The Åland Islands Peace Institute woks practically and with research into peace and conflict issues in a broadly defined sense, with Åland and the special status that Åland enjoys under international law as a starting point. The Institute focuses on forms of autonomy, minority issues and security.
Peace and conflict resolution
The Åland Peace Institute is of the opinion that peace is more than simply the “absence of war”. Peace work does not only entail working against military violence, but also against other forms of so-called “structural violence” that prevent people from developing their true potential. It is also part of peace work to create opportunities for active participation in society and peaceful conflict resolution on both an individual and a structural level. The demilitarisation and neutralisation of the Åland Islands is a central component in the arrangement that has grown during more than 150 years, and may be regarded as an example of peace building on a structural level.
Åland and the Åland example
The Åland Peace Institute was founded in 1992 primarily with reference to the need for an organisation that could partly monitor and partly analyse the special status of Åland as an autonomous, demilitarised and neutralised region. This role is still central in the activities of the Peace Institute. The international interest for the Åland autonomy is huge. Groups visit Finland to study the Åland example and Åland is presented abroad. The Åland Peace Institute actively take part in this, and the demand for the knowledge and expertise of the Institute is increasing. The Åland Peace Institute is an engine driving the discussion about the interpretation and implementation and in the critical examination of international agreements and national legislation that regulates the speical status of the Åland Islands.
The Peace Institute works on Åland with Åland as the geographic point of departure, and concentrate its activities to Åland, the Nordic and the Baltic region. The Institute also has certain expertise concerning the Caucasus, and has among its network of contacts also persons with expert knowledge of other areas.
Security
The Institute’s work on security addresses issues of military security as well as human and social security. The demilitarisation and neutralisation of the Åland Islands are still in need of analysis and monitoring in response to the emergence of new security environments and in reference to European and multilateral security cooperation.
Neutralisation, i.e. the prohibition of acts of war within or against the territory of Åland, is of more recent date and deserves to be studied in greater depth. The effect of the battle against terrorism on current security concepts is clear and is shifting the previously doubtful distinction between ‘peace’ and ‘war’.
Ethnic conflicts, which are often internal, occur both in Europe, in the geographic sense, and in the rest of the world. The connection between issues of identity, including religion, and conflict is likely to remain and become stronger in future.
Self-governance
Territorial and non-territorial autonomy arrangements continue to be developed through the constant tension between centre and periphery. The Nordic region has both autonomous islands, i.e. Åland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and a certain degree of autonomy for the Sami people on issues that concern them and their traditional territories. In the rest of Europe regionalisation, decentralisation and autonomy issues continue to be discussed and evolve in many countries, while we are also seeing tendencies towards increasing nationalism.
In several of these arrangements political self-government is combined with various forms of support and legal protection of the minority group’s language and identity. The subsidiarity principle of the European Union can be expected to evolve in coming years in tandem with continued discussions on the citizens’ Europe. The role of the regions is being strengthened and is in need of more in-depth analysis.
Minorities
The issue of the participation of cultural minorities in democratic decision-making processes is one of the most burning issues after the Second World War and especially after the worldwide identity movements of the 1970s and 80s. For the Nordic countries the issue is how to combine an egalitarian welfare society with recognition of cultural specificity and support for languages and identity. How tolerant can we be towards those who advocate other ways of life than that of the majority? How can we ensure broad political participation?
How should we respond to those who may even be threatening the foundations of democracy? Issues of how identities are created and of what they consist, on legislation and constitutional practice, as well as issues concerning the relationship between national and international development are areas where the Åland Islands Peace Institute has long experience, not least thanks to the Åland example’s potential as an object of analysis.
