Promising Tomorrow: Exploring the Role of Youth Movements in Reconciliation and Conflicts

• Main Author: Dina Dragija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Risk Institute, Trieste- Geneva 2020-11-01
• Series: Cadmus
• Online Access: https://www.cadmusjournal.org/article/volume-4/issue-3/promising-tomorrow

We are living in a world of intense change in which young generations play a major role in changing the world according to the markers of their generation. Peace and justice cannot be achieved by governments or institutions alone. It is no longer appropriate to use the tactics and strategies for peace that were developed for “old wars,” which were between nation-states. The “top-down” methods of ending conflicts, such as negotiation and the drawing up of treaties alone, have thus far proven insufficient to create a promising tomorrow (Kaldor, 1999). Instead, the peacebuilding process relies on non-political youth movements around the world that collectively take responsibility for humanity. Humanity needs to be positively inspired by the vision of a better future for all through movements that promote unity in diversity and non-violence. Thus, a new alternative for peacekeeping that involves grassroots activism, often developed by youth movements that have played an important part in both ending war and building peaceful reconciliation in recent history, must be sought.