Past Events
Academic Year 2017-2018 | Academic Year 2016-2017 | Academic Year 2015-2016 | Previous Event summaries, where available, can be found
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As the Year Closes
We would like to extend the wish, “less of armament and none of war,” to our entire community of friends, colleagues
Read moreBackground: Sudan Peace Archive
On January 9, 2005, the leaders of Sudan, Vice President Ali Osman Taha, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, John
Read moreProgram
Our research programs aim to be innovative and provocative, marrying commitment to rigorous, interdisciplinary research with creative questioning in order to spark new conversations about we might understand and respond to the challenges of armed conflict today. Methodologically inductive, all of our programs are founded on analysis into the questions of the nature and causes of violent conflicts and mass atrocities, and how they are ended
Read moreTowards a common doctrine for African Standby Force-led peace operations
This article considers the military doctrine currently available to the African Standby Force (ASF) for peace operations (PO) on the African continent. In the absence of an updated and relevant doctrine for PO, risks are posed to the harmonization and coordination of multinational missions, as well as to the successful achievement of mission objectives. Despite laudable efforts by both the United Nations (UN) and bilateral donor nations to support the preparatory and continuation training of ASF troops, differences in the national and multinational experiences of this work and the differences in the legal basis of this doctrine do not provide an optimal ‘stop gap’ measure. The pressing new requirement for African peace missions to deter terrorist and insurgent anti-peace factions exposes the limitations of UN doctrine, which preserves traditional peacekeeping principles of consent, impartiality and minimum use of force
Read moreUK arms to Saudi – a disappointing, but unsurprising verdict
On Monday, July 10, the UK High Court ruled that the government is acting lawfully in allowing export licenses for
Read moreThe norms and structures for African peace efforts
The African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is a set of norms and structures developed and designed to enable Africa with its peace and security affairs. It is an important instrument that enabled Africa gain significant success in its efforts to promote stability in Africa. The APSA was designed in the early 2000s and Africa needs to fully implement its norms and fully utilize its instruments. There is also a need to address gaps and redundancies so that it fits to the current context of new internal and global challenges.
Read moreDefending Constitutional Rule as a Peacemaking Enterprise
The African Union (AU) norm relating to unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) distinguishes the African peace and security order from other regional and global peace and security orders. This norm assigns the regional organization an intrusive role unparalleled by other international organizations as far as the constitutional and democratic order of member states is concerned. The norm bans UCG and also provides for enforcement measures that received regional constitutional status in the founding treaty establishing the AU. Despite its emergence accompanying the democratization process that countries on the continent ventured into in the 1990s, seen in the light of Africa’s unhappy experience with illegal change or seizure of government, this norm cannot be dissociated from the continent’s concern about peace and security.
Read moreThe ‘Politics of Protection’
My article, “The ‘Politics of Protection’: Assessing the African Union’s Contributions to Reducing Violence Against Civilians” is now available through
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Compendium of arms trade corruption
Also known as the “dossier of dodgy defense deals”, the compendium details cases of corruption in the international arms trade and
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