An Intercultural Peacebuilding Framework: Extending the Conversation through a Focus on Connections

Abstract

I am grateful to Sudeshna Roy for the opportunity to expand an earlier conversation about intercultural communication and peacebuilding that Benjamin Broome and I began some years ago. We offered our first articulation of a framework for intercultural peacebuilding in Broome and Collier (2012). We continue to believe there is great potential for scholars interested in culture and communication to contribute to peacebuilding scholarship and practice. In this chapter, with Ben’s encouragement and support, I build on that conversation. Below, I first conceptualize intercultural communication and describe its centrality in peacebuilding. Next, I introduce a case study and situated examples of my work with an international nongovernmental organization, International Peace Initiatives (IPI). I concentrate on several IPI projects with which I have been involved over the years in order to better illustrate the value of incorporating a framework with multiple dimensions, different contextual frames, and diverse perspectives on culture and communication into peacebuilding work.