Nino Kukhianidze, S-CAR Masters Student

Nino Kukhianidze, a final year MS student at S-CAR, is currently working to develop an initiative to promote post-conflict development through the arts. While there have been other similar initiatives such as the Dance for Peace or the Theatre for Peace projects, Nino is looking to add “smart peacebuilding” elements to her design.

Nino asserts that smart peacebuilding is “developing a comprehensive program that would prove to be both sustainable and durable for the community that it is targeting.” This would involve identifying a part of the arts that the targeted communities largely engage in, including all the relevant stakeholders in the development of any program ideas, and finally securing the initial capital and “safe place” to kick-start the enterprise. To put this within the context an “Arts for Peace” project, Nino plans to tap into the new initiative of many corporations that are championing their social responsibility component, and having them fund projects that would be beneficial to the targeted population as well as to the corporations themselves. For example, Nino’s pilot project looks to bring clothes designers from the Caucuses region–Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—to develop a joint fashion line that would be under the brand name of WalMart, Kohls, or even Armani, among others. The aim of such a project would be to show that cooperation could exist between communities that perceive themselves as adversaries outside of the political scope while at the same time providing exposure and a steady income for the designers. For a clothing company, this initiative would enable them to tap into more clothing innovations while at the same time positioning themselves to positively affect the strained relationships within or between these countries. From the Caucasus, Nino hopes to expand this initiative to other parts of the world.

“This would fall within the realm of peace economics or social entrepreneurship within the field of conflict analysis and resolution,” Nino said. Although she acknowledges that her initiative would not resolve conflicts overnight, “it would at least provide the framework or building blocks for repairing strained relationships, which would lead towards positive and therefore sustainable peace.”