93549 - PEACEKEEPING, PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course provides students with tools to analyze the practice of conflict resolution, especially as emerged after the end of the Cold War, through a review of key theories, concepts and practices of international interventions aimed at peacekeeping and peacebuilding. At the end of the course, the student will be able to: - Identify and distinguish the different approaches to peacekeeping and interventions - Discuss the empirical aspects of international interventions, identifying strengths and weaknesses of different types of action - Connect different practices of peacekeeping and peacebuilding with changes in the international system and foreign policies

Contenuti

The "Peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict resolution" course aims at introducing students to the study of conflict resolution at the international level. The course aims at offering theoretical and analytical tools to examine approaches, practices and methods of international intervention in areas of crisis and war. In particular, through the presentation of several case studies, the course will address the themes of peacebuilding, peacekeeping, peacemaking, statebuilding and other approaches related to peace processes. The course will also analyze the main actors (states, international organizations and non-governmental organizations) involved in conflict management and resolution and will evaluate the main issues (good governance, equitable distribution of resources, gender equality, youth participation, etc.) related to sustainable peace.

The course alternates lectures and seminars in which the students will have the opportunity to discuss the assigned readings and explore different case studies. The first class of each week (Thursday) will be dedicated to a lecture, while the second meeting (Friday) will be devoted to the seminar. From week 7 to week 10, the discussion on Friday will be supported and integrated by students’ presentations organized in teams around the topics detailed in the program. Students are required to read the assigned material before the scheduled meetings to better understand the topics discussed and to fully participate in the discussions.

Testi/Bibliografia

Week 1 – Introduction and course overview – defining peace operations, theoretical and methodological issues.

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution, Fourth revised edition, 2016 – Chapter 1.
• Barnett, M., Kim, H., O’Donnell, M., & Sitea, L. (2007). “Peacebuilding: What Is in a Name?”, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 13(1), 35-58.

  Other readings:

• Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An agenda for peace: preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping: report of the Secretary-General pursuant to the statement adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992.
• Richmond, Oliver P. “The Evolution of the International Peace Architecture.” European Journal of International Security 6, no. 4 (2021): 379–400. doi:10.1017/eis.2021.12.

Week 2 – Conflict analysis and the measurement of peace

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 3.
• Fabio Oliva and Lorraine Charbonnier, Conflict Analysis Handbook, United Nations System Staff College, 2016, pp. 18-34.

Other readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 2.
• Fabio Oliva and Lorraine Charbonnier, Conflict Analysis Handbook, United Nations System Staff College, 2016, pp. 35-45.

Week 3 – Evolution of peace operations: peacekeeping’s generations and key actors

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 6.
• Cedric de Coning (2019), “How UN Peacekeeping Operations Can Adapt to a New Multipolar World Order”, International Peacekeeping, 26(5): 536-539.

Other readings:

• Walt Kilroy, “Protection of Civilians” (Chapter 18), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021, https://academic-oup-com.ezproxy.unibo.it/edited-volume/34241
• Michael Pugh, “Peacekeeping" (Chapter 17), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Week 4 – Peacebuilding

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 9.
• Roger Mac Ginty & Oliver P Richmond (2013) “The Local Turn in Peace Building: a critical agenda for peace”, Third World Quarterly, 34:5, 763-783, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.800750

Other readings:

• Pauline Veron and Andrew Sherriff, International peacebuilding financing and changing politics in Europe, Ecdpm, October 2022.
• Yuji Uesugi & Oliver P. Richmond (2021) “Reconstructing the International Peace Architecture in the Asian Century”, Global Society, 35:4, 419-434, DOI: 10.1080/13600826.2021.1948393
• Cedric de Coning (2016) “From peacebuilding to sustaining peace: Implications of complexity for resilience and sustainability”, Resilience, 4:3, 166-181, DOI: 10.1080/21693293.2016.1153773
• Mary Kaldor, Denisa Kostovicova, Global Civil Society, Peacebuilding, and Statebuilding (Chapter 23), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Week 5 – Peacemaking and negotiation

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 7.
• Cedric de Coning, Ako Muto, Rui Saraiva (Eds.), Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution – Chapter 1 (pp. 1-17), Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Other readings:

• Hellmüller, S., Pring, J. and P. Richmond, O., “How Norms Matter in Mediation: An Introduction”. Swiss Polit Sci Rev, 26: 345-363, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12425
• Harland, David. 2018. The Lost Art of Peacemaking. Geneva: HD Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
• Federer, Julia Palmiano, “We Do Negotiate with Terrorists: Navigating Liberal and Illiberal Norms in Peace Mediation”. Critical Studies on Terrorism 12 (1): 19–39, 2019.
• Bercovitch, Jacob, and Ayse Kadayifci, “Exploring the Relevance and Contribution of Mediation to Peace-Building”. Peace and Conflict Studies 9 (2): 21–40, 2002.

Week 6 – Stabilization and liberal peacebuilding

Mandatory readings:

• David Chandler, "Statebuilding" (Chapter 30), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.
• Oliver P. Richmond, "Peace Formation and the Reshaping of International Peacebuilding" (Chapter 40), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Other readings:

• Roberto Belloni & Francesco N. Moro, “Stability and Stability Operations: Definitions, Drivers”, Approaches, Ethnopolitics, 18(5): 445-461, 2019.
• Jonas Rusche, “Imagining Peace Outside of Liberal Statebuilding: Anarchist Theory as Pathway to Emancipatory Peacefacilitation”, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 0(0) 1–27, 2022.
• Lidén, Kristoffer, “The Ethics of Liberal Peacebuilding”, in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, University Press, 2021.

Week 7 – Conflict prevention and early warning

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 5.
• United Nations and World Bank. Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018., https://open- knowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28337, Introduction and chapter 2 (pp. 1-9, 49-76).

Other readings:

• Flávia Carbonari (et al.), A Review of the Evidence and a Global Strategy for Violence Prevention, 2020.
• New Zealand Alternative, Aotearoa New Zealand and Conflict Prevention: Building a Truly Independent Foreign Policy, October 2018.
• Ulviyye Sanili Aydin, "Peacebuilding in the OSCE Region: An Analysis of the Juxtaposition Between the Conflict Prevention Centre with the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund”, in Anja Mihr (et al.), Securitization and Democracy in Eurasia, Springer 2023, pp. 153-161.

Week 8 – Post-war reconciliation and reconstruction

Mandatory readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 8 and 10.
• Gráinne Kelly, "Reconciliation and Peacebuilding" (Chapter 35), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Other readings:

• Nadine Ansorg & Eleanor Gordon (2019) “Co-operation, Contestation and Complexity in Post-Conflict Security Sector Reform”, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 13(1): 2-24.
• Larry Attree and Jordan Street, No shortcuts to security. Learning from responses to armed conflicts involving proscribed groups, Saferworld, May 2022.

Week 9 – Gender, youth and peace processes

Mandatory readings:

• Smith, Sarah, "Gender, Security, and Peacebuilding" (Chapter 14), in Oliver P. Richmond, and Gëzim Visoka (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.
• Celina Del Felice, Rashmi Thapa (et al.), UNOY Peacebuilders (2018), Beyond dividing lines: The reality of youth-led peacebuilding in Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya and Sierra Leone, The Hague, 2018.

Other readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 12.
• Celina Del Felice and Obi Peter Onyeigwe (editors), Youth In Africa, Casa Africa, 2018, pp. 185-218.
• Women’s International Peace Centre, Feminist Peace Series, Perspectives on Feminist Peace, 2020.
• Claudia Ditel, "Women’s Transformative Power in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict", in Anja Mihr (et al.), Securitization and Democracy in Eurasia, Springer 2023, pp. 163-177, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-16659-4_10

Week 10 – From climate crisis to peace-tech: conflict resolution and new challenges

Mandatory readings:

• Allard Duursma, John Karlsrud, "Technologies of Peace", The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.
• Vally Koubi, “Climate Change and Conflict”, Annual Review of Political Science 2019 22:1, 343-360.

Other readings:

• Ramsbotham, O., Woodhouse T., Miall, H., Contemporary Conflict Resolution – Chapter 13.
• Katariina Mustasilta, The Future of Conflict Prevention, EUISS, May 2021, pp. 14-49.
• Florian Krampe, Ashok Swain, "Environmental Peacebuilding", "Technologies of Peace", The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation, Oxford University Press, 2021.

Monographies

1. Séverine Autesserre, The Frontlines of Peace, Oxford University Press, 2021.
2. Cedric de Coning, Ako Muto, Rui Saraiva (Eds.), Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
3. Carolyn Nordstrom, Shadows of War, University of California Press, 2004.
4. John Paul Lederach, The Moral Immagination, Oxfor University Press, 2005.
5. Gabrielle Rifkind and Giandomenico Picco, The Fog of Peace, I.B. Tauris, 2014.

Metodi didattici

Classes will be held in form of traditional lectures, group discussions on assigned readings, and videos shown to present case studies and encourage reflection and discussion.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The assessment method will be different for students regularly attending classes and for students who will not attend.

Students who regularly attend classes (90%)

The instructor aims at providing both a formative and a summative assessment for each student participating. Traditional assessment is summative, i.e., it focuses on the results the students achieve. This essential part of the academic experience will be complemented by feedback in the areas of analysis, skills development and personal attitudes in conflict resolution. The formative assessment component will encourage self-reflection, help meet students' needs in the learning experience and support students in taking responsibility for their learning and personal development.

The final grade will be determined by three criteria:

• 10%: In-class participation
• 20%: Case analysis (in-class group presentation)
• 70%: Take-home exam

1. In-class participation (10% of the final grade)

   In-class participation will be evaluated by the will and ability of the students to: take part actively discussions and debates; read the assigned readings in advance; volunteer information or opinions; give other students constructive feedback.

2. Case analysis (20% of the final grade)

   In-class presentations will be organized in group but presentations will be graded individually. The teams will prepare a class presentation of a case study of an international conflict. Each team will have approx. 30 minutes to present its case study to the class. While it is fine for groups to divide project work among team members, the final presentation should represent a single and conceptually linked piece of work. In your group project, the team should map the conflict and critically analyze the strengths and shortcomings of the various conflict resolution approaches that have been used in this conflict situation. The teacher will provide more information on group presentation requirements in class.

3. Take-home exam (70% of the final grade)

   A take-home exam will be handed during the last day of class and students will submit their exams through EOL by a deadline of one week. The take-home exam will consist of two short essays (1500 words each) based on the analysis and application of different interventions presented during the course.
   
   The questions will be assessed according to: clarity and consistency of the argument, reference to the theories combined with concrete examples, original and solution-oriented approaches, and critical thinking.

   The material for who regularly attend classes is composed of the mandatory readings and one monography chosen by the student among the five in the list above.
   

Students who do not regularly attend classes

Students who do not regularly attend classes will be assessed through a final take-home written exam. The exam will be composed of three questions and students will have to provide answers in the range of 800 words each.

Exams will be made available on Esami OnLine (EOL) three days before the exam dates as posted on AlmaEsami and will be due on the exam date by the time indicated on the web page.

The questions will be assessed according to: clarity and consistency of the argument, reference to the theories combined with concrete examples, and original and critical thinking.

The material for who do not regularly attend classes is composed of the mandatory readings and one monography chosen by the student among the five in the list above.

Ethical behavior

Students are bound by UNIBO’s ethics code. Plagiarism (written exams will be checked with professional software) invalidates the exam.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Class presentations, articles and other materials will be made available on virtuale.unibo.it.

Students with a form of disability or specific learning disabilities (DSA) who are requesting academic adjustments or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff to properly address them and agree on the appropriate measures with the competent bodies.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Bernardo Venturi