Conference 'Understanding Peace, Conflict and Violence: do we need new approaches?'

This conference was organized to mark the integration of the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) with Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).

Researchers from both institutions, together with international experts in the field, shared their understandings of 'the basics' of the broad fields of conflict, violence and peace studies.

Keynote speaker Professor Johan Galtung, has been described as the 'father' of Peace Studies. His talk tackles the main theme of this conference, and is followed by a panel of speakers debating the significance of his approach, from feminist and other perspectives.

The keynote speech was followed by three workshops, on Religion, on Gender and on Learning from Experiences of War and Peace. These included speakers from ISS-EUR and cases presented include Darfur and Palestine. The closing panel included papers reflecting on 'the need for new approaches'. Professors Ko Colijn (Clingendael, EUR) and Professor Scott Gates (PRIO, Norway) were on the closing panel as speakers.

This conference included a special prize-awarding ceremony after lunch, for the Isaac Roet Prize (for more details see: http://www.epseu.org/isaacroetprize/competition2008.html