Cypriot Rotarians identify Challenges that Hinder Peace Settlement, Sep-Oct, 2024
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Executive Summary
This SDD was implemented in the context of the Rotary-Carter-Cyprus 2024-25 Peacebuilding Initiative project.
The results presented here are from a virtual Structured Democratic Dialogues (SDDs) that was organized and managed from Cyprus between 23 Oct - 6 Nov, 2024. The aim was to the participants to identify root obstacles that prevent progress towards agreeing on a final settlement and contribute towards maintaining the status quo. The development of shared understanding of the problématique would serve as the basis for preparing the selected participants for the Main Event at the Point of View facility of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, which is part of the George Mason University in Washington DC..
The Triggering Question was:
- What are barriers that prevent us from reaching a settlement?
The participants produced 64 ideas, which were clustered into 14 categories.
Visual Overview of List of Clusters
Visual Overview of Mapping
After voting for their top 5, 38 ideas received votes (indicating Spreathink = 56%), and 13 with two or more votes were structured.
Interestingly, the participants identified as root obstacle the politicians. Referring back to the clarification, the author explained that the main obstacle to a settlement is those who have a lot to lose, i.e., the politicians, because the status quo allows them to keep a job they know how to do and to monopolize resources and wealth, in many cases by engaging in institutionalized corruption.
Having examined the analogous map created by the Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group in the context of the Designing the Future of Peace-Building Efforts in Cyprus using Structured Democratic Dialogue in 1995, we observe a similar factor for the GCs, designated as H-51: Vested interests of certain groups in maintaining the status quo. For the TCs, F42: Individual or economic interests in maintaining the status quo. Similarly, in 2005, factor 47 —the personal and financial interests of politicians and ordinary people on both sides —was again identified as the root obstacle. These findings justify the increasing demand of laypeople for involvement in the negotiation process.
Examining the hiegher levels, again we find many factors that point to fear, insecurity, continuing injustice and failure to deal with the psychological traumas.
