PeaceRep

Militarized masculinity and the paradox of restraint: mechanisms of social control under modern authoritarianism
2021-03-31 15:00 - 16:30 UTC
The Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law presents
Militarized masculinity and the paradox of restraint: mechanisms of social control under modern authoritarianism
Speaker: Rebecca Tapscott, Ambizione fellow and lecturer at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy at the Graduate Institute in Geneva
Discussants:

Professor Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law, Edinburgh Law School
Dr Philipp Schulz, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Intercultural & International Studies, University of Bremen

Abstract: The twenty-first century is marked by the rise of new forms of authoritarianism, many of which are characterized by the ‘paradox of restraint’, in which reforms compliant with the rule of law are used to unshackle the ruler’s arbitrary power. Despite a proliferation of scholarly studies on this topic, we still have limited understanding of how national-level authoritarian power reaches ordinary citizens in these contexts. This article identifies the performance of militarized masculinities as an understudied mechanism that does so. It offers two main contributions: first, it highlights how performances of militarized masculinities enact the paradox of restraint through gendered idioms, thereby magnifying the ambiguities of modern authoritarianism and diffusing them at a local level. Second, it recasts the conceptual utility of militarized masculinities, showing that the concept’s inherent tensions between ordered discipline and unaccountable violence produce and project authoritarian power, giving militarized masculinities special potency as a mode of social discipline in these contexts. The article draws on feminist International Relations, employing grounded ethnographic research to illustrate how national-level power circulates locally. To do so, it first illustrates the relationship between the paradox of restraint and militarized masculinities using the cases of Putin’s Russia and Duterte’s Philippines. It then turns to an in-depth case study of a local dispute between soldiers and civilians in Museveni’s Uganda to trace how gendered local encounters facilitate the transmission of national-level authoritarian power into the lives of ordinary people.
About the Speaker: Rebecca Tapscott is an Ambizione fellow and lecturer at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. She is also a visiting fellow at the Firoz Lalji Centre on Africa at the London School of Economics, as well as at the Department Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Her work has appeared in journals including International Affairs, African Affairs, and Development and Change, and has won international recognition, including receiving the 2017 International Studies Association’s Carl Beck Award for new perspectives on emergent international concerns. Her book, Arbitrary States: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni’s Uganda, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press (May 2021).
This event is free and open to all but registration is required (link below).
Register on Zoom
Image credit: Photo by Bao Menglong on Unsplash

Book Launch: African Peace by Dr. Kathryn Nash
2021-03-26 19:30 - 20:30 UTC
The Conflict Resolution Program at Georgetown University is proud to host a discussion of Dr. Kathryn Nash’s newly published African Peace: Regional norms from the Organization of African Unity to the African Union (Manchester University Press 2021). The talk will be moderated by Dr. Lise Howard.
Register on Eventbrite.
About African Peace: Regional norms from the Organization of African Unity to the African Union
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?
African peace examines why the OAU chose norms in 1963 that prioritized state security and led to a policy of strict non-interference – even in the face of destabilizing violence – and why the AU chose very different norms leading to a disparate conflict management policy in the early 2000s. Even if the AU’s capacity to respond to conflict is still developing, this new policy has made the region more willing and capable of responding to violence. Nash argues that norm creation largely happened within the African context, and international pressure was not a determinant factor in their evolution. The role of regions in the international order, particularly the African region, has been under-theorized and under-acknowledged, and this book adds to an emerging literature that explores the role of regional organizations in the Global South in creating and promoting norms based on their own experiences and for their own purposes.
About Dr. Kathryn Nash
Dr Kathryn Nash is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Political Settlements Research Program (PRSP) at the University of Edinburgh Law School. She completed her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (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 first in the Bureau of African Affairs and then 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.
About Dr. Lise Howard
Lise Morjé Howard is Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System. Her research and teaching span the fields of international relations, comparative politics, and conflict resolution. She has published articles and book chapters about civil wars, peacekeeping, and American foreign policy in many leading journals. Her book UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (Cambridge University Press 2008), about organizational learning, won the 2010 book award from the Academic Council on the UN System. Her recent book, Power in Peacekeeping (Cambridge University Press 2019) won the 2021 book award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Dr. Howard earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from UC, Berkeley, and her A.B. in Soviet Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. She previously served as founding Director of the Georgetown MA Program in Conflict Resolution.
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Interim or Transitional Arrangements: Addressing Dilemmas for International Support
2021-03-18 13:00 - 14:30 UTC
Register now on Eventbrite.
Peace and transition processes are often managed by putting in place ceasefires and interim governance arrangements. The interim governance arrangements are tasked with administering the country on a provisional basis until a new government can be appointed by a regular political process, and putting in place a series of reform processes: security sector, constitutional, transitional justice.
In fact, this modality of ending conflict is more often used than trying to broker a ‘big bang’ comprehensive peace agreement.
It is used to address very different types of conflict:

violent conflict, one-sided violence from authoritarian states
and social crisis that can erupt when an incumbent fails to quit after-losing elections, or for other reasons.

Join us as we explore various aspects of interim transitional arrangements – focusing on the role of international actors, in supporting them and sustaining them.
This event will launch and in a sense conclude a series of publications and events which PSRP and its partners have been involved in, drawing together key findings.
Chair: Kimana Zulueta-Fuelscher, Acting Head of Constitution-Building, International IDEA.
Panelists
Introduction to Issue: Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law at Edinburgh Law School and the Director of the Political Settlements Research Programme.
Jago Salmon, Head of UN Resident Coordinators Office in Sarajevo, co-author of Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict (2017, World Bank/UN), and author of Moving From Conflict: the Role of International Actors in Transition Management (2020, PSRP).
Sumit Bisarya, Constitutions Advisor, UNDPPA, and Former Head of Constitution-Building Processses Programme at International Idea. See key report: Interim Governance Arrangements in Post-Conflict and Fragile Settings (2020).
Katia Papagianni, Director for Policy and Mediation Support, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and author of Power sharing, transitional governments and the role of mediation.
Format
The event will consist of an introduction and panel discussion, bringing insight from diplomatic, constitution-making and mediation fields, drawing on country experience, followed by opportunity for discussion.
This event will be held on Zoom, with joining links emailed to registered participants. The presentation element of this event will be recorded and made available after the event.
This event is the final instalment of the Peace Talks webinar series from the Political Settlements Research Programme at the University of Edinburgh Law School.
Registration
Register now on Eventbrite.

Roundtable on Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law
2021-03-16 14:00 - 15:30 UTC | Online
Register now on Eventbrite.
Join the Transitional Justice Institute, the Political Settlements Research Programme, and special guests for a roundtable event celebrating the launch of Dr Catherine O’Rourke’s new monograph, Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law examines the protection of women’s rights in armed conflict under international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law and the United Nations Security Council. Through a series of case studies (DRC, Colombia, Nepal) and emblematic violations, the research identifies and proposes several opportunities to strengthen the legal status of specific protections to women’s rights; to improve how key institutions comply with and implement their own guarantees of women’s rights; to improve coordination amongst key institutions; and to maximise the strengths of different monitoring and enforcement procedures in order to enhance the overall protection of women’s rights in conflict under international law. A policy brief drawn from the book is also available.
Featuring special guests including:
Madeleine Rees, Secretary-General of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Adrian Johnson, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Vanessa Murphy, International Committee of the Red Cross
Emily Kenney, UN Women
Catherine O’Rourke, Director of the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University
Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law at Edinburgh Law School and Director of the Political Settlements Research Programme

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Three forms of power-sharing and their relationship to inclusion of non-dominant groups
2021-03-11 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
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How do peace agreements and independent commissions provide for inclusion of non-dominant groups in post-conflict societies?
Dr Kevin McNicholl (University of Edinburgh) will outline the relationship between power-sharing and inclusion of non-dominant groups, and demonstrate how peace agreements with political power-sharing include provisions for women, girls and gender at an above average rate.
Dr Dawn Walsh (University College Dublin) will introduce the role of independent commissions in peace agreements and post-conflict societies, and examine patterns of provisions for women’s inclusion in these key institutions.
The webinar will be held over Zoom. Register now.
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

Regional Responses to Covid-19
2021-03-04 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
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The global response to Covid-19 has occured across multiple levels of governance: from community-led initiatives to international coordination by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While there has been significant analysis of responses at the state and international level, there has been less coverage of regional responses. Regional organisations can be a crucial level of governance when addressing cross-border threats and challenges from violent conflict to climate change. Regional governance can complement domestic policy actions, and it can provide a collective voice on the international stage to advocate for region-specific concerns.
This event will examine regional responses to the pandemic and present early insights into findings from a forthcoming report outlining responses in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Dr Kathryn Nash will examine the African Union’s response and ongoing efforts to continue with the peace and security agenda amidst the pandemic. Hannah den Boer will examine regional responses in Latin America and the Middle East.
Panellists
Dr Kathryn Nash is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Political Settlements Research Program (PRSP).
Hannah den Boer is a Research Assistant with the Political Settlements Research Program (PRSP).
The event will consist of a panel discussion followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience.
Register now

The Historical Context of the Myanmar Crisis
2021-02-26 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
Co-hosted with the Keith Forum on Commonwealth Constitutionalism and the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
Chair: Dr Asanga Welikala, Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
Panel:
Dr Harshan Kumarasingham (Edinburgh): The Politics of Decolonisation in Burma
Dr Donal Coffey (Maynooth): Legal State-Formation in Burma
Dr Vasabjit Banerjee (Mississippi State): The Coup in Comparative Context
This event is free and open to all but registration is required through Zoom:
https://edin.ac/3rJwobr

Global Ungovernance
2021-02-26 14:00 - 15:30 UTC | Online
This event will explore the emerging concept of ungovernance: how it works, what it is good for, its potential downsides, and its implications for programs of institutional change.
Register now on Eventbrite.
Join PSRP, the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law, and special guests for the launch of a new special issue of Transnational Legal Theory on “global ungovernance”, edited at Edinburgh Law School.
We all know by now that legal and institutional change is profoundly complex, deeply political, and impossible to predict. And we keep pursuing it in the face of that knowledge. A new collection of papers, part of a special collection in Transnational Legal Theory, explores whether this tension is not a quirk, but a constitutive feature, of a particular mode of institution-building. Studying the fields from post-conflict peacebuilding, to transitional justice, to environmental governance, the authors identify practices that sustain a commitment to institution-building while simultaneously embracing the impossibility of doing so. These practices lead to institutional irresolution, unsettlement, and provisionality (or forms of “un-governance”). The discussion explores how un-governance works, what it is good for, its potential downsides, and its implications for programs of institutional change.
In this event, contributors to the special issue will host a panel discussion on global ungovernance, focusing on defining ungovernance, the ungovernance of peace, public law techniques of ungovernance, and more.
This event is organised by the Political Settlements Research Programme in collaboration with the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law and the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution. The event will consist of a panel discussion followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience. The event will be held on Zoom. Joining instructions will be sent to registered participants.

Speakers
Event chair Prof Andrew Lang is Professor of International Law and Global Governance at Edinburgh Law School.
Prof Christine Bell is Professor of Constitutional Law at Edinburgh Law School and the Director of the Political Settlements Research Programme.
Dr Deval Desai is Lecturer in International Economic Law at Edinburgh Law School.
Dr Jan Pospisil is the Research Director of the ASPR and lecturer for political science at the University of Vienna, and a co-investigator at the Political Settlements Research Programme.

Registration
Register now on Eventbrite.

Semantic Enablement for Integrated Sensor Web and Spatial Data Infrastructure: Location Intelligence from Sensors (LISENS)
2021-02-26 06:30 - 07:00 UTC
PSRP’s Dr Devanjan Bhattacharya is holding an invited talk on Semantic Enablement for Integrated Sensor Web and Spatial Data Infrastructure: Location Intelligence from Sensors (LISENS) on 26 February at 6:30am GMT (12:00pm IST), as part of the International Semantic Intelligence Conference (ISIC 2021).
More details and registration are available at the conference website.
Watch the live stream: https://www.facebook.com/MERICollege/
Dr Devanjan Bhattacharya is a MSCA Train@Ed Postdoctoral Fellow with the Political Settlements Research Programme, focusing on collaborative map visualisations for participation and mediation in peace processes. Devanjan holds a PhD and Masters degree in Geomatics Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. His research interests include geospatial data analytics, digital mapping, smart cities applications, spatial data infrastructure, internet of things, and artificial intelligence in geoinformatics.

Covid-19: An Opportunity for Regional Integration?
2021-02-25 13:00 - 15:45 UTC
Covid-19: An Opportunity for Regional Integration?
Jointly held by al-Sabah Programme, Gulf Studies Center, Political Settlements Research Programme and Open Think
Tank
Featured Panels & Speakers
Panel I – Regional Responses to Covid-19 in the Middle East and Africa
Prof. Bulent Aras – Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University
Dr. Kathryn Nash – PSRP, University of Edinburgh
Hannah den Boer – PSRP, University of Edinburgh
Panel II – Covid-19: Tool of Conflict or Opportunity for Rapprochement
in the Gulf?
Dr. Mustafa Menshawy – SEPAD, Lancaster University
Prof. Nikolay Kozhanov – Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University
Dr. Luciano Zaccara – Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University
View full event programme (pdf – opens in new tab)
Contact: Dr. Juline Beaujouan | J.Beaujouan-Marliere@ed.ac.uk
WebEx Joining Instructions
https://qu-edu.webex.com/quedu/j.php?MTID=ef9081340f35e9e4631b92ac043ab903c
Event ID: 121 585 4232
Password: [REDACTED]

The Law and Politics of the Coup D’Etat in Myanmar
2021-02-23 12:00 - 14:00 UTC
Co-hosted with the Constitution Building Programme, International IDEA and the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
Panel:
Dr Kimana Zulueta-Fülscher (International IDEA): The Political Dynamics of the Crisis in Historical Context
Professor Andrew Harding (NUS): The 2008 Constitution and the Military Takeover
Dr Monalisa Adhikari (Edinburgh): The Geopolitical Context of Conflict in Myanmar
Chair: Dr Asanga Welikala, Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
This event is free and open to all but registration is required through Zoom:
https://edin.ac/3peVBc6

Conflict, Peace, & Covid-19 in the Middle East
2021-02-18 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
How is Covid-19 affecting political and social trust and cohesion in the Middle East, and how are local actors responding to the pandemic?
This event will offer insights into how Covid-19 is affecting peace and conflict trends in the Middle East, particularly around issues of trust and social cohesion and how local actors are shaping the response to the pandemic. Panellists will discuss their research in the following areas:

Syria and Iraq: Dr Juline Beaujouan will examine how the pandemic has affected political trust and social cohesion in northwest Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Yemen: Robert Wilson and Raiman Al-Hamdani will offer early insights into how local actors in Yemen appear to be responding to Covid-19; examining how security actors are enforcing Covid measures in Taiz, and the societal perceptions of these measures.

Yemen Policy Center, supported by their donors, the German Foreign Ministry, have led on the research for part 1; examining security actors in Taiz and Covid-19 enforcement measures, with Yemen Polling Center collecting the data in-country.
Speakers
Dr Juline Beaujouan is a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Political Settlements Research Programme. She is also a board member and senior researcher at Open Think Tank.
Robert Wilson is a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh’s Political Settlements Research Programme.
Raiman Al-Hamdani is a Researcher at ARK Group and Yemen Polling Center.
Dr Amjed Rasheed (event chair) is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Political Science Institute (IfP) at Tübingen University. He is also a board member and senior researcher at Open Think Tank.
Event Format
The event will consist of a panel discussion followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience.
The event will be held on Zoom. Register now.

This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

Sudan Peace Process: Where are we and what have we learnt from past national and international processes
2021-02-02 13:00 - 14:30 UTC
The Peace Research Institute (PRI) of the University of Khartoum and the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) of the University of Edinburgh, are holding a virtual session, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), on Sudan’s peace process.
The session will highlight lessons learned from previous peace processes in Sudan, as well as the implications of those lessons on the ongoing process (including the Juba Peace Agreement and beyond). The session will also explore how challenges currently being experienced in the Sudanese context were addressed in other contexts and will explore the role of the international community in supporting the Sudanese peace process moving forwards.
The session will run for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes, including a Q&A discussion.
Note the change in date – this event has been rescheduled for Tuesday 2 February 2021.
Register now.

PeaceTech and Data4peace: What are we learning?
2021-01-14 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
Join us as we explore key insights into PeaceTech, the interdisciplinary field using data for peace.
This introductory event will draw on PSRP’s work and partnership to offer key insights and learnings from the PeaceTech team at the University of Edinburgh, including:

What is PeaceTech? How can technology help facilitate inclusive peace, and what is the new potential regarding data analysis?
Data on peace processes: What are the new possibilities for data collection, analysis, and connectivity: what can we do with data on peace and conflict now that we couldn’t do 10 years ago?
What types of interdisciplinary and research-practice-tech teams are needed to produce effective PeaceTech projects?
What lessons have we learned about designing an effective collaborative PeaceTech project in the ‘data’ space?

We will share key learnings and examples from our PeaceTech work, including our Covid-19 Ceasefires Tracker, a publicly available digital tracking tool to examine the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak on peace processes and armed conflict across the world. The tool monitors the progress of ceasefires alongside live data on infection rates in country. The data can be viewed in a timeline format, a search browse format, and a map format which also includes live data on infection rates in country.
The University of Edinburgh’s PeaceTech team is a unique collaboration between peace builders, data scientists, and many others who are helping shape the PeaceTech space, using cutting-edge technologies and data to build digital platforms that facilitate inclusive peacebuilding.
Featuring Prof Christine Bell, Dr Sanja Badanjak, Dr Devanjan Bhattacharya, and Fiona Knäussel from the Political Settlements Research Programme, with special guest Dr Benjamin Bach, Lecturer in Design Informatics and Visualization at the Bayes Centre, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, as event chair.
This event will be held on Zoom. Joining instructions will be sent to registered participants.
Register now.

Peace Talks Series
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

Regional Responses to Security Threats in the Middle East: Cooperation or Fragmentation?
2020-12-10 13:00 - 17:00 UTC | Online
This event is jointly hosted by al-Sabah Programme, Gulf Studies Center, Political Settlements Research Programme and Open Think Tank.
Featured Panels & Speakers
Panel I – A Region in Crisis
Prof. Anoush Ehteshami – al-Sabah Programme, Durham University
Prof. Bulent Aras – Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University
Panel II – The Threat of Terrorism
Dr. Amjed Rasheed – al-Sabah Programme, Durham University & OTT
Dr. Juline Beaujouan – PSRP, The University of Edinburgh & OTT
Dr. Majed Al-Ansari – Qatar International Academy for Security Studies
Panel III – IS and After
Mr. Irfan Azeez – al-Sabah Programme, Durham University
Dr. Mahjoob Zweiri – Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University
Joining Details
WebEx https://qu-edu.webex.com/quedu/j.php?MTID=e7f10884ff6b3262b2d7d9ad4686ccad2
Event ID: 121 530 7010
Password: [REDACTED]
Live stream: https://youtu.be/AD0aWGEcOG

Book Talk: Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law
2020-12-08 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Book Talk: Women’s Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law
Featuring author Catherine O’Rourke in conversation with Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins
December 8, 2020 | 12:00-1:00 pm CT
Register now
Catherine O’Rourke (Ulster University, 2016 Fulbright Scholar at UMN) discusses her new book in which she examines the various legal regimes regulating women’s rights in conflict. O’Rourke uses country case studies to reveal the practical implications of the fragmented protections of women’s rights, shedding light on areas of interaction, reinforcement, tension, and gaps. She will be joined in conversation by Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, new Senior Fellow in Global Policy at the Humphrey School. Hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program.

Why Local Peace Agreements Matter
2020-12-03 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
This webinar will offer a glimpse into the processes and outcomes of local peace processes, featuring data from the PA-X Local Peace Agreements Database.
This event will examine what we can learn from local peace agreements about what conflict landscapes look like, and to what extent our conceptualisations of armed conflict work. We will then look at a case study of local agreements in Syria, with a focus on how particular they are from national agreements but also how ‘local’ they actually are in the context of a complex nested conflict, and then look at additional examples of local agreements from Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa. The event will finish with an open Q&A and the opportunity for discussion.
Featuring PSRP’s Dr Juline Beaujouan and Robert Wilson, with special guest Dr Jan Pospisil from the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, alongside Dr Rim Turkmani from the Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science as event chair.
Register now.
The webinar will be held over Zoom, with joining links emailed to registered participants.
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

Women Constitution Makers Dialogue
2020-11-17 14:30 - 2020-11-18 18:30 UTC
International IDEA and the Political Settlements Research Programme will convene the second annual Women Constitution Makers Dialogue in November 2020, bringing together women from around the world who have played an instrumental role in constitution-building. Participants will share their experiences of navigating gender and social transformation in a variety of contexts.
This event will be the second meeting of the Global Network of Women Constitution Makers, which meets annually to elevate the role of women in constitution making.
This is a closed event by invitation only. An event report will be available following the event.
Image: Attendees of the inaugural Women Constitution Makers Dialogue gather outside Edinburgh Law School in October 2019.

Peace Negotiations in the Pandemic
2020-11-16 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
The Harvard Negotiation Law Review is a student-run academic publication that provides a forum for scholars and practitioners to discuss negotiation as it relates to law and legal institutions. Each year, HNLR brings together the foremost minds across the field to share their perspectives with our community at the Symposium. This year’s event, Negotiation in a Pandemic, will take place from 16 – 20 November 2020.
PSRP Director Prof Christine Bell will speak on a panel discussion entitled “Peace Negotiations in the Pandemic,” on Monday, November 16th, 2020, between 12:00-1:00pm ET (5:00pm UK time) via Zoom. The goal of this panel aims to address some of the novel challenges COVID-19 has created within the diplomatic community. We anticipate the event to run approximately one hour and hope to bring in thought leaders and practitioners in the field to share ideas on the current state of global peace negotiations.
Register now.

An Introduction to the Amnesties, Conflict and Peace Agreement Database
2020-11-16 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
How and why are amnesties used in response to conflict, and how can choices within amnesty design complement inclusive peacebuilding?
In this webinar, Prof Louise Mallinder of Queen’s University Belfast will introduce the new Amnesties, Conflict, and Peace Agreement Database (ACPA) that she has created in conjunction with PSRP. ACPA covers amnesties that were granted during ongoing conflicts, as part of peace negotiations, or in post-conflict periods between 1990-2016. Prof Mallinder’s presentation will use the findings from this database to demonstrate the diversity in how and why amnesties are used in response to conflict and to explore how choices within amnesty design can complement inclusive peacebuilding.
Register now on Eventbrite. The webinar will be held over Zoom, with joining links emailed to registered participants ahead of the event.
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

30 Years of Peace Agreements: A Quick Start Guide to the Power of PA-X
2020-11-12 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
In this webinar, PSRP’s PA-X coding team will introduce the PA-X Peace Agreements Database and demonstrate its potential for exploring and interpreting 30 years of peace agreements from around the world, with examples of use in research and a closer look into the path of agreement information as it gets transformed into neat PA-X data.
The event will take place from 13.00-14.00 (GMT). The webinar will be held over Zoom, with joining links emailed to registered participants ahead of the event.
Register now on Eventbrite.
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – March 2021.

Finding Peace in Somalia – the Galkaio 'local' agreement
2020-11-10 14:00 - 15:30 UTC | Online
Galkaio town represents a boundary on the ground and in the imagination within Somali society. The 1993 Peace Accord held a fragile peace for many years as political and developmental trajectories differed markedly on either side of this border town. This talk explores the 2016/17 peace agreement, in its local and national dimensions, and which occurred as part of the state-building project that is still ongoing in Somalia and offers insights on the quality of international intervention.
This event is hosted by the Conflict Research Programme (CRP) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. View the full event listing on the CRP website.
Register now.
Speakers
Nisar Majid is the Research Director for the CRP-Somalia. He has worked in and on Somalia and the Somali territories of the Horn of Africa for over twenty years, in various applied research capacities. This included his doctoral research which explored transnationalism in the Somali context. He a co-author of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures, 2011-21 (Hurst, 2016).Khalif Abdirahman is Senior Field Researcher on the CRP- Somalia. He has conducted research across the Somali regions for the last seven years including for Tufts University, the Rift Valley Institute and the Overseas Development Institute.
Mark Bradbury is Executive Director of the Rift Valley Institute. He is a social analyst with over 20 years’ experience in international development and humanitarian aid. He has worked in and written about Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, and Kosovo as a development worker and researcher. He is author of Becoming Somaliland (Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2008), Search for Peace, a synthesis report of a Peace Mapping study on Somalia, and Whose Peace is it Anyway? Connecting Somali and International Peacemaking.
Ilham Gassar is CEO of KIGS Consulting. She is currently a Senior Stabilization and Conflict advisor to the International Organization of Migration (IOM). Prior to that she served with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), as a Political Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia (SRSG), from 2016 to 2019. Ilham was the chief negotiator of the Galkayo Peace agreement and chief facilitator for the Ahla Sunna Wah Jama and Galmudug State power sharing agreement. She has over 10 years’ experience in social advocacy, strategy and programme development and project management. She has undertaken two research assignments for the CRP-Somalia.
Matthew Benson is the CRP’s South Sudan Research Director and the CRP’s Research Manager. He has conducted researched on, and worked in, South Sudan and Sudan in various capacities since 2008, with on-going research on taxation and state-formation in these countries. Matthew has also researched the equitable provision of public services in the Horn with the World Bank, the Rift Valley Institute, the Overseas Development Institute, the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex, the UN Refugee Agency, and Oxfam America.
The Conflict Research Programme is based within LSE IDEAS.
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESomalia

Africa Week 2020: The African Union's Role in the Global Order
2020-10-27 14:00 - 15:00 UTC | Online
On several fronts the African Union (AU) has advanced innovative responses to some of the world’s most pressing issues. During the COVID-19 pandemic the AU and its specialised health institution, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), launched coordinated action to support member states. This included using regional collective negotiating power to secure more financial resources, setting up a pooled procurement mechanism, and supporting member state efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat COVID-19.
On peace and security, the AU and its recognised regional economic communities (RECs) often take leading roles in ending violent conflict in their spheres. Some RECs, such as the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) are increasing their work in peace and security whilst others, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have played pioneering roles for years. Meanwhile, the AU has negotiated with the United Nations (UN) on complementarity issues and designed new ways for the regional and international actors to cooperate on peace and security issues.
The global order is transforming and moving away from great powers, a trend that the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to speed up. This talk, delivered by Dr Kathryn Nash from the Political Settlements Research Programme, will explore how the AU has previously contributed to the global order and how it might help to shape transformations going forward.
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Register now via Eventbrite. This event is free to attend and will be hosted online via Zoom.
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AFRICA WEEK is a cross-university celebration of the University of Edinburgh’s links with the African continent. It encourages collaboration between our different communities, seeks to address current issues and asks important questions of the past, present and future. Africa Week 2020 embraces the theme of Movement.
Our programme features events which tap into movement through privilege, movement which is sometimes forced, and movement which can be restricted. Learn during Africa Week how to make the move to study abroad, what it’s like to move to Edinburgh for the first time, how covid-19 has affected movement across the continent, and how we, as a university, can provide the tools for the continent’s future movers and shakers.
For more information on other Africa Week events, please visit https://global.ed.ac.uk/events or contact global.admin@ed.ac.uk
Africa Week 2020 is a partnership between: Edinburgh Global, The Centre of African Studies, The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, Ekasi Podcast, Political Settlements Research Programme, The James Tait Black Prize, Race.Ed, TIBA, Teaching Matters, the African Caribbean Society, and the Scotland Africa Recruitment Group.

Gender Provisions in Peace Accords: Reflections on Negotiation, Design and Implementation in Support of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
2020-10-15 14:00 - 17:00 UTC | Online
On October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Twenty years later, the UN Secretary General’s WPS report emphasizes that the resolution placed women’s participation at the center of peace efforts, and there now exist clear commitments by the UN and its member states to promote women’s rights and gender equality in all conflict resolution efforts.
In peace accord negotiation and implementation, the importance of having women at the negotiating table and gender provisions in agreements has also gained prominence. While the expectation of participation and inclusion to achieve gender equality have risen, experiences and evidence show that the realization of the WPS agenda continues to be a challenge.
This webinar brings together insights on the progress and challenges facing WPS aspects in peace accord negotiation, design, and implementation. Contributors will present data, research, and experience from policymaking over the past 20 years in an effort to sharpen the understanding of what efforts have an impact on the ground. Contributors include Laura Wise of the Political Settlements Research Programme at the University of Edinburgh and Dr Jan Pospisil of the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
Register now to attend >>>
This event is co-sponsored by the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) program of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
PAM is a unique source of qualitative and quantitative longitudinal data on the implementation of comprehensive peace agreements negotiated since 1989. Composed of researchers and practitioners seeking to promote and facilitate a higher order of integration between these domains, PAM is pioneering innovations in peace process research and real-time monitoring of peace agreement implementation. One of PAM’s central features is the Barometer Initiative in Colombia, which is entrusted with the responsibility for real-time technical support and monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 Colombian Peace Accord.
Photo: Poly Martinez

Peace Talks: Ceasefires in a Time of Covid-19
2020-10-09 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
On 23 March 2020, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate global ceasefire, in order to tackle the threat of Covid-19, which is recognised as posing a disproportionate risk to those in fragile and conflict affected areas. In this event, we present insights from USIP and PSRP research tracking the causes and consequences of ceasefires declared during the Covid-19 pandemic and reflect on the potential of ceasefires to lead to a more sustainable peace process.
PSRP will present data and insights from the Covid-19 Ceasefire Tracker, and USIP will present its new report, Searching for COVID-19 Ceasefires: Conflict Zone Impacts, Needs, and Opportunities.
Featuring special guest Tyler Thompson from the United States Institute of Peace, alongside PSRP’s Dr Sanja Badanjak and Laura Wise.

Registration
The event will take place from 13.00-14.00 (BST). The webinar will be held over Zoom, with joining links emailed to participants ahead of the event.
Register now on Eventbrite.
Peace Talks Series
This event is part of PSRP’s Peace Talks webinar series, which will run from October 2020 – February 2021.

The Elders in conversation on women in mediation in the Arab world
2020-10-05 - 2020-10-07 | Online
This high-level virtual gathering will bring together around 50 experienced mediators, experts, peacebuilders and national and multilateral officials to promote women’s meaningful participation as mediators in peace processes in the Arab world.
It marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which reaffirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations and peacebuilding.
Women are highly active in peace making in the Arab region but there is a missing link between women in grassroots peace making and senior policy circles, where women are under-represented, especially in roles that relate to conflict or security. The virtual gathering will make a contribution to bridging this gap, by bringing together women who are active in mediation from selected countries across the Arab world, with experts and practitioners from other regions and countries, and with members of The Elders. Guests include Christine Bell, PSRP Director, who will speak on “Doing things differently: models for women in mediation”.
Over sessions on three consecutive days, four Elders will share their collective experience and insight into the power and importance of women’s engagement in mediation and hear from leaders in the Arab world about the challenges and the opportunities they face in promoting women’s participation as mediators in the COVID world.
The Elders will publish a final short policy paper with key recommendations for mediators, governments and multilateral organisations, and will use their social media channels to highlight the experiences of women mediators.
A provisional programme is attached. More information will be published in due course.
Wilton Park in conversation provisional programme

COVID-19 and Ceasefires: What Have We Learned?
2020-09-23 16:00 - 17:00 UTC | Online
In March, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global cease-fire to combat the spread of COVID-19. Though initially dismissed as unrealistic, the secretary-general’s call was surprisingly well-received: Nearly 70 countries, hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, and eminent persons joined in repeating the call for a humanitarian pause to address the growing pandemic. In response, several conflict parties announced unilateral cease-fires, including the National Democratic Front in the Philippines, the Syrian Democratic Forces, and the National Liberation Army in Colombia. Two months later, the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 2532, calling on conflict parties across the world to support a 90-day humanitarian ceasefires. However, since then, it has been challenging for any bilateral or multilateral cease-fires related to the pandemic to materialize, despite the spread of COVID-19 to numerous conflict zones, including Yemen and Syria.
Join USIP for a timely discussion on the strategies needed to pursue effective cease-fires in conflict zones. Drawing from recent reports, including the forthcoming USIP publication “Searching for COVID-19 Cease-fires: Conflict Zone Impacts, Needs, and Opportunities,” panelists will consider the correlation between political willpower and conflict resolution, how the secretary-general’s cease-fire appeal was perceived on the ground in conflict zones, and whether international pressure could make a difference in advancing the secretary-general’s call.
Speakers
Christine Bell
Professor of Constitutional Law and Assistant Principal, The University of Edinburgh School of Law
Ashish Pradhan
Senior Analyst, U.N. Advocacy and Research, International Crisis Group
Tyler Thompson
Senior Expert, Negotiations and Peace Process Support, U.S. Institute of Peace
More information and register now: https://www.usip.org/events/covid-19-and-cease-fires-what-have-we-learned

PeaceFem - Peace in Your Hands
2020-09-08 14:15 - 15:15 UTC | Online
Join PSRP for a presentation on the PeaceFem app and how PeaceTech could support the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We will be discussing how women use PeaceTech/technologies for peacebuilding, how participants could use PeaceFem in their work, and what challenges there are with using PeaceTech.
This event is part of the Virtual Torino Forum for Sustaining Peace, hosted by United Nations System Staff College. Originally envisaged as a high-level event at the UN campus in Turin, Italy, the 2020 Torino Forum is leveraging innovation and technology to bring the Women, Peace and Security community together with the Youth, Peace and Security community for a series of virtual discussions and exchanges. The event will explore the status of the agendas of these respective communities in an open exchange with the wider peacebuilding community.
Speakers:
Fiona Knäussel, Political Settlements Research Programme, University of Edinburgh
Sarah Brun, UN Women
Christine Bell, Political Settlements Research Programme, University of Edinburgh
Laura Wise, Political Settlements Research Programme, University of Edinburgh
Date and time:
8th September CEST 15:15 -16:15 (14:15 – 15:15 BST/UK time)
Register now.

Can PeaceTech end conflict during Covid-19?
2020-08-30 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
Can PeaceTech end conflict during Covid-19? Part of the Edinburgh University Women in STEM Connect series.
Our panelists will be discussing how their tools support those brokering peace, and the challenges and opportunities the pandemic presents. Register now.

The Covid-19 pandemic is having disproportionate impacts on people in countries already affected by conflict, and travel restrictions both within and between countries have disrupted in-person mediation processes that have historically relied on bringing people together. Since March 2020, those working in the nascent field of PeaceTech (technological tools that support peacebuilding) have suddenly found their services more in demand than ever, as peacebuilders and their supports shift to online ways of working, often in communities where internet accessibility is not always guaranteed.
In this talk, Professor Christine Bell, Laura Wise, and Fiona Knäussel will illustrate how the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) has developed a suite of PeaceTech tools to support those brokering peace, and explain how these have come into their own during the Covid-19 pandemic and they hope, beyond. They will discuss the opportunities and challenges of developing technological responses to facilitate conflict resolution, and how PeaceTech could assist women’s meaningful inclusion in peace processes.
This event will be held online. By signing up for a ticket on Eventbrite, you will receive a Zoom joining link by email a day or two before the event.
Register now.

Making inclusive peacemaking a reality: virtual launch of the PeaceFem mobile app
2020-06-30 13:00 - 14:30 UTC
Join UN Women, University of Edinburgh’s Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP), Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre, and Inclusive Peace to celebrate the launch of the new PeaceFem mobile app.
Tuesday 30 June 2020, 1:00-2:30pm London / 3:00-4:30pm Beirut / 8:00-9:30am New York City

A contribution to the growing field of peace tech that utilizes technology to support peace and security, the new PeaceFem app brings together data on women and peacemaking in one easy-to-use app in English and Arabic.
The launch seminar will be an opportunity for participants to discover the app and its functions, and to discuss peacemaking and technology as a tool for inclusivity. The webinar will be held via Zoom in English and Arabic with simultaneous translation. Register now.
Speakers include:

Barney Afako, Judge, Lawyer and Mediation Expert
Miriam Colonel Ferrer, Senior Mediation Advisor on Process Design, Gender and Inclusion
Rasha Jarhum, Co-Founder and Director of the Peace Track Initiative
Christine Bell, Director, Political Settlements Research Programme
Jacqui True, Director, Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre
Moez Doraid, Regional Director a.i., UN Women Regional Office for Arab States
Thania Paffenholz, Executive Director, Inclusive Peace

Registration:
Register now.
This seminar is free and open to all. Booking is essential. Registered participants will be emailed a link to the Zoom webinar before the event.
