PARCC Conversations in Conflict Studies presents Ezra Cuhadar

"Conceptualizing and Understanding Resistance to Inclusive Peace Negotiations"
Guest Speaker: Esra Cuhadar, Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, USIP and Associate Professor, Bilkent University and Senior Fellow, Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative.

The purpose of this talk is to expand our understanding of resistance to inclusive peace negotiations focusing on: who resists against whose participation, when, why, and how resistance to inclusion in peace processes takes place. Resistance is defined as the behaviors of particular person(s) or group(s) that undermine the successful design and/or implementation of an inclusive peace negotiation/process. It can occur at different stages of a peace process: before an inclusive negotiation process is decided, during the negotiation process, or in the aftermath during the implementation of a peace agreement. The paper relies on an event data set coding around 80 incidences of resistance across 27 negotiation cases and proposes a conceptual framework that aims at better understanding the dynamics of powerholders' resistance to inclusive negotiation processes especially focusing on its political-psychological dynamics. The attitudinal, behavioral, and ideological background of resistance is not explored within the inclusion literature so far. Hence, there is still need to interconnect the attitudinal dynamics of elite and group identity; how it is embedded in inter-group relations in conjunction with the institutional behaviors and ideological processes of justification. A peace process can be thought of an instance in this relationship where the struggle between these forces reaches its zenith. On top of that, demand for a genuine inclusive process is usually perceived as a setback, or even an existential threat, to the influence of hierarchy enhancing forces that tend to see their interest in the continuation of the social system preserving the existing social inequality and hierarchy.  

 
Conversations in Conflict Studies is a weekly educational speaker series for students, faculty, and the community. The series, sponsored by PARCC, draws its speakers from Syracuse University faculty, national and international scholars and activists, and PhD students. Pizza is served. Be sure to check out the full list of speakers.

If you require accommodations, please contact Deborah Toole by email or by phone at 315.443.2367.