The Transformative Impact of Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping

Peace Teams in the Protest-Repression Nexus: A Sociomaterial Perspective of De-escalatory Tactics

“…While bases of trust underlie social connections, they also influence material ones, as tools like IT artifacts can be co-opted by mistrusted groups and in turn compromise trusted connections to other social entities, thus shaping the assemblage. Our work extends scholarship on the sociomateriality of protest to Peace Teams as a distinctive organization active with (but distinct from) social movement organizations [36,8], bridging to trust scholarship [43,44,11], and extending understanding of unarmed civilian peacekeeping tactics [16,14].…”

“…Peace Teams as de-escalatory forces are therefore potent in a healthy, evolving democracy. This study continues Julian's tactical dimensions of Peace Teams [16,14] by adding empirical depth and dimensions of tactics, depicting its manifestation in contemporary demonstration and the entanglement of dimensions in practice. Furthermore, viewing Peace Team work through the sociomaterial lens garnered theoretical insights for sociomaterial scholars.…”

“…Extant scholarship on Peace Teams argues for their efficacy in peacekeeping in comparison to militarized approaches [16,17,13] and the potential to reduce overall violence in urban centers [18]. Evaluation and assessment studies provide further support for Peace Team activity, including empirically supporting their efficacy in reducing violence [19,20] and the benefits of participation, such as job opportunities and improved future outlook for at-risk team members [19].…”

“…Schweitzer [22] and Julian and Schweitzer [12] covered this ground in identifying Peace Teams worldwide and the various definitions of unarmed civilian peacekeeping that lead to different de-escalatory practices. Julian [16] deepened our understanding by then characterizing Peace Team practices across three dimensions: a) deterrence of violence by presence; b) engagement with armed potential escalators; and c) building relationships between stakeholders. The connective logic in this scholarship is that the particular arena of deployment, be it regional or situational, shapes how these dimensions manifest in practice.…”

Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping as a Transformative Justice Concept: Civilian Protection and Everyday Justice in the Bangsamoro

“…Indeed, theoretical and practical interest in an Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping (UCP) approach has been increasing. Scholars have lauded the UCP approach's use of nonviolent methods (Julian 2020) and its ability to promote local ownership through local infrastructures for peace (Duncan and Ai-Lin-Loh 2017). The approach utilizes parallel "reactive" (direct protection of civilians threatened by conflict) and "proactive" (diplomacy and conflict resolution) strategies (Venturi 2015, 62).…”