Hiba Qasas

Bring in the peace builders and mediators, launch dialogues, push for elections, train the police, launch stabilization programs.

add grassroots women, maybe sprinkle some youth so you can take an inclusion box, write reports, and repeat.

And don't get me wrong, this work is important.

But too often, we mistake process for progress.

And too often, we do not build enough political legitimacy, enough aligned self-interest, enough public backing to make peace hold.

We have seen the limitations of this.

In the Middle East, tens of millions of people are living the unfinished business of wars, of failed political settlements, of occupation.

Or take Afghanistan.

Twenty years of vast intervention and investment, and the story ended exactly where it began.

Taliban to Taliban.

So why does peace break down when we do everything we think we're supposed to do?

The answer I kept coming back to was not ideology.

It was power, politics and incentives.

And for the broader public, it was legitimacy and trust.

And legitimacy is a felt experience in good governance, whether you trust your police force, whether your children can walk to school safely, whether your dignity is preserved.

Without these, a peace agreement becomes a lid on a boiling pot.

It looks calm until the pressure finds the weakest point, then it erupts.

I kept seeing this again and again and again, so I got fed up with the bureaucracy, with the system, with its toolbox.

And I founded Principles for Peace Foundation.

to help those in the hot seat, to help peacemakers build more legitimate and durable peace.