CCTS
Review 37

CCTS SEMINAR, THURSDAY JUNE 5th, 2008
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10am – 4pm, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, NW1 2BJ.

We often talk about ‘stakeholders’ in an armed conflict or a peace process, but not all those who have an interest in the conduct or ending of a war participate in the fighting. Those who get a 'seat at the table’ are usually only those who did. They are likely  to pursue their own interests in negotiations and while they have the power to bring the fighting to an end the terms they set for the ‘peace’ may exclude other interests and thus not provide the basis for a stable future that meets the needs of all members of society.

So whose peace will it be? Who has the moral right to be considered a stakeholder? How in practice can undue powers be curbed? How can all those who have a right to be considered get a voice and be involved in building the future? 

These questions are fundamental to our work for conflict transformation. They inevitably involve us in intricate political and moral issues. This seminar will relate key ethical and political concepts to experience and provide an opportunity for participants to explore the implications for their own work.

Our guest paper-writer and presenter will be Oliver Richmond, whose primary area of expertise is in peace and conflict theory, and he has recently finished a book project on concepts of peace and their implicit usages in International Relations theory (Peace in International Relations, to be published this year by Routledge). In 2005 he published a book entitled The Transformation of Peace, in which he examined the conceptualisation of peace, and in particular the construction of the ‘liberal peace’, in post-conflict zones. He has been involved in fieldwork in Cyprus and Turkey, Kosovo, Bosnia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Nepal and Kashmir, as well as in the Eastern Congo region.

Oliver’s paper and its presentation will be followed by plenary and group discussion in what we hope will be a lively and stimulating day. Please write to ccts@c-r.org for further details and to register.

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