Workshops on Counterinsurgency and Colonialism

University of London School of Advanced Study, Institute of Commonwealth Studies/
Open University Empire and Postcolonial Group

Workshops on Counterinsurgency and Colonialism

'Negotiating with the "Enemy": perspectives past and present'

Friday 24 September 2010

To be held at: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2nd Floor, South Block, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

CALL FOR PAPERS

Counterinsurgency, 'homeland security' and 'The War on Terror' have led to a renewed interest in historical case studies of counterinsurgency, including case studies from the British Empire and Commonwealth. There has been considerable debate, notably in the US and UK , of military strategies, 'winning hearts and minds' through civil programmes, and policing for international operations. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , and the peace process in Northern Ireland , demonstrate that another, relatively neglected area can have a major impact on such campaigns. This is the 'negotiation' with, and 'persuasion' of, militant elites and their key civilian supporters. The Northern Ireland peace process was developed through complex, often secret, contacts. The Iraqi insurgency was turned around as much through the 'Anbar Awakening' as by a 'surge' and new American counterinsurgency policy. The question of how to negotiate, persuade and buy over Taliban leaders and supporters came to the fore in Afghanistan policy in 2009 to 2010. This workshop will look at a wide variety of ways and contexts, contemporary and historical, in which 'enemy' leaders (military and civilian) have been targeted for persuasion and negotiation.

We particularly welcome proposals on the following areas:

• direct negotiations with insurgent leaders
• negotiations with and strategies to persuade political leaders to oppose insurgents
• use of third parties for deniable negotiations
• handling of amnesty and surrender terms
• examples of the failure of negotiation/ceasefire and negotiate strategies
• propaganda, intelligence and operations aimed at inducing insurgent surrender
• propaganda, intelligence and operations aimed at neutralising insurgent infrastructure amongst civilian supporters
• propaganda, intelligence and operations aimed at converting key 'enemy' and utilising them as propagandists and counter-guerrillas
• reward and compensation policies
• contemporary and historical examples of frontier policy aimed at changing raiding/insurgent behaviour
• examples are welcome from all areas contemporary and historical, but we are particularly interested in case studies dealing with Muslim insurgents and populations, from Northern Ireland, and from European empires.
• papers are welcome from practitioners (administrative, diplomatic, military) and academics alike.

To apply, please send by email and attachment

• an abstract of less than 500 words
• a brief biodata of one side
• optional list of relevant publications of not more than one side
• optional attachment of a related paper

to Karl Hack ( k.a.hack@open.ac.uk) by 15 March 2010.

Chatham House rules will apply, except where authors give explicit permission for their names to be used.