Beyond Borders Scotland Podcast
Jul 16, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 12 segments
In this episode, listen to a discussion about the pivotal role women play in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and mediation from a Beyond Borders Scotland (BBS) panel at the Edinburgh International…
It's such a treat to have such a combination of intimate and professional expertise because you all bring that to the room with you.
And a lot of the questions I'm going to ask of the panel are internationally minded, but I would encourage and invite the audience to consider how they apply to our lives here in Scotland or wherever you call home as well.
And this is such a question.
And that's what, in peace-building language, we would call a protracted conflict, a conflict that has been going on for a very long time.
I worked in Colombia, where civil war raged for over 50 years.
And I'm curious if you could speak to us a bit about sustaining faith.
In peace and justice, when a conflict goes on for so long, how do you and the people who work on these issues keep your faith?
Roksani, I wasn't expecting you to get to the heart of it so quickly in the conversation.
I mean, I actually think that this is probably one of the biggest challenges in our work.
Of course, we are dealing with extremely complex political situations and all of the challenges that come with that.
But there's also a personal challenge and all of that for any of us involved in these processes, which is, you know, how do you keep the faith? And I think over a period of time, of course, you know, it goes with the territory.
You have moments where you say, okay, you know, we've worked so hard, and then you're in a moment like we are currently when, you know, the relationship between the countries hits rock bottom.
And once again, you see the impact of that on the most vulnerable populations, on people who are actually living near the line of control in Kashmir.
And you think... you know, the decades that have gone by working on this, you know, where are we? And I think there are two things that have kept me going.
And I think I don't want to generalize this to other people, but I read once, it was a textbook on economics for dummies, which was very useful for me.
And the fact that actually optimism can fuel action, right? So when people are feeling optimistic about the economy, they tend to spend more, and then that has its own effects.
And I actually thought that that was a great analogy for people working on political conflicts as well because there's no objective reality of whether a situation is hopeful or not, right? You can look at any situation and you can see it as being completely hopeless or you can say, you know what, this is the trough before we get to a peak, right? It's just a matter of perception and interpretation.
It's such a treat to have such a combination of intimate and professional expertise because you all bring that to the room with you.
And a lot of the questions I'm going to ask of the panel are internationally minded, but I would encourage and invite the audience to consider how they apply to our lives here in Scotland or wherever you call home as well.
And this is such a question.
And that's what, in peace-building language, we would call a protracted conflict, a conflict that has been going on for a very long time.
I worked in Colombia, where civil war raged for over 50 years.
And I'm curious if you could speak to us a bit about sustaining faith.
In peace and justice, when a conflict goes on for so long, how do you and the people who work on these issues keep your faith?
Roksani, I wasn't expecting you to get to the heart of it so quickly in the conversation.
I mean, I actually think that this is probably one of the biggest challenges in our work.
Of course, we are dealing with extremely complex political situations and all of the challenges that come with that.
But there's also a personal challenge and all of that for any of us involved in these processes, which is, you know, how do you keep the faith? And I think over a period of time, of course, you know, it goes with the territory.
You have moments where you say, okay, you know, we've worked so hard, and then you're in a moment like we are currently when, you know, the relationship between the countries hits rock bottom.
And once again, you see the impact of that on the most vulnerable populations, on people who are actually living near the line of control in Kashmir.
And you think... you know, the decades that have gone by working on this, you know, where are we? And I think there are two things that have kept me going.
And I think I don't want to generalize this to other people, but I read once, it was a textbook on economics for dummies, which was very useful for me.
And the fact that actually optimism can fuel action, right? So when people are feeling optimistic about the economy, they tend to spend more, and then that has its own effects.
And I actually thought that that was a great analogy for people working on political conflicts as well because there's no objective reality of whether a situation is hopeful or not, right? You can look at any situation and you can see it as being completely hopeless or you can say, you know what, this is the trough before we get to a peak, right? It's just a matter of perception and interpretation.
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