CeaseFire International

Each year, CeaseFire receives numerous inquiries from individuals and organizations throughout the globe interested in addressing lethal violence by adapting the CeaseFire model to their cultural context.

Replication Partners

Each year, CeaseFire receives numerous inquiries from individuals and organizations throughout the globe interested in addressing lethal violence by adapting the CeaseFire model to their cultural context.

In 2008, in partnership with the American Islamic Congress (AIC), the CeaseFire model was adapted for an international context for the first time. This was a tremendous learning experience for the program, both in the process of adaptation, as well as in testing the underlying theories. The CeaseFire model had been proven effective for intervention with street-organizations, but transferring it to the Basra context meant focusing on the tribal, religious, and community leaders. The results have been encouraging, since January 2009 conflict mediators have intervened in 112 violent incidents and prevented escalation (killing) in 105 of those cases. An official report written by the U.S. Department of Foreign Relations recommended expanding the CeaseFire program to “all of Iraq’s major cities and look for ways to expand these concepts into school curricula, media outreach and public diplomacy programs.”

On a global scale, CeaseFire’s innovative program fundamentally challenges the prevailing thinking on both the formation of violence and the approach to reducing it, representing a now scientifically validated break from outdated ideologies on the issue. As it does for implementation in the United States, CeaseFire aims to orient itself as a centralized coordinating and guiding body to provide leadership, strategy, training and technical assistance.

To learn more about CeaseFire’s International Program, please contact R. Brent Decker, Project Coordinator at (312) 355-5001 or brentd@uic.edu.