TRANSCON · Global civil society, new diplomacies and the EU External Action. Transforming socio-environmental conflicts through non-violent international support of empowerment processes.""

Global civil society, new diplomacies and the EU External Action. Transforming socio-environmental conflicts through non-violent international support of empowerment processes.

There is a growing concern about socio-environmental conflicts in the world arena because their frequency and their violence is escalating. Such conflicts may typically concern access to water, protection of forests and other natural resources, opposition to mining etc. Local populations involved in such campaigns are sometimes supported by national or international environmentalist individuals and agencies. In its role of global conflict resolution manager, the European agencies generally aim to contribute to peaceful settlement of these kinds of conflicts in order to strengthen international security and promote peace; and there are already many European policies and instruments implemented to deal with socio-environmental issues. However, the use of a conflict transformation approach supporting nonviolent local empowerment processes would benefit the EU external action preventing violence and promoting durable peace. This research project provides a rich account of recent environmental activism, including transnational engagements. The primary aim of this research project was to analyse tools developed for supporting local empowerment processes within global civil society. It especially focused on socio-environmental conflicts which have been experiencing high levels of violence, with case studies from Latin America and Middle East. The research examined practices, strategies and activities developed from the traditions of non-violent social movements, which contributed to the empowerment of local parties engaged in environmental issues, specifically in non-violent conflict transformation. Such support for non-violent social and environmental movements is potentially useful for the European Union External Action in the framework of its strategies for conflict prevention and civilian crisis management. Findings from this research would also be highly relevant to the European Commission “conflict prevention” system and the European Union crisis management, when it has to deal with socio-environmental conflicts and their consequences. In particular, it has a potential impact in the European Commission DG External Relations, DG Development, and EuropeAid co-operation office. These bodies are supporting and funding actions to achieve political stabilisation in post-conflict situations and to strengthen the role of civil society in preventing conflicts and promoting human rights, democratic reform, and peaceful conciliation of group interest. Their policies and activities could benefit from this research project. Furthermore, the project findings may have a potential impact to the European Union civilian Common Security and Defence Policy which seeks to develop non-military and non-violent civilian responses to securitized situations.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union