Civic Diplomacy
ICDD-USA uses “citizen diplomacy,” or what is often called “soft power.” Its goal is to build relationships between communities, civil society organizations, politicians and non-governmental actors who can influence political institutions in order to resolve international conflicts. ICDD-USA stresses the important role that such commitments can play, not only in shaping a democratic public discourse, but in formulating policy decisions. Selected examples appear below and, for those interested, hard copies are available on request.
First of all, it is necessary to consider the extensive outreach work that ICDD – USA, headed by its director Dr. Stephen Bronner, has had. Its members have participated in events at various venues, most notably at the Human Dimension Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. For a number of years, we have organized side events with lectures on US foreign policy. However, the work of ICDD-USA has not been limited to educational events.
During the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, ICDD actively participated as a mediator in the peace settlement. In particular, we organized the negotiations with representatives of the foreign ministries of Armenia, the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan on the issue of the return of forcibly displaced persons, as well as the remains of military personnel and civilians killed during the conflict. In 2019-20, ICDD representatives repeatedly visited Yerevan and Baku for this purpose to conduct preliminary talks with the aim of establishing direct contacts between the parties to the conflict.
Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ICDD took active steps to reconcile the adversaries. Collaborating with the Ukrainian NGO “National Platform for Reconciliation and Unity of Ukraine,” it formulated and published the joint “National Platform for Reconciliation and Unity“, which was approved by a coalition of more than a dozen Ukrainian civic associations. (3/3/2022).
ICDD-USA members also participated in numerous interviews, podcast discussions, Zoom panels in media outlets around the world, and in international conferences of importance. Its members made presentations on the Russia-Ukraine crisis and provided their expert assessments regarding prospects for settling the conflict. However, these activities also targeted other international conflicts. In particular, the director of ICDD Stephen Bronner gave a series of interviews in which he outlined his proposals for conflict resolution both in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
After the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine began, ICDD concluded that the conflict might have been avoided if not for the fatal mistakes of both parties to the conflict and their allies. We realized that expert assessments, made professionally and in time, can help in many cases to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary casualties. Based on this, we made efforts to mobilize expert knowledge from around the world to analyze the causes and possible scenarios attendant upon the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.
This idea was realized in the form of “International Experts Peace Initiatives” (IEPI), an interdisciplinary network of researchers, who specialize in conflict analysis, mediation and resolution. Their expertise ranges from sociology to political science, economics and the humanities, and they work in universities, institutes, non-governmental organizations and various advisory bodies. The network’s task is to provide synthesized opinions of authoritative researchers with expert knowledge regarding a particular crisis in a relatively short time. More information about IEPI’s mission, goals and methods of work can be found here.
The first result of this work was a white paper on Ukraine . Working in tandem with the European Council for the Democracy Development (ECDD) and the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, ICDD-USA brought together more than 20 scholars from around the world, primarily from the United States, to produce this document. The white paper on the Russia-Ukraine conflict details the causes, conflicting interests, obstacles to peace, possible scenarios, and positive proposals accompanying the crisis.
The White Paper was then further developed at the Mafra Dialogues in Portugal, organized by the Institute for the Promotion of Latin America and the Caribbean (IPDAL). Participants have agreed to disseminate it among politicians, media and think tanks. This endeavor has set the stage for dealing with other conflicts that are smoldering in the Middle East, South Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, etc. They, too, can benefit from the insights and grounded research provided by the “Independent Experts Peace Initiatives.”