Attachments
I. Objectives and Context
This Action Plan synthesizes the discussions and recommendations at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, the Stimson Center, and the Doha Forum’s Global Policy Dialogue on Preventive Action, Sustaining Peace, and Global Governance (17 December 2018), that coincided with the 18th edition of the Doha Forum from 15 to 16 December 2018. The dialogue’s forty participants—representing diverse global and regional policy-making, scholarly, activist, and practitioners’ perspectives— gathered to respond collectively to major global policy challenges associated with the theme of preventive action, sustaining peace, and global governance; to better understand current global and regional responses (including those championed by United Nations SecretaryGeneral António Guterres); and to consider and refine major global and regional governance innovation initiatives. Special attention was given to initiatives that are most relevant to current crises within the Greater Middle East today. The dialogue concluded with discussions about new global efforts, such as Together First: A Global System that Works for All, the UN 2020 Initiative, and the knowledge-based Platform on Global Security, Justice & Governance Reform, to advance a peacebuilding innovation agenda between now and 2020, the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.
THE CONTEXT:
From Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria to Libya and Yemen, major ongoing conflicts across the Greater Middle East continue to cause immense human suffering and material damage, embroiling countries politically, economically, socially, and militarily.
Among the multiple root causes of violence are weak governance structures, radicalization, an influx of foreign terrorist fighters (including Daesh and Al-Qaeda), and regional political polarization, as well as low levels of socio-economic development and environmental factors.
In seeking to help local actors manage and address the root causes of violent conflict across the Greater Middle East, global and regional bodies—including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Arab League—have applied political, economic, and social assistance approaches and tools. Together with Middle Eastern countries and extra-regional partners, these bodies seek to transform local conflict dynamics in an effort to build more stable, prosperous, and resilient states and societies. They are also instrumental in fulfilling the international community’s 2005 commitment at the United Nations to the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) norm that includes the Responsibility to Prevent and Rebuild.
In conflict-affected states and regions worldwide, large gaps in security, justice, and governance are readily identified but hard to fill. Multiple, concurrent, and recurring intrastate conflicts, exploited by international terrorist and criminal organizations, have reversed the global trend of reduced political violence since the end of the Cold War. This hasfueled refugee movements and human suffering, particularly in the Greater Middle East. At the same time, the growing roles of women, civil society organizations, and businesses, whose voices are amplified through modern communications technologies, offer new opportunities for effective peacebuilding and governance reform and renewal, and transitional justice. Responding to these threats, challenges, and opportunities, the Albright-Gambari Commission, the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, among others, have offered a range of insights and well-designed proposals that had informed deliberations at the Global Policy Dialogue on Preventive Action, Sustaining Peace, and Global Governance.