Talk: “Designing Peace Settlements in Divided Societies”
by
Prof. Neophytos Loizides
School of Politics & International Relations,
Rutherford College
University of Kent
10.30 a.m. – 12.00 p.m., Friday, 14 April 2017
A-130, FEASS Building
Abstract:
The presentation introduces The Politics of Majority Nationalism (Stanford 2015) and Designing Peace (UPenn 2016) to address the dilemmas facing divided societies attempting to reach peace settlements.
It emphasizes a set of counter-intuitive cases of conflict transformation across divided societies pointing to the importance of familiarizing the Cypriot public as to the alternative institutional arrangements available for the current peace talks. Analysing power-sharing in Northern Ireland, the return of displaced persons in Bosnia, and the preparatory mandate referendum in South Africa, the presentation will demonstrate how divided societies elsewhere have implemented novel solutions despite conditions that initially seemed prohibitive.
Short Bio:
Neophytos Loizides is Professor in International Conflict Analysis at the University of Kent. His research focuses on power-sharing, nationalism and conflict regulation in deeply divided societies. Dr. Loizides is the author of The Politics of Majority Nationalism: Framing Peace, Stalemates, and Crises published by Stanford University Press (2015) and Designing Peace: Cyprus and Institutional Innovations in Divided Societies published by the University of Pennsylvania Press (2016). He is also the co-editor (with Oded Haklai) of Settlers in Contested Lands: Territorial Disputes and Ethnic Conflicts while his most recent articles appeared in West European Politics, the European Journal of Political Research, Comparative Politics and the Journal of Refugee Studies. Dr. Loizides received his PhD at the University of Toronto and held fellowships at the Belfer Centre at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Solomon Asch Centre at the University of Pennsylvania. He has contributed commentaries to international media outlets such as the Guardian, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Loizides is currently the Associate Editor of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow.