Berghof Foundation

In some countries, more civilians are being killed by armed gangs and criminal organizations than in traditional combat. Still, these pockets of armed social violence – “undeclared wars” marked, among other things, by criminal, gang and/or urban violence as well as extremist violence – have long received much less attention than politically motivated forms of armed conflicts. As their effects — social-political destabilization, in some cases coinciding with high numbers of victims — are becoming more pressing, national and international actors have begun addressing the phenomenon. In “Undeclared Wars”, Bernardo Arévalo de León and Ana Glenda Tager argue that the inclusive and participatory methodologies offered by peacebuilding provide an operational strategy that would allow the international community to engage successfully with issues of armed social violence. Five sets of respondents then explore the actors, factors and dynamics of violence in different settings and discuss what peacebuilding and other initiatives have achieved, and where they have fallen short.