Conflict Prevention in the post-September 11 World

e-Symposium on Conflict Prevention Closes another Success
"Conflict Prevention in the post-September 11 World"
February 6-14, 2002
http://www.dwcw.org/e-symposium
The Second e-Symposium on Conflict Prevention co-sponsored by the Japan
Center for Conflict Prevention (JCCP) and the Japan Times with support from
the Sasakawa Peace Foundation was successfully held from February 6-14, 2002
on the theme "The Future of Conflict Prevention in the Post September 11
World" on the internet at http://www.dwcw.org/e-symposium with an expanded
global reach over the First e-Symposium held in July 2001 that can be seen
in the increase in the number of registered participants (1st Symposium 284
people > 2nd Symposium 665 people), access hits (1793 > 3307) and countries
represented (37 > 50).
The main sub-themes and their conclusions from the dialogue can be
summarized as follows:
a. Although September 11 heralded in a new aspects of conflict that
highlight the inadequacies of the Westphalian nation state system, many of
the issues that existed before September 11 still exist such as widespread
poverty, AIDS, oppression and human rights abuses.
b. The above mentioned issues can be identified as root causes of conflict
and more effort must be made in order to solve these issues including
reconstruction programs as part of peace building efforts to prevent
terrorism.
c. The need to keep in check unilateral US military and diplomatic actions
was pointed due to the implications they hold for the future of conflict and
conflict prevention.
d. How to expand participation of academics, NGOs and others in foreign
policy and how to enlighten government policy makers to the importance of
conflict prevention was also discussed.
e. The need to further promote the positive opportunities that were created
by 9/11 such as the reexamination of regions having failed to receive
international attention and the reassessing of poverty reduction policies
was stressed.
The theme received much attention, due to it being both an emotional recent
issue for the public and one of interest and importance for experts. Future
themes will be developed based on the ongoing dialogue on the new integrated
e-Symposium/Dialogue Webpage for Conflicts Worldwide (DWCW) website. JCCP
believes that e-Symposium is a forerunner in the field of conflict
prevention on the internet.