History
International Alert was established in the mid-1980s, an era dominated by the Cold War, and whilst conflicts between nations were decreasing, internal conflicts and civil wars were rapidly increasing. Born out of the merger of The Standing International Forum on Ethnic Conflict, Development, and Human Rights (SIFEC), and US organisation International Alert on Genocides and Massacres, it counted Archbishop Desmond Tutu amongst the members of its first board of trustees.
It was the first organisation to concern itself specifically with violent internal conflict and at that time there existed no internationally agreed procedures for resolving internal conflict. International Alert aimed to encourage the creation of acceptable procedures and structures for resolving such situations.
Its work in areas of violent conflict focused on working with local partner organisations to facilitate peace deals and to ensure a transition to a functioning stable society.
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“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
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