Attempts at Building Peace in the Solomon Islands: Disconnected Layers

Abstract

In 1998 the Solomon Islands descended into chaos and conflict. Rising tensions that had been brewing for years erupted into open violence between militants from the island provinces of Guadacanal and Malaita. The subsequent five years of crisis and lawlessness prompted a large scale regional intervention, and has resulted in a dramatic makeover of the state. Many other peace building efforts have worked alongside the state-building process, and this case study examines the impact of a number of peace approaches. Reflecting upon peace practice in the context of the Solomon Islands requires viewing the conflict and the subsequent attempts at building peace through a number of lenses. We explore the multiple and interlinked factors that worked together to cause parts of the nation to collapse into conflict. We explore the dynamics of building peace, and we reflect that there have been, and continue to be, parallel processes working at brokering peace, creating stability and (re-)creating and realizing a more sustainable peace. One is self-organizing, emergent and bottom up. It focuses upon reconciliation as a means to peace, valuing and using traditional conflict resolution processes. This has been an organic, self organizing network of communities and organizations, both secular and religious, that has focused upon healing and repair from a broader human security perspective. The other process, according to all interviewed, is an imposed system that aims to reconstitute the state as the main arbiter of order and stability. Although this effort is more visible and better funded, this process has concentrated upon what was necessary in terms of state repair, but this has proven to be insufficient. The other process is The Solomon Islands are still working through a dynamic process of nurturing and cultivating a sustainable peace. This case study addresses the dynamics, at times chronologically and at times thematically.