Unexceptional: Assessing Conflict Trends and Peacebuilding Opportunities in the United States
Publisher: Journal of Peacebuilding & Development
Author(s): Liz Hume
Date: 2018
Topics: Assessment, Conflict Prevention, Monitoring and Evaluation, Programming
Countries: United States
Americans have long believed that the United States is exceptional among nations, but there are signs that conflict dynamics are threatening the stability of US governance and the narrative of American exceptionalism. The US has been consistently sliding down indices that measure peace and security, democracy, and trust in institutions. In 2017, the US fell 11 points and ranked 114 out of 163 countries on the Global Peace Index, placing it between Rwanda and El Salvador (Institute for Economics and Peace 2017, 9–11). The US also fell in the Fragile States Index, and was downgraded and ranked as a flawed democracy by the Economist Intelligence Unit (Donnelly 2017; Shen 2017). Overall, public trust in the government remains near historic lows (Pew Research Center 2017a, 2017b), and no country saw steeper declines in trust in government between 2017 and 2018 (Edelman 2018, 6). Conflict experts have begun to sound the alarm that an increase in grievances, institutional erosion, and new forms of threats are creating worrisome trends and divisions within the US. Conflict over needs and interests occurs in all societies and can be a powerful force for positive change. However, if left unchecked, grievances and other conflict dynamics can lead to violence and instability. Global levels of violence are at a 25-year peak, reversing the promising reduction in conflicts recorded in the 1990s (National Intelligence Council 2017). UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres summed up the crisis in his 2018 New Year message, proclaiming we need ‘a red alert for our world’ (Guterres 2018). However, when Americans hear this, they think these problems exist ‘over there’ and violent conflict cannot happen at home. Violence is not at all unthinkable in the United States, given current trends, and therefore it is imperative to analyse what is driving the conflict dynamics and what can be done.