Comparative Peacebuilding in Asia: Liberal and Illiberal Transitions from Ethnic Conflict and Authoritarianism

该项目旨在建立一个新的学术政策桥梁网络，以促进南亚和东南亚解决冲突和建设和平方面的高质量比较奖学金和知识转移。我们的重点是斯里兰卡、缅甸、印度尼西亚、柬埔寨、尼泊尔、印度东北部、东帝汶和泰国，这些国家都处于历史性变革的风口浪头，但它们通往和平的道路充满争议、脆弱，而且往往不自由。我们的网络有三个目标：(i)促进和网络比较亚洲建设和平的学术研究；（ii）促进学者、从业者和决策者之间的知识共享和政策倡导；（iii）通过合作出版物和研究提案推进严谨的学术研究。该网络的主要活动、产出和预期成果将有三个方面：(i)在2017年6月至2018年5月期间，在亚洲和英国举办三场研讨会，将学者和政策制定者聚集在一起；（ii）建立一个新的网站，以促进研究和知识交流，该网站必须严谨、以证据为基础，而且易于访问；（三）开展关于亚洲建设和平比较的合作研究项目，为联合出版物和未来的大笔研究经费奠定基础。在伦敦政治经济学院、约克大学和澳大利亚国立大学的内部种子基金资助下，PI和共同研究人员于2015年试行了一种“工作坊实地访问”形式，并在仰光大学为学者、从业者、媒体和决策者举办了一次非常成功的为期两天的活动，随后进行了为期三天的实地访问。通过这一提议，我们寻求扩大成功的试点经验，并加强与该地区多个利益攸关方的对话。我们计划在斯里兰卡（2017年6月）和印度尼西亚（2017年12月）举办两次研讨会，其中包括实地考察。最后的研讨会将在伦敦举行（2018年5月）。这些活动将包括学术研究报告、政策对话、利益相关者对话和知识交流等不同的组成部分。我们的网络活动的知识内容围绕着两个关键的政策主题，使南亚和东南亚的和平建设特别重要和具有挑战性：(1)这些“后”冲突国家正在经历政治、社会和经济转型，这些转型不是线性的和自由的，而是经常陷入困境、不一致和不自由的。(2)在大多数情况下，建设和平是在从专制统治向解决种族冲突可能产生反作用的过渡中进行的。我们的网络吸引了一个国际联盟的学者，他们在区域研究、人类学、犯罪学、发展研究、政治学、社会学和法学等领域从事冲突与建设和平的工作。自从我们启动对话以来，我们与合作伙伴建立了密切联系，这些合作伙伴将帮助我们扩大国家、部门和专题专业知识，并为我们的工作带来重要的制度深度。我们网络的现有成员参加了早期在缅甸的试点，包括Alex de Waal教授（塔夫茨大学），他是非洲建设和平与对话的开创性作者，Jayadeva Uyangoda教授（科伦坡），斯里兰卡种族冲突的杰出政治学家，Caroline Hughes教授（布拉德福德大学），柬埔寨和东帝汶的建设和平，Rachael Diprose博士（墨尔本），印度尼西亚的种族-宗教冲突和不平等。Chaw Chaw Sein教授（仰光）研究缅甸威权转型的动态，Terence Lee博士（新加坡国立大学）研究军队在亚洲威权转型中的作用，Stefano Ruzza博士（米兰）研究反叛乱，犯罪学和建设和平，Duncan McCargo教授（利兹/哥伦比亚）研究泰国南部冲突的民族主义层面，Lars Waldorf博士（约克）研究亚洲和非洲建设和平的比较法律方面，以及Sanjib Baruah教授（Bard），关于印度东北部的和平建设和政治。

This project seeks to build a new academic-policy bridging network to promote high quality comparative scholarship and knowledge transfer on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in South and Southeast Asia. We focus on Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Northeast India, Timor-Leste and Thailand, all of which are at the cusp of a historic transformation, but where the pathway to peace is contested, fragile, and frequently illiberal.Our network has three objectives: (i) to promote and network academic research on comparative peacebuilding in Asia; (ii) to enable knowledge sharing and policy advocacy among scholars, practitioners, and policy makers; (iii) to advance rigorous scholarship through collaborative publications and research proposals. The primary activities, outputs, and expected outcomes of this network will be threefold: (i) three workshops in Asia and the UK that bring academics and policy-makers together between June 2017 and May 2018; (ii) establishing a new website to promote research and knowledge exchange that is rigorous, evidence based, but also accessible; and (iii) developing collaborative research projects on comparative peacebuilding in Asia, to form the basis for joint publications and future large research grants.The PI and co-investigators piloted a 'workshop-field visit' format in 2015, with internal seed funding from LSE, York and ANU, and held a very successful two-day event for scholars, practitioners, media and policy-makers at the University of Yangon, followed by a three-day field visit. With this proposal we seek to scale up that successful pilot experience and intensify dialogue with multiple stakeholders in the region. We plan two workshops with a field visit component, in Sri Lanka (June 2017), and Indonesia (December 2017); with a final workshop in London (May 2018). These events will include distinct components for academic research presentation, policy dialogue, stakeholder conversations, and knowledge-exchange. The intellectual content of our network events is structured around two key policy themes that make peacebuilding in South and Southeast Asia particularly significant and challenging:(1) These 'post' conflict countries are going through political, social and economic transformations that are not linear and liberal, but often troubled, inconsistent and illiberal. (2) Peacebuilding is in most cases happening amidst a parallel transition from authoritarian rule that can be counter-productive to ethnic conflict resolution. Our network draws on an international consortium scholars working on conflict and peacebuilding across area studies, anthropology, criminology, development studies, political science, sociology and law. Since we initiated our dialogue, we have developed close links with our collaborators who will help us expand country, sectoral and topical expertise, and who bring significant institutional depth to our work. Existing members of our network, who participated in the earlier pilot in Myanmar, include Professor Alex de Waal (Tufts), a seminal author on peacebuilding and dialogue in Africa, Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda (Colombo), the pre-eminent political scientist on the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, Professor Caroline Hughes (Bradford) on peacebuilding in Cambodia and Timor-Leste, Dr Rachael Diprose (Melbourne) on ethno-religious conflict and inequalities in Indonesia, Professor Chaw Chaw Sein (Yangon) on the dynamics of authoritarian transition in Myanmar, Dr Terence Lee (NUS) on the role of the military in authoritarian transitions in Asia, Dr Stefano Ruzza (Milan) on counterinsurgency, criminology and peacebuilding, Professor Duncan McCargo (Leeds/Columbia) on the ethno-nationalist dimensions of conflict in Southern Thailand, Dr Lars Waldorf (York) on the comparative legal aspects of peacebuilding in Asia and Africa, and Professor Sanjib Baruah (Bard), on peacebuilding and politics in Northeast India.