Conference 2024

Leaders Making Peace: Incentives Towards Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

20–21 September 2024

Location: The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice,  Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland

In the wake of “ethnic” violence and war, when and why do political elites and other key actors promote intergroup peacebuilding? Under what conditions do leaders compromise? What features of the polity, society or economy incentivize them to cooperate or facilitate efforts to promote improved intergroup relations? This conference will bring together academics and practitioners to address these questions and to focus on specific topics related to the question of when influential leaders are incentivized or motivated to pursue peacebuilding.

Co-sponsored by:

  • The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice (Queen’s University Belfast)
  • The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity and Conflict, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Harvard University)
  • With support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York

Agenda

Friday, September 20

Location: Riddel Hall Conference Room, 85 Stranmillis Rd, Belfast BT9 5EE

1:00pm–1:30pm / Panel 1:  Welcome and Introductions

1:30pm–3:00pm / Panel 2: Leadership and Leader Motivations

What kinds of ethnic politicians and other types of communal elites seek intergroup compromise? What explains their conciliatory behavior? Does leadership matter on its own or do broader structural and institutional factors facilitate the emergence and explain the behavior of conciliatory ethnic leaders?

3:00pm–3:30pm / Coffee and tea break

3:30pm–5:00pm / Panel 3: Formal Institutions 

A robust social science literature traces the impact of formal political institutions in incentivizing or deterring political elites from pursuing interethnic compromise. Why do institutions that promote conciliatory behavior emerge in the first place? Under what conditions do they incentivize improved intergroup relations and, conversely, how do ethnic politicians seek to evade or undermine these institutions?

5:00pm / Reception

Saturday, September 21

Location: Canada Room and Council Chambers, Lanyon Building

9:00am–10:30am / Panel 4: The Economic Environment 

In what ways do economic factors shape elite incentives to compromise? What aspects of the business environment, labor markets, or other economic factors shape the behavior of influential elites to pursue compromise?

10:30am–10:45am / Coffee and tea break

10:45am–12:15pm / Panel 5: Civil Society

When do the efforts of civil society groups and/or informal leaders to promote intergroup reconciliation succeed? What does “success” look like on the ground? When do their conciliatory efforts influence the behavior of ethnic political elites to seek compromise?

12:15pm–1:15pm / Lunch

1:15pm–2:45pm / Panel 6: Transitional Justice 

When do political elites promote transitional justice initiatives? What types of initiatives do they champion, and which do they avoid? What lessons can we draw from transitional justice programs across diverse contexts?

2:45pm–3:00pm / Coffee and tea break

3:00pm–4:00pm / Panel 7: Key Takeaways and Conclusion