Colombia, Lebanon and Northern Ireland served as sites for a recent research project that examined conflict associated with micro-dynamics of everyday inter-group encounters. Drawing on the project's findings, Roger MacGinty will highlight how everyday agency can be identified and categorized. Furthermore, research shows that with this comes the development of non-escalatory tactics that can prevent a conflict from worsening.
In some cases, an understanding of these tactics may prolong situations of negative peace, defined as the absence of violence. Drawing on data from on-the-ground everyday encounters, this talk will ask fundamental questions about the utility and purpose of peacebuilding interventions in post-peace accord societies.
MacGinty is a professor in defense, development and diplomacy in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His primary research interests include peace and conflict, particularly the intersection between top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacemaking. The author of four books, he has edited and co-edited seven books on issues related to peace processes and peacebuilding. A co-editor of the journal Peacebuilding, his writings have been published in The Third World Quarterly, Cooperation and Conflict, Security Dialogue, and Review of International Studies.
A reception will follow this lecture in the Hesburgh Center Great Hall.
Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.