Interactive Peacemaking

Front matter

Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution

INTERACTIVE PEACEMAKING

A PEOPLE-CENTERED APPROACH

Contents

Preface X

Acknowledgments xiv

Foreword xvi 1 What Exists Is Possible 1 2 Georgians and South Ossetians Wage War and Peace 10 3 Practice Builds Theory 18 4 People Make Peace 37 5 Process Shapes People-Centered Peacemaking 60 6 Locals Lead with Global Awareness 81 7 Peacemakers Adapt 102 8 Both Individuals and Groups of People Make Peace 112 9 Peacemaking Is Personal 129

Preface

This book comes out of my work with many peacemakers, and the work of many other peacemakers around the world. It reflects insights and practices that many people developed together. Some of the examples highlighted in the pages that follow draw from experiences of Georgians and South Ossetians since the August 2008 war that exacerbated their divisions. Other examples in this book draw from experiences of peacemakers in other contexts. Several Georgian and South Ossetian peacemakers are highlighted in chapter three, as examples of the people who make peace. In so many ways, this book is the product of the work of hundreds of people.

I present the analysis and conclusions in this book for consideration by colleagues, asking that readers take what is useful for their own work and leave aside the rest. I offer the peacemaking practice guidance contained here for others to consider adapting as needed for their own work. I have learned in decades of peacemaking practice that every conflict is unique. Each conflict community is made up of unique individuals, with unique talents, and unique peacemaking approaches. The theories of practice that emerge from multiple conflict resolution processes and the practices that I present in this book may not work everywhere in every context for every peacemaker. Yet, they might be helpful to colleagues facing peacemaking challenges. These are theories of practice born from real-world experience. These are practices that have proven effective in some contexts. Conflict resolution practice demands a balance of learning from other contexts and previous experience while also humbly approaching the unique aspects of a particular region in crisis.

Peacemakers also must know themselves, and draw on their own personal attributes as they bring their whole selves into peacemaking processes. Where I draw from my own experience in this book, my own positionality shapes that experience. As a socio-economically privileged woman who presents as White and works as a tenured professor at a major research university in the United States, I enjoy so many privileges that make aspects of my peacemaking possible. I can do peacemaking that does not pay, at least for short periods of time. And, this position and positionality also has allowed me to find financial support that has made long-term engagement in peacemaking possible in

Preface xi specific contexts. With flexible summers, breaks from teaching responsibilities and funding for airfares, in the pre-pandemic era I frequently traveled to meet in person with peacemakers. A motto for peacemaking that I learned from South African peacemaker Susan Collin Marks is: “Keep showing up.” That is only possible when peacemakers’ have a livelihood and life circumstances that allow for regular visits with those embroiled in conflict. And, as a woman working in a region of the world where patriarchy is strong, I feel I was able to continue with peacemaking work in part because I was a woman working sometimes with mostly other women. I had a sense that sometimes powerful men who did not want bridges built across communities dismissed our women’s work as of no consequence. We flew under the radar, disguised as women whom some expected would not have an impact. Readers with different positionalities will have different experiences.

I used the plural “we” above to refer to the multiple peacemakers I was working with in the Georgian-South Ossetian context when our bridgebuilding continued despite pressure from particularly the South Ossetian side to stop these conversations. That work was highly collaborative. No one individual could have done it alone. We each brought our own positionality and connections that allowed us to convene and facilitate as we did.

Despite all the collaborations that are required for peacemaking, I am uncharacteristically writing the book alone as a sole author. Why? As my Georgian and South Ossetian peacemaking partners have explained to me, they can each write from their individual perspective as parties to the conflict, but only international facilitators such as myself can bring an outside perspective. And, they see it as the work of a professor to connect their stories with those of other peacemakers in other contexts, drawing out some insights that may be helpful to others far from the South Caucasus, and presenting our theories of practice to the scholarly world, too. So, my Georgian and South Ossetian partners have asked me to write about our work. They also want an English-language book, to share their story more broadly than a Georgian or Ossetian language publication would allow.

My mentor Paula Garb has long been part of the coordinating team, and would be well-placed to write an English-language book about the insights that have emerged from the Georgian-South Ossetian process. But, she is not writing in detail about this process because she is focused on writing a memoir that encompasses her extensive experience with US-Soviet, US- Russian, Georgian-Abkhaz, and also Georgian-South Ossetian engagement, and has encouraged me to write with a focus on the Georgian-South Ossetian process.

Over 13 years of intensive engagement since 2008, I have rarely written about the Georgian-South Ossetian civil society-based peace process rarely, with most of my comments focused on the process, rather than the content of the discussions. I have not wanted to disrupt the process by taking time away from it for writing, nor have I wanted to betray the trust in confidentiality that we all shared within the coordination team. And, I have been careful not to xii Preface take sides with any political analysis or substantive comments on the conflict issues, as these might lend support to one group more than another. However, on two occasions, coordination team members encouraged me to write about the process, presenting our process insights, without going beyond the most general reflections on the content. The coordinators asked me to document our process. So, I did. I partnered with a graduate student, Jacquie Greiff, to write a chapter summarizing “The Georgian-South Ossetian Point of View Process” (Nan and Greiff 2013). Working with Jacquie allowed me to balance the time constraints of simultaneously convening the ongoing process and also writing about it. Later, I integrated examples from the Georgian-South Ossetian process into a chapter, “Who Rebuilds? Local Roles in Rebuilding Shattered Societies” (Allen 2017). This chapter shared parts of the Georgian- South Ossetian process that were already publicly available on the process website, and presented a theory of local roles in recovery in post-war contexts that had emerged from engagement with locals taking action in the Georgian- South Ossetian post-war context.

I wrote those two chapters under different names. Between 2013, when I wrote as Susan Allen Nan, and 2017, when I wrote as Susan Allen, I divorced and returned my name to Susan Allen. Going through divorce, and divorce mediation, while facilitating Georgian-South Ossetian dialogues was an experience. When South Ossetians spoke about the reasons for a divorce between South Ossetia and Georgia, I felt that metaphor deeply. When several participants asked me how things were at home, I teared up sharing updates of a personal nature. While my own divorce process was not ever part of the official dialogues, I mention it here as an aside, as I mentioned it alongside my peacemaking discussions. And, I want readers to understand why Susan Allen refers to things Susan Allen Nan wrote as her own.

Aside from these two chapters (2013 and 2017), this book is my first foray into presenting the Georgian-South Ossetian process and the insights that emerged from it in any detail. The coordinating group feels now, while our work is quieter during the pandemic, is an appropriate time to share more about the process publicly. I have tried to weave together examples from other places, too, in hopes that the broader peacemaking insights will resonate beyond the Georgian-South Ossetian context. I continue to learn from peacemakers in diverse contexts, and hope that others engaged in peacemaking in other contexts will find utility in the peacemaking practices presented here.

As the conflict resolution field seeks evidence-based guidance to improve our efficacy in preventing war and making peace, this book offers evidence based on practical experience. The evidence does not come in the form of data tables. Rather, it comes in the form or stories and insights that create theories of practice. These forms of evidence may speak more convincingly to some practitioners, for whom the context-specific stories with detailed examples of what is possible in peacemaking may offer more inspiration for their own work than general trends reported without regard to context.

Preface xiii

The late Joseph Camplisson, an extraordinary Northern Irish peacemaker who worked both in Northern Ireland and also bridging between Moldovan and Trandniestrian communities, told me outsiders can be helpful as peacemakers by asking good questions and telling good stories. I hope this book does both.

Allen, Susan H. 2017. “Who Rebuilds? Local Roles in Rebuilding Shattered Societies.” In Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st Century, 2017, 267-86. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Nan, Susan Allen, and Greiff, Jacquie L. 2013. “Basic Human Needs in Practice: The Georgian-South Ossetian Point of View Process.” In Conflict Resolution and Human Needs: Linking Theory and Practice, edited by Kevin Avruch and Christopher Mitchell, 202-15. New York: Routledge.

Acknowledgments

This book is the product of decades of peacemaking practice with hundreds of people engaged in difficult peace processes. Each of these people I have encountered has taught me something along the way. I have promised some that I will keep my knowledge of their peace efforts confidential as they continue their efforts for peace. Others are public about their work, so here I can acknowledge some of those public peacemakers who have taught me directly or indirectly, and scholar-practitioner colleagues who have been generous with their time and insights, all of whom contributed in some way to my writing this book: Ivane Abramashvili, Dina Alborova, Rochelle Arms Almengor, Emmanuel Anquetil, Marz Attar, Eileen Babbitt, Andrea Bartoli, Laurence Broers, Jimmy Carter, Tom Crick, Natia Chankvetadze, Jonathan Cohen, Rachel Clogg, Isabel Covic, Esra Cuhadar, Claire Delessard, Tamra Pearson d’Estree, Ronald Fisher, Mari Fitzduff, Martha Freeman, Paula Garb, Philip Gamaghelyan, Marc Gopin, Christopher Joyce, Fleur Just, Ayse Kadayifci, Giorgi Kanashvili, Nino Kalandarishvili, Giorgi Khutsishvili, Lira Kozaeva, Milt Lauenstein, Emily Linnemeir, John Paul Lederach, Manana Mebuke, Patricia Maulden, Julie Minde, Christopher Mitchell, Joyce Neu, Craig Oliphant, Lara Olson, Ariel Otruba, Oleh Protsyk, Arthur Romano, Ekaterina (Kate) Romanova, Daniel Rothbart, Malkhaz Saldadze, Mara Schoeny, Juliet Schofield, Nina Selwan, Larissa Sotieva, Mira Sovakar, Margarita Tadevosyan, Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan, William Ury, Stan Veitsman, Laura Villanueva, Thomas de Waal, Siegfried Woeber, and Paata Zakareishvili.

I am grateful for the collegial atmosphere in George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution that encouraged my work. I especially appreciate colleagues who commented on draft chapters of the book: Charles Chavis, Paula Garb, Marc Gopin, Susan Hirsch, Doug Irvin- Erikson, Karina Korostelina, Christopher Mitchell, Agnieszka Paczynska, Dan Rothbart, Richard Rubenstein, and Solon Simmons. Thanks to Terrence Lyons for inviting me to present a chapter draft for comment at the Carter School series of seminars he convened for collegial commenting on drafts and all the colleagues who showed up there to help me improve

Acknowledgments xv

Chapter Three. Thanks to Paula Garb and Arthur Romano for encouraging me to keep on writing as we compared notes in our writing processes.

Thank you to all those who read the full draft or most of it and provided me helpful editorial suggestions in the final stages of completing the manuscript: Tatsushi Arai, Jonathan Cohen, Michael Evans, Paula Garb, Christopher Mitchell, and Reina Neufeldt.

This book would not have been possible without the ongoing partnership with Margarita Tadevosyan on the Georgian-South Ossetian peacemaking process. Her exceptional strength as a scholar-practitioner gave me the confidence to turn my focus from the process, focusing on the writing, while confident she would continue to nurture peace.

I also want to thank all those who supported me in the writing process. A Fulbright Scholar Award allowed me time in Tbilisi to focus on the book. George Mason University supported my participation in the Faculty Success Program at the Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, where I learned to make regular time for writing, and the university provided me a semester of study leave and also allowed me to work a reduced schedule for reduced pay to focus on the book one year. Melanie became my writing buddy, offering monthly encouragement. And, throughout the process from book proposal through final manuscript submission, the team at Routledge, including Andrew Humphreys, Bethany Lund Yates, and series editors Tom Woodhouse and Oliver Ramsbotham were exceptionally helpful. I also appreciate the anonymous peer reviewers who provided very useful suggestions and encouragement on the early draft chapters they reviewed.

Mike made me healthy food to fuel writing and believed I would complete the book on time. Oliver came through as outstanding computer support whenever I called, helping me with everything from curving the font for a diagram to recovering a full chapter that I thought had disappeared from my computer. Elaine and Sarah came for a writing retreat that jumpstarted the book. The Eastern Village Cohousing writing group gave me precious hours of focused writing. Elaine created a lakeside writing retreat that led to a full chapter. Harry, Josh, Jonah, Oliver, and Mike walked Marsh the puppy. And I also appreciate that Marsh often took me for walks.

Thank you, all!