LUCIR Event
Calm Down! Why the current crisis facing peacemaking is not terribly new.
- Date
- Monday 30 November 2026
- Time
- Explanation
- Free to attend, registration required.
- Address
-
Anna van Buerenplein
Anna van Buerenplein 301
2595 DG The Hague - Room
- 2.21
LUCIR warmly invites students, faculty, and interested others, to this keynote by the renowned scholar Roger Mac Ginty, Professor in Defence, Development and Diplomacy, who has been at the forefront of peace studies for several decades.
Calm Down! Why the current crisis facing peacemaking is not terribly new.
Much commentary is catastrophising the current state of peacemaking and peacebuilding. Much of that commentary is justified. Major states are shunning multilateralism, peacekeeping operations are being shuttered, and budgets for peacebuilding are being slashed. But, we have been here before. This paper identifies five factors that are currently shaping peacebuilding that we have seen in previous 'crises' of peacemaking: apparently new and untested peace actors, dysfunctional international organisations, seemingly intractable international and transnational issues, 'terrible' leaders, and new technologies. The talk will show that the challenges facing peacemaking and peacebuilding are real and serious, but also that the task is to look forward and try to navigate a way through the challenges we face.
Speaker bio
Roger Mac Ginty works on peace and conflict, particularly on the intersection between top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacemaking. He is interested in everyday peace and the different ways in which this might be captured. He co-directs the Everyday Peace Indicators project (with Pamina Firchow) and edits the Taylor and Francis journal Peacebuilding (with Oliver Richmond). He also edits the "Rethinking Political Violence" book series. His articles have been published in Cooperation and Conflict, Security Dialogue, and Review of International Studies.
Mac Ginty has conducted extensive fieldwork and his research has been funded by the EU, ESRC and Carnegie Corporation of New York among others.