Rebuilding Societies After Conflict
This guide from the 2003 National Peace Essay Contest assists teachers in increasing students' understanding of post-conflict reconstruction and ability to analyze the post-conflict reconstruction process in both historic and contemporary conflicts.
Teaching Guide on Rebuilding Societies After Conflict
Since the end of World War II, the majority of conflicts have been within states rather than between states. While some of these conflicts can be managed through peaceful means, others escalate into violence. Violent conflicts often destroy a society's physical and social infrastructure. Rebuilding this infrastructure is an integral part of managing such conflicts, promoting reconciliation, and preventing their reoccurrence.
Objectives of the Teaching Guide:
- To increase students' understanding of post-conflict reconstruction and ability to analyze the post-conflict reconstruction process in both historic and contemporary conflicts.
- To develop students' analytical reading, writing, and research skills.
- To reinforce students' abilities to collaborate and produce a work product with peers using traditional and electronic means of research, discussion, and document preparation.
- To enable classroom teachers, students, and contest coordinators to:
- Understand the National Peace Essay Contest (NPEC) topic;
- Review bibliographic resources and select qualified sources for their research;
- Define and understand concepts contained in the essay question;
- Gain knowledge of specific examples of post-conflict reconstruction and evaluate their success or failure in preventing future violence;
- Write, edit, and submit their essay to the United States Institute of Peace.
To provide teachers with lesson plans, worksheets, bibliographic sources, and factual material to assist them in preparing students to write essays for submission to the National Peace Essay Contest.
Six Lessons Are Included:
I. Introducing the National Peace Essay Contest and the 2003-2004 Question to Your Students (1/2 period)
This lesson will introduce students to the topic of the 2003-2004 NPEC contest and will set the stage for the classes that follow.
II. Laying the Foundation: Reconstruction in Context (1 period)
This lesson introduces reconstruction from an historical perspective and focuses on the most basic aspect of reconstruction“ physical rebuilding. The lesson introduces questions about the how and why of reconstruction and has students explore the answers to these questions through an example of re-building in their community.
III. The Building Blocks: Identifying the Elements of the Reconstruction Process (1-2 periods)
This lesson gives students the opportunity to specify which reconstruction tasks are most essential to their element, to consider the inter-connection among elements, and to explore the resulting needs for prioritization and coordination.
IV. The Rebuilders: Assembling the Workforce (1-2 periods)
This lesson will familiarize students with the numerous types of public and private organizations that participate in post-conflict reconstruction. Students will begin to evaluate the success or failure of these programs in preventing the resumption of violence. The lesson will assist students in choosing examples to use in their essay and in making recommendations for policy makers.
V. A Reconstruction Job Fair (1 period)
This lesson provides students with an understanding of who does what in the reconstruction process. The lesson will assist students in evaluating the reconstruction examples they choose for their essays.
VI. Devising a Blueprint for Reconstruction (Optional Simulation) (1 period)
This lesson synthesizes the work of the previous lessons. Students will apply the information they have learned to a fictitious situation requiring post-conflict reconstruction.
Download the Teaching Guide
The guides are in PDF format. To view or print them you need Adobe Acrobat. The software can be downloaded for free from Adobe's web site.
Download the National Peace Essay Contest Teaching Guide on the Rebuilding Societies After Conflict (204K)
The guide includes all lessons plans, student handouts and instructions.
Related Institute Resources
