PROGRAM ON PEACE AND CONFLICT

The Delhi Policy Group’s Program on Peace and Conflict was launched in autumn 2002 on the understanding that in the next quarter century domestic and regional stability would become of critical national interest, compelling successive Indian governments to develop new peace initiatives at home and abroad. This shift would be motored by three chief factors:

India’s rapid economic growth in a globalizing world, which requires domestic stability but risks greater polarization between have and have not communities;

• The end of the Cold War and its aftermath, when long-standing India emphases on conflict reduction through poverty alleviation, sustainable development and state-building have come into their own; and
• The impact of 9/11 and the war on terrorism which have led to endemic conflict on India’s borders, and require a long-term Indian policy response.
• With this background, the aim of the Delhi Policy Group’s Program on Peace and Conflict is to contribute to the formulation of effective policies for Indian peacemaking.

Program Objectives

Core Areas
Comparing Peace Processes: Lessons Learned 
 
 In January 2005, the peace and conflict program launched a two-year project on Developing Durable Peace Processes and Partners with the support of the European Union. The project aimed to expand new thinking in India and Europe on how to build lasting peace in the several troubled states of South Asia. Project activities comprised a series of policy conferences, in India and Europe (including at the European Parliament), and student workshops, both thematic and case-by-case, interactive student sessions with universities in seven Indian cities and public lectures. More… 
 
Companion strand: research and development through “experience swapping”; the program organizes a series of such meetings, between Norwegian, African, European and Indian peacemakers and analysts, amongst others.

Jammu and Kashmir
The peace and conflict program initially concentrated on stimulating policies, including a road map, to resolve the conflict over and within Jammu and Kashmir. Beginning with a closed door conference between Kashmiri dissidents and policymakers in autumn 2002, co-organized with Seminar magazine, the program ran a quarterly inter- and intra-Kashmiri dialogue from 2003-2005 in cooperation with the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, concluding with the first intra-Kashmiri conference to be held in Srinagar since 1947.

In December 2005, the program published a collection of articles by Indians and Pakistani titled Kashmir after the Quake early 2006 held its second major conference on Kashmir: Prospects for Peace, in collaboration with the Mandela Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

And in July 2006, the program published Frameworks for a Kashmir Solution, a booklet which is now in its 3rd printing.  

The Young India Round Table

The "Young India" Roundtable program was held in February and March , 2008. The purpose of the roundtable was to involve next generation policymakers, or potential policymakers, in present day policy debates, seek their priorities on issues of domestic and foreign policy, and encourage them to adopt problem-solving approaches. The Young India Roundtable was based on the current age demographic of India's population.