Peace Studies
Contents
Introduction
Studying Peace at UNE is about working with local communities in conflict-affected nations in constructive and participatory ways to make peace. We support the notion that individual experiences collectively shape and mould our future human existence in paving the way for peace in the midst of cultural, social and political difference. Just as a society on a war footing knows well the path to violence, so a community prepared for peace knows how to deal with conflict in a healthy and constructive manner without violence. Peace Studies at UNE offer the learner an opportunity to examine these issues in a multi-disciplinary setting, drawing upon the perspectives of a diverse range of fields and the knowledge and experience of many different modes of human experience.
Why Study Peace Studies at UNE?
Violence, inequality and instability abound in nations both in our region and around the globe. While many may argue that this is the current pattern with respect to intra-national conflict, much human endeavour is now devoted to peacemaking, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and associated community development and reconstruction efforts, in preventing violent conflicts and rebuilding peace in societies where violence has caused pain and destruction.
The old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, is especially true in efforts where peacemakers, peacekeepers and peacebuilders are well equipped with the skills and experience required to achieve successful outcomes with respect to setting the stage for a more durable peace to eventuate.
Similarly, if we in Australia are going to build a more peaceful world at home; by educating for peace, by engaging in indigenous reconciliation, and by eliminating racial, ethnic and gendered violence, and reducing economic inequality and environmental degradation, then we must be equipped to deal with these problems. Peace Studies at UNE offers rigorous and disciplined education as a key element of obtaining these ends.
The methods used to manage conflicts are themselves often violent, costly and not very effective. One need only consider the human suffering and damage done during the fighting and bombing in Libya, the war in Iraq, the move to independence in East Timor, and the allied efforts to end conflict in the Balkans, to recognise that many years of concerted human effort will be required to repair and restore the damage done by armed violence. Therefore, learning how to transform conflict and prevent violence or war is much more cost effective in terms of avoiding undue suffering and death.
A large part of Peace Studies involves examining alternative non-violent ways of resolving conflict, assisting communities to respond to change and rebuild. By learning and becoming aware of these alternative methods, skills, tactics and strategies, we can train ourselves to proactively respond to conflicts before they escalate unstoppably towards violence, thereby saving uncountable damage to individuals, families, communities and whole societies.
The Dirk Boomsma Peace Bursaries
A number of peace bursaries are available to cover HECS fees for domestic students or full fees for international students to study a Peace Studies unit. Students must be enrolled in an undergraduate or post-graduate degree at UNE. To apply, you need to submit one page in which you explain why you want to study a peace studies unit/subject. Send any queries to hware@une.edu.au Good Luck!
Undergraduate Courses
Undergraduate courses in which a student may major in Peace:
Advanced Diploma in Arts (Peace Studies)
Bachelor of Arts (Peace Studies)
Bachelor of International Studies (Global Politics and Peace)
Bachelor of Social Science (Peace & Security)
Units - Undergraduate Level
PEAC100 Introduction to Peace Studies
PEAC102 Environmental Peace
PEAC303 Active Resistance: Contemporary Nonviolence
PEAC304 Environmental Security and Peaceful Futures
PEAC328 Peacemaking
PEAC352 Building Peace in Post-Conflict Situations
PEAC354 Post-conflict Justice and Reconciliation Processes
PEAC373 Globalisation as if People and Ecosystems Matter
PEAC388 Constructing Aliens: Refugees in Contemporary Australia
Postgraduate Courses
Postgraduate courses in which a student may specialise in Peace Studies:
Graduate Certificate in Arts
Graduate Diploma in Humanities
MA by Coursework
Master of Philosophy
Master of Professional Studies (Research)
PhD (on Peace related research topics)
Master of Environmental Advocacy
A New Postgraduate Course Offered from 2011
From 2011, a Master of Environmental Advocacy degree will be offered at the University of New England.
A holistic multi-disciplinary approach is needed to deal with the diverse challenges of environmental problems. This degree is centred in Peace Studies, with other core units in Politics and International Studies, and Philosophy. The electives allow you to choose from a wide range of disciplines, including Natural Resources, Geography and Planning, Agriculture, Indigenous Studies, Archaeology, Education, Law, Psychology and Economics. Research projects and reading units allow you to further specialise and research areas of interest, such as Ecofeminism. This unique blend allows you to tailor a degree to fit your chosen career path.
The degree is aimed at staff and volunteers of environmental organisations, businesses and international NGOs, as well as conservationists, teachers, Land Care officers, citizens concerned about climate change and other environmental issues, sustainability officers, environmental education officers, and federal, state and local government employees who manage the environment.
More information can be found on the University Course and Unit Catalogue: Master of Environmental Advocacy, and see the video here.
Units - Postgraduate Level
PEAC503 Active Resistance: Contemporary Nonviolence
PEAC504 Environmental Security and Peaceful Futures
PEAC528 Peacemaking
PEAC552 Building Peace in Post-Conflict Situations
PEAC554 Post-conflict Justice and Reconciliation Processes
PEAC555 Civil Military Relations
PEAC573 Globalisation as if People and Ecosystems Matter
Careers
Employers who support or sponsor their employees through one of the courses in which they can specialise in Peace Studies will gain immediate and long-term benefits. It will equip their employees with a strong combination of theoretical and practical skills. Both the employee and employer will gain from the benefits of:
- A solid contemporary education, as well as training in the skills relevant to today's complex and changing world, equipping people to resolve conflict and prevent violence;
- A more comprehensive understanding of community development and peacebuilding; and
- A better appreciation of the requirements for working cooperatively in inter-cultural and international environments.
Courses in Peace Studies through UNE offer the opportunity for both employers and employees to become agents for positive social change. By providing employees with a robust and progressive set of skills for building peaceful communities, in sustainable ways, employers are making a valuable contribution to living amicably in a diverse society. Studies in Peace at UNE, offer organizations a means of constructing better relationships in the communities in which they operate.
Recent years have seen expanding Australian and international involvement in areas around the globe that are adversely affected by armed violence. There are tens of thousands of people deployed around the globe as either United Nation Peacekeepers or Peace Monitors, as non-government Humanitarian Workers supplying aid and relief, or engaging in longer term recovery and reconstruction projects with indigenous and international NGOs, or as International Observers, Diplomats or Government Representatives. This diverse array of interests is also reflected in our student base. We have seen a rise in the numbers of students who apply to study in the areas of peace and development, peace and security or peace studies because they are already working in the field or in an allied field or they are about to be sent out into the field to work in one of these roles. The Peace Studies courses offered through UNE help in informing practice via a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge. They offer students the opportunity to closely match their educational needs with the professional requirements of their target profession as members of a professional peace workforce.
There are growing areas of practice and research in the international arena of post conflict recovery and conflict management. Our current students range from - educators, military personnel, lawyers, social workers, community development workers, agriculturalists, natural resources managers, members of the clergy, activists and allied health professionals, all seeking an insight into understanding how to deal with direct, structural and cultural violence within societies affected by violent conflict. Some are working or wish to work as peacemakers, peacekeepers or peacebuilders involved in the development efforts of reconstruction.
Partnerships, Networks and Industry Links
E-Learning Training for Peacekeepers: Peace Operations Training Institute (POTI)
Australia Timor-Leste friendship network
PEACEWORKERS UK - learn more about ‘people that are helping people’ in conflict situations
Additional Information
Recognising the need for an integrated Peace Studies programme, we seek to practice what we preach. Peace Studies at UNE takes an adaptive approach in the way we engage in active participation with communities in relation to peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts. We have shifted away from an approach where external actors are making all the decisions in engineering social change projects, to a process whereby internal actors are encouraged and facilitated in designing and implementing solutions that are best suited to the needs of local people and the particular conflict situation in which they are working and living. Understanding the significance of building local skills and capacities and empowering local actors to play key roles in improving their own communities has convinced us to meet these challenges in our teaching, courses and research.
Selected Articles:
Marty Branagan (2010)’Nonviolent Social Change in the Contemporary World’, New Community Quarterly, Vol.8, No.1, p.44-47
Marty Branagan (2009) We Shall Never Be Moved: The Art of Australian Nonviolence, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
Marty Branagan (2009) ‘Nonviolence or Continued Militarism and Climate Change?’ New Community Quarterly, Vol.7, No. 1, pp. 25-27
Marty Branagan (2007) ‘The Last Laugh: Humour in Community Activism’, Community Development Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 470-481.
Marty Branagan (2004) ‘We Shall Never Be Moved’, Journal of Australian Studies: New Talents 21C: Write/up, no. 80, pp. 201-210
Rebecca Spence (2009) Education in Post- conflict Environments: Pathways to Sustainable Peace? In, Rethinking Work and Learning: Adult and Vocational Education for Social Sustainability, p. 155-162 -- Springer Science + Business Media BV --
Rebecca Spence and Iris Wielders (2007) The Process of Peace: A critical case study from the Solomons, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Vol.3, No. 3.
Rebecca Spence and Fiona Ninnes, 2007, Building Relationships across the Timor Sea: An Evaluation of the Australian/Timorese Friendship Agreements, International Journal of Public Administration and Development, 27, 1- 8.
Rebecca Spence and Iris Wielders (2006) Conflict Prevention in the Pacific, Research Report for AusAID and ANU http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/melanesia/research/SSGM_ConflictPreventioninthePacific_ResearchPaper_06.pdf
Rebecca Spence (2005) Building peace through creating and strengthening friendships: an exploration of the progress of friendship agreements, Development Bulletin 68, http://devnet.anu.edu.au/db%2068-pdfs/07b%20Spence.pdf
Helen Ware (Ed.) (2006) The No-nonsense Guide to Conflict and Peace, New Internationalist Publications Ltd, Oxford, UK.
Helen Ware (2005) Demography, Migration and Conflict in the Pacific, Journal of Peace Research, 42, 4, 435-454. http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/42/4.toc
Helen Ware (2004) The World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategies and Africa: Realistic Expectations and Civic Engagement, Australasian Review of African Studies, Vol. XXVI (1), p. 43-51
Kathy Jenkins and Bert Jenkins (2010) Cooperative learning: a dialogic approach to constructing a locally relevant peace education programme for Bougainville, Vol. 7 (2) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17400201.2010.502371#preview
Bert Jenkins and Kathy Jenkins (2009) To Mine or Not to Mine on Bougainville: Linking Peace to the Environment, pp. 19-28 In: Environmental Education in Context: An International Perspective on the Development of Environmental Education, Eds. Neil Taylor, Michael Littledyke, Chris Eames and Richard K. Coll, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam/Taipei.
Bert Jenkins (2008) Education for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management on Bougainville, pp. 33-43, in: Science Education in Context: An International Examination of the Influence of Context on Science Curricula Development and Implementation, (eds.) Richard K. Coll and Neil Taylor, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam/Taipei.
Tony Lynch and Bert Jenkins (2007) Global Warming, Contemporary Politics and the Principle of least disruption, Australian Quarterly, Vol 79, Issue 4, July-August
Helen Hakena, Peter Ninnes and Bert Jenkins (Eds.) (2006) NGOS and Post-Conflict Recovery: The Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, Bougainville, Asia Pacific Press, ANU Canberra
Bert Jenkins (2005) ‘Environmental Security’, Chapter 42 of Section Nine, pp.321-329 In: Securing a Peaceful Pacific, Eds. John Henderson & Greg Watson, Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, NZ
Kathy Jenkins and Bert Jenkins (2005) Education for Sustainable Development and the Question of Balance: Lessons from the Pacific. Current Issues in Comparative Education [Online], Vol. 7 (2) http://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/Issues/07.02/07_02.html
Contacts
For further information about Peace Studies please contact:
Dr Bert Jenkins, Phone: 02 6773 5120, Email: bjenkins@une.edu.au
Professor Helen Ware, Phone: 02 6773 2442, Email: hware@une.edu.au
Dr Marty Branagan, Phone: 02 6773 3951, Email: marty.branagan@une.edu.au
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