Preventing and Mitigating Violent Conflicts: A Guide for Practitioners, Published by Creative Associates

By Alexandra Pratt

Taking a fresh approach to conflict resolution and prevention, Creative Associates International, Inc. has published a second edition of a toolkit that provides comprehensive methodologies for preventing and mitigating potential future conflicts.

For more than 30 years, Creative has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments. Drawing on lessons learned and best practices from its own experience as well as a team of multi-disciplinary experts, Preventing and Mitigating Conflicts: A Guide for Practitioners has a focus on conflicts that erupt along political, ethnic or religious lines.

Intended as a toolkit for policy makers, development practitioners, diplomats, military personnel and others who engage in traditional conflict prevention and mitigation efforts, its methodologies combine theoretical and practical knowledge, and the tools to prevent and mitigate violence in political, ethnic and religious conflicts. Most importantly, the toolkit provides new avenues for addressing these types of conflicts and emphasizes that each conflict must be approached by taking into consideration the combined set of issues that led to the crisis. The goal is to develop and apply appropriate policies to prevent the outbreak of violence while building consensus for peace.

“There are many tools that have been used in the past to varying success,” said Creative Senior Advisor, Bill Kruvant, who was the lead author of the Guide. “As the Guide notes, each situation is different so that after a thorough analysis of the conflict, tools can be mixed and matched to fit. The point is that one size does not fit all in the area of conflict.”

The Guide integrates experiences of the Creative’s Center for Security and Stabilization C²S², an initiative that identifies critical intersections of the development and security nexus as they will shape the conduct of development activities worldwide. C²S² plays a leadership role in both the intellectual and operational dimensions of this emerging and important new realm of foreign assistance. The Guide provides specific strategic approaches toward bringing about a cessation of violence or to prevent its escalation.

The Guide elaborates on the many issues surrounding conflict prevention and resolution by exploring key points of inquiry including: How to recognize when violent conflicts are imminent; the strategic entry points to prevent and mitigate conflict; the approaches that can be used to intervene before a conflict escalates, and which development, military and diplomatic interventions are most effective and at which stages of a conflict.

To receive a copy of Preventing and Mitigating Conflicts: A Guide for Practitioners, please write to Francia Torres at FranciaT@CreativeDC.com.