Conflict prevention in the 21st century: China and the UK

With an increasingly challenging international security landscape and ongoing failures of the international community to effectively prevent conflict, innovative thinking and new and cooperative partnerships are needed to better prevent conflict and help to make peace more sustainable.

The governments of China and the UK have committed at a high level to work together to promote development and to prevent conflict. This report seeks to identify any convergence in the two countries’ approaches to conflict prevention which might provide a starting point for practical cooperation in the future.

The report is based on the work of a Conflict Prevention Working Group, which over the past two years has been working to increase levels of constructive dialogue on conflict prevention between the Chinese and UK policy communities, and which has concluded that China-UK cooperation in bringing peace and stability to conflict-affected countries is desirable and, if given a suitable timeframe, both realistic and feasible.

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“Recent joint statements suggest a new warmth in the bilateral [China-UK] relationship which could be capitalised upon, and there is also enough common ground to provide the incentives for partnership on conflict prevention.”

Conflict Prevention Working Group