Conflict prevention in the 21st century
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 4, 2016
Upstream Conflict Prevention in Sierra Leone
A roundtable was co-hosted with the RUSI addressing upstream conflict prevention in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone was chosen as a relevant case study for the CPWG given the extended period of UK involvement in security and justice sector reform in the country and because it has recently been highlighted as a success story by Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, in a call for a more integrated strategy in security sector reform in post-conflict countries. Whilst the Chinese Government have traditionally adopted a non-interventionist approach to these kinds of issues, there are signs that their practice is beginning to shift as their involvement in Africa becomes more extensive. This dialogue sought to critically examine the different approaches adopted by the UK and China, and, if appropriate, to identify potential areas for collaboration in future upstream conflict prevention efforts.
In the first session a Senior Analyst from the Danish Institute for International Studies gave an overview of the UK's engagement in Sierra Leone and its efforts in upstream conflict prevention. He suggested that upstream conflict prevention is not new, and that elements of it have been evident in the UK's security sector reform efforts in Sierra Leone over the past 15 years, which were rebranded as upstream conflict prevention after the UK's SDSR in 2010 and BSOS in 2011. Three key principles of upstream conflict prevention were highlighted:
• Context sensitivity: it is important to acknowledge that the drivers of conflict vary from situation to situation.
• Being holistic: integrating defense, police, intelligence and justice reforms, encompassing broader concepts of development, i.e. the economy, and consolidating democracy, human rights and good governance.
• People-centered approaches: success depends on active support from local populations rather than buy-in from the elite alone.
The Chinese respondents suggested that people-centered approaches are also important to the Chinese Government's approaches in conflict affected and fragile states in order to identify the needs of the people. They value the need for a top-down approach to be balanced by a bottom-up approach to ensure the development of a more sustainable peace, however, whilst the UK aims for a parallel approach to support both the government and the people separately and meet in the middle, Chinese attempts try not to be divisive. There was also more divergence between the approaches of China and the UK concerning context sensitivity. Whilst it was argued that the UK has pre-conceptions which shape its engagement, it was suggested that China does not let value judgments about specific situations and conflict drivers inform its policies or practices in other countries and chooses not to interfere, except when invited by the country or region in need of support.
Whilst there are differences in the approaches of China and the UK in Sierra Leone, and direct cooperation between the two countries may not seem natural, there is a complementarity in their efforts. During the roundtable, social cohesion was highlighted as central to ensuring a sustainable peace and development trajectory for Sierra Leone, particularly given the divide between the state and its citizens. This was evident when the Ebola crisis emerged, highlighting a lack of trust in central government and the indication that there has been too much emphasis on state centered reform. Infrastructure building is one approach for developing social cohesion. For example, building roads can help governments to ensure that their services reach more remote areas. This is an area in which the Chinese Government has invested significantly. It has also supported education in Sierra Leone, and it was suggested during the roundtable that this builds the capacity of the people of Sierra Leone to help them to manage their own resources and enforce policies, thus making the UK's efforts more sustainable.
CPWG Recommendations
The CPWG met to discuss project recommendations, which are currently being drafted into a report that is expected to be launched in Beijing in December.
Outline recommendations were presented to various members of the British policy community, including DFID, the FCO, the MOD and the APPG on Global Security and Non-Proliferation and the APPG on China, who all echoed support for the idea of China-UK cooperation in conflict prevention.
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