The big idea: Peace is not made only by governments and armies. Individuals and communities build peace from the bottom up.
Who builds peace from below
- Peace activists
- Community and religious leaders
- Women's groups
- Ordinary citizens and survivors
- Grassroots peacebuilding and the inclusion of women and local people can make peace deals that last, where top-down deals often fail.
- Local peacebuilding — dialogue, reconciliation and rebuilding trust between divided communities.
- Inclusion — bringing women, youth and local people into peace processes so deals fit real needs.
- Pressure & activism — protests and campaigns that push leaders toward peace.
- Local ownership — peace the community helps shape and owns is far more likely to last.
Why bottom-up peace matters: Individuals and communities are now seen as essential peace actors, not just bystanders. Here is why.
Top-down peace deals
- Signed by leaders and outsiders.
- Often collapse because they ignore the communities who must actually live in peace.
Bottom-up peacebuilding
- Led by local people.
- Rebuilds the day-to-day trust and relationships that a signed deal cannot create.
- Including women and local communities makes peace more durable.
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Ordinary people are usually seen as the victims of conflict — and they are. But they are also agents of peace, and peace processes that leave them out tend to fail.
Why individuals and communities are vital for peace
Community and religious leaders can mediate where outsiders cannot, grassroots dialogue rebuilds trust between divided groups, women's inclusion is linked to more durable peace, and local ownership means the community sustains the peace long after negotiators leave — building the positive peace a signed ceasefire alone cannot.
The limits of grassroots peacebuilding
Local peacebuilding can be slow, small-scale and hard to protect while fighting continues; it cannot by itself stop armies or sign national ceasefires; and it can be dominated by local elites — so it complements, rather than replaces, high-level diplomacy and the state.
Case study — women and communities in peace: One of the clearest lessons of modern peacebuilding is that including women makes peace more likely to last.
Why women and communities matter
- Where women's groups have pressed for talks, shaped agreements and rebuilt communities, peace has tended to be more durable.
- Women often prioritise the everyday needs (security, services, reconciliation) that keep peace alive.
- Community-led dialogue and reconciliation rebuild the trust between neighbours that a national deal cannot.
The lesson: This is why international frameworks now stress the inclusion of women and local communities in peace processes. Bottom-up peace, led by ordinary people, is often what makes top-down deals actually hold.
The key point: Individuals and communities are essential peace actors, not just victims: grassroots peacebuilding, the inclusion of women, and local ownership rebuild the trust that makes peace last. They complement high-level diplomacy — bottom-up peace is often what makes top-down deals actually hold.
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Is lasting peace built more from the bottom up (communities) or the top down (leaders and outsiders)? And how essential is including women and local people? Recurring debates. Weigh them.
Why including women and locals matters
Peace processes that include women and local communities are linked to more durable peace, because they address the everyday needs and relationships that sustain peace and give the agreement legitimacy in the eyes of those who must live by it.
Why top-down peace is still needed
Only leaders and states can sign binding ceasefires, command armies to stop, and bring the resources and enforcement to hold a peace at national scale, so grassroots peace cannot by itself end a war — the two levels need each other.
One view: bottom-up
- Lasting peace is built by communities rebuilding trust and owning the peace.
Another view: top-down
- Peace needs deals by leaders and outsiders to stop the fighting.
Two perspectives — weigh them: Strong essays judge that the two are complementary. Top-down deals stop the war, but bottom-up peacebuilding — including women and communities — is what makes those deals hold. So lasting peace needs both.
How individuals and communities come up in Paper 2: A Paper 2 essay might ask about the role of individuals/civil society in peace, or whether peace is best built bottom-up. Weigh grassroots peacebuilding and inclusion against the need for top-down deals, then judge — usually both.
The 15-mark markband (what moves you up)
Bands 1–6
Mostly descriptive; perspectives not identified.
avoid
Bands 7–9
Clear knowledge, but perspectives identified, not explored.
7–9
Bands 10–12
Well-supported argument; perspectives explored.
10–12
Bands 13–15
Balanced, compelling; perspectives explored AND evaluated.
13–15
Discuss the view that lasting peace depends more on communities than on leaders.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Common mistakes: 1. Treating ordinary people only as victims. They are peace agents too.
2. Making it bottom-up vs top-down. Combine them.
3. Ignoring the inclusion of women. It is linked to durable peace.
4. Listing community peace initiatives. Judge them against what leaders can do.
5. No judgement. Conclude on communities vs leaders.