Bridging the ‘International-Local Gap’ in Peacebuiling Through Academic Cooperation: The Balkan Master’s Program in Peace Studies

Authors: Nemanja Džuverović & Damir Kapidžić

Year: 2017

Chapter title: Bridging the ‘International-Local Gap’ in Peacebuiling Through Academic Cooperation: The Balkan Master’s Program in Peace Studies

Book title: Universities and Conflict

Editor: Juliet Millican

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9780367338763

DOI: 10.4324/9781315107578-9

Pages: 120–135

Date published online: May 2019

Abstract:

The creation of a region-specific academic program in peace studies offers an innovative solution to bridging the international-local gap in peacebulding. It represents an alternative approach to mainstream peace and conflict studies that are often dominated by a strong emphasis on liberal democracy and (neo-liberal) market economy, both in theoretical discourse and in empirical measurements. A regionally oriented academic program therefore represents a shift of paradigm towards locally informed theoretical and practical notions of peace that are often insufficiently addressed or even detached from one another, in line with recent critical literature on peacebuilding.