All of CICR’s academic and operational projects have a research component that provides a systematic analysis of conflict scenarios. However, some projects are mainly research oriented. CICR currently is engaged in three conflict resolution projects focused primarily on research: the International Research Project on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities, Religion and Conflict Resolution and Parliamentary Peacemaking. CICR also is developing three new research projects that are not yet funded: Anthropology of Conflict Resolution, Learning Lessons and Resentment and Education.
Conflict Analysis and Assessment
CICR seeks to gain greater understanding of practices and paradigms used to analyze factors contributing to and potential approaches to deadly conflict. CICR’s approach emphasizes structural issues surrounding conflict and is principally focused on the impact of development actors. Conflict assessments are conducted as part of participatory processes that engage individuals in zones of conflict in active learning relationships. Conflict assessments are one step in a long-term strategy that also may include monitoring and evaluation. In recognition of the growing use of conflict assessments as a tool for Conflict Prevention, Mitigation and Response, CICR is undertaking a review of the most widely used methodologies in assessment including those of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the United Nations Development Programme, the United States Agency for International Development, the European Union, the Fund for Peace, and the World Bank. The review intends to explore and compare various approaches to conflict assessments. The recommendations of the review will be used to refine and instruct CICR’s approach to conflict analysis and assessment.
International Research Project on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities:
CICR, as part of an international network of scholars and researchers, has established an International Research Project on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities to explore systems of political autonomy for ethnic minorities. The project supports sustained dialogue on three themes: assessment of the current state of autonomy systems; identification of issues of interest and concern; and shared lessons through comparative analysis. The first phase of the project was the International Workshop on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities, which was hosted June, 2001, in Beijing by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) of the People’s Republic of China, in cooperation with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s School of Humanities and Social Science. Funding was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the East Asia Institute of SIPA, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Japan Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and SEAC. After Beijing, the organizing group was expanded from three to five members to include the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in and the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at UppsalaUniversity.
The second International Conference on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities was hosted by UppsalaUniversity in June 2004. Initial funding has been provided by the Carnegie Corporation and UppsalaUniversity. Four working groups of international scholars have been established: Autonomy & Political Participation, Autonomy & Conflict Resolution, Forms of Autonomy, and Autonomy & External Actors. These working groups will produce original research that will be published in 2004–2005. A website is in development for use as a management tool to support the ongoing conference process and working group research, and also as a database for information on ethnic autonomy systems available to scholars and officials worldwide. The project is designed to run through 2011, with conferences and working group research supported in alternating years. The next conference will be hosted by the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
Religion and Conflict Resolution
CICR and the Interfaith Center of New York have created a Religion and Peacemaking Database. The database currently contains hundreds of entries representing every continent and dozens of countries. The Religion and Peacemaking Database has three major goals: (1) to improve understanding of the phenomenon of religious peacemaking; (2) to recognize and publicize religious peacemaking work as invaluable and worthy of attention; and (3) to create a resource that will offer the academic community and other communities that are directly involved in peacemaking a chance to learn about and communicate, interact and cooperate with religious peacemakers.
Parliamentary Peacemaking
CICR’s project on parliamentary peacemaking emerges from the conviction that the role of democratically elected parliaments in international peace operations remains both under-recognized and understudied. The goal of the project is to analyze this integral role and articulate methods for ensuring that parliamentarians, national governments and international institutions understand their responsibilities with the intention of increasing the efficacy of peace operations. In collaboration with Parliamentarians for Global Action, a series of conferences have been organized in countries that are either involved directly in peace operations or that are located in regions directly affected by conflict. The first conference was held in Lusaka, Zambia, in August of 2000 and examined the regional dimension of the conflict in the Congo. The second series, based on the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, brought together members of parliaments from various countries as well as representatives of international institutions, academics and members of civil society in Accra, Cairo, New Delhi and New York, where the results were presented to the UN Security Council. A mapping project of parliamentary peacemaking and the role of inter-parliamentary and parliamentary strengthening organizations is currently under development in cooperation with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.