Strategies for Preventive Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Every year, Uppsala University awards the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science to a scholar who has made a valuable contribution to political science. In 1998 the prize was awarded to Stanford Professor Emeritus Alexander George for his `pathbreaking analysis of statecraft, its possibilities and limits, performed with great sensitivity for the importance of judgment, reasoned argumentation and responsible leadership in foreign policy decision-making'. George has made major contributions on presidential decision-making, crisis management, case study method, deterrence theory, coercive diplomacy, preventive diplomacy, and how to bridge the gap between the policy world and academics. While in Sweden to accept this prestigious award, George gave a lecture at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. This revised version of his address deals with how to develop academic scholarship for policy-making. The specific topic discussed here, strategies for preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution, is inspired by the work George has recently concluded for the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and the Committee on International Conflict Resolution of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. In this piece, George argues that in the new geopolitical environment of the post-Cold War world a better understanding of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution is crucial for effective statecraft. To help accomplish this, he urges scholars to join foreign policy practitioners in analyzing the successes and failures of past cases of preventive diplomacy. Only through proper diagnoses can we better understand the many tools and instruments of conflict prevention and resolution and how policy-makers can make more effective use of them.