Got Conflict? Let's Talk Peacebuilding! – Details, episodes & analysis

In 2022, AfP celebrated its 20th anniversary, and today, it is a thriving and robust network of over 200 organizations and more than 30,000 global peacebuilders in 181 countries working to end violent conflict and build sustainable peace. 

But how did it all start? Over two decades ago, a small group of visionary peacebuilders established the Alliance for Peacebuilding, officially incorporating it in 2002. These founding leaders knew we needed to work together if we wanted to build and advance the peacebuilding field.

Even though we have made some serious gains as a sector, violent conflict and fragility globally reached a 30-year high in 2018. Unfortunately, conflict and fragility are increasing, issues including climate change are compounding conflict, and we are experiencing democratic backsliding in the global north. 

Preventing and reducing global violent conflict and building sustainable peace are some of the most significant challenges of our time, and AfP’s 20th anniversary provides the opportunity to reflect on AfP and where we go from here.

In this episode, host Liz Hume welcomes three leaders in the peacebuilding field who were critical to the founding of AfP:

• Melanie Greenberg, Managing Director for Peacebuilding, Humanity United
• Rob Ricigliano, Systems and Complexity Coach, The Omidyar Group
• Hrach Gregorian, MA International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program Director, American University School of International Service

Support the show

The January 6th attack on the United States Capitol forced Americans to confront what conflict and peacebuilding experts have warned for years: that even before the 2016 elections, dangerous conflict dynamics are increasing in the U.S., resulting in greater instability and violence. The data shows that identity-based conflicts—fear of us versus them— are driving this win-lose conflict. 

But why now in the U.S. are political instability and violence becoming such serious threats to our democracy? 

In this podcast, AfP Executive Director Liz Hume discusses identity-based grievances, polarization, and social cohesion in the U.S. While conflict is inevitable, violent conflict is not, but it takes correct analysis of conflict drivers, resources, political will at all levels, and everyday people and communities working to prevent conflict and build sustainable peace. 

Liz welcomes three experts from across the political spectrum to discuss peacebuilding and conflict in the U.S.

• Dr. Peter Coleman: Expert on constructive conflict resolution and sustainable peace and Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University
• Lisa Sharon Harper: Founder and president of FreedomRoad.us
• Charles Lieske: Expert in mediation and facilitation and Executive Director for Mediation West

Support the show

In the sixth episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding's Peace: We Build It! podcast series, join host Tanya Domi and guest Velma Saric—Founder and President of the Post-Conflict Research Center and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Balkan Diskurs—to learn about the Srebrenica Genocide. Last year on July 11th, we marked the 25th anniversary of the genocide. This episode explores the history, current updates, and how to build peace in the genocide's aftermath.

Be sure to also check out Bosnia Is Heading Toward Another Meltdown by Tanya Domi.

Support the show

In this fifth episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) podcast, Peace: We Build It!, Allan-Charles Chipman, FaithRooted Organizer & Transformation Strategist for Initiatives of Change USA, sits down with our host Tanya Domi to discuss Juneteenth, structural racism in the United States, and actions we can take today. 

Support the show

In this fourth episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) podcast, Peace: We Build It!, Megan Corrado, AfP’s Director of Policy and Advocacy; Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, Founder & Executive Director of ICAN; and Wahzma Frogh, Co-founder and Director of the Women & Peace Studies Organization sit down with our host Tanya Domi to discuss the announced military withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, and implications on the peace process and gains made by Afghan women, girls, and minorities over the last 20 years; potential humanitarian and refugee crises, and the threat of Taliban rule and regional destabilization. 

Support the show

In this third episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) new podcast, Peace: We Build It!, genocide scholars Gregory Stanton, Founding President and Chairman of Genocide Watch, and Maxim A. Pensky, Co-Director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP), sit down with our host Tanya Domi to discuss the crime of genocide, exploring past genocides from Armenia to Darfur, as well as ongoing genocides against the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang and the Tigrayans in Ethiopia. The episode also explores President Biden's decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide on its 106th Anniversary and the U.S. government's responsibility to prevent, address, and recognize crimes of genocide. 

In honor of Genocide Awareness Month, the episode frames an important conversation around genocide prevention and awareness.

Support the show

In this second episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) new podcast, Peace: We Build It!, AfP’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, Megan Corrado, and Dr. Shirley Graham, Director of the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs and Associate Professor with George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, sits down with our host Tanya Domi to discuss the progress of and challenges facing the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda 20 years after passage of the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and how women’s meaningful inclusion in peacebuilding is vital to international security and development. 

The episode also explores how implementation of the WPS Act can help the U.S. emerge as a “gender superpower”—exercised through a feminist foreign policy and commitment to the empowerment of women, gender minorities, and other marginalized populations.  

Support the show

In this first episode of the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s (AfP) new podcast, Peace: We Build It!, Acting CEO and President of AfP, Liz Hume, will sit down with our host Tanya Domi to discuss what is driving increasing global violent conflict and fragile states including at home in the United States, the challenges to reducing and preventing it, and how people, organizations, governments and corporations all over the world are building sustainable peace. 

The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) is a network of 130+ organizations dedicated to ending violent conflict and building peace. With members working in 181 different countries, AfP works with some of the world’s largest peacebuilding and development organizations to manage conflict without violence.

Support the show

Just last month, the United Nations observed the 22nd anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, setting the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. In recent years, the world has seen both tremendous achievements and setbacks in relation to the status of women and LGBTQ+ individuals—from Iran to Afghanistan to Myanmar.

In this episode of AfP's Peace: We Build It! podcast, join host Tanya Domi and guests Dr. Valerie Hudson, University Distinguished Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair, Professor of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, and Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, for a discussion about the rising global crackdown on women and LGBTQ+ communities, and the critical importance of their inclusion and leadership in peace, democracy, and security initiatives. Learn how gender and sexual relations shape other social, economic, and political relationships, and how the WPS and LGBTQ+ communities can learn from each other to advance multidimensional inclusion, protection, and durable peacebuilding. 

Support the show

How can we talk about peacebuilding to best position it as the tool of first resort? How can we reframe peace to make it feel possible? In this episode of AfP’s Peace: We Build It! podcast, join host Tanya Domi and guests Liz Hume, AfP’s Executive Director, and Amanda Ripley, award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author, for a conversation exploring how the media, peacebuilding field, and public can inject hope, agency, and dignity into conversations around conflict and security through targeted framing and communications strategies. Hear the practical implications of AfP’s new peace framing and narrative research exploring which framing techniques increase support and understanding of peacebuilding, as well as Amanda’s work promoting solutions-oriented journalism and book on escaping high conflict by transforming disagreement into creative solutions. And, most importantly, learn how the public and all sectors can avoid communicating about conflict in a way that perpetuates it, as well as discourages people from following the news due to burnout.

Support the show