The Role of Corporate Actors in Peacebuilding Processes

In peacebuilding I work in the tradition of a practitioner-scholar. Most of my year I am more in the field than the classroom, working with peace initiatives and people in settings of deep-rooted conflict. Three experiences from the field in the last year speak to the challenges of commerce and peacebuilding, at macro and micro levels.

About a year ago I remember sitting with a number of grassroots leaders in Myanmar. While our wider focus was the question of how to approach the challenges of peace in this ultra-controlled settings, the immediate discussions swirled around recent sanctions and boycotts placed on the import of fabrics produced in Myanmar by a number of countries in the international community. Many in our group had extended family members affected with layoffs. Within weeks of the policy shift producer factories shifted from Myanmar to China and neighboring countries, and at same time several transfers of money moved from China to the military Junta…