Current Research Projects
ACPACS is undertaking a range of research projects within Australia and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Current projects include:
- research and practice in partnership with the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs of Vanuatu and AusAID, exploring the role of customary governance systems in Vanuatu, to gain a deeper understanding of their contribution to national and community governance and their interaction with introduced systems and values, and associated models of community governance;
- 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 working with hybrid political orders for more effective governance, development and peace. Case studies from Timor Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, 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 intercultural dialogue and engagement in South East Queensland to inform policy and program development and to build our understanding and practice of multiculturalism, in collaboration with Brisbane City Council, the Local Government Association of Queensland, and other state and local government agencies and community organisations.
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.
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Vanuatu Kastom Governance PartnershipBackground The Vanuatu Kastom Governance Partnership grew out of conversations between the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs of Vanuatu (the MNCC) and ACPACS over 2004. The Secretariat of the MNCC asked whether the Centre could offer... |
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Global Trends in Mediation in the Asia-Pacific RegionProf Nadja Alexander has edited two books and written numerous articles on Global Trends in Mediation and alternative dispute resolution, looking at varying country-specific case studies. To date, her work has examined the United States, Australia, Yog... |
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States Emerging From Hybrid Political OrdersBackground The issue of fragile states and how to build capable, effective and legitimate state systems figures prominently in Australia's development, foreign and security policy and in the global debates within the OECD Development Assis... |
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PeaceMAPP: Art and PeacebuildingBackground The PeaceMAPP project (Peace through Music, Art, Poetry and Performance) focuses on the nexus between art and peacebuilding. In conflict regions around the world, artists and cultural workers are making significant contributions... |
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