The past few months have been a whirlwind over here at Give Me 5! In addition to welcoming our latest team members, Savio and Amanda, we are excited to announce that an article written by three of our founding team members has been published in the Seton Hall Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations!
Juan Chebly (Founder), Austin Schiano (Partnerships Director), and Federico Ruiz (Research Analyst) have collaborated on an article featured in the Journal of Diplomacy’s Spring 2017 issue, Asia Inquiry: A Continental Analysis Volume XVIII, Number 1. The article is titled “Sustainable Development as a Path to Peacebuilding: Finding Common Ground to Counter the Extremist Narrative”, and can be found directly here.
If you are interested in checking out the entire journal, click here!
So far on the Give Me 5! Blog, we have had a couple of posts centered around sustainability and counter-terrorism. This paper focuses on long-term counter-terrorism techniques and solutions, rather than short-term quick fixes and covers the topic far more in depth than anything we have been able to convey through our blogs thus far.
While I encourage everybody to read the entire paper (it’s not long), there are two very important takeaways that I want to highlight here that Juan, Austin, and Federico recommend as proposed tools for counter-terrorism action:
1) Provide vulnerable populations innovative economic, social, and political participation opportunities to create meaningful alternatives to violence. Citizen engagement is central.
2) Encourage partnership across sectors to develop such programs sustainably. The inclusion of non- governmental organizations, corporations, and civil society networks will be critical.
There you have it. This paper is a manifestation of the concepts we have been advocating for over the past year: partnerships, cross-institutional collaboration, and civic engagement. The need for sustainable solutions and options permeates all aspects of society, and counter-terrorism/extremism is no exception.
Read the paper, and comment your thoughts below! We are always interested in the opinions of musings of our Global Advocate community! Is there a topic related to the SDGs and sustainability you would like to see us cover in an academic article? Let us know!