Outcome of ConPeace workshop published in LASA Quarterly

Dr Jan Boesten has coordinated a section in the Summer issue of Latin American Studies Association's Quarterly Newsletter based on a workshop run by CCW project ConPeace. The full LASA newsletter is available here.

Dr Boesten's section on "Challenges in Colombia's Changing Security Landscape" includes the following articles:

Toward a Shared Vision of Peace
Magali Alba Niño, Jan Boesten, Annette Idler, Juan Masullo, Arlene B. Tickner, Julia Zulver

De 310 páginas a una paz transformadora: El reto de la paz territorial en Colombia
Borja Paladini Adell

Notes on the Implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia: Securing a Stable and Lasting Peace
Juan Carlos Restrepo

Perspectiva de la sociedad civil de regiones marginadas ¿Cómo podemos empoderar a las comunidades locales para enfrentar los desafíos de seguridad?
Magali Alba-Niño

Abstract: The University of Oxford’s CONPEACE (From Conflict Actors to Architects of Peace) Program at the Changing Character of War Centre, together with Bogota’s Rosario University and the Simon Bolívar University in Cúcuta, organized a one-day, cross-stakeholder workshop in Bogotá prior to the presidential elections to discuss the changing security landscape in Colombia. The workshop brought together stakeholders from Colombia’s civil society (both urban and rural), the UNHCR (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and the UN Mission to Colombia (as representatives of the international community), the national government, and national and international academics. This article explores some of the most important insights from our debates. Three points were essential: first, our understanding of security issues can benefit greatly from employing human and citizen security lenses that go beyond mere military presence throughout the national territory; second, the peace process with the FARC is not reversible and should be seen as an opportunity for the new government to create sustainable peace; third, the national government can learn from the collective action and community organizing of civil society in marginalized regions to improve long-term, people-centered security.

Annette Idler gives views on Colombian election - BBC world Service

Annette Idler gives her opinion on what's at stake in the Colombian election in an interview on Newshour, BBC World Service.

Colombian section at 30:06 on iplayer window or 28:00 on download

Dr Annette Idler recognised at Excellence in Impact Awards 2018

Congratulations to CCW's Dr Annette Idler, who received a 'Highly Commended' award at the inaugural O2RB Excellence in Impact Awards for her work on Changing Character of Conflict: Violent Non-State Actors and Borderlands. 

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Dr Idler's research on the Colombian Peace Process focuses on the role of non-violent state groups in the evolving climates of conflict, security and transnational organised crime. It combines ethnographic fieldwork with wider theoretical debates on security, and this 'glocal' approach to people-centred security has helped support the major partners in the Colombian Peace Process. The impact of Dr Idler's research has been to reduce conflict and civilian suffering in Colombia and other conflict zones, as well as to help shape the debate on that and wider conflicts.

Dr Idler was presented with the Highly Commended Early Career Impact Award at a ceremony at St Anne's College, Oxford. The O2RB Excellence in Impact awards are a collaborative iniitiative between the University of Oxford, the University of Reading, the Open University and Oxford Brookes University to foster and celebrate achievements in social science research beyond academia. 

Dr Annette Idler's Research on International Security Architecture featured in World Economic Forum update

Dr Annette Idler's research on codifying the current international security architecture was mentioned this week in the World Economic Forum's weekly members' update, 'In Focus', which is circulated to around 5,000 experts worldwide.

"In November of 2017, at the annual meeting of the Council in Dubai, Council member Dr. Annette Idler of the University of Oxford—an expert on conflict, security, and transnational crime—presented a paper codifying the current international security architecture. The Council agreed to use present trends to develop scenarios for the future, which led to three connected presentations at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos last month."

Dr Idler's paper is available to read here.

Annette Idler speaking at Balliol College's Lady Dervorguilla Seminar

Lady Dervorguilla Seminar

'The Convergence of Conflict and Organised Crime' by Dr Annette Idler

23 February 2018, 8.00pm
Middle Common Room, Holywell Manor (no disabled access)

Dr Annette Idler (Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations) will give a talk on ’The Convergence of Conflict and Organised Crime’.

In this talk, Dr Idler unpacks the intricate relationships between armed conflict and transnational organised crime. She demonstrates how tracing illicit supply chains reveal security challenges that are analytical blind spots to conventional frameworks on the ‘crime-conflict nexus’. These challenges include first, the mismatch of local and global perceptions that undermines the perceived legitimacy of governments; second, the persistence of illicit power structures throughout war and peace time; and third, the interconnectedness of multiple forms of organised crime that perpetuate conflict and fuel wider insecurity.

Annette Idler is the Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Centre, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and at the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Affiliate at the Latin American Centre, all University of Oxford. She is the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council’s Fellow on International Security and Research Associate at the Graduate Institute Geneva’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding. Dr Idler’s work focuses on the interface of conflict, security, transnational organized crime and peacebuilding. Drawing on ethnographic methods in her research, over the past decade, she has conducted extensive fieldwork in and on the war-torn and crisis-affected borderlands of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, including more than 600 interviews with local stakeholders. Her work appeared in journals such as Stability: International Journal of Security and Development and Perspectives on Terrorism and her book Borderland Battles: Violence, Crime, and Governance at the Edges of Colombia’s War  is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Dr Idler advises governments and international organizations, is a regular expert for media outlets such as Al Jazeera, BBC and the Washington Post, and has published numerous policy briefs. Dr Idler previously worked with UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the German development cooperation. She holds a doctorate from the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, and an MA in International Relations from King’s College London’s Department of War Studies.