Title: The Emerging International Peace System and How the Concept of Hybridity Can Help Us Understand It.
Date and Time: September 8, Monday, 2025, 14:00
Venue: A130 Seminar Room, FEASS
Speaker: Roger Mac Ginty
Abstract: At a time of considerable international upheaval many of the structures and processes associated with international peacemaking and peacebuilding are undergoing change. While significant parts of the rules-based international order may seem to be changing, the emerging international peace system (or systems) seem unclear. A decade ago, the concept of hybridity was popular in academic analyses of peace and peacebuilding, particularly in relation to top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacemaking. The concept can be updated and used to describe the emerging system in which there is a broader range of actors. All of this has implications for the meanings of peace. The paper will be partly based on interviews with thirty highly experienced international mediators.
Bio: Roger Mac Ginty is Professor at the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. He works on the intersection between top-down and bottom-up peace. He edits the journal Peacebuilding and co-founded the Everyday Peace Indicators. His Everyday Peace book won the 2020-2022 Ernst-Otto Czempiel Award for best book on Peace. He is the 2025 International Studies Association Peace Studies Distinguished Scholar.