Ebola created mental barriers between contaminated and ‘clean’ regions that raised national security concerns. These barriers stripped people of their identity – they became viruses themselves – and of their social ties, keeping families and communities apart.
Behind well-established and fixed peacebuilding ‘models’ there always lies the danger of normativity and of a lack of flexibility. Rather than a model, it seems much more promising to foreground a frame within which to design more reflexive, adaptative and respectful peacebuilding strategies.
Building back better requires integrated approaches that address the impacts of COVID-19 across sectors, including health, environment, climate and urban planning.
“Nel conflitto russo-ucraino si è visto che la Russia usa un sistema logistico ancora molto labour-intensive. L’Ucraina è in qualche modo riuscita ad adeguarsi a standard della Nato che sono molto più capital-intensive: laddove i trasporti sono standardizzati, i pezzi di artiglieria sono autocaricanti. Oggi serve effettivamente meno gente per fare la guerra.”