BLOG POST: Open Source your Analysis: Participatory Approaches to Systems Mapping
People living and working on complex systems, which is pretty much all of us, find ourselves baffled and inspired in equal measures by their unpredictable behavior. Complex systems, be they storm systems (environmental), the endocrine system (biological), or the dancefloor at your office Christmas party (social), can be impossible to predict, let alone control. As thinkers such as Easterly and Taleb argue, we should treat with great scepticism anyone who tells you that they can.
REPORT: Community-led Peacebuilding in Kachin State: Findings and Recommendations
Conflict-affected communities usually have few opportunities to share their experience of war. This is a wasted opportunity, as directly affected communities have deep knowledge of the issues, can offer unique insights, and among all stakeholders have the strongest desire to address the many problems war brings. The findings and recommendations in this report result from two years of action research by conflict-affected communities in Kachin State.
REPORT: Intercommunal Conflict in Mandalay Region and Southern Shan State of Myanmar
This report, written by Caitlin Pierce for Mercy Corps is a follow up to 2014’s Intercommunal Violence in Myanmar report and explores specific local dynamics of intercommunal conflict and conflict management mechanisms in Mandalay, Meiktila, and Taunggyi. The study found striking differences between the degree of conflict present in each location, as well as in the capacities of local conflict management mechanisms.
REPORT: Intercommunal Conflict in Mandalay Region and Southern Shan State of Myanmar
This report, written by Caitlin Pierce for Mercy Corps is a follow up to 2014’s Intercommunal Violence in Myanmar report and explores specific local dynamics of intercommunal conflict and conflict management mechanisms in Mandalay, Meiktila, and Taunggyi. The study found striking differences between the degree of conflict present in each location, as well as in the capacities of local conflict management mechanisms.
VIDEO: Adapt’s Keynote at the Sustaining Peace Conference at Columbia University
The adapt team gave a keynote presentation at the third annual Sustaining Peace Conference: Systems, Applications and Interventions, at Columbia University/Teachers College on Thursday, March 26, 2015.
This was the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity’s (AC4) landmark event which showcases leading-edge scholarship and practice in conflict resolution, violence prevention, peace and sustainability at Columbia University and beyond.
ARTICLE: The One Place Where Washington Can Make a Difference
This article by Stephen Gray for Foreign Policy discusses Burma’s faltering democratic transition and what Obama and Kerry can do to bring it back on track:
REPORT: Media and Peacebuilding in Myanmar
Written soon after Myanmar’s historic lifting of media censorship, this 2014 assessment for the United States Institute of Peace explored opportunities for media peacebuilding initiatives. Considering citizen-state, intercommunal, and ethno-political conflict, the study combines a media landscape assessment with conflict analysis and recommended media peacebuilding initiatives, which are now under implementation. The study was co-authored with Theo Dolan from USIP.
REPORT: Intercommunal Violence in Myanmar: Risks and Opportunities for International Assistance
This report is based on a comprehensive literature review and key informant interviews. The findings detail the root causes and proximate causes of intercommunal violence in Myanmar, examine risks and opportunities for international assistance, and provide recommendations for research and programming. The findings cover discourse and propagandising, geographies of risks, the need for local analysis, the need to strengthen social cohesion and conflict management networks, and other strategies for intervention. The report underpinned an interfaith peacebuilding program under implementation in Myanmar.
REPORT: Conflict Assessment in the Rakhine State
In 2012 Adapt conducted a conflict assessment in Rakhine State, which had just been wracked by intercommunal violence which killed more than one hundred and displaced more than one hundred thousand. The assessment employed a systems methodology and highlighted the causal interdependencies between communal violence and Myanmar’s broader ethno-political conflicts. The assessment provided recommendations to support conflict sensitive humanitarian assistance.
ARTICLE: IDPs illustrate the Human Cost of War in Burma
This article, written by Stephen Gray and cross published with the Morningside Post and Huffington Post, discusses the conditions in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Burma in 2012.
