ACPACS is undertaking a range of research projects within Australia and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Current projects include:
- research and practice on the ways in which customary Chiefs in Vanuatu (The Malvatamauri) can play a constructive role in the economic, and political development of the nation.
- exploring and evaluating mediation and conflict resolution processes used in the County and Supreme Courts of Victoria:
- analysing and critiquing the literature on “fragile states” and focusing on ways of enhancing state effectiveness with particular reference to Vanuatu, the Solomons, Timor Leste, Tonga, and Bougainville/Papua New Guinea
- analysing, modelling and developing decision making tools to support negotiation;
- exploring collaborative processes in individual conflicts;
- exploring the development and security nexus in the South West Pacific;
- support for the development of short and long term conflict resolution and prevention strategies in the Solomon Islands, and working closely with local institutions to enhance their conflict prevention capacities;
- an investigation of the interaction between local community level responses to violence, state-building efforts at a national level, and the international peace-building mechanisms at work in East Timor;
- exploring the ways in which aesthetics –music, art, poetry, literature and theatre can contribute to peacebuilding;
- focusing on the role of ceremony and ritual in relation to reconciliation processes in Australia and North America;
- analysing and promoting “deep multiculturalism” in South East Queensland in collaboration with the Brisbane City Council and the Local Government Association of Queensland.
Further research and training partnerships are being actively explored within Australia, in East Timor, the Solomon Islands, and more broadly throughout the South Pacific region through the Pacific Island Forum (PIF). Research includes investigating questions about conflict resolution processes such as mediation and negotiation, aspects of human rights promotion as well as questions about civic education for peace-building and conflict prevention, the role of local government in conflict mitigation in post-colonial societies, the relationships between local indigenous and formal systems of law and governance, and the role of regional mechanisms in conflict prevention.