Building the Bridge to Peace: Reframing Peace and Peacebuilding

As a historic crisis unfolds in Ukraine and the world continues to reel from a global pandemic, the reality of our interconnectedness has been made clearer than ever before. This interconnectedness supports the case for peacebuilding efforts around the world. However, American culture and politics can create headwinds that challenge peacebuilding work. This brief offers an evidence-based narrative around peacebuilding—how it works and why we need it—to help peacebuilding practitioners and their allies build public understanding. Based on several years of deep-dive research and the FrameWorks Institute’s Strategic Frame Analysis™, the report also offers five concrete framing strategies for communicating about peacebuilding. These strategies are designed to identify existing mindsets, change discourse, and ultimately build understanding of and support for peacebuilding across the political spectrum.