On May 23, 2016, Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), in cooperation with American University and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), organized a one-day event in Istanbul entitled “Rising Powers and Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Preventing Conflict and Sustaining Peace.”
The full day workshop disseminated the findings from a two-year research project on “New Actors and Innovative Approaches to Peacebuilding,” co-chaired by American University’s School of International Service and NUPI, with the support from the Carnegie Corporation in New York and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The research was carried out by IPC from Turkey, the African Center for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) from South Africa, the United Services Institution (USI) from India, and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia.
The event commenced with welcoming remarks by Fuat Keyman (IPC) and Charles T. Call (American University). Project partners presented their respective countries’ innovative approaches to peacebuilding, sustaining peace, and conflict prevention. They shed light on how rising powers differ from traditional donors through their increased use of humanitarian aid, development assistance, unconditional commitment of resources, national ownership, and inclusivity as key methods and principles in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Distinguished representatives from host countries such as Afghanistan, Somali, Burundi, and South Sudan shared their views on the impact of rising powers/humanitarian interventions in their respective countries. High-level government officials from donor countries were also present to elaborate on the development strategies of their countries and their contributions to peacebuilding. The experts used case studies such as Somalia and Afghanistan to further illustrate how rising powers apply these concepts in conflict-affected countries.
Donor state perspectives were presented by high-level government officials and dignitaries-- including Jayant Prasad, Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis; Ambassador Olgan Bekar from the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Somalia; Ambassador Kani Torun, Member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and Former Ambassador to Mogadishu; Homayra Ludin Etemadi, Political Secretary to H.E. Mr Hamid Karzai, Former President of Afghanistan; and Sébastien Ntahuga, Former Advisor to President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi on the Arusha Peace Process-- as well as public intellectuals from both rising powers and the case-study countries.
The workshop finished with closing remarks by Sarah Cliffe, Director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.