We are the underdogs. We are the aggressed, not the aggressors. We are the victims of a political circumstance we did not create. We have been forced out of our homes. We are refugees in our own country.
– Lord’s Resistance Army Manifesto, 1996.
How is the process of peacemaking experienced first-hand by the actors involved, and can a better understanding of their experiences improve the outcomes of future peacemaking processes?
This Wednesday at the LSE, JSRP Consortium Director Dr. Mareike Schomerus will address these questions and more in a seminar titled The Juba Peace Talks with the Lord’s Resistance Army and the implications for peacemaking.
The seminar is part of the Africa Seminar Series run by the LSE’s International Development department, and takes place Wednesday March 6th from 4 – 6.30 pm, at the LSE’s Clement House (CLM) Room 1.02.
Dr. Schomerus will draw on research from her PhD dissertation, which chronicles the Lord’s Resistance Army’s experience throughout the Juba Peace Talks to establish how the LRA’s experience of the talks entrenched the fault lines of negotiation and shifted the conflict into its next phase, rather than ending or transforming it.
Contemporary peacemaking, Schomerus argues, needs a radical overhaul in order to be transformative. Peacemaking processes are as complex as the conflicts they aim to resolve, and a detailed understanding of actors’ motivations and experience during a peace process is necessary to effectively address the conflict.
The seminar takes place Wednesday March 6th from 4 – 6.30 pm, at the London School of Economics’ Clement House (CLM) Room 1.02. The seminars are open to academics, research students, policy-makers at LSE and beyond.
About Mareike Schomerus
Dr. Mareike Schomerus is a researcher, consultant, and teacher, working on violent conflict, peace, human security and small arms. She is the Consortium Director of the Justice and Security Research Consortium, and her research interests include the dynamics of conflict resolution, the violence of democratization, civilian security, and the impact of living in militarised situations on personal lives. She further has a particular interest in how knowledge is created, shared and shaped.
