PeaceRep

Research Seminar: Reparations and reproductive violence - The case of children born of conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia
2023-11-22 16:00 - 17:30 UTC | Edinburgh School of Law, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Researcher Dr Tatiana Sanchez Parra (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Fellow, University of Edinburgh Politics and International Relations) shares her work on reproductive justice from a chapter of her upcoming book, ‘Born of War in Colombia: Reproductive Violence and Memories of Absence’.
Please RSVP via Eventbrite to attend
Tatiana’s work:
Tatiana Sanchez Parra works on issues related to feminist peacebuilding, reproductive justice, and reproductive violence in contexts of war and political transitions. Her research is situated at the intersection of feminist studies, socio-legal studies, and Latin American studies.
Her current project, ‘Advancing Gender Justice, Tackling Reproductive Violence: Forced Parenthood in Contexts of War’, focuses on the experiences of cisgender women and transgender men who are parenting children born of conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia. Through a collaborative, ethnographic, and arts-based approach, the project seeks to: (1) offer a comprehensive understanding of diverse experiences of these forms of parenthood; (2) advance knowledge regarding justice and redress for these cases; (3) facilitate knowledge exchange to render visible and address these experiences of parenthood.
About Tatiana:
Tatiana is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Tatiana holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex, where she also obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights. Prior to her studies in the UK, Tatiana completed a Master’s in Social Anthropology at the Universidad de Los Andes, where she also studied her undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology. Before starting her current position at the University of Edinburgh, Tatiana worked as an Assistant Professor at Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Culturales Pensar of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) and as a consultant for the Global Survivors Fund (Switzerland).
Please RSVP via Eventbrite to attend

Book Launch: Regionalized Governance in the Global South
2023-11-01 16:00 - 17:00 UTC | Edinburgh School of Law, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
Book Launch: Regionalized Governance in the Global South with Brooke Coe and Kathryn Nash
When: Wednesday 01 November, 16:00 – 17:00
Where: Moot Court Room, Old College
Register to attend in person
Register to attend online
In their new Element, Dr Brooke Coe and Dr Kathryn Nash question division of labour and concentration of authority among intergovernmental organizations by examining multilevel governance in the Global South. Their work focuses on the policy domains of peace and security and human rights in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and their central finding is that the extent of governance regionalization varies across regions and issue areas. In the domain of peace and security, governance is most regionalized in Africa. In the domain of human rights protection, governance is most regionalized in the LAC region. Given the phenomenon of regional specialization, the Element makes the case for the greater explanatory power of regional drivers of regional institutional development.
At this event to launch their minibook, Dr Coe and Dr Nash will present their research and answer questions. They’ll also discuss their plans to make their dataset public and the need for further research on divisions of governance in a multi-level international system. The Element is available open access at https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/regionalized-governance-in-the-global-south/27ACE026649675E3A40E37989F9ACD10.

Peace Analytics: Peace and Transition Process Tracker
2023-10-16 21:30 - 22:00 UTC
Join Christine Bell, PeaceRep’s Executive Director, at the 2023 Data for Peace Conference for her session on Peace Analytics.
When: 16 October 2023, 21:30 – 22:00 BST / 16:30 – 17:00 ET
Where: Online
Register to attend virtually (In-person registrations now at capacity)
PeaceRep Executive Director, Christine Bell, will host a hybrid Breakout Session at the 2023 Data for Peace Conference on Peace Analytics and PeaceRep’s new Peace and Transition Process Tracker.
Real-time tracking and mapping of peace processes, the conditions around them, and their impact on levels of peace within a country is challenging for many reasons, but can help identify trends and inform policymakers and the general public.
At the hybrid event next week, Christine will introduce plans for PeaceRep’s new peace and transition process tracker. The tracker is designed to support adaptive implementation of peace and transition agreements and builds on expansive PA-X data.
Join Christine Bell at Breakout #2 Session 3.2 for a deep dive into the challenges of tracking peace processes, what this means for ‘Peace Analytics,’ and insights into PeaceRep’s ‘PA-X Tracker’ ahead of its launch in 2024.
About Christine Bell:
Professor Christine Bell is Assistant Principal (Global Justice) and Professor of Constitutional Law at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and is PeaceRep’s Executive Director.
Christine’s research interests lie in the interface between constitutional and international law, gender and conflict, and legal theory, with a particular interest in peace processes and their agreements.
About the 2023 Data for Peace Conference:
This fall, the NYU Center on International Cooperation, with support from the Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d) and its partners, will host a five-day hybrid conference with national and international experts in the data for peacebuilding and prevention ecosystem to facilitate peer-to-peer exchange and leverage emerging technologies and data science methods to tackle the growing challenges across the humanitarian-development-peace and climate nexus globally.
Peacebuilding and prevention practitioners are searching for novel approaches to tackle the growing challenges. Emerging technologies and data science methods have been recognized as potential tools to better understand and tackle some of these challenges across the humanitarian-development-peace and climate nexus. GIS, advanced analytics, machine learning, natural language processing and image processing, are some of potential “game changers” recognized by many and already utilized by some of our partners. As a power engine of all these approaches stands data, generated, and collected at unprecedented rates. And yet, there are still many gaps and problems in data availability, quality, and usability that make this work challenging.
Register to attend virtually

MEDRC Webinar: In Theory and Practice - Exploring Legal Perspectives in Environmental Peacebuilding Initiatives
2023-09-27 12:00 - 13:00 UTC
Join MEDRC for the latest webinar in their Stabilization Mechanism Series, featuring PeaceRep’s Managing Director, Tim Epple.
Image: Anand Purohit, Getty Images
When: Wednesday 27 September, 12:00pm
Where: Zoom
Register to attend.
Legal frameworks are pivotal to using the environment in service of peacebuilding. International legal mechanisms play a crucial role in mitigating risks and preventing the recurrence of armed conflict. Additionally, they provide avenues for engagement, dialogue, environmental conservation, and the equitable sharing of benefits. The effective application of legal mechanisms in environmental peacebuilding is a challenging and complex process. Join MEDRC in discussion as a panel of expert speakers share insights from theory and practice.
Speakers:

Dr Britta Sjöstedt, Senior Lecturer in Environment Law at Lund University
Tim Epple, Managing Director at University of Edinburgh Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep)
Mauran El-Krekshi, Head of MENA at CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation

About:
In the Stabilization Mechanism Webinar Series, the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) invites expert speakers to help unpack and look critically at a few themes that have emerged within the environmental diplomacy field. MEDRC seeks informed practical insights for mechanisms operating in transboundary environmental cooperation and diplomacy.
Register to attend on Zoom.

Book Talk: Redefining Ceasefires
2023-09-14 14:30 - 16:00 UTC | Old College, Edinburgh Law School, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
Join PeaceRep and Marika Sosnowski for a talk on her new book, Redefining Ceasefires: Wartime Order and Statebuilding in Syria.
“Boys playing tug of war” (2020) by Shadi Abousada
When: Thursday 14 September, 2:30 – 4:00pm
Where: Moot Court Room, Edinburgh Law School, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL
Register now on Eventbrite.
Since 2012, ceasefires have been used in Syria to halt violence and facilitate peace agreements. However, in a new book, Marika Sosnowski argues that a ceasefire is rarely ever just a “cease fire”. Instead, she demonstrates that ceasefires are not only military tactics but are also tools of wartime order and statebuilding.
Drawing from the PA-X dataset, rare primary documents and first-hand interviews with over eighty Syrians and other experts, in this talk, Marika draws from the book’s findings to present an innovative typology of ceasefires as a way to think through a range of heretofore underexamined impacts ceasefires can have on areas like rebel/local governance, citizenship and property rights, humanitarian access and economic networks. The categories of the typology will be illustrated with examples of ceasefires from arguably the most critical conflict of our time, the Syrian civil war.
Read more about the book: Redefining Ceasefires: Wartime Order and Statebuilding in Syria
Speakers

Laura Wise, PeaceRep Research Fellow and Programme Coordinator
Kasia Houghton, ESRC Doctoral Researcher, University of St Andrews
Mohamad Alashmar, Doctoral Researcher & Fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies, University of St Andrews

About the Author
Marika Sosnowski is an Australian-qualified lawyer, a Research Associate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Her research is firmly interdisciplinary straddling international law, socio-legal studies and politics. Her primary interests are in the fields of governance and legal systems with a geographical focus on Syria.
About PeaceRep
PeaceRep is a research consortium based at The University of Edinburgh Law School. Our research is re-thinking peace and transition processes in the light of changing conflict dynamics, changing demands of inclusion, and changes in patterns of global intervention in conflict and peace/mediation/transition management processes.
RSVP
Register now on Eventbrite. Contact peacerep@ed.ac.uk with any questions.

Women, Peace and Security in the Digital Age
2023-05-09 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
Join us for a celebration of the PeaceFem mediation app, and a discussion on the challenges faced by the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the Digital Age.

When: Tuesday 9 May, 16:00 – 18:00
Where: InSpace, University of Edinburgh
Register to attend via Eventbrite
In 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), which sets an agenda for all peace and conflict transition processes to include women’s meaningful participation, and gender perspectives in any resultant peace agreements. Over two decades later, the world of peace mediation has dramatically changed with the spread of Information Community Technologies (ICTs), and the widespread use of data to understand the progress and trajectory of women’s inclusion in peace processes. Meanwhile, the global conflict landscape is increasingly fragmented and complex, and presents new challenges for mediation approaches to resolving violent armed conflict.
The PeaceFem mobile app is a contribution to the growing field of PeaceTech, which uses technology to support peacebuilding. Designed for women’s rights advocates, mediation and negotiation teams, and other peace and security actors, PeaceFem contains strategies for influencing peace processes, as well as the resulting gender-sensitive provisions in peace agreements and data on their implementation. Launched in July 2020, the app is now in use in 60 countries around the globe and is available in five languages: Arabic, English, French, Indonesian, and Burmese. PeaceFem is available for download via Google Play and the App Store.
At this event, join co-creators of the PeaceFem app, and experts on Women, Peace and Security, peace and conflict, and PeaceTech, to discuss the opportunities and challenges that the Digital Age offers women’s equality advocates trying to influence conflict transitions. We will reflect on how women peacebuilders utilise PeaceTech to leverage inclusion, how technology can also restrict women’s meaningful participation, and why Women, Peace and Security advocates are increasingly using peace and conflict data to support their work.

Schedule
16:00: Welcome – Prof Christine Bell, Assistant Principal (Global Justice), University of Edinburgh School of Law, Executive Director of PeaceRep
16:05-16:15: PeaceFem introduction with Ms. Fiona Knäussel (Associate Researcher, University of Oxford)
16:15-16:45: Panel discussion – ‘Women, Peace and Security in the Digital Age’
Chair:
Ms. Laura Wise – Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Speakers:
• Dr Monalisa Adhikari – Lecturer in International Politics, University of Stirling
• Dr Sanja Badanjak – Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Challenges, University of Edinburgh
• Dr Claire Duncanson – Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Edinburgh
16:45-17:15: Open discussion
17:15-18:00: Drinks reception
This event is hosted by PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform. PeaceRep is a seven-year research consortium re-thinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics, led by the University of Edinburgh Law School. PeaceRep is funded by UK Aid from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK.
Register to attend via Eventbrite

About the speakers
Dr Monalisa Adhikari is a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Stirling. Monalisa obtained her PhD in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh in 2020, and was a Research Fellow with the Political Settlements Research Programme. Her primary research interests include peace processes, international interventions in fragile and conflict-affected states, rising powers engagement in the global governance of peace and security, and foreign policies of India and China. She has conducted research in China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
Dr Sanja Badanjak is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Challenges at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, PeaceRep’s Data Director, and Data Manager for the PA-X Peace Agreements Database and Dataset. Her research interests include the applications of quantitative and text-as-data methods in the study of institutions, elections, and peace processes. She completed her PhD in political science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and holds and MA in political science from the Central European University.
Prof Christine Bell is Assistant Principal (Global Justice) and Professor of Constitutional Law at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh, and is PeaceRep’s Executive Director. She is a co-creator of the PeaceFem app. Christine’s research interests lie in the interface between constitutional and international law, gender and conflict, and legal theory, with a particular interest in peace processes and their agreements.
Dr Claire Duncanson is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Social and Political Science. Claire’s research interests lie at the intersection of international security, IR theory and gender politics. Her work applies new theoretical insights about feminism, gender, and masculinities to international issues such as peacebuilding, military interventions, and nuclear proliferation. Her current project, with Carol Cohn at the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Right, is focused on creating a Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace and Planet. Prior to her academic career, she worked for a variety of human rights and international development NGOs, including Amnesty International, Jubilee 2000 and Global Perspective.
Ms. Fiona Knäussel is an Associate Researcher with PeaceRep based at the Oxford Internet Institute, and a co-creator of the PeaceFem mediation app. Her research focuses on the development and study of PeaceTech and peace data applications, and the ethical implications of the use of technologies in the context of conflict and peacebuilding. She also has a strong interest in women’s rights in conflict, and gender-specific and intersectional human rights issues. Fiona holds an LLM in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and an LLB (Hons) in Law and International Relations from the University of Edinburgh. She’s also currently reading for a MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford.
Ms. Laura Wise is a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, PeaceRep gender lead, and a co-creator of the PeaceFem app. Laura’s research explores the margins of peace processes and their intersections with the politics of inclusion, with a particular focused on local peace processes, non-dominant minorities, and gender. Her work on gender perspectives in peace agreements regularly informs United Nations women, peace and security policy, and she has previously worked with UN Women to support women engaged in peace processes in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Libya. Laura holds an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen’s University Belfast and a BSc Econ in International Politics from Aberystwyth University.

About PeaceFem
PeaceFem is a collaboration between UN Women, Inclusive Peace, the Monash University Centre for Gender, Peace and Security, and the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) at
the University of Edinburgh. The project has been financially supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in cooperation with Deustche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. PeaceRep/University of Edinburgh data was supported by UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and Monash data was supported by Australian Research Council Linkage Project, ‘Toward Inclusive Peace: Mapping the Gender Provisions of Peace Agreements’. Inclusive Peace data was supported by Inclusive Security, UN Women, and the Governments of Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and Turkey.
Learn more about PeaceFem

Conference - Rethinking Sovereignty at the Radical Frontier: Pirates, Proxies and Post-State Philosophies
2023-03-30 - 2023-03-31
Rethinking Sovereignty at the Radical Frontier: Pirates, Proxies and Post-State Philosophies
Conference hosted by the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University
Location: Coventry University, Cheetah Rd, Coventry CV1 2TL
Deadline for abstracts and registrations: 25 January 2023
Complete this form to submit and abstract, or to register to attend
The war of aggression raging in Eastern Europe is a stark reminder of the fragility of sovereignty itself, and the real threats faced by many nations. Threats to the sanctity of state sovereignty, and the global liberal order of international relations which sits precariously upon it, come from all directions and domains, whether by land, air, sea, cyberspace, urban concrete space, or the vacuum of outer space. The system of international relations, based upon the Westphalian and later UN concept of sovereign equality between states is tenuous and fragile, and recent international relations have shown that its very foundations can be threatened at any time. The reality of the postliberal international order increasingly appears as an enduring radical frontier, where pirates, hackers and criminals roam, proxy wars and enduring transitions in fragmented contexts challenge and muddy the black and white ideals that liberal internationalism was based upon. Everywhere citizens and states increasingly seem to operate by a post-state philosophy based more on the exception than the rule.
This conference seeks to examine these challenges to sovereignty at the frontiers of the state, in three directions:
1. Threats from the radical fringe of pirates, proxies, hackers, and terrorists who openly challenge and threaten state security; and
2. Perspectives of enduring transitions evolving in increasingly ‘ungoverned’, non-closed and permanently changing modalities.
3. On the other side of the spectrum,squatters, activists and alternative movements offer radically alternate visions of ‘a good life’, and new embodiments of the idea of sovereignty that allows it.
By opening this conversation, we can re-examine the foundations of sovereignty itself, and ask a raft of pressing questions: what is sovereignty? Where did it come from? How can it be claimed or asserted? And, perhaps most important of all, are there any viable alternatives to the current, deeply flawed system, be it at the extra-national, international, the national or the local level. In approaching this daunting task – a deep reappraisal of the Westphalian foundations of global order – we may seek guidance from philosophers past and present, from Kant to Nietzsche to Foucault, and other contemporary thinkers, and ask what relief and direction they can offer in deeply troubling times.
We are seeking papers willing to engage in a ‘festival of dangerous ideas’ – a deep critique of lip-service sovereignty, a willingness to ‘stare into the abyss’ and call out the contemporary realities of sovereignty, as well as a brave offering of alternate visions and ideas of how real existing sovereignty could and might be conceptualised.
Potential Panels
• Emerging and future threats to sovereignty in the era of cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence and security in the new online frontier
• Maritime security and encroaching threats to the living ecosystems existing within sovereign maritime territorial spaces
• Alternative approaches to sovereignty: Micro-Sovereignties (example: seasteads, squatted buildings, autonomous zones, safe spaces, etc.,) and pragmatic approaches, such as civic-ness
• Proxy wars, state-sponsored aggression and the role of non-state actors
• Transitional arrangements in fragment states, (aka states that have never existed as a sovereign entity with unified governance)
• Decolonialism and indigenous sovereignty
• Structures of international relations, the United Nations as an institution, the UN Security Council, and ideas for reform
• Philosophical approaches to sovereignty more broadly
Applications for other panels or papers are also encouraged. Organisers plan to submit a special edition of a leading journal on the theme of Sovereignty at the Radical Frontier.
We seek submissions in two formats:
1. Written abstracts of up to 500 words
2. Artistic interventions that address this theme, which might include original artworks, graphic novels and comics, or poster presentations.
Traditional academic panels are planned alongside an artistic ‘gallery of dangerous ideas’, and will take place in person at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations in Coventry.
Deadline for abstracts and registrations: 25 January 2023
Complete this form to submit and abstract, or to register to attend
Funded Travel
Please advise at time of application if you would like to be considered for funding. Instructions on how to book funded travel via CTPSR will be sent separately.
Keynote
Prof Mary Kaldor, Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics
Cities at War: Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance (Edited volume, 2020)
This project has received funding from:

The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101029232, and
The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Research Seminar: The peace process as a quantitative unit of analysis
2023-03-08 10:00 - 11:00 UTC | University of Edinburgh
Visiting researcher Yoav Kapshuk (Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee) presents findings from a recent paper co-authored with Yuval Haitman (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev):
The peace process as a quantitative unit of analysis
Please RSVP via Eventbrite to attend
Paper Abstract:
Previous quantitative research has examined both the design of peace agreements and assessed which provisions characterize stable ones. However, research on peace agreements as a single unit of analysis misses the connections forged between multiple agreements within a peace process.
Therefore, while recognizing the difficulties in operationally defining the concept of peace process, this project restructures the data from PA-X peace agreements database (version 5) such that the unit of analysis is the peace process instead of the peace agreement. In doing so, we obtain insight into the principles at work when designing peace processes. To this end, we use machine learning methods to assess at what stage and in what order within a negotiation is it desirable to engage in any given principle.
A preliminary examination was conducted on the principles of transitional justice (TJ), an area known to be significant for societies transitioning from conflict to peace. We examined which principles of TJ in partial agreements predict the achievement of a comprehensive agreement and found that out of 10 variables of TJ from the PA-X database, the presence of 1) reconciliation, 2) release of prisoners and 3) mechanisms to deal with the past in intermediate stages of peace processes (i.e., in partial agreements) have the greatest contribution to achieving comprehensive agreements. In contrast, provisions such as vetting, missing, and courts in intermediate stages of peace processes have the lowest contribution to achieving comprehensive agreements; provisions such as amnesty and reparation have medium contribution.
These findings advance our understanding of what key TJ provisions to focus on during negotiations. Future research will use observations of peace processes to examine the importance of other principles: inclusion of groups (such as minorities, women, refugees), provisions for security, provisions for power-sharing, and more.
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The Politics of the Turkey/Syria Earthquake: Responses & Aftermath
2023-03-02 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | London
Panel discussion hosted by LSE Human Rights, LSE IDEAS and LSE Middle East Centre
When: Thursday 2 March 2023, 18:00 – 19:30 GMT
Where: Sheikh Zayed Lecture Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE, 54 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LJ

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The recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have had catastrophic impacts across a large area. More than 44,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless, with key infrastructure heavily damaged. Many of those affected are refugee communities already traumatised by conflict. The magnitude and urgency of the humanitarian challenge requires critical reflection and discussion on the responses to the earthquakes from states, international organisations and NGOs. To what extent have emergency agencies been able to access and deliver relief to those most in need? What are the conditions, and prospects for, recovery and reconstruction? The panel at this event will consider these and other questions.
Chair: Dr Ayça Çubukçu – Associate Professor in Human Rights and Co-Director of LSE Human Rights at LSE
Speakers:
Dr Karabekir Akkoyunlu – Lecturer in the Politics of the Middle East, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
Dr Hişyar Özsoy – Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
Dr Rim Turkmani – Research Director of the Syria Research Programme, Conflict & Civicness Research Group, LSE IDEAS
Amberin Zaman – Senior Correspondent for Al-Monitor
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The event is free but those attending are invited to donate to fundraisers:

Disasters Emergency Committee
Syrian British Consortium

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Russia-Ukraine Dialogues: Ukraine, One Year On
2023-02-21 15:00 - 16:00 UTC
This week’s Russia-Ukraine Dialogues panel will focus on Ukraine, the primary victim of the war, in a discussion of the following issues:

An overview of the past year
Recent winter time developments (battlefield dynamics, and economic and humanitarian impacts of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure)
Ukraine’s needs (military, economic reconstruction, and humanitarian)
Possible scenarios for 2023

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Panelists:
Andrii Yarmolskyi, is the Deputy Head of the Service for Foreign Policy Security and International Cooperation, Ukraine
Oleksandr Hryban, Deputy Minister of Economy, Ukraine
Olga Tokariuk, independent journalist, fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford, non-resident fellow at CEPA (Center for European Policy Analysis)
Chair: Dr Leon Hartwell, Sotirov Fellow, LSE IDEAS

This event is part of the Russia-Ukraine Dialogues series. Given the recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (24 February 2022), the conflict continues to be fluid and requires cross-disciplinary analysis. Weekly panels on Tuesdays bring together in-house and external experts to report on and discuss the war’s impacts on various global issues.

From the 1st of November 2022, the LSE IDEAS Russia-Ukraine Dialogues is part-funded by PeaceRep (the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform), an international research project rethinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics led by the University of Edinburgh Law School.

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Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in South Africa: The National Peace Accord, 1991-1994
2023-02-17 13:30 - 15:00 UTC | Old College, Edinburgh Law School, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
Book launch with the author, Rev Dr Liz Carmichael

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PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform is pleased to host Reverend Dr Liz Carmichael at the University of Edinburgh, to present her new book:
Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in South Africa: The National Peace Accord, 1991-1994
Carmichael’s book examines the creation and implementation of South Africa’s National Peace Accord and this key transitional phase in the country’s history, and its implications for peace mediation and conflict resolution.
Liz will be joined by discussant Dr Barbara Bompani, Reader (Associate Professor) in Africa & International Development – Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh.
Chair: Tim Epple, PeaceRep’s Managing Director
Lunch will be provided for attendees. Please provide details of any dietary requirements when booking.

About the book
“This book tells the story of Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in South Africa, a stage in South Africa’s journey to freedom and democracy. It was facilitated by churches and business, negotiated by the politicians, and supported by the international community, but the people accomplished it.”
– The late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
It is now 30 years since the National Peace Accord (NPA) was signed in South Africa, bringing to an end the violent struggle of the Apartheid era and signalling the transition to democracy. Signed by the ANC Alliance, the Government, the Inkatha Freedom Party and a wide range of other political and labour organizations on 14 September 1991, the parties agreed in the NPA on the common goal of a united, non-racial democratic South Africa, and provided practical means for moving towards this end: codes of conduct for political organizations and for the police, the creation of national, regional and local peace structures for conflict resolution, the investigation and prevention of violence, peace monitoring, socio-economic reconstruction and peacebuilding.
This book, written by one of those involved in the process that evolved, provides for the first time an assessment and in-depth account of this key phase of South Africa’s history. The National Peace Campaign set up under the NPA mobilized the ‘silent majority’ and gave peace an unprecedented grassroots identity and legitimacy. The author describes the formulation of the NPA by political representatives, with Church and business facilitators, which ended the political impasse, constituted South Africa’s first experience of multi-party negotiations, and made it possible for the constitutional talks (Codesa) to start. She examines the work of the Goldstone Commission, which prefigured the TRC, as well as the role of international observers from the UN, EU, Commonwealth and OAU.
Exploring the work of the peace structures set up to implement the Accord – the National Peace Committee and Secretariat, the 11 Regional Peace Committees and 263 Local Peace Committees, and over 18,000 peace monitors – Carmichael provides a uniquely detailed assessment of the NPA, the on-the-ground peacebuilding work and the essential involvement of the people at its heart. Filling a significant gap in modern history, this book will be essential reading for scholars, students and others interested in South Africa’s post-Apartheid history, as well as government agencies and NGOs involved in peacemaking globally.
Attendees can purchase a hardcover copy of the book at the event for £15.00 (40% off). Please note that cash only can be accepted for purchases as the event.
Attendees will also receive a promotional code at the event for a 40% discount* on the book when purchased via the publisher’s website.
*This offer is valid until 31 March 2023.

About the Author
Revd Dr Liz Carmichael MBE is an Emeritus Research Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford, where she convenes OxPeace, the peace studies network of Oxford University. She worked as a medical doctor in Soweto 1975-1981, and in the Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg 1991-1996 while also serving on the local and regional peace structures.
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Russia-Ukraine Dialogues: The war's intimate connection to Belarus
2023-02-07 15:00 - 16:00 UTC | Online
The fate of Ukraine and Belarus are intimately connected to one another. As argued by the leader of free Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, freedom and democracy in Belarus and Ukraine cannot be separated from one another. Moreover, Belarus has already played an important role in providing a launchpad for Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Yet, Belarus’s involvement in Ukraine could escalate further.
This week’s panel will discuss:

Linking Belarus and Ukraine’s struggle for freedom
Alyaksandr Lukashenka military support for Russia
and Future scenarios

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Panelists:
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Leader of Belarusian democratic movement
LTG (Ret.) Mark Hertling, Former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe
Katia Glod, Russia-West Policy Fellow, European Leadership Network
Chair:
Dr Leon Hartwell, Sotirov Fellow, LSE IDEAS

This event is part of the Russia-Ukraine Dialogues series. Given the recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (24 February 2022), the conflict continues to be fluid and requires cross-disciplinary analysis. Weekly panels on Tuesdays bring together in-house and external experts to report on and discuss the war’s impacts on various global issues.

From the 1st of November 2022, the LSE IDEAS Russia-Ukraine Dialogues is part-funded by PeaceRep (the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform), an international research project rethinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics led by the University of Edinburgh Law School.

Russia-Ukraine Dialogues: The Future of Energy
2022-11-29 15:00 - 16:00 UTC | Online
Watch the event recording via YouTube
This panel discussion welcomes experts to discuss the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on regional and global energy. Panelist will discuss:

Short-term impacts of the war on the energy market.
Strategies on mitigating the energy crises, including moves towards self-sufficiency, bilateral and multilateral deals.
Long-term impacts of the war on the transition to green energy and Russian economy.

Speakers:
Benjamin L. Schmitt is a Non-resident Senior Fellow with the Democratic Resilience program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), where he focuses on Transatlantic energy and national security analysis, as well as emerging space security challenges to the Transatlantic community. He is a Research Associate and Project Development Scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and is an associate of the Harvard-Ukrainian Research Institute.
Guy Monson, Chief Market Strategist and Senior Partner of Sarasin & Partners LLP, has over 35 years of investment experience having joined the company in 1984. In 1988, he became manager of Sarasin’s flagship GlobalSar (now Multi Asset) family of balanced investment funds, winning awards for investment performance and risk profile. He is also a member of the LSE IDEAS Advisory Board and a Foundation Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
Jadwiga Emilewicz is a Member of the Polish Parliament. She is the president of the Parliamentary Team on the Zero-Emission Economy and the European Green Deal. She belongs to the Economy Committee and the Health Committee Former Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, and former Minister of Economic Development.
Chair: Leon Hartwell is the Senior Advisor for the Central and South Eastern European Programme at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC. His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, transitional justice, diplomacy, democracy, and the Western Balkans.

This event is part of the Russia-Ukraine Dialogues series. Given the recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (24 February 2022), the conflict continues to be fluid and requires cross-disciplinary analysis. Weekly panels on Tuesdays bring together in-house and external experts to report on and discuss the war’s impacts on various global issues.

From the 1st of November 2022, the LSE IDEAS Russia-Ukraine Dialogues is part-funded by PeaceRep (the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform), an international research project rethinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics led by the University of Edinburgh Law School.

Striking a Balance: Lessons from the Pandemic on Civil Liberties and Social Justice (Future Global Shocks Series)
2022-11-21 18:00 - 19:30 UTC
Register to attend via Eventbrite
Monday 21 November, 18:00 – 19:30 GMT
HYBRID EVENT – In-person venue: Seminar Room 237, Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow

Lockdowns and other restrictions imposed as the result of the pandemic eroded individual and collective civil liberties in an unprecedented way. In Scotland there were two emergency bills passed within the first month of the pandemic, as well as legislative consent being given to a similar bill from Westminster. These covered a wide range of issues including freedom of information, travel, working from home, suspension of courts, limits on numbers at weddings and funerals, closure of shops, offices and places of worship, registration of births and deaths and many other normal activities.
These laws were followed by a wide range of regulatory instruments that dealt with the detail of restrictions ranging from shutting cinemas to , later in the pandemic, closing hours for pubs.
Such restrictions were not unusual – during the pandemic virtually every country curtailed established freedoms for its citizens and some are still doing so. That has led to considerable unrest in certain places and movements to overturn the rules, such as the “Truckers Protest” in Canada.
The action of Governments world wide, and reactions to them, have raised important questions about the preservation of human rights during times of crisis. In partnership with the Campaign for Social Sciences and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, the fourth event in this series will consider questions such as:

Did governments restrict first and think about the implications later?
Did some governments use the pandemic as an excuse for the introduction of more permanent controls, changing the balance between the citizen and the state?
In the event of another global shock, will governments take the same approach, or find other ways to ensure societal compliance with public health and other imperatives?

Speakers:
Professor Peter Jackson, Chair in Global Security (History); Executive Director of the Scottish Council on Global Affairs
Dr Kathryn Nash, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh Law School
Professor Adam Tomkins, John Millar Chair of Public Law , University of Glasgow
Dr Sally Witcher OBE, Consultant in equality and inclusion; former Chief Executive Officer of Inclusion Scotland
Professor Graeme Roy, Dean of External Engagement, University of Glasgow
Professor Michael Russell, former Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations of Scotland in the Scottish Government

The University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre hosts the Future Global Shocks series, in partnership with the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, which considers what more we must do as a society to prepare our systems and networks, as well as policy and system relationships, to respond to the major global challenges we face.
Learn more about the Future Global Shocks series in this short video (YouTube)
Image credit: Martin Sanchez via Unsplash

Russia-Ukraine Dialogues: Non-aligned Perspectives
2022-11-15 15:00 - 16:00 UTC
Register to attend via Zoom
In the midst of the G20 Bali summit, LSE IDEAS’ Russia-Ukraine Dialogues will discuss the views of three key non-aligned states, namely Indonesia, India and Turkey. Speakers will explore the following with regards to each state: political and economic strategies and responses to the Russia-Ukraine war; foreign policy strategies; successes and failures of the transatlantic alliance (NATO) to unite the world against the Kremlin.
Speakers:
Dr Desra Percaya was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Kingdom, Ireland, and IMO in October 2020. Throughout his career, he has helped shape Indonesia’s policies, particularly regarding international peace and security, disarmament, human rights, economic development, as well as social and humanitarian affairs. Dr Desra was previously Director General for Asia Pacific and Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tanvi Madan is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program and Director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Madan’s work explores India’s role in the world and its foreign policy, focusing in particular on India’s relations with China and the United States. She also researches the U.S. and India’s approaches in the Indo-Pacific, as well as the development of interest-based coalitions, especially the Australia-India-Japan-US Quad.
Mustafa Kutlay is a senior lecturer in the Department of International Politics at City, University of London. His research concentrates on comparative politics, political risk analysis, political economy, Turkish political economy, and politics of development in the Global South. His articles appeared in International Affairs, Government & Opposition, Third World Quarterly, and The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, among others.
Chair: Leon Hartwell is the Senior Advisor for the Central and South Eastern European Programme at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC. His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, transitional justice, diplomacy, democracy, and the Western Balkans.

This event is part of the Russia-Ukraine Dialogues series. Given the recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (24 February 2022), the conflict continues to be fluid and requires cross-disciplinary analysis. Weekly panels on Tuesdays bring together in-house and external experts to report on and discuss the war’s impacts on various global issues.
From the 1st of November 2022, the LSE IDEAS Russia-Ukraine Dialogues is part-funded by PeaceRep (the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform), an international research project rethinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics led by the University of Edinburgh Law School.

Russia-Ukraine Dialogues: The Future of China-Russia Relations
2022-11-01 15:00 - 16:00 UTC
Register to attend via Zoom
This panel discussion welcomes experts to discuss the evolving relationship between China and Russia. Panelists will discuss the status of China-Russia diplomatic relations, economic and diplomatic lessons learned from the war, and impacts on the People’s Liberation Army’s military strategy.
Speakers:
Lukas Fiala is a PhD International Relations candidate at LSE, researching China’s defence industry, military strategy and emerging security relationships with countries in the Global South. He is also the Project Coordinator of China Foresight, the China-focused research programme at LSE IDEAS.
Dr Björn Alexander Düben is an Assistant Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Jilin University. He analyses China’s reaction to, and motivation in implicitly supporting, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even as Putin’s strategic blunder becomes increasingly difficult to deal with.
Dr Yu Jie is senior research fellow on China at Chatham House, focusing on the decision-making process of Chinese foreign policy as well as China’s economic diplomacy. She frequently comments in major media outlets such as BBC News and the Financial Times; and regularly briefs senior policy practitioners from the G7 member governments, the Silk Road Fund in Beijing. Yu Jie was previously head of China Foresight at LSE IDEAS and remains as an associate fellow with LSE IDEAS.
Chair: Leon Hartwell is the Senior Advisor for the Central and South Eastern European Programme at LSE IDEAS and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC. His research interests include conflict resolution, genocide, transitional justice, diplomacy, democracy, and the Western Balkans.

This event is part of the Russia-Ukraine Dialogues series. Given the recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (24 February 2022), the conflict continues to be fluid and requires cross-disciplinary analysis. Weekly panels on Tuesdays bring together in-house and external experts to report on and discuss the war’s impacts on various global issues.
From the 1st of November 2022, the LSE IDEAS Russia-Ukraine Dialogues is part-funded by PeaceRep (the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform), an international research project rethinking peace and transition processes in light of changing conflict dynamics led by the University of Edinburgh Law School.

GMU Carter School's Method Mondays: PA-X Peace Agreements Database and PeaceRep
2022-10-31 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Halifax)
Event time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT (UTC-4)
Method Mondays: PA-X Peace Agreements Database and PeaceRep

RSVP via Eventbrite

Featuring guest speaker Dr Sanja Badanjak, Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Challenges at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Law and Data Manager for PA-X Peace Agreements Database and Dataset.
Join online to learn about PA-X Peace Agreements Database and PeaceRep’s approaches to studying peace processes.
The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) consortium is working on a variety of research projects related to better understanding the key features and prospects of contemporary peace and transition processes. At the heart of the programme is the PA-X Peace Agreement Database and Dataset, the largest fully digitised and searchable English-language database of peace agreements, which also features a human-coded dataset of peace agreement provisions and a corpus of agreement texts. This talk will present PA-X and related data resources, discussing the PeaceRep approach to data collection, and the text-as-data methodologies we rely on to better understand how processes of post-war political and institutional change can take place.
The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution (George Mason University) host Method Mondays online via Zoom.

Carnall Peace Award Lecture: Global Peace and Security after Ukraine
2022-09-21 18:30 - 20:00 UTC
Hosted by Peace & Justice (Scotland). Take part in the event either online or in-person.
REGISTER TO ATTEND
Wednesday 21 September is United Nations International Peace Day, marked this year by a lecture from the recipient of the Carnall Peace Award for 2022, Professor Paul Rogers.
Professor Rogers is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies and International Relations at Bradford University and is a regular commentator on global security issues in both the national and international media.
He will present his lecture, “Global Peace and Security After Ukraine”, at 18:30 at the Augustine United Church in Edinburgh.
The lecture will be followed at 19:15 by a panel discussion and Q and A with Professor Rogers, who will be joined by:
Yurii Sheliazhenko, executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and Board member of World Beyond War (on zoom from Kyiv) and
Vijay Prashad, Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Editor of Leftworld Books and a fellow at Renmin University of China. (on zoom from Chile).
The Q and A will be moderated by Professor Christine Bell, co-director of the Global Justice Academy and director of PeaceRep at the University of Edinburgh.
The discussion will focus on the geopolitical implications of the crisis in Ukraine.
“In a world where war in Europe creates hunger in Africa, where a pandemic can circle the globe in days and reverberate for years, where emissions anywhere mean rising sea levels everywhere, the threat to our collective prosperity from a breakdown in global cooperation cannot be overstated. … The root cause of what we face today is the war. And it is the war that must end.”
– Kristaline Georgieva, International Monetary Fund Managing Director, April 2022
Image Credit: Drazen Nesic on Pixnio.

Peace Talks Webinar - Chinese approaches to conflict management: Lessons for ongoing conflicts in near and far abroad
2022-06-14 12:30 - 13:30 UTC
Tuesday 14 June 2022
12:30 – 13:30 BST
Register to attend via Zoom
China’s vision of addressing violent conflicts and security challenges differs substantially from those of Western countries. China seeks stability, rather than peace; and China’s economic development, and connectivity and trade needs drive their engagement in conflict and post-conflict settings.
What lessons does this approach hold for contemporary conflicts, from Myanmar to the Horn of Africa and Ukraine? Speakers will present findings from recent PeaceRep reports on Chinese approaches to conflict management and what lessons these hold for contemporary conflicts, from Myanmar to the Horn of Africa and Ukraine. Followed by Q&A.
Confirmed presenters include Bernardo Mariani (independent consultant) and Monalisa Adhikari (PeaceRep research).
The speakers will discuss findings from recent Global Transitions reports:
• China’s Engagement in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: The Quest for Stability (Bernardo Mariani)
• “Asian” Approaches to Peacebuilding?: Modalities, Convergences, and Differences in India, Japan and China’s Approach to Supporting Peace Processes (Monalisa Adhikari)
About the Global Transitions Series:
PeaceRep’s Global Transitions Series looks at fragmentations in the global order and how these impact peace and transition settlements. It explores why and how different third-party actors – state, intergovernmental, and non-governmental – intervene in conflicts, and how they see themselves contributing to reduction of conflict and risks of conflict relapse. The series critically assesses the growth and diversification of global and regional responses to contemporary conflicts. It also asks how local actors are navigating this multiplicity of mediators and peacebuilders and how this is shaping conflict outcomes and post-conflict governance.

Global Fragmentation and Peacemaking: Lessons from Non-Western Powers and their Conflict Management
2022-06-07 16:00 - 17:30 UTC | University of Edinburgh
Tuesday 7 June
16:00 – 17:30 BST
MacClaren Stuart Room, Old College, The University of Edinburgh
Register to attend
Hosted by the the PeaceRep consortium and the Scottish Council of Global Affairs (SCGA), this panel will present findings of a multi-partner PeaceRep project on global fragmentations of peace approaches, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Global Transitions project – spearheaded by Edinburgh and St Andrews universities, both partners in SCGA – is exploring motivations and approaches of non-Western interveners and how their approaches ‘land’ on the ground in select countries. A growing selection of findings from the project is published under a new series Global Transitions.
The event will feature regional and thematic experts working on the Global Transitions project. They will share key findings and policy recommendations from their ongoing work, with plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions.
This panel event will be followed by a drinks reception.
More about the Global Transitions project:
The management of conflict and political transitions today is starkly different from what existed a decade or two ago. We are seeing dramatic changes in conflict dynamics and an infusion of new approaches by a more diverse set of actors.

In Syria, the Geneva peace talks conducted under the auspices of the United Nations, have been supplemented by Astana talks, sponsored by Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
In Sudan, the influence of the Troika – Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States – which played pivotal roles in the Darfur conflict since 2003 and in the 2005 peace agreement leading to the independence of South Sudan, has waned. The two neighbours – Egypt and Ethiopia – and the Gulf states are emerging as the main actors in Sudan’s current transition.
In April 2022, President Macron announced the withdrawal of French troops supporting political transition in Mali. French priorities were deemed incompatible with those of the Mali military government in place since 2020. Soon after, Mali authorities invited the Russian company Wagner to help in their fight against the jihadist groups. A couple of years earlier, a similar story unfolded in the Central African Republic.
In Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is the main mediator, and China’s influence in conflict management is central.
Who will emerge as the dominant mediator in Ukraine remains to be seen, but several non-Western powers, including Turkey, are seen as pivotal in ensuring a successful process.

The era of liberal dominance in peace and transition management is unequivocally over. A new tapestry of international interveners mean that peace and transition processes have fractured forms of intervention that reflect a fracturing of the global order. These changes raise important questions about how approaches to peace and the nature of the global order are changing in the present, and how they might look in the future.

How are we seeing the tapestry of international actors involved in peacemaking and peacebuilding change?
Are new actors proposing new models of peacemaking and peacebuilding? How do these models fit with the prevailing liberal one?
How is the fractured nature of interventions in peace processes changing the prospects for peace and the peace settlements that emerge?
What motivates non-Western interveners in their peacemaking activities?
What differences can we see between regional and global interveners?
How are local actors navigating this new landscape, and how is this shaping conflict outcomes and post-conflict governance?
What influence do these developments have on the global international institutions and liberal norms that have underpinned the post-Cold War order?

Read the full Global Transitions publications series.

Peace Talks Webinar - Russian & Turkish approaches to Conflict Management: Lessons for Ukraine
2022-05-31 12:30 - 13:30 UTC
Hosted online via Zoom
Register to attend
Join PeaceRep, London School of Economics, and the University of St Andrews for this lunchtime webinar. Speakers will present findings from two recent PeaceRep reports on Russian and Turkish approaches to conflict management and what lessons these hold for Ukraine, followed by Q&A.
Confirmed presenters include Bernardo Mariani (independent consultant) and Spyros Sofos (LSE).
The speakers will discuss findings from recent Global Transitions reports:

Russia’s Engagement in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings: Growing Geopolitical Ambitions and “Peace by Force” by Bernardo Mariani

Peacebuilding in Turbulent Times: Turkey in MENA and Africa (Global Transitions Series) by Spyros Sofos

About the Global Transitions Series:
PeaceRep’s Global Transitions Series looks at fragmentations in the global order and how these impact peace and transition settlements. It explores why and how different third-party actors – state, intergovernmental, and non-governmental – intervene in conflicts, and how they see themselves contributing to reduction of conflict and risks of conflict relapse. The series critically assesses the growth and diversification of global and regional responses to contemporary conflicts. It also asks how local actors are navigating this multiplicity of mediators and peacebuilders and how this is shaping conflict outcomes and post-conflict governance. Find out more about this series.
Questions? Get in touch via email: info@peacerep.org

From Federalism to Hypercentralization: Decentralization in Syrian Constitutions in their Historical Context (LSE Seminar)
2022-05-20 17:00 - 19:00 UTC
From Federalism to Hypercentralization: Decentralization in Syrian Constitutions in their Historical Context
Friday 20 May, 17:00 BST
This hybrid event will be hosted in person in London. For those who cannot attend the in-person event are welcome to join us online via Zoom by registering on the following link:
https://lse.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ba8TjwsTQf2eh9mGDojnlw
Throughout its 100 years of constitutional history the Syrian constitutions adopted dramatically different approaches to decentralizations. But what context shaped these choices and what are the implications on the recent debate on this issue?
In this event, the speakers will discuss how Syrian constitutions handled decentralization and local governance since 1920 draft constitution up to the current 2012 constitution, investigating the political, social, and economic motives that led to the chosen approach in each of these constitutions. They will focus on the three dimensions of decentralization: political, administrative and economic, and also discuss how the decentralization arrangements handled the delicate question of the representation of the minorities.
This event comes in the context of launching a research paper that researchers have published “From Federalism to Hypercentralization: Decentralization in Syrian Constitutions in their Historical Context”.
The Arabic version of the paper is available through: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/115101/
The full English version will be available soon.
Chair:
Prof. Mary Kaldor is a Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict Research Programme at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Speakers:
Dr. Rim Turkmani is the Principal Investigator of the “Legitimacy and Citizenship in the Arab World” programme and the research director of the Conflict Research Programme – Syria Team at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Dr. Zedoun Alzoubi is a Syrian researcher and expert in governance and local administration.
Mazen Gharibah is a Syrian researcher at the Legitimacy and Citizenship in the Arab World programme and Conflict Research Programme at LSE.

Humanitarianism and Covid-19: Structural dilemmas, fault lines, new perspectives
2022-05-04 13:00 - 14:30 UTC
Register to attend

This webinar launches the new IDS Bulletin: Humanitarianism and Covid-19: Structural Dilemmas, Fault Lines, and New Perspectives, This issue includes an article authored by PeaceRep researcher Juline Beaujouan, titled ‘The Covid-19 Pandemic and Alternative Governance Systems in Idlib’.
The unprecedented threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a crisis for the international humanitarian system. At a time when the number of people in need of assistance has drastically expanded, humanitarian funding has been cut as countries focus on their domestic economies. International travel bans and lockdowns have impeded humanitarian access, constraining conventional humanitarian response mechanisms and processes.
Every crisis presents an opportunity to rethink policy, practice, and research, and this issue of the IDS Bulletin investigates how the pandemic has exposed failings but also generated new opportunities and challenges in the humanitarian system, especially within the localisation agenda. Across four major themes, the articles in this Bulletin discuss the multifaceted nature of the pandemic and its impacts. As much a socioeconomic crisis as a public health crisis, it has deepened structural inequalities and highlighted population-specific vulnerabilities.
The Bulletin emphasises how responses to the pandemic have converged with a weakening of protection regimes for displaced people including asylum seekers and refugees. Furthermore, it shows that the pandemic has presented an extraordinary crisis for the international humanitarian system, highlighting the failures of states and international humanitarian actors to provide needed assistance. Conversely, and most importantly, it argues that with the partial absence of state or international humanitarian responses, the pandemic has given unanticipated impetus to everyday forms of humanitarianism practised by and within local communities.
This issue of the IDS Bulletin also offers a salutary message about the future for humanitarianism in further crises – have responses to the pandemic offered a foreboding about increased forms of detachment, a low level of concern, and a weakening of international solidarities?

Art as a Tool for Peace Exhibition
2021-11-24 - 2022-08-31
Art Exhibition at Edinburgh Law School, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL
PeaceRep and the Global Justice Academy are proud to announce a new art exhibition highlighting the role of art as a tool for local peace. This powerful exhibition brings together a series of works by young artists from across Syria and Yemen, offering a glimpse into everyday life in some of the world’s most protracted conflicts. View the collections in the Edinburgh Law School cafe throughout summer 2022.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition features a series of paintings created by a group of young Syrian artists called the Blue Team (Fariq Azraq in Arabic), who have collaborated to illustrate life in opposition-held areas of Syria during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier in 2021, the artists produced two exhibitions in Syria – combining art, music, and activities – that offer powerful insights into the daily lives of Syrian displaced and ethnic minorities, and demonstrate how art can bring people together and act as a tool for local peace. Now in Scotland for the first time, this exhibition is an opportunity to view the paintings and hear the stories of these extraordinary young people.
The exhibition also features the work of award-winning Yemeni artist Shatha Altowai, an IASH Artist Protection Fund Fellow. In “The White Canvas”, Shatha addresses issues that she has experienced and observed throughout her life in Yemen, specifically focussing on the last seven years since the eruption of the current war. She aims to highlight the lifestyles of Yemeni families living through the war, their solidarity, and how they seek to overcome the lack of basic necessities, such as food, water, electricity, fuel and security. Her work conveys the contradictory emotions of strength and fear that Yemeni families grapple with as part of their everyday experience.
Together these two sets of paintings offer a unique perspective on life in conflict zones, and on the power of art to bring people together and contribute to local peace.
View The Blue Team’s collection and Shatha Altowai’s The Family Series.
About the Project
This exhibition is part of a research project supported by the FCDO-funded Covid Collective Research Platform, and forms part of PeaceRep’s work on the nexus between the Covid-19 pandemic, peace and conflict and the interplay between several layers of crises. In Syria, PeaceRep Research Fellow Dr. Juline Beaujouan and two of her colleagues – Abdulah El hafi and Eyas Ghreiz – built on collaborations with local communities in opposition-held areas in the northwest of the country to investigate the shifting role of local civil society during the pandemic.
Further Reading
Art as a tool for local peace: Reflections of young artists in Syrian opposition-held areas
Young artists illustrate life in Syrian opposition-held areas
Shatha Altowai
The Blue Team

Ceasefire Monitoring: Developments and Complexities
2021-07-07 13:30 - 15:00 UTC
Conciliation Resources and the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) in conjunction with the Mediation Support Network are hosting an online event to support the launch of our new Accord Spotlight publication, ‘Ceasefire Monitoring: Developments and Complexities’.
Register here
Ceasefire monitoring can help facilitate transitions from war to peace. This Accord Spotlight looks at ways to provide more effective support for implementing ceasefires, and ideas for ‘what works’ in ceasefire monitoring. Spotlight authors Cate Buchanan and Govinda Clayton will discuss key findings from the report, including on civilian and civil society involvement in monitoring, and the use of technology.
The event, co-hosted with the Mediation Support Network, will also feature reflections from other key contributors to previous PSRP workshops on Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia including:

A. Heather Coyne – Chief, SSR Team, UN Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General
Juanita Millan Hernandez – Former Adviser to the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia, Member of United Nations Mediation Standby Team
Julian Hottinger – Senior Mediator, Human Security Division (HSD) of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)

An open discussion will follow.
Event chaired by Sanja Badanjak, Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Challenges – University of Edinburgh.
Register here

Covid, Emergencies and Transitions: The Impact of Emergency Law Responses to Covid-19 in Fragile Settings
2021-05-06 14:30 - 15:30 UTC
Part of the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development 2021, organised by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has reinforced or compounded conflict, human rights violations, disinformation efforts, gender inequality and societal fractures. The emerging post-pandemic world risks being more violent and less democratic. Geopolitical tensions and unilateral action have increased, while the need for collective action has become clearer than ever. The 2021 Stockholm Forum will explore novel approaches and solutions to promoting peace in the age of compound political, social, economic and environmental risks reinforced by Covid-19.
Emergency law responses to Covid-19 have affected peace and transition processes in predictable and unpredictable ways, and this session looks at the consequences for levels of violent conflict and democratic consolidation. The discussion will be around the results of practice-based research with opportunities for the audience to participate with questions and interactive tools.
The panel discussion will be hosted by International IDEA, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law, and the Political Settlements Research Programme.
How have emergency law responses been adopted in fragile and conflict-affected settings? What has been the impact of the pandemic and emergency powers, if adopted, on:
• Conflict dynamics
• Scheduling and conducting of elections
• Functioning of transitional state institutions
• Inter-group dynamics in situations of deep division, notably between the centre and the periphery. What factors may have been key in defining the type of impact that different countries and/or substate entities have suffered as a consequence of the pandemic and the resulting emergency law response? What are the implications for policy makers and peacebuilders?
Moderator: Prof. Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago
Speakers:

Dr. Sean Molloy, Northumbria Law School
Prof. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism
Dr. Adem Abebe, International IDEA
Dr. Sonia Vohito, Human Rights Activist

Register now.
To learn more, this recent blog post gives some background and suggests four key areas of concern in the way emergency law responses might undermine transitions: Emergency Law Responses and Conflict-Affected States in Transition
Register for the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development.

Book Launch: The Humanitarian Civilian
2021-05-05 12:30 - 14:00 UTC
Join us to celebrate the launch of The Humanitarian Civilian: How the Idea of Distinction Circulates Within and Beyond International Humanitarian Law by Dr Rebecca Sutton.
Hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law (ECIGL) and PSRP, with co-host the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. With commentary from Frederic Megret (McGill) and Helen Kinsella (Minesota).
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScp0tzJHEbjinHGA-jZeV3-C1pKy8zV3Po7zZOGTZoT3Ox_Mw/viewform
Speakers
Rebecca Sutton is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at Edinburgh Law School, where she conducts research on the role of emotions in international humanitarian law and leads a ‘participatory action research’ project with displaced Rohingya youth in Cox’s Bazar. Before joining Edinburgh Law School, Rebecca was a Postdoctoral Researcher on the ERC-funded Individualization of War project; she was based at the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) at the University of Oxford. Rebecca also completed a postdoc in the Faculty of Law at McGill University, with the support of a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). As a Trudeau Scholar and SSHRC Scholar, Rebecca earned a PhD in International Law from the London School of Economics in 2018. Her doctorate on the humanitarian figure, which was based on field research in South Sudan and at civil-military trainings, eventually became The Humanitarian Civilian.
Helen M. Kinsella is Associate Professor of Political Science & Law, and Affiliate Faculty of Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Human Rights Center, and the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change. Her research focuses on the theorization of gender and armed conflict. She is currently working on a manuscript entitled “War Fatigue: On Not Being Able to Sleep”. She is the author of The Image before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian (Cornell University Press) which won the 2012 Sussex International Theory Prize and received an Honorable Mention for the 2012 Joseph S. Lepgold Book Prize (Georgetown University). Her work has also appeared in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, International Theory, Political Theory, Political Power and Social Theory, Feminist Review, among others. Helen’s main interests lie in International humanitarian law; international norms and institutions; international security; gender and armed conflict; international relations theories; contemporary political thought; feminist theories
Frédéric Mégret is a Professor of Law and a William Dawson Scholar at McGill University. He held the Canada Research Chair on the Law of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism from 2006 to 2015. He was promoted to full professor in 2019. He was named co-director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism in 2021. Professor Mégret is currently co-authoring a book on Diasporas and International Law with Larissa van den Herik (Leiden University). He is the co-editor with Philip Alston of The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal (Oxford University Press, 2020); with Immi Tallgren of The Dawn of a Discipline: International Criminal Justice and its Early Exponents (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and, with Kevin Jon Heller, Sarah Nouwen, Jens David Ohlin and Darryl Robinson of The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law. Professor Mégret’s interests lie in international criminal justice, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the law of international organizations, transitional justice, criminal law, and general international law.

Channeling Local Realities – Civil Society and Power Structures in Syria, Yemen and Libya
2021-04-28 10:00 - 11:30 UTC
How can civil society best contribute to conflict management in the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected settings, despite (or thanks to) an ongoing pandemic? Whilst already active in Yemen and Libya’s fragile contexts, the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS) expands its scope of work to Syria in collaboration with the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) of the University of Edinburgh over the course of 2021.
Can COVID-19 be seen as a tool of conflict or opportunity for peace in these contexts? How does one manage and build peace as civil society actors in countries with fragile and/or fragmented institutions and unsafe power structures? This session offers an opportunity for peer exchange among local peacebuilding practitioners and researchers in Syria, Libya and Yemen, sharing best practices and challenges met in their efforts for peace and sustainable development.
View full event details.
Hosted by the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS), the Covid Collective, and the Political Settlements Research Programme at the University of Edinburgh as part of the FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum.
Speakers
Abdullah El Hafi: Local Administrations Council Unit (LACO), Syria
Dr. Juline Beaujouan: Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP), Edinburgh
Eyas Ghreiz: Researcher and consultant, Syria
Maged Sultan: Youth Without Borders Organization for Development (YWBOD), Yemen
Zorgh Madi: Tamazight Women’s Movement, Libya
Moderator
Peter van Sluijs: Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS)

Book Talk on ‘African Peace - Regional Norms from the OAU to the AU’
2021-04-22 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
The Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law presents:
Book Talk on ‘African Peace – Regional Norms from the OAU to the AU’
Speaker: Dr Kathryn Nash, Chancellor’s Fellow, Edinburgh Law School
Discussant: Dr Sara Dorman, Senior Lecturer in Politics and IR, University of Edinburgh
About the event
African regional organizations have played leading roles in constructing collective conflict management rules for the continent, but these rules or norms have not been static. Currently, the African Union (AU) deploys monitors, authorizes peace support operations, and actively engages to resolve internal conflicts. Just a few decades ago, these actions would have been deeply controversial under the Organization of African Unity (OAU). What changed to allow for this transformation in the way the African regional organization approaches peace and security?
About the speaker
Dr Kathryn Nash is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Law School. She completed her PhD at SOAS University of London. Her research focuses on norms, the role of regions in the international community, and peace and security issues. Prior to beginning her PhD, Dr Nash worked for the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. She has a Master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University in International relations.
Event Link
Register on Zoom

Book Launch: Visions of African Unity
2021-04-06 14:30 - 16:00 UTC
The Decolonisation Group invites you to the book launch for Visions of African Unity, as edited by Frank Gerits and Matteo Grilli.
Visions of African Unity, edited by Frank Gerits and Matteo Grilli, explores the historiography of various African unification and Pan-African projects. This includes the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and their impact on the Cold War and liberation struggles.
The book gathers perspectives from a diverse range of scholars across disciplines, including history, law and international relations, and considers the sometimes conflicting ideals behind projects aimed at unification. The book includes a chapter by PSRP’s Dr Kathryn Nash: Embracing State Security: The Peace and Security Norms and Structures of the Organisation of African Unity 1963-1993
Register on Eventbrite.
