WEBVTT 00:00:00.662 --> 00:00:03.474 I want to speak about a forgotten conflict. 00:00:03.474 --> 00:00:07.180 It's a conflict that rarely hits the headlines. 00:00:07.180 --> 00:00:11.400 It happens right here, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:12.244 --> 00:00:16.842 Now, most people outside of Africa don't know much about the war in Congo, 00:00:16.842 --> 00:00:20.111 so let me give you a couple of key facts. 00:00:20.111 --> 00:00:21.939 The Congolese conflict 00:00:21.939 --> 00:00:25.687 is the deadliest conflict since World War II. 00:00:25.687 --> 00:00:28.987 It has caused almost four million deaths. 00:00:28.987 --> 00:00:33.581 It has destabilized most of central Africa for the past 18 years. 00:00:33.581 --> 00:00:38.501 It is the largest ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.501 --> 00:00:42.162 That's why I first went to Congo in 2001. 00:00:42.162 --> 00:00:47.294 I was a young humanitarian aid worker, and I met this woman who was my age. 00:00:47.294 --> 00:00:49.768 She was called Isabelle. 00:00:50.868 --> 00:00:54.179 Local militias had attacked Isabelle's village. 00:00:54.179 --> 00:00:57.227 They had killed many men, raped many women. 00:00:57.227 --> 00:00:59.224 They had looted everything. 00:00:59.224 --> 00:01:01.847 And then they wanted to take Isabelle, 00:01:01.847 --> 00:01:03.224 but her husband stepped in, 00:01:03.224 --> 00:01:06.422 and he said, "No, please don't take Isabelle. 00:01:06.422 --> 00:01:09.709 Take me instead." 00:01:09.709 --> 00:01:12.700 So he had gone to the forest with the militias, 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:16.871 and Isabelle had never seen him again. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:16.871 --> 00:01:20.841 Well, it's because of people like Isabelle and her husband 00:01:20.841 --> 00:01:23.860 that I have devoted my career to studying this world 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:26.638 that we know so little about. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.638 --> 00:01:31.262 Although there is one story about Congo that you may have heard. 00:01:31.262 --> 00:01:35.214 It's a story about minerals and rape. 00:01:35.214 --> 00:01:37.800 Policy statements and media reports 00:01:37.800 --> 00:01:42.534 both usually focus on a primary cause of violence in Congo 00:01:42.534 --> 00:01:47.312 -- the illegal exploitation and trafficking of natural resources -- 00:01:47.312 --> 00:01:50.049 and on the main consequence 00:01:50.049 --> 00:01:55.243 -- sexual abuse of women and girls as a weapon of war. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:55.243 --> 00:02:00.069 So, not that these two issues aren't important and tragic. 00:02:00.069 --> 00:02:03.380 They are, but today, 00:02:03.380 --> 00:02:05.978 I want to tell you a different story. 00:02:05.978 --> 00:02:09.596 I want to tell you a story that emphasizes a core cause 00:02:09.596 --> 00:02:12.283 of the ongoing conflict. 00:02:12.283 --> 00:02:16.160 Violence in Congo is in large part driven 00:02:16.160 --> 00:02:19.382 by local bottom-up conflicts 00:02:19.382 --> 00:02:24.345 that international peace efforts have failed to help address. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:25.325 --> 00:02:30.568 The story starts from the fact that not only is Congo notable 00:02:30.568 --> 00:02:34.885 for being the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crisis, 00:02:34.885 --> 00:02:38.411 but it is also home to some of the largest 00:02:38.411 --> 00:02:42.572 international peacebuilding efforts in the world. 00:02:42.572 --> 00:02:44.685 Congo hosts the largest 00:02:44.685 --> 00:02:49.530 and most expensive United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world. 00:02:49.530 --> 00:02:54.229 It was also the site of the first European-led peacekeeping mission, 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:56.903 and for its first cases ever, 00:02:56.903 --> 00:02:59.265 the International Criminal Court 00:02:59.265 --> 00:03:03.511 chose to prosecute Congolese warlords. 00:03:03.511 --> 00:03:08.670 In 2006, when Congo held the first free national elections 00:03:08.670 --> 00:03:10.045 in its history, 00:03:10.045 --> 00:03:14.034 many observers thought that an end to violence in the region 00:03:14.034 --> 00:03:16.215 had finally come. 00:03:16.215 --> 00:03:17.791 The international community 00:03:17.791 --> 00:03:22.300 lauded the successful organization of these elections 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:26.637 as finally an example of successful international intervention 00:03:26.637 --> 00:03:29.095 in a failed state. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:29.095 --> 00:03:30.853 But the eastern provinces 00:03:30.853 --> 00:03:34.260 have continued to face massive population displacements 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:37.833 and horrific human rights violations. 00:03:37.833 --> 00:03:40.318 Shortly before I went back there last summer, 00:03:40.318 --> 00:03:42.389 there was a horrible massacre 00:03:42.389 --> 00:03:45.217 in the province of South Kivu. 00:03:45.217 --> 00:03:47.245 Thirty-three people were killed. 00:03:47.245 --> 00:03:49.977 They were mostly women and children, 00:03:49.977 --> 00:03:53.166 and many of them were hacked to death. 00:03:54.116 --> 00:03:56.069 During the past eight years, 00:03:56.069 --> 00:04:00.007 fighting in the eastern provinces has regularly reignited 00:04:00.007 --> 00:04:03.074 full-scale civil and international war. 00:04:03.074 --> 00:04:08.055 So basically, every time we feel that we are on the brink of peace, 00:04:08.055 --> 00:04:10.897 the conflict explodes again. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:10.897 --> 00:04:12.615 Why? 00:04:12.615 --> 00:04:15.587 Why have the massive international efforts 00:04:15.587 --> 00:04:19.186 failed to help Congo achieve lasting peace 00:04:19.186 --> 00:04:22.091 and security? 00:04:22.091 --> 00:04:25.014 Well, my answer to this question 00:04:25.014 --> 00:04:29.047 revolves around two central observations. 00:04:29.047 --> 00:04:35.097 First, one of the main reasons for the continuation of violence in Congo 00:04:35.097 --> 00:04:38.005 is fundamentally local, 00:04:38.005 --> 00:04:39.292 and when I say local, 00:04:39.292 --> 00:04:42.823 I really mean at the level of the individual, the family, 00:04:42.823 --> 00:04:46.712 the clan, the municipality, the community, the district, 00:04:46.712 --> 00:04:49.951 sometimes the ethnic group. 00:04:49.951 --> 00:04:54.479 For instance, you remember the story of Isabelle that I told you. 00:04:54.479 --> 00:04:58.683 Well, the reason why militias had attacked Isabelle's village 00:04:58.683 --> 00:05:01.793 was because they wanted to take the land 00:05:01.793 --> 00:05:06.508 that the villagers needed to cultivate food and to survive. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:06.508 --> 00:05:11.278 The second central observation is that international peace efforts 00:05:11.278 --> 00:05:15.242 have failed to help address local conflicts 00:05:15.242 --> 00:05:20.161 because of the presence of a dominant peacebuilding culture. 00:05:20.161 --> 00:05:23.777 So what I mean is that 00:05:23.777 --> 00:05:26.150 Western and African diplomats, 00:05:26.150 --> 00:05:28.997 United Nations peacekeepers, donors, 00:05:28.997 --> 00:05:31.601 the staff of most nongovernmental organizations 00:05:31.601 --> 00:05:34.437 that work with the resolution of conflict, 00:05:34.437 --> 00:05:37.295 they all share a specific way 00:05:37.295 --> 00:05:39.194 of seeing the world. 00:05:39.194 --> 00:05:43.221 And I was one of these people, and I shared this culture, 00:05:43.221 --> 00:05:47.213 so I know all too well how powerful it is. 00:05:47.213 --> 00:05:51.482 Throughout the world, and throughout conflict zones, 00:05:51.482 --> 00:05:55.290 this common culture shapes the intervener's understanding 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:57.774 of the causes of violence 00:05:57.774 --> 00:06:00.357 as something that is primarily located 00:06:00.357 --> 00:06:04.513 in the national and international spheres. 00:06:04.513 --> 00:06:07.908 It shapes our understanding of the path to world peace 00:06:07.908 --> 00:06:11.756 as something again that requires top down intervention 00:06:11.756 --> 00:06:15.879 to address national and international tensions. 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:19.598 And it shapes our understanding of the roles of foreign actors 00:06:19.598 --> 00:06:25.159 as engaging in national and international peace processes. 00:06:25.159 --> 00:06:29.034 Even more importantly, this common culture 00:06:29.034 --> 00:06:32.144 enables international peacebuilders 00:06:32.144 --> 00:06:35.217 to ignore the micro-level tensions 00:06:35.217 --> 00:06:40.480 that often jeopardize the macro-level settlements. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:42.581 So for instance, in Congo, 00:06:42.581 --> 00:06:46.795 because of how they are socialized and trained, 00:06:46.795 --> 00:06:49.181 United Nations officials, donors, diplomats, 00:06:49.181 --> 00:06:52.340 the staff of most nongovernmental organizations, 00:06:52.340 --> 00:06:59.350 they interpret continued fighting and massacres as a top-down problem. 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:01.574 To them, the violence they see 00:07:01.574 --> 00:07:06.554 is the consequence of tensions between President Kabila 00:07:06.554 --> 00:07:09.224 and various national opponents, 00:07:09.224 --> 00:07:14.217 and tensions between Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. 00:07:14.217 --> 00:07:17.978 In addition, these international peacebuilders 00:07:17.978 --> 00:07:20.279 view local conflicts 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:26.081 as simply the result of national and international tensions, 00:07:26.081 --> 00:07:28.496 insufficient state authority, 00:07:28.496 --> 00:07:31.610 and what they call the Congolese people's 00:07:31.610 --> 00:07:35.364 so-called "inherent penchant for violence." NOTE Paragraph 00:07:35.364 --> 00:07:39.316 The dominant culture also constructs intervention 00:07:39.316 --> 00:07:42.149 at the national and international levels 00:07:42.149 --> 00:07:45.702 as the only natural and legitimate task 00:07:45.702 --> 00:07:49.649 for United Nations staffers and diplomats. 00:07:49.649 --> 00:07:51.831 And it elevates the organization 00:07:51.831 --> 00:07:53.697 of general elections, 00:07:53.697 --> 00:07:55.807 which is now a sort of cure-all, 00:07:55.807 --> 00:07:59.591 as the most crucial state reconstruction mechanisms 00:07:59.591 --> 00:08:03.116 over more effective state-building approaches. 00:08:03.116 --> 00:08:04.953 And that happens not only in Congo 00:08:04.953 --> 00:08:09.326 but also in many other conflict zones. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:09.326 --> 00:08:11.243 But let's dig deeper, 00:08:11.243 --> 00:08:14.333 into the other main sources of violence. 00:08:15.193 --> 00:08:17.862 In Congo, continuing violence 00:08:17.862 --> 00:08:22.875 is motivated not only by the national and international causes 00:08:22.875 --> 00:08:27.182 but also by longstanding bottom-up agendas 00:08:27.182 --> 00:08:31.143 whose main instigators are villagers, traditional chiefs, 00:08:31.143 --> 00:08:34.141 community chiefs, or ethnic leaders. 00:08:34.141 --> 00:08:40.116 Many conflicts revolve around political, social, and economic stakes 00:08:40.116 --> 00:08:42.944 that are distinctively local. 00:08:42.944 --> 00:08:45.920 For instance, there is a lot of competition 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:48.308 at the village or district level 00:08:48.308 --> 00:08:51.894 over who can be chief of village or chief of territory 00:08:51.894 --> 00:08:54.468 according to traditional law, 00:08:54.468 --> 00:08:57.696 and who can control the distribution of land 00:08:57.696 --> 00:09:01.215 and the exploitation of local mining sites. 00:09:01.215 --> 00:09:05.436 This competition often results in localized fighting, 00:09:05.436 --> 00:09:09.220 for instance in one village or territory, 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:13.163 and quite frequently, it escalates into generalized fighting, 00:09:13.163 --> 00:09:15.292 so across a whole province, 00:09:15.292 --> 00:09:18.631 and even at times into neighboring countries. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:18.631 --> 00:09:20.468 Take the conflict 00:09:20.468 --> 00:09:23.698 between Congolese of Rwandan descent 00:09:23.698 --> 00:09:26.549 and the so-called indigenous communities 00:09:26.549 --> 00:09:28.604 of the Kivus. 00:09:28.604 --> 00:09:33.995 This conflict started in the 1930s during Belgian colonization, 00:09:33.995 --> 00:09:36.668 when both communities competed 00:09:36.668 --> 00:09:39.317 over access to land and to local power. 00:09:39.317 --> 00:09:42.727 Then, in 1960, after Congolese independence, 00:09:42.727 --> 00:09:45.932 it escalated because each camp 00:09:45.932 --> 00:09:48.578 tried to align with national politicians 00:09:48.578 --> 00:09:52.512 but still to address their local agendas. 00:09:52.512 --> 00:09:56.880 And then, at the time of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, 00:09:56.880 --> 00:10:03.059 these local actors allied with Congolese and Rwandan armed groups, 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:08.389 but still to advance their local agendas in the province of the Kivus. 00:10:08.389 --> 00:10:14.023 And since then, these local disputes over land and local power 00:10:14.023 --> 00:10:15.743 have fueled violence, 00:10:15.743 --> 00:10:17.989 and they have regularly jeopardized 00:10:17.989 --> 00:10:23.542 the national and international settlements. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:23.542 --> 00:10:27.347 So we can wonder why in these circumstances 00:10:27.347 --> 00:10:32.029 the international peacebuilders have failed to help implement 00:10:32.029 --> 00:10:35.407 local peacebuilding programs. 00:10:35.407 --> 00:10:40.253 And the answer is that international interveners 00:10:40.253 --> 00:10:43.776 deem the resolution of grassroots conflict 00:10:43.776 --> 00:10:49.010 an unimportant, unfamiliar, and illegitimate task. 00:10:50.410 --> 00:10:56.389 The very idea of becoming involved at the local level clashes fundamentally 00:10:56.389 --> 00:10:58.497 with existing cultural norms, 00:10:58.497 --> 00:11:02.380 and it threatens key organizational interests. 00:11:02.380 --> 00:11:06.997 For instance, the very identity of the United Nations 00:11:06.997 --> 00:11:10.353 as this macro-level diplomatic organization 00:11:10.353 --> 00:11:12.601 would be upended 00:11:12.601 --> 00:11:16.747 if it were to refocus on local conflicts. 00:11:16.747 --> 00:11:21.486 And the result is that neither the internal resistance 00:11:21.486 --> 00:11:23.833 to the dominant ways of working 00:11:23.833 --> 00:11:26.826 nor the external shocks 00:11:26.826 --> 00:11:29.268 have managed to convince international actors 00:11:29.268 --> 00:11:32.148 that they should reevaluate their understanding 00:11:32.148 --> 00:11:35.560 of violence and intervention. 00:11:35.560 --> 00:11:38.943 And so far, there have been only very few exceptions. 00:11:38.943 --> 00:11:42.796 There have been exceptions, but only very few exceptions 00:11:42.796 --> 00:11:44.944 to this broad pattern. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:46.214 --> 00:11:49.526 So to wrap up, the story I just told you 00:11:49.526 --> 00:11:54.475 is a story about how a dominant peacebuilding culture 00:11:54.475 --> 00:11:56.552 shapes the intervener's understanding 00:11:56.552 --> 00:11:59.271 of what the causes of violence are, 00:11:59.271 --> 00:12:00.963 how peace is made, 00:12:00.963 --> 00:12:04.575 and what interventions should accomplish. 00:12:04.575 --> 00:12:08.324 These understandings enable international peacebuilders 00:12:08.324 --> 00:12:11.402 to ignore the micro-level foundations 00:12:11.402 --> 00:12:16.051 that are so necessary for sustainable peace. 00:12:16.051 --> 00:12:19.044 The resulting inattention to local conflicts 00:12:19.044 --> 00:12:23.062 leads to inadequate peacebuilding in the short term 00:12:23.062 --> 00:12:27.068 and potential war resumption in the long term. 00:12:27.068 --> 00:12:30.214 And what's fascinating is that this analysis 00:12:30.214 --> 00:12:34.224 helps us to better understand many cases of lasting conflict 00:12:34.224 --> 00:12:39.513 and international intervention failures, in Africa and elsewhere. 00:12:39.513 --> 00:12:45.074 Local conflicts fuel violence in most war and post-war environments, 00:12:45.074 --> 00:12:48.765 from Afghanistan to Sudan to Timor-Leste, 00:12:48.765 --> 00:12:52.366 and in the rare cases where there have been comprehensive, 00:12:52.366 --> 00:12:55.453 bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives, 00:12:55.453 --> 00:13:00.947 these attempts have been successful at making peace sustainable. 00:13:00.947 --> 00:13:03.757 One of the best examples is the contrast 00:13:03.757 --> 00:13:08.168 between the relatively peaceful situation in Somaliland, 00:13:08.168 --> 00:13:13.378 which benefited from sustained grassroots peacebuilding initiatives, 00:13:13.378 --> 00:13:17.586 and the violence prevalent in the rest of Somalia, 00:13:17.586 --> 00:13:20.945 where peacebuilding has been mostly top-down. 00:13:20.945 --> 00:13:23.246 And there are several other cases 00:13:23.246 --> 00:13:26.961 in which local, grassroots conflict resolution 00:13:26.961 --> 00:13:29.980 has made a crucial difference. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:34.052 So if we want international peacebuilding to work, 00:13:34.052 --> 00:13:37.874 in addition to any top-down intervention, 00:13:37.874 --> 00:13:41.545 conflicts must be resolved from the bottom up. 00:13:41.545 --> 00:13:46.197 And again, it's not that national and international tensions don't matter. 00:13:46.197 --> 00:13:47.923 They do. 00:13:47.923 --> 00:13:51.155 And it's not that national and international peacebuilding 00:13:51.155 --> 00:13:52.617 isn't necessary. 00:13:52.617 --> 00:13:54.000 It is. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:01.255 Instead, it is that both macro-level and micro-level peacebuilding are needed 00:14:01.255 --> 00:14:03.972 to make peace sustainable, 00:14:03.972 --> 00:14:06.113 and local nongovernmental organizations, 00:14:06.113 --> 00:14:08.912 local authorities, and civil society representatives 00:14:08.912 --> 00:14:11.172 should be the main actors 00:14:11.172 --> 00:14:13.696 in the bottom-up process. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:13.696 --> 00:14:16.131 So of course, there are obstacles. 00:14:16.131 --> 00:14:18.786 Local actors often lack the funding 00:14:18.786 --> 00:14:22.323 and sometimes the logistical means and the technical capacity 00:14:22.323 --> 00:14:26.857 to implement effective, local peacebuilding programs. 00:14:26.857 --> 00:14:31.913 So international actors should expand their funding and support 00:14:31.913 --> 00:14:35.700 for local conflict resolution. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:39.056 As for Congo, what can be done? 00:14:39.056 --> 00:14:40.890 After two decades of conflict 00:14:40.890 --> 00:14:42.763 and the deaths of millions, 00:14:42.763 --> 00:14:45.815 it's clear that we need to change our approach. 00:14:46.545 --> 00:14:49.853 Based on my field research, I believe that international 00:14:49.853 --> 00:14:51.733 and Congolese actors 00:14:51.733 --> 00:14:55.159 should pay more attention to the resolution of land conflict 00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:59.679 and the promotion of inter-community reconciliation. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.321 So for instance, in the province of the Kivus, 00:15:02.321 --> 00:15:05.589 the Life & Peace Institute and its Congolese partners 00:15:05.589 --> 00:15:08.684 have set up inter-community forums 00:15:08.684 --> 00:15:13.036 to discuss the specifics of local conflicts over land, 00:15:13.036 --> 00:15:15.711 and these forums have found solutions 00:15:15.711 --> 00:15:17.861 to help manage the violence. 00:15:18.671 --> 00:15:22.290 That's the kind of program that is sorely needed 00:15:22.290 --> 00:15:25.097 throughout eastern Congo. 00:15:25.097 --> 00:15:26.975 It's with programs like this 00:15:26.975 --> 00:15:31.925 that we can help people like Isabelle and her husband. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:31.925 --> 00:15:34.448 So these will not be magic wands, 00:15:34.448 --> 00:15:40.116 but because they take into account deeply rooted causes of the violence, 00:15:40.116 --> 00:15:42.950 they could definitely be game-changers. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:42.950 --> 00:15:45.504 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:45.504 --> 00:15:48.736 (Applause)