PeaceRep

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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]

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.

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.

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

Regional Responses to Covid-19
2021-03-04 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
Register now
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

Three forms of power-sharing and their relationship to inclusion of non-dominant groups
2021-03-11 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Online
Register now
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.

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

Register now on Eventbrite.

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.

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.
Register on Eventbrite.

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

Expanding Prospects of IT in India and Abroad
2021-04-02 11:00 - 12:00 UTC
Dr. Devanjan Bhattacharya will give a talk to LN-TECHINFO on Expanding Prospects of IT in India and Abroad.
Devanjan is a 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.
Register now

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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?
