Learning From the Global Experience in Conflict Prevention

This inaugural essay identifies some of the central blind spots in Western understanding of conflict prevention. Given that this essay is inaugural, and thus also intended to reveal my personal intellectual history and development in the field of peace research, the selection of blind spots is not determined by a focus on the main characteristics of Western practice or theory of conflict prevention, but rather, the focus is on those blind spots where I have my fingerprints in the collective body of criticism of Western ideas.

On the one hand, this identification of blind spots is done by means of research that contrasts elements of Western conflict prevention approaches with more successful non-Western methods. On the other hand, the article summarizes research indicating which framings and social realities predict conflict onset and escalation, exposing intellectual approaches that are detrimental to conflict prevention.