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Oxford Research Group (ORG) was a London-based charity and think tank in Cambridge Heath, [1] working on peace, security and justice issues. Its research and dialogue activities were mainly focused on the Middle East, North and West Africa, as well as influencing UK and international security policy. [2]
ORG was founded in 1982 by Scilla Elworthy and a group of academics and activists with an interest in the psychological dimensions of international security decision-making. While established in sympathy with Quaker values of peace and social justice, ORG is an independent, secular group without affiliation to any religious or political group. ORG is not a pacifist group in that it recognises that there are legitimate roles and uses for armed forces. Rather, it defines its mission as to enlarge the space for non-military alternatives to prevent and manage conflict. It was registered as a charity in England and Wales in 1988.
Initially, the Group focused on dialogue between British nuclear decision-makers and nuclear disarmament activists, widening its activities to incorporate the other P5 nuclear weapons states, India and Pakistan. For this work, ORG and Elworthy were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988, 1989 and 1991. [3] In the 1990s, ORG fostered security dialogue between the UK and China on a broader range of issues.
In 2006 ORG relocated from Oxfordshire to London. Since 2001, it has focused particularly on analysing the causes, consequences and character of the War on Terror, promoting more sustainable approaches to international security policy, investigating the changing nature and technologies of warfare, mediating track II dialogues around conflicts in the Middle East, and recording the casualties of armed conflict.
In 2020 ORG announced that due to funding issues it would cease operations at the end of the year. It would re-home some of its programmes elsewhere. [4]
ORG had three thematic programmes and has served as host or incubator for several other projects.
The Sustainable Security Programme aimed to highlight the limitations of orthodox security policy that seeks to contain the symptoms of deeper conflict and to develop policy alternatives that address such underlying drivers as marginalisation, militarisation, climate change and resource scarcity. [5]
The Strategic Peacebuilding Programme was ORG’s conflict resolution programme. It deployed a unique methodology to build the capacity of local partners to engage in strategic dialogue towards lasting political settlements. Formerly the Middle East Programme, it has brokered a series of Track II dialogues in Israel, Palestine and Egypt and between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and other states. The programme uses a strategic thinking methodology based in ‘radical disagreement’ theory [6] to develop strategies for alternative routes to peaceful co-existence. [7]
The Remote Warfare Programme was established in January 2018, based around the Remote Control project of the Network for Social Change, [8] which had been hosted by ORG since 2013. It analyses shifts in military engagements, focusing on Western states’ increasing focus on working through local and regional partner militaries in places such as the Middle East and Africa. As part of this, they examine current developments in military technology and doctrine such as cyber-warfare, unmanned weapons systems (such as unmanned aerial vehicles), private military and security contractors, and special operations forces. [9]
Peace Direct was developed within ORG in 2002 as a project developing links to local peacebuilding organisations in a number of fragile or conflict-affected states, and became a separate organisation in the following year.
Every Casualty Worldwide was developed as a programme of ORG between 2007 and 2014. It aimed to enhance the technical, legal and institutional capacity, as well as the political will, for every single casualty of armed conflict throughout the world to be recorded. It became a separate NGO in October 2014. [10]
The Oxford Process was established in early 2017 to focus on the discreet high-level dialogues that ORG had facilitated over the previous 15 years under Gabrielle Rifkind. It describes its approach as preventive diplomacy to manage radical differences. [11]
ORG’s founder, Scilla Elworthy, was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 for ORG's work on the promotion of disarmament and non-violent methods for resolving conflict. [12]
The University for Peace (UPEACE) is an international university and intergovernmental organization established as a treaty organisation by the United Nations General Assembly in 1980. The university offers postgraduate, doctoral, and executive programmes related to the study of peace and conflict, environment and development, and international law.
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.
Peace and conflict studies or conflict analysis and resolution is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violent and nonviolent behaviors as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts, with a view towards understanding those processes which lead to a more desirable human condition. A variation on this, peace studies (irenology), is an interdisciplinary effort aiming at the prevention, de-escalation, and solution of conflicts by peaceful means, thereby seeking "victory" for all parties involved in the conflict.
The Niwano Peace Prize is given to honor and encourage those devoting themselves to interreligious co-operation in the cause of peace and to make their achievements known. Its foundation hopes that the prize will further promote interreligious co-operation for peace and lead to the emergence of more people devoting themselves to this cause.
Peacebuilding is an activity that aims to resolve injustice in nonviolent ways and to transform the cultural and structural conditions that generate deadly or destructive conflict. It revolves around developing constructive personal, group, and political relationships across ethnic, religious, class, national, and racial boundaries. The process includes violence prevention; conflict management, resolution, or transformation; and post-conflict reconciliation or trauma healing before, during, and after any given case of violence.
The Palestine–Israel Journal is an independent, non-profit, Jerusalem-based quarterly that aims to shed light on and analyze freely and critically, the complex issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. In 2006 it was a candidate for the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence and was recognized with a mention of honor for "its outstanding contribution to this great cause". In 2012, co-editors Hillel Schenker and Ziad Abuzayyad were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Peace Award at the eighth International Media Awards held on May 5.
Peace Direct is a charity based in London, England, which supports grassroots peacebuilders in areas of conflict. Peace Direct focuses on supporting grassroots peacebuilders who are local to the conflict and have a clear vision of what needs to be achieved. Peace Direct funds this work, promotes it and learns from it. The current CEO of Peace Direct is Dylan Mathews.
The Fund for Peace is an American non-profit, non-governmental research and educational institution. Founded in 1957, FFP "works to prevent violent conflict and promote sustainable security."
Priscilla "Scilla" Elworthy is a peace builder, and the founder of the Oxford Research Group, a non-governmental organisation she set up in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics, for which she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She served as its executive director from 1982 until 2003, when she left that role to set up Peace Direct, a charity supporting local peace-builders in conflict areas. In 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize. From 2005 she was adviser to Peter Gabriel, Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson in setting up The Elders. She is a member of the World Future Council and in 2012 co-founded Rising Women Rising World, a community of women on all continents who take responsibility for building a world that works for all.
The German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) is a German research institute. It analyses political, economic, and social developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and combines this analysis with comparative research on international relations, development and globalisation, violence and security, and political systems. GIGA advises the Federal Foreign Office and other branches of the federal government. The institute is based in Hamburg and has an office in Berlin.
Forward Thinking is a UK-registered charity founded in 2004 that works in the field of conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and political dialogue. The organisation primarily addresses issues related to the Gulf-MENA region and religious/secular dialogue at a political level.
The Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN) is an international think-tank organisation, directed by Executive Board of the Centre. The Centre was established on 1 November 2008, by Ozgur Tufekci.
Gabrielle Rifkind is a British mediator who has specialised in international conflict resolution working through non-governmental organisations, (NGOs) in the Middle East and United Kingdom. She is the Director of Oxford Process. She is known as a commentator on international peacemaking and related themes and author of several titles. Her work considers the role of human relationships in managing parties with "radical disagreements" with the goal of establishing areas of potential mutual self-interest.
Environmental peacebuilding examines and advocates environmental protection and cooperation as a factor in creating more peaceful relations. Peacebuilding is both the theory and practice of identifying the conditions that can lead to a sustainable peace between past, current or potential future adversaries. At the most basic level, warfare devastates ecosystems and the livelihoods of those who depend on natural resources, and the anarchy of conflict situations leads to the uncontrolled, destructive exploitation of natural resources. Preventing these impacts allows for an easier movement to a sustainable peace. From a more positive perspective, environmental cooperation can be one of the places where hostile parties can sustain a dialogue, and sustainable development is a prerequisite for a sustainable peace.
The International Peace and Security Institute or IPSI is a division of Creative Learning an international nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status headquartered in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2009, IPSI was acquired by Creative Learning in November 2016. The Institute's objective is to train young peacebuilding and International Justice leaders in the skills needed to effectively intervene in violent conflict scenarios in pursuit of sustainable peace.
Elworthy may refer to:
The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) is a non-governmental organisation and think tank based in Cape Town, South Africa. It was forged out of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2000. The aim was to ensure that lessons learnt from South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy were taken into account as the nation moved ahead. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was the patron of the IJR.
Florian Krampe is a German/Swedish political scientist and international relations scholar at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).[2] He is best known for his work on climate-related security risks, Environmental Peacebuilding, and the governance of natural resources after armed conflict. He also serves as Affiliated Researcher at the Research School for International Water Cooperation at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. Between 2020 and 2022 Krampe was cross appointed Specially Appointed Professor at the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability at Hiroshima University, Japan.
Refqa Abu-Remaileh is a university teacher and author with a focus on Modern Arabic literature and film studies. Since 2020, she is associate professor in the department for Semitic and Arabic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. She is mainly known for her publications on the literature and films created by Palestinian people who often live as refugees and exiles, both in the Middle East and the world-wide Palestinian diaspora.
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