Innovating ways to reduce violent conflict, promote cooperation, and strengthen democratic institutions and practices.

International Peacebuilding

The Challenge

Progress made in ending long standing conflicts and building new democracies in the aftermath of the Cold War is under threat around the world risking millions of lives, the rule of law and global and regional stability.

Peacebuilding efforts should better utilize lessons learned from decades of successful conflict resolution and reconciliation and leverage important new research from brain and behavioral science that increasingly reveal the unconscious drivers of conflict and division that lay the groundwork for intergroup violence and harm.

Two decades of research from social psychology and behavioral science point to the existence of innumerable subtle cues that can influence human decisions and actions. Such cues can include the social context — the actions, dispositions and perceived priorities of peer groups during a moment when a decision is made, for instance — as well as timing or frequency of behaviors, physical environment and others. Having contributed substantially to fields as diverse as health, education, criminal justice and financial literacy, similar insights have yet to meaningfully permeate the field of peacebuilding as applied in practice.

Our Approach

We apply lessons learned from four decades of experience in conflict resolution, with research from brain and behavioral science and guidance from communities most directly impacted by conflict and violence to advance new frameworks for peace, reconciliation, and societal healing.

Spotlight Project: Decoding Dehumanization and Intergroup Violence

In 2018, Nigeria was listed as one of the top ten countries at risk for mass violence on several watchlists. Since 1999, over 10,000 Nigerians have been killed in inter-religious clashes according to data from the U.S. State Department. Particularly in the Middle Basin and Northern Nigeria, lives have been lost, homes destroyed, and mosques and churches burned.

Over the past several years, we have held workshops with local partners and pilot testing surveys to diagnose the behavioral factors creating support for inter-religious violence in Nigeria. Using the knowledge acquired, we designed a radio program with Nigerian scriptwriters and then scaled up the intervention to integrate the storyline into a popular Nigerian TV drama, reaching 40 million people.

Learn more about the project here.

 

Learn more about our previous international work here.