General

In September 2011, International Alert invited the famous Ossetian artist and humanist Magrez Kelekhsaev to conduct art master classes for schoolchildren in three districts of South Ossetia, as part of Alert’s post-war psychosocial rehabilitation programme.

This summer, two amazing fundraisers (Will Gibbs and Thomas Samuel) took on the challenge of sailing around Britain, and raised some much needed money for International Alert. We managed to catch up with Will to find out how it went…

1. How does it feel now that you have completed your sail around Britain?

Потребность в большем «вовлечении» Абхазии получила широкое признание со стороны международного сообщества и в настоящее время даже закреплена в официальных Европейской и Грузинской стратегиях. Однако столь «значимое» вовлечение не спешит материализоваться - наблюдается тенденция скорее к отчуждению, чем к сближению.

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Watch International Alert’s powerful new video. Help spread the word that talking to one another can help stop violence and conflict. Thanks to Massive Attack, David Morrissey and HMDG for their help!

Peace Talks.
 

FOR MORE, SEE HERE

The usual August calm was shattered by the disturbances across England two weeks ago. Whilst the debris is now cleared from the streets, the boarded-up shop windows and fire-blackened facades remain, reminding us of the harder process of rebuilding both physically and socially that needs to follow.  

A study visit of analysts and journalists from across the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict divide to South East Asia took place in July and August 2011.

The group visited South East Asia to look at the peacebuilding experiences of the Philippines, where they focused on both separatist and ideological conflicts, and Indonesia, where they looked at the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.

This month, rioting and looting gripped England. At a time of uncertainty, it seemed salient (and perhaps inevitable) to ask, if the UK were a fragile state, how would we approach the events of last week, their aftermath and the future?

Building stability overseas

International Alert is pleased to invite you to attend the second in a series of Peace Talks on Tuesday 27th September in Brussels on "The Post-Soviet World: 20 Years on the Road to Peaceful Statehood".

International Alert is proud to present the first in a series of short analytical articles on topical current affairs from the Caucasus region, with a specific focus on the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

International Alert recently organised a study visit to Abkhazia for eight teachers from different parts of South Ossetia as part of an ongoing psycho-social and civil society capacity-building initiative.

The need for greater ‘engagement’ with Abkhazia has been widely acknowledged by the international community and is now even enshrined in official European and Georgian policies. Nevertheless, as ‘meaningful’ engagement is slow to materialise, the trend on the ground is of increasing alienation rather than rapprochement.

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In this study, Georgian and Abkhaz researchers examine one of the fundamental polarising issues of the conflict – the political status of Abkhazia. While Russia formally recognised Abkhazia as an independent state in August 2008, the ‘non-recognition’ of Abkhazia remains the cornerstone of Georgian and international policy. Georgian researchers explore how sustainable the policy of non-recognition is, under what conditions the policy might fail and what Georgia would do in those circumstances.

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