Researcher
Cedric H. de Coning
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor in the Research Group on Peace, Conflict and Development at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
His research focuses on how the United Nations and other multilateral institutions can more effectively sustain peace and security, with particular attention to mediation, peace operations and peacebuilding.
Drawing on complexity theory, he developed Adaptive Peace, a framework for sustaining peace and security amid the uncertainty of an increasingly turbulent global order. At NUPI he leads several international research projects on climate, peace and security, on artificial intelligence in peace and security, and on the effectiveness of peace operations.
He also contributes to the Training for Peace programme and the UN Peace and Stabilisation Operations project. He is a senior advisor to ACCORD and Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal on Conflict Resolution. A former South African diplomat and UN peacekeeper, he has served in various advisory roles with the African Union and the United Nations, including on the Secretary-General's Advisory Board for the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
Expertise
Education
2012 PhD, Applied Ethics, Department of Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch
2005 M.A., Conflict Management and Peace Studies, University of KwaZula-Natal
Work Experience
2020- Research Professor, NUPI
2012-2020 Senior Researcher, NUPI
2006-2012 Researcher, NUPI
2002- Senior Advisor (Consultant), ACCORD
2002 Training Officer, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
2001-2002 Political Affairs Officer, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)
2001 Civil Affairs Officer, Office of District Affairs, UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)
2000 Assistant Director: Programmes, ACCORD
1999-2000 Civil Affairs Officer, Bobonaro District UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)
1997-1999 Programme Manager: Peacekeeping, ACCORD
1988-1997 Assistant Director, Department of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria, South Africa
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filtersCOVID-19 and the Resilience of Africa’s Peace and Security Networks
Many commentators predicted that the impact of COVID-19 on Africa, with its high levels of under-development and weak public health systems, will be particularly catastrophic. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and economic sectors have exposed and compounded preexisting social, political, and environmental vulnerabilities, especially in conflict-affected countries and regions, and have severely stress-tested their social cohesion and resilience. Global and local peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts in Africa have also been significantly disrupted. More than 1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, however, the emerging pattern is one of resilience rather than insecurity and chaos. This article assesses the disruption caused by COVID-19 to Africa’s peace and security networks and considers how a complexity informed Adaptive Peacebuilding approach can assist in strengthening community resilience and stimulating self-organized adaptive capacity. The spread of the virus is still increasing steadily, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. The question is what can African civil society, governments and multilateral organizations do to further strengthen and support the pattern of resilience that has emerged over the first 1 year of the COVID-19 crises in Africa? The author would like to recognize the invaluable research assistance of Neyma Mahomed Ali and the contribution of ACCORD’s COVID-19 Conflict and Resilience Monitor. The engagement with colleagues and contributors stimulated much of the analysis contained in this article.
How Not to Do UN Peacekeeping: Avoid the Stabilization Dilemma with Principled and Adaptive Mandating and Leadership
Looking back over the past seventy-five years of UN peacekeeping, the most enduring question has been: Is peacekeeping effective? Historically, most peacekeeping operations have been. However, peacekeeping is currently suffering from a significant trust deficit. One important factor that differentiates contemporary peacekeeping operations with a stabilization mandate from the historic record is the absence of a viable political or peace process. When security is not directed to serve a peace process, it produces a stabilization dilemma: the more effectively a peace operation protects and achieves stability, the less incentive there is for ruling political elites to find long-term political solutions. This dilemma generates several perverse effects, including prolonging the conflict, trapping operations in place with no exit options, increasing the resilience of armed groups, and embedding peacekeeping in the local political economy. The article identifies five factors that help prevent the stabilization dilemma and influence the effectiveness of peace operations.
Pathways for peace 5th Anniversary European Consultation: Are our concepts and theories of change for inclusion and prevention still relevant for o...
The UN and World Bank published a landmark report in 2018 on “Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict.” The report urged a pivot to prevention, strengthened the business case for prevention initiatives, and highlighted new research on the importance of inclusion in efforts to prevent conflict and build peace. Five years later, the global landscape has changed significantly and is now grappling with a complex set of converging crises and cascading risks. In the context of the report’s 5th anniversary, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), in partnership with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs of the United Nations and the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group of the World Bank, arranged a virtual consultation with mostly European-based researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on 4th April 2023. The consultation was part of a series of events that are reflecting on the contribution of the Pathways for Peace report. The overarching question for the consultation was whether the concepts, and theories of change, that was at the core of the Pathways for Peace report - especially inclusion and prevention - are still relevant for our fast changing conflict landscape? This summary note captures the key insights gained from the European Consultation.
Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Yemen
Yemen is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world due to a combination of prolonged conflict, economic crisis and recurrent climate change-related natural hazards. These hazards include temperature increases, rising sea levels and changing patterns in rainfall, causing floods, droughts, reduced water availability and soil degradation. Climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities, threatens livelihoods and influences existing conflicts.
Adaptive Peacebuilding: A New Approach to Sustaining Peace in the 21st Century
This open access book responds to the urgent need to improve how we prevent and resolve conflict. It introduces Adaptive Peacebuilding through evidence-based research from eight case studies across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. It also considers how China and Japan view and practice peacebuilding. The book focuses on how peacebuilders design, implement and evaluate programs to sustain peace, how interactions between external and local actors have facilitated or hindered peacemaking, and how adaptation to complexity and uncertainty occurred in each case study.