Conflict Prevention

Progressively, the Centre's work will relate increasingly to conflict prevention and peacemaking. While Australia must be able to respond quickly and efficiently to conflicts when required, and to assist host countries in rebuilding their societies after conflict, Australia also needs to do what it can to prevent conflict and reduce the likelihood of it recurring. In addition to the political and moral imperatives for such action, conflict prevention is a more cost-effective strategy than response and reconstruction. Effective conflict prevention strategies require the appropriate application of civil-military expertise, working in concert with the affected country and other international bodies such as the United Nations. The timely use of diplomatic, military and economic instruments ('smart power'), combined with a full understanding of the historical, political, social and economic underpinnings of the conflict, will enable Australia to have a proactive and collaborative approach to conflict prevention and peacemaking, Critical to this approach will be the ability and willingness to assist affected countries resolve their own problems and be held responsible for their success or failure.

With the objective of achieving sustainable peace, the Centre's work will focus on a range of research projects and initiatives that seek to identify and establish mechanisms to impede the development of potential conflicts.

In undertaking these tasks, the Centre will work with Australia's allies, the United Nations and other multinational and regional organisations on relevant civil-military aspects of conflict prevention. 

As an example of the Centre's involvement in conflict prevention, in late 2008, the Executive Director led a UN needs assessment mission in Nepal to advise the Special Representative of the Secretary General to the UN Mission in Nepal on mechanisms to assist the Government of Nepal in furthering their peace process on the critical issue of integration of the Nepal Army and Maoist army combatants.