution in Egypt to the violent civil conflict that has erupted in Libya – the need for peace is back in the spotlight.

Photo: © International Alert/Kashish Das Shrestha
We are pleased to launch a new practice note in the Peacebuilding Essentials for Economic Development Practitioners series.


Photo: © International Alert/Jonathan Banks

Photo: © Kate Thomas/IRIN News, http://www.irinnews.org/

In March, a selected number of Georgian and Abkhaz experts and businesspeople – including one additional partner from South Ossetia – visited Cyprus to study the Greenline Regulations. These regulations facilitate economic relations across the divided island of Cyprus in the absence of a political solution to the conflict and were adopted in 2004.

Photo: © International Alert/Kashish Das Shrestha
Dan Smith, Alert Secretary-General, was interviewed in Washington DC at the Woodrow Wilson Centre last week about the nature of our work. You can watch his thoughts, which include some observations about the challenges and opportunities of peacebuilding, below:
International Alert, together with partners Antenna Foundation, Equal Access, Forum for Women, Law and Development, the Institute of Human Rights Communication Nepal and Saferworld, recently held a series of trainings in Security Sector Reform (SSR) for civil society and media representatives in Nepal.