Beyond Doha and Geneva: peacemaking engagement of Afghans and Syrians in North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany

Abstract

For several decades now, Germany has become home to significant numbers of Afghans, and more recently Syrians, who have fled war. In this Working Paper, we analyse the political engagement for peace by Afghans and Syrians in Germany since the beginning of violent conflict in Afghanistan (1978) and Syria (2011). Departing from an understanding of peace processes as more than summits and diplomatic events, we focus on peacemaking initiatives ‘from below’ by Afghans and Syrians in Germany, with a particular emphasis on activities in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), in a long-term perspective. As a guiding research question for this Paper, we ask: To what extent have Afghans and Syrians in NRW and other parts of Germany been able to engage in peacemaking, and how are these efforts linked to official talks and the situation inside Afghanistan and Syria? We argue that the different types of engagement we give evidence of, for instance, rallies, publications, the establishment of associations and even privately initiated dialogue forums for peace, constitute significant building blocks in peace processes. They demonstrate the agency of individuals and groups of Afghan and Syrian background to engage for peace and the potential impact they could have if acknowledged more widely. However, the same individuals and initiatives are usually excluded from official negotiations. In NRW, Königswinter near Bonn hosted the UN-Talks on Afghanistan in 2001, but only few representatives of Afghans in Germany were invited to participate. Similarly, the state of NRW, and Germany as a whole, are home to the highest number of Syrian refugees in Europe, yet hardly any individuals have been part of the Syria negotiations in Geneva. Our research highlights how history writing and research have sidelined organically emerging initiatives for peace from among societies facing war— including among those living abroad. The evidence in this Paper, however, demonstrates that bottom-up engagement of exiles has initiated activities from the grassroots to the highest level, that is comparable to official Track 1 talks that comprise representatives of the major armed factions of a conflict. In conclusion, we argue that such Afghan- and Syrian-led initiatives should receive significantly more scholarly attention and that their consideration will likely change the history writing of war and peace with a much clearer emphasis on the perspective of those who are concerned the most.