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Crisis Management

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Crisis management describes efforts – by the parties to the conflict as well as outside parties – to limit, contain, or resolve conflicts, especially violent ones. While conflicts can rarely be eliminated entirely, there are measures that can be used to manage them and prevent their escalation into violence.
Crisis management describes efforts – by the parties to the conflict as well as outside parties – to limit, contain, or resolve conflicts, especially violent ones. While conflicts can rarely be eliminated entirely, there are measures that can be used to manage them and prevent their escalation into violence.

Crisis management can also refer to strategies used in the middle section of the curve of conflict; the point at which violence has erupted and reaches its peak. At this point, it is important to find ways to de-escalate the situation and get the crisis under control so that peacebuilding efforts can take hold.

There are many tools that can help to manage crises, including negotiation, mediation, and others mentioned in the section on Peacebuilder’s Tools. Crisis management at the Track I level involves high-level political and military leaders, and may include crisis diplomacy; Track II activities involve efforts by less-official actors, including religious and academic figures and civil society groups. Multi-track diplomacy means operating on several tracks simultaneously, including official and unofficial crisis management efforts.

When dealing with violent conflict, it is important that we have effective ways to achieve a “downturn” in the level of tension and violence, to protect lives and livelihoods, to establish a cease-fire and to pave the way for peacebuilding activities that can help parties to a conflict create lasting stability and develop peaceful ways of resolving their differences and addressing their grievances. Brokering a peace deal, or in some cases enforcing peace, and then keeping peace are all important ways to bring conflict back under control.

Case Study

One of the many places around the world in which crisis management is being practiced is in the Philippines, where a longstanding conflict between the government and rebel groups on the southern island of Mindanao has cost tens of thousands of lives and left millions of people displaced from their homes. In this case, crisis management has involved achieving a ceasefire, promoting a peace process, and fostering efforts to advance cooperation and understanding among different cultural, religious, and political groups in the southern Philippines, even as the conflict there continues.

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Why are there often multiple tracks to crisis management efforts?