It is easy to lose sight of hope for peaceful coexistence in the midst of carnage and war. Well into my 50s, I cannot remember a time when I did not know of a conflict raging between nations, militia, or warlords.

And yet there are those brave souls who dare to emerge from the rubble left behind by the bombs and the tanks to bridge the chasm of fear and despair. They have a solitary, if not lonely, mission to carve a path forward for conflicting parties to sit down and face one another; to talk; to deliberate; to negotiate and even to argue for a foundation of mutual benefit and peacemaking.

Some countries are leading mediation processes for major conflicts. Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar are all hoping that their intervention can bring some form of peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. Their efforts are honorable, but these peace-minded nations have a robust system of diplomacy and international presence to support their missions. What about those mediators who do not have such capacities?

This essay is dedicated to the individuals who often are alone in negotiating an exchange of prisoners, convincing armed parties to lay down their weapons, or ensuring the safe passage of women, children, and the elderly. These individuals face head-on the mounting number of deadly conflicts erupting across the globe, many of which are never covered by the media.

According to the Sweden-based Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), there is a record high number of 61 state-based (those involving territory and/or control of power) conflicts around the world today. Based on its definition of a full-scale war as a conflict in which more than 1,000 deaths a year are registered, there are between 11 to 20 of these raging at any given time. These include high-profile wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and Somalia, alongside deeply entrenched civil conflicts in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to name a few.

On the other side of conflict is the effort to end them. At times, there are small victories of transactional diplomacy—allowing humanitarian aid into war-torn areas or enacting localized ceasefires which end just as quickly as they begin. The task of moving them to comprehensive peace settlements, however, is far more difficult, and far more elusive.

The task becomes all the more desperate when one considers the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) report that the number of  international personnel dispatched to multilateral peace efforts has drastically fallen to half in the past 10 years.

That is why this issue is dedicated to those localized brave men and women (and their international partners) who embark on a journey of building trust where only distrust once prevailed. Alongside the Pathways to Hope project, this issue highlights how their work lays down the foundations of robust peace building. They are the Peacemakers.

Firas Al-Atraqchi

Managing Editor of The Cairo Review