The civil war-like conflicts in Ukraine, the war in Syria and the violent escalation of the political conflicts in Egypt are an exemplary demonstration of how virulent intrastate conflicts directly behind the external borders of the European Union can become. This poses particular challenges for the EU’s foreign and security policy, because peace and stability in the neighbouring regions of the EU lie in its very own interests. These conflicts can only be successfully curbed/managed in an alliance of all political, economic and civil society players.
What role in this alliance can citizenship education play, in the countries concerned and in the member states of the EU? How can and should citizenship education and initiatives react to these conflicts, both in the member states of the EU itself and in the crisis countries? For even after a ‘political solution’ to a conflict, there needs to be a sustained dialogue and a “culture of prevention” (Kofi Annan) in order to secure peace in the long term. In this workshop civil society representatives from Ukraine, Syria and Egypt will describe the particular challenges and dilemmas they face in their work. They will describe the importance of conflict management and democracy education before and after the outbreak of violence and discuss the question of how sustainable crisis and violence prevention can succeed under extremely repressive conditions using citizenship education resources, or respectively what are the limits of citizenship education.
Inputs
Interner Link: Nina Belyaeva, National Research University “Higher School of Economics” (HSE, Russia)
Interner Link: Nelly Corbel, The American University in Cairo - AUC (Egypt)
Ayder Khalilov, United Nations Development Programme / Project “Democracy and Human Rights in Ukraine” (Ukraine)
Moderation: Louisa Slavkova, Sofia Platform - Bridging Europe and the Middle East (Bulgaria)