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

本博士论文研究项目调查了在国家和非国家武装团体之间的长期武装冲突中，平民社区在建设和平方面所需要的工作。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主导的建设和平战略；(2)对社区主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从业者、政府官员和决策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的土著进程的数据将有助于理解土著建设和平，这是联合国的一个新主题；(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主导的建设和平项目。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。鉴于国际建设和平干预措施在世界许多地方维持和平方面的局限性，和平学者和实践者在过去十五年中将重点放在地方建设和平实践上。然而，虽然这种对地方建设和平努力的关注揭示了实践和行为体在国际层面之外的重要性，但大多数研究仍然侧重于国家行为体和进程，而不是基层建设和平实践。这个项目调查了基层和平建设的一种形式：社区主导的和平区现象。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，本项目考察了(1)平民社区维护和平区所需的日常工作；(2)历史、价值观和社会赖以这样做的规范；(3)平民、国家、非国家行为体和民间社会组织之间的战略关系和互动，使社区能够建立和维持和平。该项目的关键在于重新定义和平，超越其对没有暴力的主导定义，并将建设和平作为国家主导、专家驱动和解决冲突的技术项目。虽然这个博士论文研究项目将侧重于菲律宾当地的和平建设，但该研究将为在许多地方（包括美国的地方）长期武装冲突地区的当地平民层面维持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.