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Current and forthcoming projects

Liberal Peace Transitions II (2009-11)
Research and Peacebuilding Centre, Timor Leste (2009-11) (2008-11)
Building a Just and Durable Peace by Piece (2008-11)
Tensions and Contradictions in the Liberal Peace in Africa(Sept 2007-10)
Peacebuilding exchange project (2008)
Terrorism and the Liberal Peace (2007-08)
Liberal Peace Transitions (2005-07)
Backsliding and the Liberal Peace (2006-08)
The Scottish Peace and Conflict Studies Network
 Conflict Mapping (ongoing)

Liberal Peace Transitions II (2009-2011)

This project examines the dynamics of the 'local', custom, and hybridity in Liberal Peace Transitions in a number of cases studies (funded by University of St Andrews, Nuffield Trust, and GTZ). It extends the work done in the earlier project, Liberal Peace Transitions, by focusing on the major gap that emerged - the connection between the liberal space of international peacebuilding, and the local, producing forms of hybridity (called a 'liberal-local hybrid' and its interface). A two post-doctoral student will take part, and a number of cases will be examined in detail.

Research and Peacebuilding Centre, Timor Leste (2009-2011)

This project, funded by GTZ, aims to establish a local peace and conflict research centre, support local research, and to develop local peacebuilding projects.

Building a Just and Durable Peace by Piece (Sept 2008-11)

A three-year project in underway as part of the European Commission's Framework VII programme (awared around 1.85m Euros).  This is entitled 'Building a Just and Durable Peace by Piece' and is a three-year project involving seven other institutions: Lund (lead institution), Uppsala, Hebrew University, Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, Bath, and UEL.  Professor Oliver Richmond is one of the project leaders. He and a fully funded PhD student (Stefanie Kappler) will work on the Culture/Welfare Paradox in Peacebuilding in the Western Balkans.

Tensions and Contradictions in the Liberal Peace in Africa (2007-10)

Funding for the above project has been secured to support the work of Professors Ian Taylor and Oliver Richmond, from the Alan and Nesta Ferguson Foundation (£68 000). This funding, secured by Ian Taylor, examine the practical experience of the attempted implantation of liberal peace frameworks in sub-Saharan African contexts, as well as alternative models offered by major donors and partners (in this case mainly China). The funding will also cover the costs of bringing two African PhD students to St Andrews work on the project for three years. The project will have two aspects: one aspect is to look at the way China's increasing engagement in Africa is contributing to/subverting/transforming debates on post-conflict reconstruction. The case studies for this project will be:

  • the DRC
  • Liberia

The second aspect of the project will focus on the development of 'liberal peace' in Sierra Leone and Namibia.

The projects are an integral partof the CPCS' expansion and development, laying the foundations for a greater
empirical focus on Africa. The funding will pay for the fees, living costs and fieldwork expenses of the two PhD students, and the research of Professors Richmond and Taylor, who will lead the project. Dissemination will take place via a final workshop, articles, and hopefully, in the longer term, the publication of the work of the two PhD students.

Peacebuilding exchange project (2008)

Peacebuilding exchange project, funded by the Russell Trust 2007.

As part of the outreach strategy of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of St Andrews, we initiated a project that will support and augment peacebuilding in close cooperation with local peace research institutions who work in-theatre in post conflict environments. The intention is create an exchange programme in order to build concrete links with partner research centres in conflict zones with a view to establishing peacebuilding training in which staff from CPCS provide expertise.

The project will be run as an exchange programme: for a period of six months we will support the work of a selected researcher from a local peacebuilding institution. The researcher will be home based but during the period will be expected to spend up to four weeks in the Centre in St Andrews to write up the research, share new ideas and develop cooperation strategies.

In return, two members of the CPCS staff will put together a syllabus for a one week course in Peacebuilding and in cooperation with the local researcher and their own institution will teach the course, the aim of which is to train local peace builders in situ from as many local (and international) institutions as possible. The incentive for which will be a Certificate in Peacebuilding (non-credit), which we will request that the University of St Andrews validates.

This is a pilot project to enable the CPCS to build concrete links with partners in peacebuilding research centres in order to facilitate coordinated training in peacebuilding in post-conflict environments. (This gap in peacebuilding knowledge has recently been identified from our current research).We have decided to run this pilot project in Bosnia in cooperation with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo. We have selected a researcher, Nejra Cengic, from this institution, who is working on a project on Memory and Peacebuilding. She is developing her research on Life Stories and Dialogue(s). We will support her research for 6 months in Bosnia where she will do fieldwork, and then bring her to CPCS and St Andrews to write it up, give a final lecture on her project. She will also assist the visiting CPCS staff in arranging the peacebuilding training workshop with local and internationals.

We hope this will benefit the peace in Bosnia and strengthen peacebuilding training within the field organisation as well as academic exchange and development of members of CPCS and the School of International Relations. We also envisage that it will greatly benefit and help develop the researcher's career. Our longer term goal is to make this an annual exchange.

Terrorism and the Liberal Peace (2007-08)

The centre has received funding of about £100K (FEC) from the British Academy for a new project that will examine the relationship between orthodox terrorism theory and the liberal peace discourse. This theoretical and empirical project examines the impact of the deployment of "orthodox" terrorism discourses on
"liberal peacebuilding" in a selection of six contemporary peacebuilding operations affected by terrorism and related acts of spoiling. The project will focus particularly on cases where the state is being reconstituted after
conflict and where there continues to be a major problem with regard to terrorist actors, or other local actors, which are opposed to the peacebuilding process and have acted as spoilers.The project seeks to hypothesise that where an orthodox terrorism discourse is prevalent there tends to be a strong focus on hard security issues rather than on the humanist/human security-oriented components of liberal peacebuilding. This means that where the terrorism discourse is employed peacebuilding fails to deal with the key institutional,
social, political, and economic reforms (or root causes of the conflict) required for the liberal peace process to become sustainable in human security terms. This is driven both by local spoilers who harbour exactly this
intention, but also inadvertently by international actors, partly through the unintended consequences of their intervention. Consequently the liberal peace transition is unlikely to progress, particularly because the orthodox terrorism discourse does not countenance any legitimacy for the claims of terrorist actors. While terrorism is a major problem for peacebuilding, it may also be exacerbated by aspects of liberal peacebuilding.The project started in late 2006, and is run by Professor Oliver Richmond and Jason Franks (Research Fellow).

Liberal Peace Transitions (2005-07)

This is the pilot project of the centre and examines the discourses of peace implicit in the theoretical and policy literatures relating to war and conflict. This project explicitly examines the nature of the peace created
through different aspects of peacebuilding. It examines the development of the discourse of the liberal peace and compares this evolution with the development of practical approaches to peace in the context of peacebuilding, the work of international organisations, agencies, NGOs, and the contributions of key liberal states. The project tests a set of concepts or types of peace that are being constructed through different types of intellectual and policy analysis, and by different actors, in order to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of peacebuilding approaches. These types of peace are represented by a configuration of four main discourses of peace already identified in previous research. These are hyper-conservative, conservative,
orthodox and emancipatory peace. Case studies have been selected to test this framework empirically and comparatively from the approximately 18 post-Cold War cases of international peacebuilding operations. This will lead to a better understanding of the (i) type of peace being created, (ii) of impediments to peace, and (iii) of the sustainability of this peace. Conclusions drawn from this analysis and comparison will carry important policy and intellectual implications and open the way for a greater intellectual and policy understanding of the agendas inherent in the different aspects of the liberal peace project. The project will result in publications and a workshop at the University of St Andrews.

New Project on 'Backsliding and the Liberal Peace' (2006-08)

The Centre has received funding for a joint project examining the phenomena of 'backsliding' during contemporary liberal peacebuilding operations. This project will begin in September 2006 and will be carried out in association with the United Nations University in Tokyo.

The Scottish Peace and Conflict Studies Network

Part of the core of the aim of the centre for Peace and Conflict studies is to create a Scottish Peace and Conflict Studies Network. This will initially act as a board of advisers and reviewers for the centre's ongoing research projects; however, it is also intended to become an institution in its own right through instituting and organising regular meetings and sharing information. Although the focus will be on scholars and practitioners working in this area throughout Scotland, contact and interaction will also be developed with individuals and agencies in the UK and abroad. The aim of the network is to establish a critical mass research network that will function primarily via a website and email and provide contact and regular updates on issues of relevance to locally based researchers, including research areas, issues, and projects. It will also hold an annual workshop in which academics, postgraduate students, and researchers working in the area, as well as those working for NGOs and agencies will be brought together to present and discuss their work and to be updated upon the progress of the research projects run by the Centre.

Conflict Mapping (ongoing)

This is a project researched by voluntary internships in the CPCS chosen from St Andrews University International Relations students. Conflict mapping involves the examination and tracking of a number of Post-cold war conflicts and the creation of a standard portfolio on each conflict. This is obtained and updated from the availability of data in open source and Internet sites. Essentially, the aim is to provide a basic guide to each conflict that includes causes and a brief history and analysis of the dynamics and the associated peace process. The main emphasis of conflict mapping is to connect it to the CPCS Liberal Peace Transitions project. So the format will concentrate on interventionary actors and their engagement in each conflict. These will range from state, non-state, to local, regional, and international actors, with a particular importance on role of NGOs in building a `civil peace'. The conflicts and the related peace endeavours currently being mapped include those in Bosnia, Kashmir, Nepal, Sierra Leonne and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Further information can be found on the Conflict Mapping site.