General

This article first appeared in The Huffington Post on 22 May 2013

This year Africa celebrates 50 years of collective action: first through the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and more recently the African Union (AU).

Earlier this month youth leaders from 15 Lebanese political parties (pictured) travelled with International Alert to Switzerland to learn about the Swiss experience of democracy. 

The trip, which included representatives from a broad range of political parties in Lebanon, focused on how the Swiss manage plurality in politics and governance. 

International Alert’s new research, Myths and conflicts in the South Caucasus, sheds light on the ways in which myths and stereotypes about the conflicts in the South Caucasus are created, communicated and used in the region.

Данная публикация пытается пролить свет на способы, с помощью которых создаются и передаются мифы и доминантные нарративы, связанные с конфликтами на Южном Кавказе. Особое внимание уделено тому, каким образом связанные с конфликтами мифы обусловлены местными политическими манипуляциями, как создаются «образы врага» и каким образом они, в свою очередь, способствуют усилению сопротивляемости конфликтов их разрешению.

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This publication attempts to shed some light on the ways in which myths and dominant narratives associated with the conflicts in the South Caucasus are constructed, transmitted and used in the region. A region-wide research project examined three main modern mechanisms through which myths are created and disseminated: through history textbooks; through political discourse; and through the media, including the blogosphere.

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Данная публикация пытается пролить свет на способы, с помощью которых создаются и передаются мифы и доминантные нарративы, связанные с конфликтами на Южном Кавказе. В охватывающем весь регион проекте исследованы три механизма, с помощью которых создаются и распространяются мифы. Особое внимание уделено тому, каким образом связанные с конфликтами мифы обусловлены местными политическими манипуляциями, как создаются «образы врага» и каким образом они, в свою очередь, способствуют усилению сопротивляемости конфликтов их разрешению.

Full report

This publication attempts to shed some light on the ways in which myths and dominant narratives associated with the conflicts in the South Caucasus are constructed and transmitted in the region. A region-wide research project examined three mechanisms through which myths are created and disseminated. A particular focus of interest was how myths associated with the conflicts are subject to domestic political manipulation, how “enemy images” are created, and how these in turn serve to strengthen the resilience of those conflicts to resolution.

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После смены власти в Грузии в октябре 2012, International Alert запустила новый процесс «Диалог через исследование» с грузинскими и абхазскими экспертами – и предложила им критически оценить проблемы и возможности, стоящие перед обоими сообществами в среднесрочной перспективе – до 2020 года. В данном сборнике мы представляем девять дискуссионных статей, которые отображают Грузино-Абхазский конфликт в контексте демократизации и управления, строительства государства и национального строительства, социально-экономического развития и международных отношений.

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Following the change of government in Georgia in October 2012, International Alert launched a new 'Dialogue through research' process with Georgian and Abkhaz experts, inviting them to take stock of the challenges and opportunities facing both societies, taking a medium-term view to 2020.

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Last month International Alert organised a four-day training seminar for students from South Ossetia on overcoming societal trauma through civic activism, as part of a project funded by the European Union and UK Conflict Pool.

Last month ten Armenian and Azerbaijani media professionals travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina to attend an intensive conflict study programme organised by International Alert.

The trip was part of our broader programme supported by the European Union and UK Conflict Pool which involves working with journalists from the Nagorny Karabakh conflict context.

This comment first appeared in The Guardian on 25 April 2013

In both low and middle income countries, well established arguments and solid evidence confirm that there is no real development without peace and only the peace of the graveyard without development. These conclusions have shifted the fulcrum of discussion about development over the past several years. But they have not yet added up to telling anybody how to do it.