The purpose of this article is to study the characteristics and patterns of the field of peace and conflict studies in South Korea by tracing its history. A reflection on peace and conflict studies in Korea shows that the 1987 democratization was a critical moment, and that the subsequent end of the global Cold War initiated the full-blown Development of the field. The Korean case shows that the advancement of peace and conflict studies is linked to real-world changes. The recent inclusion of human rights and transitional justice issues is meaningful since rights and justice were core but unaddressed issues in Korea. It is time for peace and conflict studies in Korea to leap forward, and this new attention to human rights and transitional justice can be a way to lead this Development.

This introductory article illustrates the Development of peace studies and then reviews the Asian context in it. Peace studies has developed through three approaches state-centered, human-centered, and structure-critical—the origins of which can be traced back to Kantian federalism and republicanism, Tolstoy’s criticism of institutionalized violence, and Marx’s critique of capitalism, respectively. In the post-Cold War era, the theories of security community, human security, and ecosocialism have developed separately. At the same time, the three approaches have competed and merged with one another in the face of increasingly complex global problems, resulting in the birth of “responsibility to protect” (R2P) and differing but simultaneous responses to climate change. Both ASEAN as a multifaceted community and Development-based human security characterize the Asian context.

Japan is a world leader in peace education, and Hiroshima is one of the world’s centers for peace. While the peer-reviewed literature on Japanese peace education is growing, few studies address how present-day peace educators in Hiroshima conceptualize peace education. This study aims to better understand how peace educators in Hiroshima (re)conceptualize, adapt, and apply their work. Using a grounded theory approach, we answer the following research questions: (a) How do contemporary peace educators in Hiroshima conceptualize their work? (b) How has this conceptualization changed or evolved over time? Interviewees presented convergent and divergent insights around three main themes: definitions of peace as a collective identity and constructivist process, metaphors for peace as informing pedagogy, and efforts to challenge taboos through a social justice lens.

This article examines the outcomes of collective forms of engagement in the ASEAN region. By examining how convening power in these south-south engagements has worked since the Bandung Conference, the paper reviews how the mode of consensus building adopted in 1955 has been channelled into regional cooperation. In particular, the paper considers the implications of these forms of cooperation for the consensus building that characterizes ASEAN today. The paper uses the processes evident in the ASEAN Development Outlook to set out the consequences of these findings for how the UN system can set out more effective criteria for global South cooperation. This has direct implications for institutional mechanisms for advancing capacity and expertise in new forms of cooperation between the global North and global South.

In light of recent efforts by the UN to more firmly embed SSC and TrC in all its institutions, this paper examines the challenges that lie ahead by first tracing the emergence of the terms SSC and TrC on a discursive level in the UN system. Second, it reflects theoretically on the concepts of solidarity and Development to show that voices from the Global South are suggesting alternative understandings that may do more justice to the poor and disadvantaged. Third, it explores what can be learned from various interlinked health crises and the recent COVID-19 pandemic regarding the flaws of SSC and TrC. Fourth, it sketches a way forward by looking at ways in  which a more human rights based democratization of global health can be achieved.

Various parts of the United Nations (UN) system have been part of the definition and implementation of technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC), South-South cooperation (SSC) and triangular cooperation (TrC) over the years since the Buenos Aires Plan of Action of 1978 (BAPA). This paper will take the view that there is a perception that South-South and triangular cooperation have not achieved their potential to be transformative because accompanying changes needed for the modalities have not been pursued fully and thus these Development modalities seemingly remain largely cosmetic. To respond to this perception, the authors will review what was expected of the United Nations Development systems (UNDS) from Bandung to Buenos Aires and what has been achieved since noting the constraints of lack of data and measurement.

United Nations (UN) entities have repeatedly been asked to mainstream their support for South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC). However, there is hardly any systematic evidence on whether and how they have done so. This article contributes to addressing this gap. The analysis focuses on organizational efforts over the last two decades to integrate SSTC support into institutional processes across the UN Development system. It centers around a scorecard of fifteen UN entities that maps the levels and contours of their organizational focus on SSTC. In light of a highly diverse SSTC support landscape and the complex political dynamics behind mainstreaming efforts, the article discusses the way ahead for UN engagement with SSTC, including the potentials and challenges of a continued focus on mainstreaming itself.

This special issue discusses, in-depth, the embedded conundrum of South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) whose frontiers are shifted from collaboration to contention within the United Nations (UN) Development system and beyond. This introductory article provides the conceptual framework—the contentioncollaboration spectrum—that guides all the contributors and serves as the collective starting point for this project. The moving frontiers of SSTC reflect the shifting historic relationships between the global South and North as well as Southern partner countries. The framework enables the six articles of this special issue to investigate the paradoxical structure of contrasting dynamics of SSTC, which has always been exposed to historical transformations at multi-levels of analysis: global governance, regional engagements, middle power perspectives, and the UN Development system and beyond.

We re-evaluate Burmese history from the perspective of Thai philosopher Prawase Wasi who asserts that the basis for society is not simply individuals but the “selfforming group.” He discusses the essential nature of a self-forming group which is embodied in the Thai Buddhist concept of taam, which are sacred virtues emerging from self-organizing groups. In between the taam and self-forming groups are institutions of the state, economy, and education, etc. Prawase Wasi’s approach has been used in Thailand to guide government policies for the last twenty years. In this article, we apply this model to the history of conflict in Burma. We contrast this approach with the more traditional focus on individualism and utilitarianism in western high modernism which typically shapes Development policies.

With the benefit of almost 20 years of hindsight, in this article we evaluate the legacy of state-building in Timor-Leste. We find that much of the academic critique of the state-building mission has proven to be largely accurate: political and economic Development has indeed been challenged by the legacy of key decisions made during the early state-building process. First, the focus on centralised state institutions has led to the underDevelopment of administrative, political, and economic decentralization. Second, the partisan nature of the constitution-making process has facilitated the continued concentration of political and economic power in the hands of certain elites. Third, the ambiguous—and at times conflictual—division of powers between state institutions has facilitated the emergence of political clientelism and undermined broad-based economic diversification and Development.

This article focuses on the concept of “fragility,” which gained prominence in literature on conflict-driven countries and serves as an analytical tool for policy analysis. Using this concept, this article provides a review of Timor-Leste since its independence in 2002. The country has achieved high economic growth, though the economy has remained fragile in terms of its high dependence on external factors, namely oil revenues. This study suggests that foreign aid and investments do not automatically improve fragility in resource-dependent economies unless they help diversify the monoculture economy, based upon democratic consensus-building among stakeholders.

This article contributes to the discourse on hybridity by reviewing the Development of the legal framework related to traditional governance mechanisms in Timor-Leste in the twenty years since independence in 2002. It analyzes how this framework has contributed to nurturing governance in the country and argues that traditional governance mechanisms have had a considerable role in improving governance since independence. It is also argued that with regulation and proper support from stakeholders, a traditional governance system can facilitate democratization, and that the host community can become the driver of positive change.

Deforestation is a severe environmental problem in North Korea. Beginning in 2001, the government implemented ten-year reforestation projects with few positive outcomes. Inter-Korean forestry cooperation began in 1999. Local governments and NGOs were the main implementers of cooperative projects from South Korea. The two Koreas had also been seeking financial and technical support from international organizations. This study examines the cooperative networks between government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations and financing possibilities to identify the reasons why so little has been accomplished. It also provides a meaningful contribution to the understanding of comparative relationships among the stakeholders and practical recommendations to improve the effectiveness of cooperative forestry programs in North Korea.

In the later 1970s and 1980s, to cope with Development difficulties, most nations in the socialism system tried to explore their own paths towards Development. These included the “Reform” of the Soviet Union and China and “Doi Moi” in Vietnam. Due to the leading socialist state, the Soviet Union’s failed “Reform,” the whole socialist system began to fall apart and most of its countries have shifted towards capitalism-based Development. However, China and Vietnam have remained consistent in their socialist paths, maintaining suitable methodologies through respective reforms. Given this line of reasoning, this article objectively shares some achievements and challenges Vietnam has encountered over the past thirty years of renovation and offers implications for the Developmental process.

With the North Korean waves of armament race in 2017-19, noted by the diplomacy of the Trump Administration, de-nuclearization has become a top priority for the Korean peninsula. In the meantime potentials for economic reforms in North Korea, perhaps even to the point of systemic change, are still open issues, as the need to feed people and improve the dismal economic performance remains high on the agenda. What lessons might be learned from the systemic change of Central and Eastern Europe for the context of East Asia? Implications based on International Relation (IR) theory are suggested.

French nuclear research began for military purposes and then further developed for business. This article traces the history of French nuclear Development from the establishment of the French Atomic Energy Commission in 1945 to the present by dividing this period into six phases. Contrary to previous studies which focus on certain periods, seventy years of French nuclear history is investigated here. It describes the transition from military to civilian use, the Development of the nuclear fuel cycle including the fast breeder reactor, spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, and disposal research. Additionally, based on a historical case study of the Marcoule site, the oldest nuclear site in France, this article shows that France will rely on back-end nuclear technology to survive in the twenty-first century.

In this article, the limits and possibilities of Korean unification education is critically examined and compared with the peace process on the Korean Peninsula for overcoming division from the perspective of peace education. For the purpose of becoming a single unified Korea, the direction of unification education has been presented within a hostile frame to cultivate attitudes and values for its own sake. Peace education in a divided society refers to a collective effort to transform the situation of hostile division into peaceful coexistence and rapprochement. In this context, unification education for overcoming the division of the Korean Peninsula should be established as the subject of critical peace education according to the global standards of Sustainable Development Goal 4.7.

South Korea (Korea) lacks the compulsory power of regional and global great powers, but still strives to play a major role in the fields of peacebuilding and Development. It is a middle power which, due to geopolitical constraints, is unable to play the neutral or brokering role of traditional middle powers, and thus must turn to other areas of agenda setting and niche diplomacy. This article examines policy arenas for which Korea is particularly well suited to playing such a role, and in which Korea can have a major impact, significantly to the mutual advantage of Korea and its regional partners. In order to do so to the best of its ability, Korea needs to shift its policy emphasis from bilateral to multilateral endeavors.

Post-war reconstruction in Sri Lanka, which is aided by many countries, is aimed at consolidating the unitary state structure as part of a geo-strategic security complex in the Indian Ocean Region. In this process, discourses of democratization and human rights have been reconfigured to contain or totally remove any threat to the unitary state emerging from the Tamils in the North and East whose claim to self-determination is seen as a major challenge to the geo-strategic complex in South Asia. In such a context, the bio-politics of the Development-security nexus and neo-liberal governmentality operates by strengthening the hegemony of the Sinhala state against the Tamils and weakening or destroying the essential foundations of Tamil nationhood. Without recognizing these local and global dynamics every peacebuilding attempt will fail.

Nepal adopted a unique post-conflict Development framework for mobilizing international support and government resources to facilitate its peace process. The main focus of this paper is the role played by the Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF) in Nepal’s transition. The paper concludes that the main strengths of this model were its success in keeping ex-combatants in cantonments by creating a conducive environment, its harmonization of funds from donors and the government, and its contribution to national elections. However, the NPTF’s defects were many, including weak monitoring mechanisms, an inability to prepare for successful rehabilitation and to initiate projects to support transitional justice, and failure to stop the misuse of funds and corruption. Having taken stock of these failures, the paper explores a core reason for them: the NPTF’s isolation from the political process.

Since the mid-1990s the Development community has focused significant attention on the potential and actual impact of Development interventions on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in conflict-ridden and post-conflict zones. This has included the formulation and deployment of diverse concepts and tools of conflict sensitivity, including Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA). Over the last 15 years the intent and application of PCIA has varied across the world. Mindful of this diversity, this article draws lessons from the application of PCIA in Pakistan, arguing that context-specific lessons are required to inform and shape the next phase of PCIA’s Development and application, thus ensuring that it is increasingly beneficial to all stakeholders.

Japan’s Development assistance to conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, southern Philippines, opened new pathways for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to support multilateral peacebuilding efforts. JICA, in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia, organized a series of Consolidation for Peace Seminars as Track One-and-a-Half mediations. Two aspects of Japan’s assistance to Mindanao enabled JICA to engage in peacemaking. First, Japan’s assistance to Mindanao formed a unique tripartite cooperation mechanism consisting of the International Monitoring Team, Mindanao Task Force, and Japan-Bangsamoro Initiative for Reconstruction and Development. JICA took part in all three modes of assistance. Second, providing assistance under a volatile cease-fire agreement in Mindanao motivated JICA to become involved in peacemaking outside the traditional function of Development assistance.

The overall record of peacebuilding as a post-Cold War liberal project has proved to be more positive than negative, especially in conflict termination. However, the peacebuilding agenda has had its limits in terms of progress in democratization, judicial institution-building and economic Development, despite potential for greater success. Peacebuilders are more likely to succeed in transforming societies torn by armed conflict if they can avoid making the process excessively competitive. Democratization and capitalist Development are already competitive processes, and the pursuit of retributive justice takes the form of judicial punishment. Together these strategies can form a recipe for competition and conflict, especially in institutionally weak states where the history of distrust among warring factions or former enemies is long and intractable.

Myanmar is currently undergoing widespread changes that are transforming the country’s political and socio-economic landscape. These changes include the newly promulgated Constitution that was ratified in 2008 and a national election held in November 2010. Additionally, by-elections in April 2012 saw the return to Parliament of the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The reforms under the new Thein Sein-led government include a congenial working relationship with the political opposition, freeing political prisoners and the granting of amnesty to political exiles to encourage their return, the negotiation of ceasefire agreements with almost all of the ethnic insurgent armies, and the inauguration of the Myanmar Peace Centre as a vehicle for the resolution of domestic conflict. These and related reforms are designed to secure the government’s internal and external political legitimacy which it has lacked since the fall of the previous socialist government in 1988.

Distinguished colleagues from government, university, NGOs, and students; The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a fitting host for this meeting on refugee rights, given the example it has shown by ratifying the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the 1951 Refugee Convention) in 1992 and for enacting its amended Refugee Act just last month. In today’s global village, people are constantly leaving their homes in search of new opportunities. In public debates, however, the distinction between refugees and other people on the move is often blurred. It is important to remember that refugees have a distinct legal status. Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country because their lives are in danger. Migrants and other groups on the move make a conscious decision for economic and other reasons. Refugees do not have this choice. Refugees are forced to leave and need international protection. This is why 147 countries across the world have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and thus have granted refugees a unique legal status. It is shameful that Asia remains the largest refugee hosting region with the fewest signatories; large populations of refugees are hosted by neighbouring states that have not even ratified the Refugee Convention. The extent to which Korea’s asylum policy is an example of good practice will no doubt be among the subjects for extensive analysis, dialogue, and debate throughout this week. There are an estimated sixteen million refugees in the world today and 80% of them are hosted by states in the Global South, where the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of most countries is below 3,000 US dollars. South Korea’s GDP per capita is 32,000 US dollars!

It is a pleasure and an honor to be addressing all of you today. First of all, I must thank the University for conferring this honorary degree on me, and I hope that I will be able to do enough for education in Burma to deserve such an honor. There is much that we have to do and there is much support and help that we need from our friends.