GATED at the Peace Studies Conference

On 1 February 2019, Peace Studies, School of Religion, held a one-day conference entitled Comparative Perspectives on the Korean Peace Process: From Ireland and Beyond. The conference and was organised by Dr. Dong Jin Kim and Dr. David Mitchell.

The conference brought together scholars from Ireland, the UK, Korea, Japan and the Netherlands to reflect on the Korean peace process in the light of peace efforts around the world, including the Irish peace process and Bosnian peace process.  The conference opened with an addresses by the His Excellency Woon-ki Lyeo, the ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Ireland, and Oliver Richmond, Research Professor in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manchester. The event also included the launches of new books by Peace Studies staff: The Korean Peace Process and Civil Society (Palgrave Macmillan) by Dr. Dong Jin Kim, and Beyond the Good Friday Agreement: In the Midst of Brexit (Routledge) edited by Prof. Etain Tannam. The launches were addressed by Prof. Jake Lynch of the University of Sydney.

Within the session 2 ‘Peace Processes in East Asia and Europe: Challenges and Opportunities’ Professor Maja Vodopivec from Leiden University addressed the issues related to the Bosnian peace process in her talk titled ‘Challenges of power-sharing institutional arrangements and its implications for democracy and peace’. Professor Vodopivec questioned liberal peacekeeping ‘package’ as problematic and in need of careful reflection.