02 October 2026
10:00 - 11:30 Europe/Oslo
Event
Towards Sustaining Peace: Adaptive Peacebuilding Guidebook Launch Seminar
Join us digitally on Zoom or in-person in Tokyo for this book launch!
Language: English
Online: Zoom webinar. In-person: International Conference Hall, 2F, JICA Ichigaya Building, Tokyo
Seminar
When we hear the word “peace”, we often think of the end of a war, a peace agreement, or large-scale reconstruction efforts that follow a conflict. In reality, however, peace does not emerge the day after a conflict ends. Rather, it is nurtured gradually through everyday interactions, relationships, and collective efforts. Peace is not something that can be delivered from the outside; it is something that emerges from within societies and communities themselves.
The newly published “Adaptive Peacebuilding Guidebook” seeks to translate this understanding into a practical framework through the approach known as Adaptive Peacebuilding. The academic foundations, theories, and concepts underpinning Adaptive Peacebuilding have already been articulated in the book Adaptive Peacebuilding: A New Approach to Sustaining Peace in the 21st Century.
Adaptive Peacebuilding views peacebuilding not as a process of implementing predetermined plans or applying universal solutions, but as a process through which people learn, reflect, and adapt collectively in response to changing circumstances. The guidebook builds on these academic insights from the book and translates them into a practical approach.
Important information: This is a hybrid event organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The in-person event takes place in the JICA building in Tokyo 17:00-18:30 (UTC+9) Tokyo time. Hence, the zoom event will take place in the morning, 10:00 - 11:30 (UTC+2) Oslo time.
PROGRAMME:
10:00-10:05 (UTC+2) / 17:00-17:05 (UTC+9) Welcome Remarks
10:05-10:20 (UTC+2) / 17:05-17:20 (UTC+9) Keynote Speech - Why Adaptive Peacebuilding?
10:20-10:30 (UTC+2) / 17:20-17:30 (UTC+9) Introduction of the Guidebook ：overview of key concepts and case studies
10:30-11:00 (UTC+2) / 17:30-18:00 (UTC+9) Case Studies Presentations
11:00-11:30 (UTC+2) / 18:00-18:30 (UTC+9) Reflections, Discussions and Q and A
*Please refer to JICA's website for the latest program information and updates.
Presenters
• Dr. Cedric de Coning (In-person) ：Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
• Mr. Tsunetaka Tsuchiya (Online)：Kyoto Tachibana University
• Dr. Ako Muto (In-person) ：JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development
• Ms. Mai Yoshida (Online)：Terra Renaissance
• Ms. Yuko Dohi (Online)：JICA Peacebuilding Office
*Additional speakers from partner organizations (TBD)
Apply
Please register by clicking here .
*Registration is organized by JICA, ans will be closed at noon September 30 (UTC+9).
Inquiry
JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development
Mr. Shota Oboshi, Ms. Makiko Itoh
E-mail：ditas-rsunit@jica.go.jp
Related publications
Publications
Publications
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.
Publications
Publications
Book
Resilience, Peacebuilding, and Preventing Violent Extremism
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the complex drivers of violent extremism, along with recommendations for strengthening social and institutional resilience through peacebuilding and development efforts.
Publications
Publications
Book
Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Peace-Making in Colombia, Mozambique, the Philippines, and Syria
This open access book introduces adaptive mediation as an alternative approach that enables mediators to go beyond determined-design models of mediation. Adaptive mediation is grounded in complexity theory, and is specifically designed to cope with highly dynamic conflict situations characterized by uncertainty. It is a facilitated mediation process whereby the content of agreements emerges from the parties to the conflict themselves, informed by the context within which the conflict is situated. The book presents the core principles and practices of adaptive mediation with empirical evidence from Colombia, Mozambique, The Philippines, and Syria.
Publications
Publications
Scientific article
Adaptive Peace Operations: Navigating the Complexity of Influencing Societal Change Without Causing Harm
Peace operations are deployed to contain violence and to facilitate this process, but if they interfere too much, they will cause harm by inadvertently disrupting the very feedback loops critical for self-organization to emerge and to be sustained. To navigate this dilemma, this paper by Research Professor Cedric de Coning proposes employing an adaptive approach, where peace operations, together with the communities and people affected by the conflict, actively engage in an iterative process of inductive learning and adaptation. Adaptive Peace Operations is a normative and functional approach to peace operations that is aimed at navigating the complexity inherent in trying to nudge societal change processes towards sustaining peace, without causing harm.
Publications
Publications
Scientific article
Adaptive peacebuilding
International peacebuilding is experiencing a pragmatic turn. The era of liberal idealism is waning, and in its place new approaches to peacebuilding are emerging. This article identifies one such emerging approach, gives it a name—adaptive peacebuilding—and explores what it may be able to offer peacebuilding once it is more fully developed. It builds on the knowledge generated in the fields of complexity, resilience and local ownership, and may help inform the implementation of the emerging UN concept of sustaining peace. It is an alternative to the determined-design neo-liberal approach that has dominated peacebuilding over the past three decades. It represents an approach where peacebuilders, working closely together with the communities and people affected by conflict, actively engage in structured processes to sustain peace by using an inductive methodology of iterative learning and adaptation. The adaptive peacebuilding approach embraces uncertainty, focuses on processes rather than end-states, and invests in the resilience of local and national institutions to promote change.
02 October 2026
10:00 - 11:30 Europe/Oslo
Language: English
Online: Zoom webinar. In-person: International Conference Hall, 2F, JICA Ichigaya Building, Tokyo
Seminar