Conflict Resolution After the Pandemic: Building Peace, Pursuing Justice

155 Pages·2021·7.041 MB·English

by  Richard E Rubenstein, Solon Simmons

Conflict Resolution after
the Pandemic
In this edited volume, experts on conflict resolution examine the impact of
the crises triggered by the coronavirus and official responses to it.
The pandemic has clearly exacerbated existing social and political
conflicts, but, as the book argues, its longer-term effects open the door to
both further conflict escalation and dramatic new opportunities for building
peace. In a series of short essays combining social analysis with informed
speculation, the contributors examine the impact of the coronavirus crisis
on a wide variety of issues, including nationality, social class, race, gender,
ethnicity, and religion. They conclude that the period of the pandemic may
well constitute a historic turning point, since the overall impact of the
crisis is to destabilize existing social and political systems. Not only does
this systemic shakeup produce the possibility of more intense and violent
conflicts but also presents new opportunities for advancing the related
causes of social justice and civic peace.
This book will be of great interest to students of peace studies, conflict
resolution, public policy, and International Relations.
Richard E. Rubenstein, J.D., is University Professor of Conflict Resolution
and Public Affairs at George Mason University and is a long-time faculty
member and former director of the Carter School.
Solon Simmons, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and
Resolution at George Mason University with a Ph.D. in sociology.
Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution
Series Editors: Tom Woodhouse and Oliver Ramsbotham
University of Bradford
The field of peace and conflict research has grown enormously as an
academic pursuit in recent years, gaining credibility and relevance amongst
policy makers and in the international humanitarian and NGO sector. The
Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution series aims to provide
an outlet for some of the most significant new work emerging from this
academic community, and to establish itself as a leading platform for
innovative work at the point where peace and conflict research impacts on
International Relations theory and processes.
Multi-level Reconciliation and Peacebuilding
Stakeholder Perspectives
Edited by Kevin P. Clements and SungYong Lee
The Colombian Peace Agreement
A Multidisciplinary Assessment
Edited by Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora, Andrés Molina-Ochoa, and
Nancy Doubleday
Conflict Resolution after the Pandemic
Building Peace, Pursuing Justice
Edited by Richard E. Rubenstein and Solon Simmons
Theorising Civil Society Peacebuilding
The Practical Wisdom of Local Peace Practitioners in Northern Ireland,
1965–2015
Emily E. Stanton
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Peace-and-Conflict-Resolution/book-series/RSPCR
Conflict Resolution after
the Pandemic
Building Peace, Pursuing Justice
Edited by Richard E. Rubenstein
and Solon Simmons
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Richard E. Rubenstein and
Solon Simmons; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Richard E. Rubenstein and Solon Simmons to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
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A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-72199-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-72201-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-15383-2 (ebk)
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Contents
Author bios viii
Foreword xi
Introduction: the crises of 2020 and the field of
conflict studies 1
RICHARD E. RUBENSTEIN AND SOLON SIMMONS
PART I
Conflict resolution in a period of social crisis 7
1 Big peace: an agenda for peace and conflict studies
after the coronavirus catastrophe 9
SOLON SIMMONS
2 Lessons from disaster: history and the current crisis 17
PETER N. STEARNS AND RICHARD E. RUBENSTEIN
3 From the frying pan to the fire: environmental crises
and their implications for conflict resolution 24
MICHAEL SHANK
PART II
Global political conflicts after the pandemic 33
4 Pandemics, globalization, and contentious politics 35
AGNIESZKA PACZYNSKA AND TERRENCE LYONS
vi Contents
5 Migration and the COVID-19 pandemic 43
OMAR GRECH
6 COVID-19 and nationalism 51
KARINA V. KOROSTELINA
7 A new global covenant? Great power conflicts and
conflict resolution in the post-corona era 61
MOHAMMED CHERKAOUI
PART III
Intergroup conflicts after the pandemic 71
8 The triple crisis: reevaluating socio-economic values
in a period of social reconstruction 73
MICHAEL D. ENGLISH
9 Racial justice in a post-COVID America: toward
systemic conflict resolution and peacebuilding 81
ARTHUR ROMANO
10 The gendered frontlines: perpetuated inequalities or a
reimagined future 89
SHEHERAZADE JAFARI
11 Internal and eternal insecurity: impact of crisis
on religious group identity 97
CHARLES DAVIDSON
PART IV
Conflict resolution initiatives after the pandemic 105
12 Peace engineering in a complex pandemic world 107
ALPASIAN ÖZERDEM AND LISA SCHIRCH
13 COVID-19 amidst conflict 115
ODED ADOMI LESHEM
Contents vii
14 When elephants roar: the coming moral conflict
between the United States and China 123
GAO QING
Concluding note 130
SOLON SIMMONS AND RICHARD E. RUBENSTEIN
Index 134
Author bios
Editors
Richard E. Rubenstein, J.D., is University Professor of Conflict Resolu-
tion and Public Affairs at George Mason University and is a long-time
faculty member and former director of the Carter School. He is the
author of nine books on resolving social conflicts, including Resolving
Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed (Rout-
ledge, 2017).
Solon Simmons, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and
Resolution at George Mason University with a Ph.D. in sociology. He
is a specialist in narrative and its relation to peacebuilding, and his most
recent book is Root Narrative Theory and Conflict Resolution; Power,
Justice and Values (Routledge, 2020), which provides researchers and
practitioners tools grounded in cutting edge approaches to narrative and
conflict.
Contributors
Mohammed Cherkaoui, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of conflict resolu-
tion and peacebuilding at George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosa-
lynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and has written
extensively on conflict issues in the MENA region and elsewhere.
Charles Davidson, Ph.D., is Research Faculty at the Carter School for
Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University and is the
Executive Director of its Political Leadership Academy. He has spent
11 years engaging in research and peacebuilding efforts around the
world, including projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
Author bios ix
Michael D. English, Ph.D., is Associate Director and Core Instructor for
the Peace, Conflict, and Security Program at the University of Colorado
Boulder. He is the author of The United States Institute of Peace: A Criti-
cal History (Lynne Reinner, 2018) and other works.
Omar Grech is a Maltese lawyer and is the Director of the Centre for the
Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution at the University of Malta. He
has written extensively on human rights and serves as Lecturer within
the Department of International Law.
Sheherazade Jafari, Ph.D., focuses on gender, religion, and human rights
in conflict and peacebuilding. She is the Director of the Point of View
International Retreat and Research Center at the Carter School for Peace
and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University.
Karina V. Korostelina, Ph.D., is the Director of the Program on History,
Memory, and Conflict at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Reso-
lution. Her research on identity-based conflicts, reconciliation, and the
role of memory and history in conflict and post-conflict societies has
been presented in more than eighty articles and sixteen books.
Oded Adomi Leshem is a Postdoctoral fellow at the Harry S. Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and at the Psychology
of Intergroup Conflict and Reconciliation Lab of the Hebrew Univer-
sity. He is an adjunct professor at the Carter School for Peace and Con-
flict Resolution and has published widely on the psychology of peace
processes.
Terrence Lyons, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Jimmy and Rosa-
lynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. He received his
Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and was a Fellow at the Brook-
ings Institution and the Peace Research Institute, Oslo. His publications
include The Puzzle of Ethiopian Politics (2019) and Politics from Afar:
Transnational Diasporas and Networks (2012).
Alpasian Özerdem, Ph.D., is Dean of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and Professor of Peace and
Conflict Studies at George Mason University. Professor Özerdem has
published extensively, and most recently is the co-editor of Compar-
ing Peace Processes (Routledge, 2019) and the Routledge Handbook of
Peace, Security and Development (2020).
Agnieszka Paczynska, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Carter School
for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University. Her