Can Peace Research Make Peace?: Lessons in Academic Diplomacy

Timo Kivimäki

Routledge, Apr 15, 2016 - Political Science - 200 pages

This book is about the process and, more generally, about the opportunities that peace research and the teaching of conflict resolution can offer academic diplomacy. As such the book is both an empirical and a theoretical project. While it aims at being the most comprehensive analysis of the conflict in West Kalimantan, it also launches a new theoretical approach, neo-pragmatism, and offers lessons for the prevention of conflicts elsewhere. While being based on the classical pragmatist theories of truth and explanation, the approach developed in this book incorporates the complications to social science theory caused by the 'discovery' of socially constructed realities, and concepts such as speech acts. Yet, instead of just theorizing speech acts and social constructs, the theoretical mission is to offer pragmatic, detailed, concrete prescriptions of what to do to deconstruct realities that threaten peace by the means available for research and scholars of peace.

Contents

• 1 Introduction: 1
• 2 What Kind of Junctures on the Path to Conflict Should Peace Research be Focused on?: 21
• 3 Junctures on the Path to Conflict: 45
• 4 Can the Path to Conflict be Blocked or Redirected?: 103
• Annex 1 Inaugural Meeting of the West Kalimantan Ethnic Communication Forum with the Pasir Panjang Declaration: 153
• Annex 2 Pontianak Declaration translation: 159
• Bibliography: 161
• Index: 179

About the author

Timo Kivimäki is Professor of international relations with particular expertise in peace and conflict studies at the University of Bath. Previously he has held professorships at the University of Helsinki, University of Lapland, and at the University of Copenhagen. Professor Kivimäki has also been director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (Copenhagen) and the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Helsinki. In addition to purely academic work Professor Kivimäki has been a frequent consultant to the Finnish, Danish, Dutch, Russian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Swedish governments, as well as to several UN and EU organizations on conflict and terrorism. He was President Martti Ahtisaari’s (mediators) adviser in the Aceh peace talks, and the initiator of the West Kalimantan peace process, led by Indonesia’s Vice President, Jusuf Kalla. Dr Kivimäki’s latest book, The Long Peace of East Asia was published by Ashgate in 2014.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Can Peace Research Make Peace?: Lessons in Academic Diplomacy
• Author: Timo Kivimäki
• Publisher: Routledge, 2016
• ISBN: 1317170024, 9781317170020
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Geopolitics