The APPRA Conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand on November 12-14, 2013 at Imperial Queen's Park Hotel. Thammsat University facilitated the conference. The theme of the conference was, "Engaging Deadly Conflicts in Asia-Pacific with Non-Violent Alternatives. Dr. Herbert B. Rosana of Bicol University participated in this conference.
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| Dr. Rosana second from left. |
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| Conference Participants |
The Conference Description:
The Asia-Pacific Peace Research Association (APPRA) is delighted to announce a regional conference of scholars, educators and peace-builders. The general theme of the 2013 conference is “Engaging Violent Conflicts in the Asia-Pacific with Nonviolent Alternatives.”
In the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, deadly conflicts continue to plague the world with loss of lives and destructions. In 2012, there were 26 deadly conflicts which continue until the present, an increase of two cases from 2011. (The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 33 Issue 3, 2012). Though deadly conflicts in East Asia seems to be declining, Thailand is facing three different deadly conflicts simultaneously- governance conflict, border conflict with Cambodia, and ethnic conflict in the deep South which together claimed more than 5,000 lives in the past decade. (Tonnesson and Bjarnegard –forthcoming 2013).
It is important to stress that from a peace research perspective, the Asia-Pacific is rich with stories of peoples who choose to engage deadly conflicts with nonviolent alternatives. A cursory glance at the Asia-Pacific stories of nonviolent conflict in the past five decades include: Gandhi’s legacies and Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s nonviolent red shirts against British imperialism; democratic movements in the Philippines, China, Burma, West Papua, Nepal, Tibet, and Thailand, among many others; the anti-dam movements in Tasmania, India and Thailand. Though the APPRA has organized its bi-annual meetings since 1980, and there have been research papers dealing with nonviolent actions in those meetings, the APPRA 2013 in Bangkok will mark the very first time APPRA peace researchers will explore peace research landscape with the theme of engaging deadly conflicts with nonviolent alternatives. We believe that by underscoring these nonviolent experiences in dealing with various types of deadly conflict, peace researchers could come up with a wealth of peace research knowledge that would meaningfully help mitigate deadly conflicts and foster peace in the Asia-Pacific.
