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Addressing history in peace processes

Kreddha mediators repeatedly encounter history as an important factor in intrastate peace talks. Not history in the abstract, but the particular interpretations given to the history of each of the parties and the consequences attributed to them. In essence, history is used to substantiate (conflicting) international legal claims to territory and rule, and it animates people’s sense of identity and their belief in the justness of their cause. It can therefore not be left unaddressed. 

Noticing an absence of written guidelines and established practice in the field, Kreddha set out to understand all aspects of how history affects peace processes and to develop a methodology to address them. Early on we realized we couldn’t do this without picking a region and understanding its history from multiple historical perspectives and sources. As our case study we delved into the history of and the production of historical writing in Inner and East Asia, a region in which the deployment of history plays an important role in tensions and conflicts today. Please click on the menu items to the right for our findings as well as the path that lead to them. 

Though each region and every conflict is distinct, we believe some of the project’s findings and its methodology may be useful in the resolution of conflicts in other regions as well.