The field of International Relations has long been involved in the study of “normative transformation” – i.e. with the ways in which norms with universal ambitions, such as human rights, are “projected” onto states and there “internalized” by local actors. Much less is known, however, about how these interpretations are in turn fed back up to the global level. By focusing on understandings of peacebuilding in China, Japan and Russia, this project seeks to study the manner in which both top-down and bottom-up dynamics influence the nature, content, and direction of normative change. In doing so, it advances a new theoretical and methodological framework that seeks to offer an innovative contribution to contemporary scholarship on norm diffusion, the role of rising powers in global governance, and the (re)shaping of international order.
Mainstream peacebuilding scholarship, which is predominantly Anglophone and ideologically embedded in the “liberal peace” paradigm, pays little attention to peacebuilding practices undertaken by non-Western countries. This project seeks to critically compare and contrast the normative and practical underpinnings of what the project calls the “global peacebuilding order” by focusing specifically on the three case-study countries and their regional spheres of influence. Indeed, China has been increasingly involved in peacebuilding activities in Africa, Russia is active in the Caucasus and the Middle East, and Japan has recently undertaken a comprehensive reform in national security legislation which now allows the Japanese Self-Defense Force to take a more proactive role in UN peace operations. What is more, the three countries are also key players in contemporary security dynamics in Central and East Asia.
Initially funded for three years by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) the project has been granted a cost-neutral extension of 7 months due to the operational challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic. In October 2021, the project team submitted an application for a follow-on SNSF project (results to be announced in March 2022).
The project team actively engaged in publication and disseminating activities. Building on extensive desk research and fieldwork in New York (Keith Krause and Oliver Jütersonke), Beijing, Shanghai (Xinyu Yuan), Tokyo, and Moscow (Kazushige Kobayashi) conducted in 2019, the project’s main research article on the comparative analysis of Chinese, Russian, and Japanese peacebuilding approaches was published by International Studies Quarterly. The project team also currently has 2 journal articles under review by major IR journals (both are revise & resubmit phase) and 1 book chapter under review. In addition, in October 2021, Xinyu Yuan provided the Interpeace Principle for Peace Secretariat with background reports about China's conflict management and peacebuilding activities.
The project also functioned as an effective mechanism of empowering young researchers. As a result, Post-doc Kobayashi has recently been appointed as an Associate Professor of Peace Studies at the College and Graduate School of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto (his new position will commence on 1 April 2022). Ph.D. candidate Yuan has an outstanding publication record for a doctoral student.
Xinyu Yuan, "Contesting Liberal Peace? The Chinese Approach to Peacebuilding." The Third World Quarterly 43(7). pp. 1798-1816.
Kobayashi, Kazushige, Keith Krause, and Xinyu Yuan. 2022. "Pathways to socialisation: China, Russia, and competitive norm socialisation in a changing global order." Review of International Studies 48(3). pp. 1-23.
Kazushige Kobayashi, a book chapter in the edited volume Norm Diffusion Beyond the West (under review).
Jütersonke, Kobayashi, Krause, and Yuan. 2021. “Norm Contestation and Normative Transformation in Global Peacebuilding Order(s): The Cases of China, Japan, and Russia.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol 65 (4), pp. 944–959.
Yuji Uesugi, Kazushige Kobayashi, and Tomoaki Honda, "Japan’s Peacebuilding under the Abe Administration: Change and Continuity 2012–2020, East Asian Policy (EAP)", 2021, vol. 13, issue 01, 94-107
A part of the project's case studies on Chinese and Japanese peacebuilding policy is published as two open-access journal articles for the special issue section "East Asian Approaches to Peacebuilding" of Pathways to Peace and Security, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2020. Pathways to Peace and Security is a journal published by the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Yuan, Xinyu. 2020. "Chinese pathways to peacebuilding: from historical legacies to contemporary practices." Pathways to Peace and Security, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 26-45.
Kazushige, Kobayashi. 2020. "Japanese pathways to peacebuilding: from historical legacies to contemporary practices." Pathways to Peace and Security, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 9-25.
Krause, Keith. 2019. "Emancipation and critique in peace and conflict research." Journal of Global Security Studies Vol. 4, no. 2, 292-298.
In addition, the project has one article currently under review by a major IR journal (Yuan, revise & resubmit phase), which is expected to be published in 2022. Kobayashi's book chapter contribution on Japan-China development cooperation norms is also under review.
Event title: Who Are the New Peacebuilding Actors and What Do They Want? Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development 2020
Date: Monday 18 May 2020
Description: The webinar addressed the following questions: Who are the new peacebuilding actors and how do they understand peacebuilding? And what may the likely impact of the COVID-19 pandemic be on these new peacebuilding actors? The objective was to discuss how different countries understand peacebuilding, and how this influences their approaches.
Event title: Competing global narratives: COVID19 and beyond. Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).
Date: Friday 5 June 2020
Description: This webinar was jointly organized by the GCSP and the MGIMO University and discussed how the COVID-19 narratives differ in Russia, China, the United States and Europe, and explored if there was any hope to find common ground and revive international cooperation.
Event title: China Middle East Relations Post COVID-19: Opportunities and Challenges.
Date: Monday 29 June 2020.
Description: This webinar looked at the longer-term relations that might ensue from this period of COVID-19 and China's growing activities in the MENA region. It addressed questions such as: Can China play a greater role in brokering peace deals to resolve conflicts in the region? Can foreign powers cooperate rather than compete in the socioeconomic and security developments of the region? And, How will the region’s traditional partners, the US and Europe, react to China’s ambitions in the region?
04 September 2022, European International Studies Association (EISA) Annual Conference, Panel "Chinese Agency in Conflict Settings: Insights from Theory and Practice", Athens, Greece.
Xinyu Yuan co-organized the panel with Pascal Abb from the Frankfurt Peace Research Institute. Kazushige Kobayashi and Xinyu Yuan presented papers at the panel.
04 September 2022, European International Studies Association (EISA) Annual Conference, Panel "Practices of Comparison and the Ordering of Security Politics", Athens, Greece.
Keith Krause presented a paper at the panel.
29 March 2022, ISA Annual Convention Virtual Panel “Shifts in the System of Global Governance and Peace”
Chair: Lise Morje Howard (Georgetown University)
Discussant: Roland Paris (University of Otawa)
Papers:
Oliver Richmond (University of Manchester), “The Evolution of the International Peace Architecture”
Fanny Badache (IHEID-CCDP) and Sara Hellmüller (IHEID-CCDP), “Legitimization of UN’s role in peacebuilding: 1991-2020”
Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP), “Patterned Inconsistencies: Japan, the Global Peacebuilding Order, and the Logic of Multiversality”
Bilal Salaymeh (IHEID-CCDP), “Do Regional Powers Have a Peacebuilding Agenda? Turkey as a Case”
28 March 2022, ISA Annual Convention Virtual Panel “China and Peace Operations in the Changing Global Order”.
Organized by the project team.
Co-Chairs: Roger Mac Ginty (Durham University) and Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP)
Discussant: Agnieszka Paczynska (George Mason University)
Papers:
Pascal Abb (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), “Paving the road to peace and prosperity? A framework for understanding the conflict impact of infrastructure initiatives”.
Miwa Hirono (Ritsumeikan University), “China’s Influences in the Making of the Global Security Order: Insiders’ Perceptions of China’s Peacebuilding”.
Xinyu Yuan (IHEID-CCDP), “In Quest for a Great-Power Role in Peacebuilding: China’s Dual Strategies in Peacekeeping and Development Finance”.
Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP), “Is There a “Chinese Peace”? Insights from Comparative Analysis of Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Approaches to Peacebuilding and Conflict Management”.
21 January 2022, Norm Diffusion Beyond the West Webinar I, online.
Webinar organized by the Department of International Relations and European Studies of the Metropolitan University Prague and the Czech Science Foundation.
Moderator: Sarka Kolmasova (Metropolitan University Prague)
Speakers:
Kazushige Kobayashi (CCDP-IHEID)
"Active learning beyond borders? Interrogating the diffusion of development cooperation norms from Japan to China and beyond."
Anna Grzywacz (Vistula University)
"Recognising Indonesia’s actorness: Challenging and contributing to norms’ promotion."
Ricardo Reboredo (Metropolitan University Prague),
"From norm-maker to norm-taker? South Africa, the BRICS, and the African National Congress’ hegemonic decline."
2nd November 2021, Webster Geneva Global Dialogue "Tsunami on the Horizon? China's rise and new US-led Indo-Pacific partnerships. Geneva, Switzerland.
Conference organized by Webster University Geneva.
Moderator: Lionel Fatton (Webster University)
Speakers:
Kazushige Kobayashi (CCDP-IHEID)
Bonnie S. Glaser (German Marshall Fund of the United States, Lowy Institute and Pacific Forum)
Michiel Foulon (Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich)
15-16 October 2021, Conference on Peace and Security in Times of Transition: Socialist and Post-Socialist States & Development of International Peacekeeping Since 1945. Moscow, Russia.
Co-organized by the German Historical Institute, Moscow, Harvard University, Asia Center, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Kazushige Kobayashi presented his paper Shadow Liberalism of an 'Illiberal' Conflict Manager: Russia and the Transformation of Global Peacebuilding Order.
Xinyu Yuan presented her paper Chinese Approach to Peacebuilding?
16 September 2021, EISA 14th Pan-European Conference. Virtual Panel on Globalizing Peacebuilding: Rising Powers and New Approaches to Peace and Conflict in World Politics.
Organised by the project team.
Chair: Keith Krause and Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP)
Discussant: Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP)
Papers:
Bilal Salayme, Sara Hellmüller, Fanny Badache (IHEID-CCDP), “Legitimation of the UN’s role in peacebuilding in a changing world order”
Yuji Uesugi (Waseda University), “Global Partnerships Beyond the West: Mid-Space Gatekeepers in Hybrid Peacebuilding in Mindanao”
Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP), “Shadow Liberalism of An ‘Illiberal’ Conflict Manager: Russia and the Global Peacebuilding Order”
Kai Michael Kenkel (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro), “Emerging powers and types of normative contestation: Brazil and the liberal peacebuilding paradigm”
Xinyu Yuan (IHEID-CCDP), “Developmental Peace? Investigating China’s Approach to Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Contexts”
June 2021, BISA Annual Conference.
Kazushige Kobayashi presented the paper entitled "The Dynamics of Norm Co-optation: Explaining Russia's Use of Liberal Peacebuilding Norms in Conflict-Affected States".
8 April 2021, ISA Annual Convention. Virtual Panel on Globalizing Peacebuilding: Studying Peace Operations and Conflict Management beyond the Anglo-Saxon West
Organized by the project team.
Chair: Keith Krause and Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP)
Discussant: Oliver Jütersonke (IHEID-CCDP)
Papers:
Kai Michael Kenkel (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro), “Emerging powers and types of normative contestation: Brazil and the liberal peacebuilding paradigm”
Kazushige Kobayashi (IHEID-CCDP), “Shadow Liberalism of An ‘Illiberal’ Conflict Manager: Russia and the Global Peacebuilding Order”
Xinyu Yuan (IHEID-CCDP), “Developmental Peace? Investigating China’s Approach to Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Contexts”
Sara Hellmüller (IHEID-CCDP), “A child of its time: The impact of globalized world politics on UN peacebuilding”
Yuji Uesugi (Waseda University), “Global Partnerships Beyond the West: Mid-Space Gatekeepers in Hybrid Peacebuilding in Mindanao”
4 November 2020, Geneva Peace Week 2020, "The Future of Peacebuilding in Global Asia: Fostering An Inclusive Dialogue between the Liberal Peace and Alternative Approaches." Geneva, Switzerland.
Session co-organized by the Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), the University of Manchester, and Waseda University.
Moderator: Keith Krause (CCDP-IHEID)
Speakers:
Kazushige Kobayashi (CCDP-IHEID)
Xinyu Yuan (CCDP-IHEID)
Oliver Richmond (University of Manchester)
Yuji Uesugi (Waseda University)
6 November 2019, Geneva Peace Week Geneva, CH.
Kazu spoke at the Geneva Peace Week’s event “Peacebuilding: Perspectives from China, Korea, and Japan”. The team interviewed key stakeholders who had travelled to Geneva to attend the conference.
September - November, 2019, Moscow, Russia.
Kazu conducted fieldwork in Russia. He attended the seminars on peacebuilding, Africa, and development cooperation organized by the Valdai Discussion Club.
Kazu made a presentation at the the 12th Russian International Studies Association (RISA) Convention “The World of the Regions vs. the Regions of the World” 21-22 October, 2019, held at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
He conducted interviews with 17 officials and scholars from various institutions. Dissemination of the project and navigation of potential collaborators.
11-14 September 2019, the 13th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (EISA), Sofia, Bulgaria.
Presentation of preliminary findings (presentation given by Kazu).
June-July, 2019, Beijing and Shanghai, China.
Xinyu conducted fieldwork in China. Here she attended the Peace Forum of China, 2019, in Beijing. Xinyu also attended the lecture given by former Chinese ambassador to South Africa.
Interviews were conducted with 22 informants, from Chinese universities, think tanks, and governmental units. Dissemination of the project and navigation of potential collaborators.
June, 2019, NEW YORK, USA.
Keith and Oliver conducted fieldwork in New York. Here they interviewed key policy makers from the United Nations and mission officials.
22-24 May 2019, OECD Boulogne, Paris, France.
Xinyu and Keith made a presentation on China’s engagement in fragile and/or conflict-affected situations, at The Task Meeting of the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
Thematic Session III: Collective learning: Financing for Stability – Role of China’s Engagement in Fragile and/or Conflict-affected Situations.
9 November 2018, OECD Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Rome, Italy.
Kazu participated in the workshop “The EU and Resilience: interrogating theory, policies and practice” organized by The Comprehensive Capacity-building in Eastern Neighbourhood andCentral Asia: research integration, impact governance and sustainable communities (COMPASS) project led by Professor Elena Korosteleva of the University of Kent.
2-4 November 2018, Japan Association of International Relations (JAIR) Annual Convention 2018, Omiya, Japan.
Kazu participated in the Japan Association of International Relations (JAIR) Annual Convention 2018, Omiya, Japan.
1 November 2018, Research Seminar at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Kazu participated in an informal workshop on peace operations organized by Professor Yuji Uesugi of Waseda University, attended by key Japanese policy makers and defence officers.
27-28 October 2018, Peace Studies Association of Japan (PSAJ) Conference Autumn 2018 at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan.
Kazu participated in the Peace Studies Association of Japan (PSAJ) Conference Autumn 2018 at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan.
