Venue: Priorsfield, University of Birmingham, 46 Edgbaston Park Rd, B15 2RT
This conference will provide an opportunity to explore a range of debates and topics related to intrastate conflict and civil war, including specific armed conflicts, broad patterns related to the ‘nature’ of civil war, conflict resolution and termination, and international dimensions of conflict prevention, intervention and peacebuilding.
30 paper presentations on panels related to Theoretical Issues in the Study of Civil War; Regional and International Intervention in Civil Wars; Ethnicity, Nationalism and Civil Conflict; Regional Perspectives on Civil Conflict; Sources and Characteristics of Civil Conflict and Political Violence; Mediation and Civil Wars; and Insurgencies and Approaches to Counter-Insurgency, and keynote presentations, will address questions such as:
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What is the current knowledge regarding the causes and nature of intrastate conflicts, and the factors which help to explain their onset, duration, intensity, termination and recurrence?
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Has intrastate conflict fundamentally changed in nature in recent years?
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Is the era of large civil wars over? Or are apparent downward trends in the number and magnitude of civil wars a reflection of the definition and codification of such conflicts – rather than ‘reality’ – and the historical timeframe used for analysis?
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What are the most interesting methodological trends and debates in the study of intrastate conflict?
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What are the prospects for international intervention into intrastate conflict aimed at resolving conflict and building peace?
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Are there historical patterns in terms of victimization, rebel recruitment, the war economy – and other factors – in civil wars?
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What is the future agenda for the study of civil wars and intrastate conflict?
Speakers include Jonathan Fox (Bar-Ilan University), Paul Richards (Wageningen University), Karl DeRouen Jr. (University of Alabama), Darya Pushkina (St Petersburg State University), Matteo Fumagalli (Central European University), Mark Webber (University of Birmingham), Alpaslan Özerdem (Coventry University), Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham), and many others.
Attendance at the conference is free of charge, including coffee breaks, lunches and a reception on the evening of the 11 July, but registration is essential.
This event is organised by the editorial team of Civil Wars journal with the support of the University of Birmingham College of Social Sciences, the School of Government and Society, and the Department of Political Science and International Studies.
Programme
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DAY 1: Monday 11 July
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10:00
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Welcome: Mark Webber, Head of School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham
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10:15
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Opening keynote address: Civil War Studies – is a Larger Perspective Needed?
Paul Richards (Wageningen University) Introduced by Paul Jackson (University of Birmingham)
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11:00
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Morning break
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11:30
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Theoretical Issues in the Study of Civil War
Chair: Edward Newman (University of Birmingham)
Helen Dexter (University of Manchester) and Richard Jackson (Aberystwyth University) [not attending], Fighting Talk: Language and Narrative in the Social Construction of Political Violence
Siobhan Wills (University College Cork),The Legal Characterization of Armed Conflicts: Implications for Protection
Corinne Bara (Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich), The Untapped Potential of Fuzzy-Set QCA in the Study Of Intrastate Conflict
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13:00
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Lunch
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14:00
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Regional and International Organisations’ Interventions in Civil Wars (I)
Chair: Karl DeRouen Jr. (University of Alabama)
Oya Dursun-Özkanca (Elizabethtown College) and Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham), Assessing Interventions in Civil Wars: Capabilities and Context
Darya Pushkina (St Petersburg State University), The United Nations in East Timor Mark Webber (University of Birmingham) and James Sperling (University of Akron), NATO in Afghanistan
Alpaslan Özerdem (Coventry University), The Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Mindanao
Annemarie Peen Rodt (University of Bath), The African Union in Burundi
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15:30
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Afternoon break
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16:00
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Panel sessions
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Panel A: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Civil Conflict
Chair: Mansoob Murshed (University of Birmingham)
Artak Galyan (Central European University),Power Sharing Institutions, Context and Ethnic Conflict in Post-Conflict Divided Societies: a Conjunctural Perspective
Ulrike G. Theuerkauf (London School of Economics) & Natascha S. Neudorfer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) [not attending], Corruption and Ethnic Violence: A Grievance-Based Argument on the Risk of Ethnic Wars
Hannes Artens (Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, University of Exeter), Birakuji – Kurdish ‘Fratricidal’ War and the Construction of Groupness in Ethnicised Conflicts
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Panel B: Regional Perspectives on Civil Conflict
Chair: Karl Cordell (University of Plymouth)
Zoë Marriage (School of Oriental and African Studies, London), Compliance vs the Ragged Threat: problem-solving security in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Matteo Fumagalli (Central European University, Budapest), Civil Wars and Intra-state Conflict in the Post-Soviet Space Twenty Years On: What have we learnt?
Sylvia Sergiou (Freie Universität Berlin), Coercive Security Governance: The Case of the “National Congress for the Defense of the People” (CNDP) in the North Kivu Province (Dem. Rep. of the Congo)
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17:30
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Reception
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DAY 2: Tuesday 12 July
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10:00
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Keynote address: The Religious Wave: Religion and Civil War 1960 to 2009
Jonathan Fox (Bar-Ilan University)
Chair: Colin Thain, Head of the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham
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10:45
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Morning break
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11:00
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Panel sessions
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Panel A Sources and Characteristics of Civil Conflict and Political Violence
Chair: Paul Jackson (University of Birmingham)
Victor Ojakorotu (North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa), Nature’s Gift, Man’s Curse: Natural resources and civil conflicts in Niger Delta and Cabinda
Cagla Cavusoglu (Koc University, Istanbul), Polluted Conflicts
James Worrall (University of Leeds), Untangling Grieve and Greedance: Predicting Conflict In Fragile States
Nicolas Lemay-Hebert (University of Birmingham) International Peacebuilding as Cause of Tension: The Potential and Limits of the Local Ownership Paradigm
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Panel B Mediation and Civil Wars
Chair: Asaf Siniver (University of Birmingham)
Karl DeRouen Jr. (University of Alabama) & Paulina Pospieszna (University of Konstanz), Mediation and Civil Wars Involving Terrorism
Paulina Pospieszna (University of Konstanz) & Gerald Schneider (University of Konstanz) [not attending], Conditions of Successful Mediation in Internal Conflicts: The Role of Power-sharing Arrangements in Political Agreements
Govinda Clayton (University of Kent), When Do They Say No? Resources and the Disincentive to Offer and Accept Mediation in Civil War
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12:30
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Lunch
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1:30
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Panel sessions
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Panel A: Regional and International Organisations’ Interventions in Civil Wars (II)
Chair: Felix Heiduk (University of Birmingham)
Heather M. Smith (Lewis & Clark College), The Organization of American States in Haiti
Marietta König (EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia), The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Georgia
Annemarie Peen Rodt (University of Bath) and Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham), The European Union in Macedonia
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Panel B: Insurgencies and Approaches to Counter-Insurgency
Chair: Andrew Mumford (University of Sheffield)
Ruth Delaforce (ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing & Security, Griffith University, Australia), Not a New War? Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency Practices, and the Role of Private Military and Security Contractors
Zeki Sarigil (Bilkent University) & Nihat Ali Ozcan (Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey), The Anatomy of an Insurgency: The Case of the PKK
Ami Carpenter (University of San Diego), Urban Resilience to Sectarian Violence in Baghdad
Oliver Walton (University of Birmingham), Military Victory in Sri Lanka: Reflecting on contemporary trends in conflict resolution and civil war termination
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15:00
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Refreshments and concluding comment
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Attendance at the conference is free of charge, including coffee breaks, lunches and a reception on the evening of the 11 July, but registration is essential.
This event is organised by the editorial team of Civil Wars journal with the support of the University of Birmingham College of Social Sciences, the School of Government and Society, and the Department of Political Science and International Studies.