A Westphalia for the Middle East is an initiative of the Centre of Geopolitics & Grand Strategy (CoGGS) at the University of Cambridge. It argues that a durable peace in the Middle East can only be achieved by regional actors themselves, through an inclusive general peace conference which engages with the full spectrum of interwoven conflicts across the region, at both state and societal levels, and addresses them as a whole. The Westphalia for the Middle East project is working to encourage the formation of such an inclusive peace conference.
How might this be done? A 370-year-old peace treaty holds some clues. The Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended the Thirty Years War: a devastating conflict which killed around a quarter of central Europeans. It was a landmark peace treaty, highly influential in the development of the law of nations.
And much like the Thirty Years War, the conflict in the Middle East today is a messy entanglement of overlapping struggles and confrontations, both within and between States. Both have been marked by sectarian violence and intervention by outside countries, and both the Thirty Years War and the present Middle Eastern conflicts have been hugely costly in human life.
A number of leading foreign policy practitioners have recognised these parallels, including Henry Kissinger, Kofi Annan, Angela Merkel, and Richard Haass. Peace in the Middle East cannot be imposed by external powers – it must come from the region itself: we cannot emphasise that enough. But mechanisms and techniques that proved effective in Westphalia can provide inspiration for how this might be done in practice.
Key principles which proved effective in Westphalia include the innovation of an all-inclusive peace congress, development of innovative power sharing arrangements based on compromise, establishment of new legal mechanisms for dispute resolution, and construction of an inclusive security architecture committed to and guaranteed by all signatories.
If you would be interested in hearing more about the project, and how it might interest your pupils, drop us a line at info@learn2think.org.uk and check out our HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 42 MOMENTS GIANT POSTER ACTIVITY HERE:
How might this be done? A 370-year-old peace treaty holds some clues. The Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended the Thirty Years War: a devastating conflict which killed around a quarter of central Europeans. It was a landmark peace treaty, highly influential in the development of the law of nations.
And much like the Thirty Years War, the conflict in the Middle East today is a messy entanglement of overlapping struggles and confrontations, both within and between States. Both have been marked by sectarian violence and intervention by outside countries, and both the Thirty Years War and the present Middle Eastern conflicts have been hugely costly in human life.
A number of leading foreign policy practitioners have recognised these parallels, including Henry Kissinger, Kofi Annan, Angela Merkel, and Richard Haass. Peace in the Middle East cannot be imposed by external powers – it must come from the region itself: we cannot emphasise that enough. But mechanisms and techniques that proved effective in Westphalia can provide inspiration for how this might be done in practice.
Key principles which proved effective in Westphalia include the innovation of an all-inclusive peace congress, development of innovative power sharing arrangements based on compromise, establishment of new legal mechanisms for dispute resolution, and construction of an inclusive security architecture committed to and guaranteed by all signatories.
If you would be interested in hearing more about the project, and how it might interest your pupils, drop us a line at info@learn2think.org.uk and check out our HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 42 MOMENTS GIANT POSTER ACTIVITY HERE: