How and why disasters and community-based disaster management influence peace

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My research interests include peace, the dynamics of peace processes, civil society, disaster management and security. I am currently working on a project within the Varieties of Peace program aiming to explore peace in Aceh, Indonesia, seeking to characterize and analyze evolving peace dynamics in Aceh.

 

In 2005, the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed as a basis for the cessation of the armed conflict between armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels and the Indonesian government forces. The MOU brought to an end of a nearly 30 years conflict. Scholars have then studied various aspects of the conflict and they have analyzed different stages in the peace process. However, a majority of previous studies focus on the signing of the peace agreement and the immediate post-conflict period 2005-2009. Less attention is devoted to recent developments.

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The case study of Aceh also has the potential to offer important insights on disaster governance and the link between peace/conflict and disasters. Hence, in the case of Aceh, the peace process and the response to the tsunami 2005 are inherently linked.