The Legacy of Armed Conflicts: Southern African and Comparative Perspectives

The GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, in cooperation with the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria is organizing a two-day workshop on the legacy of armed conflicts: Southern African and comparative perspectives.

Achieving stable peace, building accountable state institutions and (re)establishing trust are core challenges in the aftermath of an armed conflict. While violent conflicts are disruptive, they also offer opportunities for political and social change. However, the passage from conflict to sustainable peace is a complicated process. Formal and informal processes taking place during the war and in its immediate aftermath can have profound long-term implications. Even in Southern Africa, which has been heralded as a ‘success story’ of peacebuilding, past wars continue to shape politics and societies in many ways.

This event will bring together scholars based in Southern Africa and in other regions of the world in order to reflect on the legacy of conflicts for sustainable peace. Contributions will have a particular focus on one of the three following topics:

• Peace processes and long-term peacebuilding

• Former armed actors in post-conflict societies

• Violence and trust in the aftermath of conflict

Workshop format The Workshop will feature lectures from two distinguished keynote speakers as well as a roundtable on the legacy of armed conflicts and apartheid in Southern Africa. Participants are invited to present their research in thematic parallel sessions.

Speakers The first keynote lecture will be delivered by Prof. Timothy Sisk from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Prof. Sisk is a leading peace and conflict scholar. He has authored numerous books and articles on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in South Africa and in many other parts of the world, including Democratization in South Africa: The Elusive Social Contract (1995, Princeton University Press), From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding (co-edited with Anna Jarstad , Cambridge University Press, 2008) and The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (co-edited with Roland Paris, Routledge, 2009).

The second keynote lecture will be delivered by Prof. Gilbert Khadiagala. Prof. Khadiagala is currently Jan Smuts Professor of International Relations and Head of the Department at the University of Witwatersrand. He was formerly Associate Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Khadiagala is a prominent expert of peace and security issues in Sub-Saharan and has authored many academic and policy-oriented publications on Southern Africa, the Great Lakes Region and Eastern Africa.

Other speakers and panelists include:

Prof. Alex De Waal (Tuft University) Prof. Scott Straus (University of Wisconsin Madison) Prof. Maxi Schoeman (University of Pretoria) Prof. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (University of South Africa) Prof. Brian Raftopoulos (University of the Western Cape) Prof. Annette Seegers (University of Cape Town) Dr. Hugo Van Der Merwe (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation)

Contact

For enquiries about attending the keynote speeches: [email protected]

For general enquiries: Dr Giulia Piccolino Post-doctoral Research Fellow GIGA Institute of African Affairs [email protected]

Dr John Kotsopoulos Research fellow Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) University of Pretoria [email protected]