Inventing Peace: experts weigh in on how to find peace amidst bitter conflict

Ideas53:59Inventing Peace

More than two months into one of the deadliest episodes of violence in the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is little evidence of a plan for a peaceful way out.

The mounting toll, however, has highlighted the necessity of a political solution to a perennially bloody and cyclical conflict. 

There are efforts underway, but the challenge is monumental.

Long-term answers, such as the two-state solution, which would see both Israelis and Palestinians living in two separate states side-by-side, seem far-fetched today. Once actively pushed by the U.S., that idea has been virtually abandoned by the two sides as unrealisable. 

In the short-term, peacemaking attempts have focused on brokering a way to at least halt the killing and release the hostages.

But how can any lasting kind of peace be invented amidst such bitter and intractable conflict?

'Realm of reason'

CBC spoke to an international mediator and two former heads of state who point to a well-travelled route towards finding peace, even in some of the world's most difficult conflicts.

"Peace begins generally with an idea. Either the idea comes from the realm of reason, or it comes from the realm of bloody experience," said David Harland, director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Geneva-based organization established by the International Committee of the Red Cross to conduct "quiet, informal diplomacy in the service of peace."

The organization began its efforts with successfully brokering a "cessation of hostilities" agreement between Indonesia and the separatist Free Aceh movement — an agreement which "prohibits all acts of violence," an idea that HD itself proposed.

More recently, HD was the force behind the "idea" of an agreement between warring Russia and Ukraine to allow the export of Ukrainian grain, thus averting a worldwide shortage. Russia has since pulled out of the deal.

The starting point to such deals, said Harland, is often a "track two" process with figures close to the main combatants, but who aren't entirely committed to their positions. In practice, it is those conversations that "have identified the ideas that can lead to the final settlement," he said.

It is often the case, added Harland, that it is "out of the crucible of suffering" that peace deals are forged.

A recipe for peace

The conflict in Northern Ireland is a case in point. 

People were "very tired of the killing, the kneecapping, the destruction of property, the fear and all of that," said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland.

The peace deal agreed to end the longstanding conflict in Northern Ireland was galvanized when a splinter group from the IRA mounted a car bomb attack in the city of Omagh, killing 29 civilians in August 1998.

The attack redoubled the peace effort and propelled the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement that had only been signed only four months earlier in April 1998.

This year, that agreement — which was brokered with the support and encouragement of the United States and the European Union — marked its 25th year.

How did such bitter foes manage to even begin the road to peace? It was a combination, said Robinson, of the right leaders, the efforts of women who reached across the divide, and active international support.  

"As Nelson Mandela said, you make peace with your enemy, not with your friends," said Robinson, currently chair of The Elders, a group of former world leaders founded by the late South African president to promote human rights, peace and justice. 

The organization recently issued a statement calling on world governments to review their military support for Israel in light of its renewed military campaign in Gaza; a campaign the statement said had "reached a level of inhumanity towards Palestinians in Gaza that is intolerable."

The group previously also "unequivocally" condemned Hamas' October 7 attacks, with Robinson describing them as "shocking war crimes. We mourn the murdered dead and demand the immediate release of all hostages."

'No perfect justice'

Another member, former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, won a Nobel Peace Prize for ending the more than 50-year conflict in his country with a peace deal with the rebel group, FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). Key to that agreement, he said, was the support of the conflict's many victims.

He added that it was important to recognize that compromise meant that no one would walk away entirely happy. But perfection was never the goal. 

"There is no total truth and there is no perfect justice and there is no perfect peace agreement," he said.

"Where do you draw the line between peace and justice? How much justice is a society willing to sacrifice in order to have peace? 

"No matter where you draw the line, you will always — and we're living that right now in Colombia — you will always have people claiming more justice on one side and people claiming more peace on the other side." 

Harland agreed: "You're not going to get everything, but what you can get by compromise might be better than what you can get through this endless cycle of violence."

He said that ultimately, "the people whose voices should most be heard are the people of the communities themselves."

He added that the latest round of violence may yet spur peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians. 

"The only positive thing that can be taken from all this, is a return to the idea that sometimes compromise and the pursuit of the lesser evil is better than the pursuit of maximalist goals that simply perpetuate the suffering of all communities."

Watch Inventing Peace on The National 

*This episode was produced by Carmen Merrifield with Nahlah Ayed.