Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding How Community-Led Efforts of Maintaining Peace Can be Effective in Areas of Long-Term Armed Conflict

这一博士论文研究项目调查了在国家和非国家武装团体之间旷日持久的武装冲突期间，平民社区在建设和平方面所需的工作。它提供了四个重要贡献：(1)本项目提供的观点和想法将有助于世界各地受武装冲突影响的许多平民社区实施社区领导的建设和平战略；(2)对社区领导的建设和平的分析将有助于美国和全球的国际建设和平实践者、政府官员和政策制定者设计和实施自下而上的建设和平项目；(3)关于在战争期间保护平民生命所需土著进程的数据将有助于理解土著建设和平，这是联合国(UN)的一个新兴主题；(4)本项目提供的研究方法和工具将有助于民间社区、民间社会组织和学者评估社区领导的建设和平项目。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究生涯。鉴于国际建设和平干预在维持世界许多地方的和平方面的局限性，和平学者和实践者在过去15年里专注于当地的建设和平实践。然而，虽然这种对地方建设和平努力的关注揭示了国际一级以外的做法和行为者的重要性，但大多数研究仍然侧重于国家行为者和进程，而不是基层建设和平做法。本项目调查基层建设和平的一种形式：社区领导的和平区现象。通过参与观察、半结构化深度访谈和档案研究等民族志方法，本项目审查(1)平民社区维护和平区所需的日常工作；(2)社区为此而借鉴的历史、价值观和规范；(3)平民、国家、非国家行为者和民间社会组织之间的战略关系和互动，使社区能够建设和维持和平。这一项目事关和平的重新定义，超越了和平不存在暴力的主要定义，并将建设和平作为一个由国家主导、由专家驱动的技术性冲突解决项目。虽然这一博士论文研究项目将聚焦于菲律宾的地方建设，但这项研究将为在包括美国当地在内的许多地方长期发生武装冲突的地区在当地文职层面维护和平提供新的见解和方法。

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates the work required from civilian communities in building peace during prolonged armed conflict between state and non-state armed groups. It offers four important contributions: (1) Perspectives and ideas provided by this project will be useful to many civilian communities affected by armed conflicts around the world in implementing community-led peacebuilding strategies; (2) Analysis on community-led peacebuilding will be useful to international peacebuilding practitioners, government officials, and policy-makers in the US and globally in designing and implementing bottom-up peacebuilding projects; (3) Data on indigenous processes required in protecting civilian lives during war will be useful toward understanding indigenous peacebuilding, an emerging theme at the United Nations (UN); (4) Research methodology and instruments provided by this project will be useful to civilian communities, civil society organizations, and scholars in evaluating community-led peacebuilding projects. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.Given the limits of international peacebuilding interventions in sustaining peace in many places around the world, peace scholars and practitioners have focused on local peacebuilding practices in the last fifteen years. However, while this focus on local efforts in peacebuilding reveals the significance of practices and actors beyond the international level, most research remains focused on national actors and processes rather than grassroots peacebuilding practices. This project investigates one form of grassroots peacebuilding: the phenomenon of community-led peace zone. Through ethnographic methods of participant observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and archival research, this project examines (1) the daily work required from civilian communities in maintaining the peace zone; (2) the histories, values, and norms that the community draws upon to do so; and (3) the strategic relationships and interactions among civilians, state, non-state actors, and civil society organizations that allow communities to build and sustain peace. At stake in this project is a reconceptualization of peace beyond its dominant definition of the absence of violence, and peacebuilding as a state-led, expert-driven, and technical project of conflict resolution. Although this doctoral dissertation research project will focus on local peacebuilding in the Philippines, the research will provide new insights and approaches for maintaining peace at the local civilian level in areas with chronic armed conflict in many places, including localities in the United States.