ABSTRACT

Complexity theory offers a theoretical framework for analysing how social systems prevent, manage and recover from violent conflict. Insights from complexity suggest that for a peace process to become self-sustainable, resilient social institutions need to emerge from within, i.e. from the culture, history and socio-economic context of the relevant society. Peace operations are deployed to contain violence and to facilitate this process, but if they interfere too much, they will cause harm by inadvertently disrupting the very feedback loops critical for self-organization to emerge and to be sustained. To navigate this dilemma, the paper proposes employing an adaptive approach, where peace operations, together with the communities and people affected by the conflict, actively engage in an iterative process of inductive learning and adaptation. Adaptive Peace Operations is a normative and functional approach to peace operations that is aimed at navigating the complexity inherent in trying to nudge societal change processes towards sustaining peace, without causing harm.

摘要

复杂性理论为分析社会系统如何预防，管理暴力冲突并从暴力冲突中恢复提供了理论框架。复杂性的见解表明，要使一个和平进程变得能够自我维持，就必须从内部，即从相关社会的文化，历史和社会经济环境中产生复原力的社会体制。部署和平行动是为了制止暴力并促进这一进程，但是，如果和平行动过多地干预，则会因无意中破坏对于形成和维持自组织至关重要的反馈回路而造成伤害。为了克服这一难题，本文提出了一种适应性方法，即和平行动以及受冲突影响的社区和人民一起积极参与归纳学习和适应的迭代过程。