3RD PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION CONFERENCE [PCRC20016]

5th - 7th of December 2016, Bangkok, Thailand

Aetas Lumpini Hotel

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Peace in Tomorrows Time, Conflict as yesterdays news

The phrase used by British Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Neville Chamberlin - 'peace in our time',  is of course synonymous with the irony that such declarations were followed by the two World Wars against the the very nation this peace was supposedly agreed. Humanity is, rather achingly, progressing towards an understanding, that the notion of peace is not just contested but far from static. Peace-today does not just mean that we have conflict-tomorrow but that the delineation between peace-time and war-time is increasingly irrelevant.  Many, if not all societies live under the yolk of perpetual non-peace, that the values they cherish, the security and order that protects those values, can be attacked tomorrow. Tomorrows peace,  'a peace in tomorows time' if you wish to invert and redress the irony laden phrase, is the contemporary problem that all societies face. Whether it is the spectre of climate change, international terrorism or disease, societies face the universal spectre of peace today with renewed challenge of the unknown tomorrow. 
By contrast, conflict sadly remains a perennial, if not static fixture in many societies, regions and globally. Communities live in and with conflict, conflict is a lived-experience, a sadly common one, and transitioning to a relative peace can often seem more elusive than ever. Though there are successes we must cherish, study, and most crucially adapt and replicate elsewhere if suitable.  So to must we look to failures in the same vain. In short, our endeavour is perpetual.  To do this, conferences like this, organisations like the the Tomorrow People, and many of the papers presented at the conference form a vitally important hub for the scholars, researchers and policy advisors to make conflict resolution a priority concern and to ensure peaceful resolution to conflict is tomorrows reality.
 PictureDr. Tom Smith
​Dr. Tom Smith
​holds a law degree, a masters degree from the London School of Economics in Global Politics and a PhD in International Relations. He is the Lecturer in International Relations for the University of Portsmouth team based at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in the UK. He specializes in conflicts and terrorism in Southeast Asia and terrorism more broadly. He has worked for a wide variety of organizations throughout Asia-Pacific on conflict and peace projects. Most recently he was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defense's, Defense Science and Technology Laboratory to compile research for a project on social media discourse of ISIS around the conflict in Syria. 

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

Dr. Dmitry Pobedash - Ural Federal University [Russia]
Dr. Brett O’Bannon – Webster University [Thailand]
Dr. Manjil Basumatary - Gossaigaon College, Gossaigaon [India]
Prof. Panchanatham Natarajan - Annamalai University [India]
Mr. Anthony Oyo - CYN Mediation [UK]
Dr. Zahid Anwar - University of Peshawar [Pakistan]
Dr. Andrew Campbell – International Peace and LeadershipInstitute [USA]

CONFERENCE PARTNERS: