Their Role
Top-level leadership includes the key political, religious, and military leaders involved in a conflict. These people are often the highest leaders of the government and opposition movements, and speak for their constituencies. In most cases, they represent a few key actors within the broader conflict setting.
- This level of leadership has certain characteristics.
- First, these leaders are highly visible, and receive a lot of media coverage.[1]
- Their movements, statements, and positions are typically under close scrutiny.
In some cases, leaders may even find themselves elevated to celebrity status by intensive press coverage and significant air time.
- The high profile and publicity further consolidate a leader's legitimacy, and allow the leader to publicly voice the concerns of his or her constituency.
- Publicity also enables a leader's statements to carry enormous weight in the framing of issues and the processes of decision-making.
- Thus, publicity is often integral to securing a position of influence.
However, publicity also limits the effectiveness of elite leadership in various ways. First, by virtue of their visibility, these leaders often become locked into positions on issues related to the conflict.
William Ury tells how he managed to build trust with the leaders in Venezuela and through shuttle diplomacy and focusing on their interests got them working together to prevent violence.
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- They typically feel pressured to maintain a position of strength, with respect to their adversaries as well as their own constituencies.
- Acceptance of anything less than their publicly stated goals may be seen as a sign of weakness.
- This fear of losing face may limit their freedom to maneuver.[2]
Second, in the public eye, these leaders are often perceived as having almost exclusive power and influence. The international community often perceives them as being in a position to represent and make decisions for their constituencies. However, in many cases, power is far more diffuse. For example, in the wars in Bosnia, Somalia, and Liberia, the degree to which hierarchical power was operational is unclear.[3] When the international community relates to hierarchical leaders as if they have exclusive power, it neglects the possibility that there may be many lower-level leaders who do not fall in line behind the more visible leaders.
Top-Level Approaches
Top-down approaches to peace emphasize that accomplishments at the highest level will 'trickle down' to the rest of the population.
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The "top-down" approach to peacebuilding centers on achieving a negotiated settlement between the principal high-level leaders in the conflict. Peacemakers tend to operate as intermediaries or mediators, and they work to bring the appropriate high-level leaders to the bargaining table and set the agenda for negotiations. The close media scrutiny to which negotiations are typically subjected may make it difficult to create the trust and flexibility required for compromise.[4] In such a highly visible environment, lead negotiators face the challenge of maintaining their publicly articulated goals while at the same time moving toward settlement.
Peacebuilding approaches at this top level often focus on achieving a cease-fire or a cessation of hostilities, as a first step in a series of political and substantive negotiations. In later stages, such agreements can be broadened to include more sectors of the society and involve the political leadership in developing democratic institutions. Such negotiations can eventually culminate in an agreement that institutes mechanisms for a transition from war to peace. It is sometimes thought that accomplishments at this high level can "trickle down" to the rest of the population.[5] If the top leaders can agree, this sets the stage and the framework for implementing peace agreements and ending war.
While the role that elite leadership plays in peace building is no doubt significant, Lederach notes that it is often over-emphasized. Some believe that the greatest potential for achieving peace lies with the elite leaders of the parties to the conflict. In fact, the leaders' role is often more limited.
William Ury explains that the third side is a self-organizing social movement that works at all levels of the society from the grassroots to the elite. Outsiders can help get the movement started and can give it support, but basically the work is done from within.
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Lederach notes that several problematic assumptions underlie top-level peacebuilding actions and interventions. First, peacemakers sometimes assume that achieving peace is primarily a matter of identifying the representative leaders and getting them to agree. This assumes that the representative leaders can be identified, that they will truly articulate the concerns giving rise to the conflict, and that they possess the power and influence to guarantee their community's support for any agreements reached.[6] However, as previously noted, leaders often do not have this sort of centralized power.
Second, the top-level approach assumes a step-by-step, issue-oriented, short-term peace process carried out by top-level leaders.[7] However, the development of peace often does not occur according to this time frame. It is unlikely that those operating at lower levels will wait for an accord to be reached, and only then become engaged in its implementation. More likely they will be acting on their own...some in a way that supports peacebuilding, others likely working to continue or even escalate the conflict if they see that as serving their interests better than peace would do. A more realistic approach to peacebuilding, Lederach (and many others) argue, is a more comprehensive approach that stresses the interdependence of levels and integrates the activities of the various tiers of leadership in the peacebuilding process.[8]
[1] John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 38.
[2] Lederach, 40.
[3] Lederach, 40-1.
[4] Lederach, 44.
[5] Lederach, 45.
[6] Lederach, 45.
[7] Lederach, 45.
[8] Lederach, 46.
Use the following to cite this article:
Maiese, Michelle. "Elites." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: August 2003 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/elite/>.
Sources of Additional, In-depth Information on this Topic
Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:
Online (Web) Sources
Glaser, Tanya. "Structure: Lenses for the Big Picture -- Summary." University of Colorado: Conflict Research Consortium.
Available at: http://www.beyondintractability.org/articlesummary/10358/.
This is a summary of a chapter in Building Peace by John Paul Lederach, entitled Structure: Lenses for the Big Picture. In this chapter Lederach presents a framework for understanding the structure of armed conflicts. The author analyzes the actors involved using a three level model. At the top level are elite leaders.
Offline (Print) Sources
Safty, Adel, ed. Leadership and Global Governance. Universal Publishers, 2002.
This edited volume brings together contributions from a number of distinguished international figures who "discuss the leadership challenges facing the international community with reference to globalisation, the United Nations, peaceful resolution of disputes, public policy in the United States and elsewhere. They address these issues from their own cultural perspectives ranging from South Africa, the United States, to Japan the Middle East and Latin America, within the context of leadership challenges that they personally experienced." -From Publisher
Safty, Adel, ed. Leadership and the United Nations. Universal Publishers, 2002.
In this volume, "serving and former UN leaders and other leaders from around the world discuss some of the issues facing the United Nations and the international community in the 21st century. The discussion is usually framed in the context of leadership challenges." -From Publisher
Lederach, John Paul. "Structure: Lenses for the Big Picture." In Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Herndon, VA: USIP Press, December 1997. Pages: 37-61.
In chapter four, Lederach discusses the hierarchical structure of populations affected by conflict and suggests that we view this hierarchy in terms of a pyramid. The top level of this pyramid has the fewest number of people and includes top military, political, and religious leaders. This elite leadership plays a central role in the development of peace agreements. Click here for more info.
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Examples Illustrating this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
Come Together: From Confrontation to Conversation. 2004.
Available at: http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=162.
An interview with Ivan Eland, Robert Reich, and Russell Train. Opposites may attract in love and physics but seldom in politics. Yet, some political opposites are indeed coming together. Driven by the notion that leadership has gone haywire, progressives and conservatives are finding common ground in what they oppose and what they propose. Join us for a journey beyond left and right.
Boergers, Mary. "Track 1 1/2 Diplomacy in Northern Ireland." Peaceworks, No. 20 , May 1998
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/smock20/chap7_20.html.
This article describes the Track 1 1/2 Diplomacy project of the Ireland U.S. Public Leadership Program (IUSPLP). This project focuses on educating young political leaders from Northern Ireland on new diplomatic and peacebuilding skills. The goal is to effect the future in a positive way, through education today.
Prendergast, John. U.S. Leadership in Resolving African Conflict: The Case of Ethiopia-Eritrea.
Available at: http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr74.html.
This report examines the role of Clinton Administration officials in helping to broker a peace settlement in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, at the end of the 1990s. The Ethiopia-Eritrea case demonstrates that high-level, sustained, continuous U.S. engagement in peacemaking in Africa can have a major positive impact.
Prendergast, John. U.S. Leadership in Resolving African Conflict: The Case of Ethiopia-Eritrea. United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
Available at: Click here for more info.
This article describes the pro-active role that U.S. President Bill Clinton and other top U.S. officials took, along with envoys from the Organization for African Unity and European Union, to broker a peace settlement between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The case "demonstrates that high-level, sustained, continuous U.S. engagement in peacemaking in Africa can have a major positive impact."
What Were the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords?.
Available at: Click here for more info.
This page offers a short description of what took place during the course of the Camp David negotiations in November 1978. The negotiations involved top leaders from Israel (Prime Minister Menachem Begin), Egypt (President Anwar Sadat), and the U.S. (Jimmy Carter served as the mediator). This page includes several links to further informative information on the Camp David Accords.
Offline (Print) Sources
Schlesinger, Arthur M. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Houghton Miflin, January 1, 1965.
This book examines President John F. Kennedy's time in office. It describes the actions he took in times of crisis, specifically during the Cuban crisis, that led to de-escalation.
Watkins, Michael, Susan Rosegrant and Shimon Peres. Breakthrough International Negotiation: How Great Negotiators Transformed the World's Toughest Post-Cold War Conflicts. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2001.
This work offers step-by-step descriptions of the key negotiations that led to the resolution of some of the most serious conflicts since the Cold War. The authors provide stories about negotiations in the Middle East, Bosnia, and North Korea. Discussion of relevant negotiation theory is combined with the first-hand accounts of individuals that played important roles in the negotiations described. Click here for more info.
Safty, Adel. From Camp David to the Gulf: Negotiations, Language and Propaganda, and War. Black Rose Books, January 1996.
This work presents analyses of the 1978 Camp David negotiations regarding the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as negotiations revolving around the first war in Iraq. The author concentrates on dissecting the language and propaganda employed by the leaders involved, as well as the media interpretations involved in these scenarios.
Safty, Adel, ed. Leadership and Conflict Resolution. Universal Publishers, 2002.
In this work, a "number of distingusihed leaders and scholars address the leadership challenges inherent in the peaceful resolution of some of the major conflicts around the globe. These include the Middle East, Ruwanda, Northern Ireland, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union." -From Publisher
Kellerman, Barbara and Jeffrey Z. Rubin. Leadership and Negotiation in the Middle East. New York: Praeger, 1988.
This book looks at the Israel-Lebanon conflict of 1982 in examining the role of national leaders as key actors in international politics and conflict management. Among leaders discussed are Menachem Begin, Yassir Arafat, Syria's Hafez al-Assad, Hosini Mubarak, King Hussein, Brezhnev, and Ronald Reagan.
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Audiovisual Materials on this Topic:
Offline (Print) Sources
Security Council . First Run Icarus Films. 1982.
The film reviews several United Nations Security Council cases involving disarmament and arms limitation agreements, security guarantees, deadlines, and sanctions. It explains the role formal intermediaries and elite leaders play in the enacting and enforcing of UN policies. Click here for more info.
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