The SPP understanding of peace is inspired by Professor Christine Bell’s ‘Ripples of Peace’, which expand outwards from conflict contexts into peacetime.
Scotland has a thriving, diverse peace sector that operates within an increasingly fragile and volatile global climate, where the drivers of insecurity and polarisation are high.
In connecting and cohering the Scottish peace sector, the Scottish Peace Platform (SPP) adopts a wide definition of peace. This is based on the understanding that peacebuilding is a process that expands outward, from conflict contexts into peacetime. The Platform draws on the idea of “ripples” from Professor Christine Bell, of the University of Edinburgh Law School. As she writes, “it can be useful to think about types of peacebuilding activities as nested within each other and connecting in and out like ripples” (Bell, C, 2023).
Members of the SPP actively work on one or more circles of peacebuilding, and will be able to connect with members working in other circles. These circles include direct involvement in peace processes and negotiations, immediate post-conflict recovery, and/or responding to ongoing impacts of violence long after or far from formal peace agreements.
Reference: Figure 2.1, p.21 – Bell, C, 2023, PeaceTech: Digital transformation to end wars. 1st edn, Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38894-1