ABSTRACT
The introduction outlines two trends. First, the international community is increasingly focusing on addressing prevention, recognizing the linkages between human displacement, humanitarian need, inequality, and exclusion. Second, given shifts in global power dynamics, there is need for international policy issues to be addressed in a way that is inclusive. In particular, it has become clear that Chinese policy actors are increasingly interested in fostering their own discourse on issues of prevention and peacebuilding, rooted in Chinese experience, and engaging with peers from other contexts. This volume reviews the state of the conflict prevention field from various lenses and considers norms and political commitments, institutional capacities, and policy options. The project was designed to promote trust and relationship-building among the Chinese and Swiss scholars as they shared their insights and experience while exploring common ground. Special care was taken to avoid any appearance of a contest or competition between points of view. The scholars’ contributions were intended to open the debate and to offer a forward-looking exercise that addresses fundamental questions such as: why conflicts should be prevented; whether “mainstream approaches” are still relevant; and how dominant Swiss and Chinese approaches to prevention both converge and diverge.
