Narratives for Peace: How we think and communicate around peacebuilding

As a part of our broader Narratives for Peace initiative, PartnersGlobal, together with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, has been investing in bridging narrative theory and practice to make “peacebuilding” a more salient policy priority for the broader public. With support from Humanity United and the Open Society Foundations, we are working closely with Frameworks Institute on a social science research project to uncover effective narrative frames for peacebuilding in US foreign policy.

Explore the research

Click on the reports to learn more about the research findings.

The research surfaces the common frames and narratives used by the peacebuilding field on the one hand and the ways the public perceives peace on the other. The research also offers recommendations on how peacebuilding experts can more effectively communicate and better frame their messaging to resonate with the American public and increase support for peacebuilding.

Click here for Frameworks’ Research Methods and Sample Composition.

To watch our webinar of the research team presenting the Cultural Models findings on public narratives around peace and peacebuilding, click here or watch the video below.

Understanding the Conversation About Peacebuilding: An Analysis of Organizational Communications reviews how the peacebuilding field is currently “framing” peacebuilding in the US and provides initial recommendations on how we can communicate about peace more effectively

Recommendations include:

  1. Explain what peacebuilding involves in clear and accessible terms
  2. Always make the case for peacebuilding, not just against military action
  3. Tell a consistent story about why peacebuilding matters.

This research, conducted by Frameworks Institute in partnership with the Alliance for Peacebuilding and PartnersGlobal is part of PartnersGlobal’s Narratives For Peace initiative. Funded by Humanity United and Open Society Foundations, the research initiative aims to better understand common narratives around peace and peacebuilding used by the public and the peacebuilding field in order to identify gaps between the two. Ultimately, the initiative seeks to find ways to better communicate to the American public what peacebuilding is and why it matters and to increase support for international peacebuilding efforts.

This supplement provides detailed information on the research that informs FrameWorks’ strategic brief on peace and peacebuilding. Below, we outline the research conducted for the project, describing both methods used and sample composition. This research provides the evidence base for the recommendations in the strategic brief.

As a part of our broader Narratives for Peace initiative, PartnersGlobal, together with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, has been investing in bridging narrative theory and practice to make “peacebuilding” a more salient policy priority for the broader public. With support from Humanity United and the Open Society Foundations, we are working closely with Frameworks Institute on a social science research project to uncover effective narrative frames for peacebuilding in US foreign policy.

If you would like to watch a webinar of the research team presenting these findings, you can watch the 45 minute video presentation here on YouTube.

Visit here for Frameworks’ Research Methods and Sample Composition.

In this presentation, Nat Kendall-Taylor, CEO of FrameWorks Institute, shares some of their most applicable research findings to this moment of COVID19, with lessons and tips for all civil society leaders to be able to incorporate into their communications and outreach.

The Narratives for Peace Guide is a call for the peacebuilding community to conscientiously analyze our own narratives and reflect on how we better incorporate different world views into a jointly constructed, more complex dominant societal narrative of peace. The resource presents findings from the field of narrative study, prompting peacebuilders to apply these to ourselves.

In March 2018, PartnersGlobal and the Alliance for Peacebuilding convened a group of peacebuilders, creative industry leaders, and representatives of the private sector to explore resonant framing strategies for peace and messaging campaigns on the topic.

On May 23 and 24, 2017, sixty experts from various organizational sectors, representing the Department of Defense, U.S. Government, non-governmental organizations, industry, and academia convened at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. to discuss the importance and power of narratives. The accords shown here are the collective understanding of the people who attended the conference.

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