Central and Local Actors in Conflict and Peace Processes

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Conflict and peacebuilding processes both involve complex interactions between actors with varying degrees of proximity to local communities. Interactions between local and central actors – for instance between community elites and rebel leaders – orient many processes in civil conflicts, including recruitment and violence patterns. Interactions between local, international and central peacebuilders shape, at least in part, the nature of the post-conflict equilibria that prevail. The nature of the relationship between these different categories – which may be collaborative, adversarial, or switch between these two positions – contributes to conflict and recovery cycles. This panel explores the determinants of these interactions in either war or post-war contexts, as well as the ways in which they have either fueled conflicts or allowed for the establishment of a more stable political order.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Chair

• Stephanie Schwartz University of Southern California

Discussants

• Stephanie Schwartz University of Southern California

• Zachariah Cherian Mampilly Baruch College, CUNY

Individual Presentations

• Rebel Group Engagement with Local Politics: The Role of Ideology and Opportunity - Marine Gassier

• Legacies of Wartime Order: Punishment Attacks and Control in Northern Ireland - Kristin Marie Bakke, University College London; Christopher Rickard, Mr

• Restoring the Rule of Law After Civil War: A Field Experiment in Rural Colombia - Manuel Moscoso, Brown University; Robert A. Blair, Brown University; Michael Lee Weintraub, Universidad de los Andes

• Peacekeeping and Grassroots Peacebuilding: Contributors to Local Peace - Priscilla Torres, Duke University