International Interventions

Background and Introduction

NNSC significantly broadened the scope of our network in 2017 with the launch of an international portfolio. International Interventions collaborates with a diverse range of partners outside the U.S. on effective strategies to increase community safety and reduce violence. NNSC’s international portfolio requires significant country-based adaptation, taking into account variations in social norms, histories of violence, institutional capacity and legitimacy, and more. By building coalitions of key stakeholders in communities, sharing knowledge among cities in the NNSC network, and consulting with subject matter experts, NNSC’s International Interventions portfolio is playing a meaningful role in addressing global violence.

Guided by our six key principles, we take steps to learn from our partners in an effort to fully understand the challenges they face. These steps include action research and convening local thought leaders who will work with us to adapt the framework to their context. Building coalitions of key stakeholders in the community, knowledge sharing with other cities in our network, and consulting with subject matter experts are different ways we support our partners. The goal is to achieve sustainable impact through leveraging and reallocating existing resources and social capital to implement the strategy, rather than relying on significant additional funding.

Legitimacy

Successful violence reduction must be a collective effort across institutions and communities. Effective violence reduction hinges on the legitimacy of state institutions in the eyes of the community—when legitimacy goes down, violence goes up. Communities need to see law enforcement, especially the police, as fair, respectful, and on their side. Our work in the United States continuously addresses questions of legitimacy in cities and communities that have been historically marginalized and where institutions have struggled to meet the needs and demands of the people they serve. International Interventions brings this understanding of how legitimacy issues play out in practice to our global network.

As a global community we have committed to certain principles of human rights, global development, and international cooperation. We believe that NNSC approaches can be a positive part of the solution to violence outside the U.S., just as they have been a part of the solution to reducing violence within the U.S.