1

HOW CAN MULTI-TRACK

DIPLOMACY FACILIATE

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

AND PROMOTE

PEACEBUILDING.

1

INTRODUCTION

Multi-Track Diplomacy is a concept that broadly

expresses how intervention for peacebuilding should

be navigated in order not to make worst more conflict

- to the very already weak social structures - as

interventions are been developed. It is a strategic

pathway to peacebuilding work which respects the

principle of do no harm in the cause of planning an

intervention. It helps us to remember that conflict

situation is a web of complex factors and as a result

a high level of caution need to be exercised when

planning an intervention.

Mult--track diplomacy is a conceptual design of Dr.

Louise Diamond and ambassador McDonald. They view the

process of international peacemaking as a living

system. By looking at the web of interconnected

activities, individuals, institutions, and

communities that operate together for a common goal:

peace.1 The concept of “tracks” in multi-track

diplomacy means approaches for intervention.

Initially, there were two tracks - the state and

2

private citizen - before the addition of other seven.

Multi-Track Diplomacy utilizes its system-based

approach by recognizing that the transformation of

deep-rooted conflicts cannot be left solely to

governmental entities, but must be expanded to

include non-governmental actors, civil society and

other informal channels. As a result, they expanded

the approach of peacemaking and peacebuilding outside

of Track One; by making sure that multi-track

diplomacy works to ensure a holistic, comprehensive

approach to conflict transformation with a greater

aim on sustainable peace.

3

Nine Tracks in the Multi-Track Diplomacy

Track 1 – Government, or Peacemaking through

Diplomacy. This is the world of official diplomacy,

policymaking, and peacebuilding as expressed through

formal aspects of the governmental process.

Track 2 – Nongovernment/Professional, or Peacemaking

through Conflict Resolution. This is the realm of

professional nongovernmental action attempting to

analyze, prevent, resolve, and manage international

conflicts by non-state actors.

Track 3 – Business, or Peacemaking through Commerce.

This is the field of business and its actual and

potential effects on peacebuilding through the

provision of economic opportunities, international

friendship and understanding, informal channels of

communication, and support for other peacemaking

activities.

Track 4 – Private Citizen, or Peacemaking through

Personal Involvement. This includes the various ways

that individual citizens become involved in peace and

4

development activities through citizen diplomacy,

exchange programs, private voluntary organizations,

nongovernmental organizations, and special-interest

groups.

Track 5 – Research, Training, and Education, or

peacemaking through Learning. This track includes

three related worlds: research, as it is connected to

university programs, think tanks, and special-

interest research centers; training programs that

seek to provide training in practitioner skills such

as negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution, and

third-party facilitation; and education, including

kindergarten through PhD programs that cover various

aspects of global or cross-cultural studies, peace

and world order studies, and conflict analysis,

management, and resolution.

Track 6 – Activism, or Peacemaking through Advocacy.

This track covers the field of peace and

environmental activism on such issues as disarmament,

human rights, social and economic justice, and

advocacy of special-interest groups regarding

5

specific governmental policies.

Track 7 – Religion, or Peacemaking through Faith in

action. This examines the beliefs and peace-oriented

actions of spiritual and religious communities and

such morality-based movements as pacifism, sanctuary,

and nonviolence.

Track 8 – Funding, or Peacemaking through Providing

Resources. This refers to the funding community-those

foundations and individual philanthropists that

provide the financial support for many of the

activities undertaken by the other tracks.

Track 9 – Communications and the Media, or

Peacemaking through Information. This is the realm of

the voice of the people: how public opinion gets

shaped and expressed by the media-print, film, video,

radio, electronic systems, the arts.

To better conceptualize multi-track diplomacy the

below diagram is used to aid a visual understanding

of the interconnectedness of the tracks. This diagram

6

helps to project a understanding of how the tracks is

termed a living system. Diamond and McDonald

reorganized the relationship between the various

tracks. Instead of putting track one at the top of

the hierarchy, with all the "unofficial" tracks

following the direction of track one, Diamond and

McDonald redesigned the diagram and placed the tracks

in an interconnected circle. No one track is more

important than the other, and no one track is

independent from the others. Each track has its own

resources, values, and approaches, but since they are

all linked, they can operate more powerfully when

they are coordinated.1(see IMTD.com ; line 12, 2013).

7

Source: www.imtd.org

Multi Track Diplomacy design explanation and its

facilitation to peacebuilding

8

Multi- track diplomacy works based on the application

of the System-based approach to Peace work. In order

to understand the systems approach to peace work, one

must understand the concepts of peacebuilding and

standard procedures. Within peacebuilding, there

exist three main categories of activities. These

distinct approaches include:

Political peacebuilding - which is accomplished

through track-one diplomacy and may consist of

political rebuilding.

Economic and institutional peacebuilding - which is

also a function of track-one diplomacy. It involves

the rebuilding of infrastructure and international

institutions.

Social peacebuilding - a component often

unacknowledged by traditional peacebuilding actors.

Social peacebuilding is approaching peace through a

human element. This means dealing with the emotions

of conflict and preparing a framework for de-

escalation and violence prevention. This framework

for prevention is established by supporting community

leaders with skills and tools by which prevention of

9

violence and prevention of escalation are possible.

Social peace building also means working with the

heart, which is fundamental to the work of multi-

track diplomacy.

For Standard procedure explains the concerns or model

that is exercised when approaching a particular

conflict. It is fundamental to staging intervention

into a conflict situation. Standard procedures of

Multi-track diplomacy are:

Invitation - involvement to peace work should be done

only by invitation.

Long-Term Commitment - to engage in peacebuilding

there is need for personal, professional, and

institutional commitment of five years.

Relationship - it is important to build relationship

before and while peace engagement is done and it

equally instructive to have cordial relationship with

track one.

Trust - this is vital to the objective of

peacebuilding there should be no hidden agenda, for

there to be continued involvement.

Engagement - for intervention to work it must be

10

inclusive of consortium of conflict professionals,

local partners, men, youths and women as well as

consideration for the culture of the people.

Action Research - Continued evaluation and

application of lessons learned should be noted and

documented.

Responsibility - help participants utilize learned

skills.

Empowerment - goal of local is that they should be

empowered to sustain peacebuilding initiatives.

Transformation - relationship of belligerence should

be changed to a peaceful one.

Peacebuilders or development actors should only

engage in conflict situations if a party to the

conflict invites to help. Thereafter, then evaluation

of the invitation should be done and make a decision

about whether to accept it or not. If one do accept

the invitation, it is important to go to the conflict

site and listen to all sides or parties to the

conflict to determine, as much as possible, what is

going on, and what the parties' needs are. Direct

involvement should be considered a high priority and

11

it should be known to peacebuilders that it is a

long-term commitment. With no fewer than five years,

or as long as participants desire further

involvement.

It is strongly advised to peacebuilders to make clear

from the onset that their work or intervention will

not serve as threat to track-one efforts, but rather

desire a strong relationship with all people and

institutions within the conflict setting, track-one

included. This should be backed with transparent

actions; by declaring their role and level of

involvement to all.

Doing this helps to build on idea of relationship

with a fundamental commitment to trust. The trust is

built by solely focusing on the idea of

peacebuilding. Partnership is vital to the

advancement of peacebuilding. This partnership should

include local peacebuilders and conflict

professionals, often emphasizing the inclusion of

women in the peacebuilding efforts.

12

By stressing the synthesis of wisdom. Although

peacebuilder may have their knowledge taken to every

site but it is important to accept that foreign

approaches may not always be as effective as local

means. It is crucial to share methods and formulate

an approach appropriate for each particular

situation. The result is often a blend of foreign and

indigenous approaches to conflict resolution and

peacebuilding.

Adaptation to the level of each situation by using

multiple trainers, technologies, and methods is

important. This is because work will be improved by

learning from fieldwork and applying lessons to

future situations. When involved in a particular

situation, the intervener's responsibility is to

provide the means to acquire and hone skills to deal

with the conflict. Participants are then expected to

take the responsibility to utilize the skills. By

teaching the local community to use the skills and

methods to approach conflict, peacebuilding goal is

empowerment of the people involved in the situation.

Empowerment is a projected goal for all participants.

13

Finally, transformation is key, transformation

expected is the evolution of thoughts and mindsets

toward a greater understanding and acceptance of

others seen as "the enemy". Transformation is the

eventual ability to learn how to work and live

together in the same community without violence,

fear, and strife.3

Since the types of conflict after cold war changed

and international peace work took new dimensions. The

tracks have been you used in different parts of the

world and have recorded successes in peace work. For

example in 1994, there was a conflict between America

and North Korea over the threat to use nuclear

warhead. In order to avoid war situation. Jim Carter

was called to intervene by the American government

under Bill Clinton Administration to use his

influence to talk down the North Korea Leader. Upon

this invitation, he cleared on the media that he

wishes to stage a peace mission to North Korea - as a

private citizen,

14

Carter passed through DMZ - Demilitarization Zone -

into North Korea to establish a negotiated

understanding with the North Korea Leader - Kim Il-

sung, to back down from threatening to begin

processing nuclear fuel - without losing face, after

Clinton had pressured US sanctions and ordered large

amounts of troops and vehicles into the North Korea

to brace for war.4

At the end there was peace agreed between The North

Korea leader and Clinton administration which led to

the signing of an “Agreed Framework” under which

North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle

its current nuclear program and comply with its

nonproliferation obligations in exchange for oil

deliveries, the construction of two light water

reactors to replace its graphite reactors, and

discussions for eventual diplomatic relations. This

intervention was easily facilitated based on the use

of ( track two after track one failed that is the

misunderstanding between the two leaders) trust based

relationship that existed among the three actors.

Trust in this case helps to transform the

belligerents.

15

Another example is the armed conflict in North

Uganda, in 2012 Jason Russell an American journalist

who worked with a development and humanitarian agency

- National Public Radio in America. He came to

Africa, Uganda in 2003 where he witnessed havoc of

the long violent conflict in Uganda and the

unsuccessful attempt to end the terror created by the

LRA rebel in Uganda. Jason Russell, a development

worker met with Jacob Acaye - one of the child

soldier who escaped from the LRA camp, who narrated

his ordeal and that of other children in the handle

of the LRA group. Jason was motivated by Jacob’s

narrative.(The guardian.com, 2012) and he staged an

intervention that respected and care for the affected

victims of the war.

In other to address this differently, Jason (as a

track 6) adopted the use of traditional media and

social media (track 9) to stage an entry. He did

first documentation of the narrative of Jacob by

conducting a 30 minutes video documentary titled

“Kony2012”. The documentary film explains the war

16

going on in Uganda; stressing how long it has been,

how it destroyed lives and infrastructures, the mode

of operation of the rebel group , how the leader has

evaded been captured by calling for peace accord and

how he has failed several times to honor peace

agreement. After the video, A Facebook page was

created called the “Invisible Children”. The Facebook

page - social media, were used to coordinate and

further strengthen the call for intervention as well

as the coordination of street rallies in major cities

of the world.

The online advocacy worked effectively by raising

fund for the project called “the Invisible Children”.

The fund raised was used to rebuild the destroyed

infrastructures, (such as schools, health centers,

safe havens), established rehabilitation and

reintegration programme for defected LRA soldiers as

well as building of Early Warning Radio Network for

the affected people in the Northern Uganda. Many

communities targeted by LRA violence do not have the

ability to report attacks to security forces or

humanitarian groups who can provide life-saving

17

services. Efforts were made to equip these

communities with a basic communication

infrastructure, to enable report LRA attacks to other

communities, receive warning when LRA groups are

active nearby, and alert security and humanitarian

groups

While the LRA is no longer active in northern Uganda,

the peace and reconciliation conversations was

initiated to strengthen and be built upon to sustain

the relative peace that Uganda knows today

From the above discussion, the insight from multi-

track diplomacy contributed to how on successful

approach peace work could be when planning an

intervention. It stresses entry point to peace work

and how various factors both internal and external

could work and compliment each other to achieve the

ultimate goal of peacebuilding.

18

REFERENCE

1. ://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-

instant&rlz=1C1CHNY_enGH630G

H630&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=multi%20track

%20diplomacy&es_th=1

2. http://www.imtd.org/index.php/about/84-about/131-what-

is-multi-track-diplomacy

3. McDonald, John W.. "Multi-Track Diplomacy." Beyond

Intractability. Eds. Guy

Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information

Consortium, University of

Colorado, Boulder. Posted: September 2003

<http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/multi-track-

diplomacy>.

4. Fred Kaplan. (June 8, 2010) "Rolling

Blunder". Washington Monthly. 30 July 2015,

at 14:03. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter