Berghof Foundation: 50 years of conflict transformation

Interview
Ali Anan
Influencers
for
peace
Often when people think about social media, negative
images of the spread of disinformation come to mind.
Yet social media can also be a force for good. How
can social media support peacebuilding and conflict
transformation efforts?
As with every aspect of life, the human factor
is the primary determinant of outcomes: everything
can be used in either a good or a bad way, according
to the will of the initiating person. It is imperative
that we realise (and utilise) the positive influence
of social media and how it can be used to transform
individuals, societies, and even governments. Social
media can indeed help spread peace, encourage
dialogue among people from different backgrounds
and clarify perceptions or misunderstandings.
Communication is vital in promoting tolerance and
mutual understanding, and social media is an ideal
tool for that.
Berghof provides training and enables meetings
between influencers from across the political and
religious spectrum in Lebanon. What is your personal
highlight of this work?
At times of increased friction and discord,
the social media influencers we are working with
have left their mark on the national scene. At several
critical instances during the protests in 2019 and
2020, the social media influencers group intervened
to proactively de-escalate tensions. When clashes
occurred between different groups and/or with
security forces, they developed joint campaigns to
call for renouncing violence, ending scapegoating
and maintaining the inclusive and cross-sectarian
character of the protests. They reach huge audiences
by connecting their networks and followers across
the divides.
were the influencers we are working with. A resulting
major change in the project environment was the
heightening of polarisation and the hardening of
animosities in the general population, and the social
media influencers reflected and tried to counter that.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities
when bringing social media influencers from different
religious groups together? What are your hopes for
this kind of work for the future?
In bringing social media influencers together
to pacify a situation, a lot of one-on-one work has to
be done, involving very tactful and empathetic human
interaction. Trying to overcome deeply engrained
obstacles and to reverse time-hardened hostilities
requires genuine care and creative outreach, dipping
into the realm of conflict psychology. Short-term
interventions that expect to achieve real and lasting
impact are amateurish and often backfire, causing
harm and wasting material resources as well as
the goodwill of stakeholders. I hope that everyone
involved in planning and executing such efforts has
the appropriate personal commitment and the longterm
resources needed to achieve success.
Senior Project
Manager at
the Berghof
Foundation
in Beirut
How did the 2020 explosion in Beirut affect your work?
The explosion had a great impact on
everyone in Lebanon: the pain and the fear it caused
hit deep, and people have still not got over it to this
day. It happened at the beginning of August 2020,
just as the second phase of our project was about
to launch, which was a huge distraction. For the
following few weeks, the explosion, rumours and
consequences were the only thing people could talk
about. Social media was consumed by that, and so
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