Impact case study database
Mainstreaming Unarmed Approaches to Civilian Peacekeeping
1. Summary of the impact
Prof Rachel Julian’s research is directly responsible for mainstreaming growing international acceptance of Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping as a viable and effective approach after 70 years of military-led UN peacekeeping missions. Her research has directly supported the campaigning work of two NGOs, Non-Violent Peaceforce and Bund für Soziale Verteidigung (BSV) which since 2015, has resulted in the positive inclusion of UCP in UN Departments and Permanent Missions’ documentation and, for the first time, in policy documents of the German and US governments. Non-Violent Peaceforce has since altered its practice in Myanmar and the Philipinnes to develop its own research to improve practice of UCP.
2. Underpinning research
There have been 71 UN peacekeeping missions since 1948 and there are currently 13 live missions deploying approximately 68,000 troops (UN, August 2020). UN Peacekeeping forces are made up of military personnel from member countries, and as a result, protection and peacekeeping research has been dominated by military approaches. Julian’s research, undertaken at Leeds Beckett, has created Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping (UCP) as a new field of study and has created a theoretical and empirical evidence base that shows it is an effective protection practice and a potentially transformative framework for peacekeeping. Her research draws on project evaluations, case studies, reports, interviews, and field-based research. Through collaboration with academics (Bliesseman de Guavara, Aberstwyth University, and Redhead, Leeds Beckett), practitioner-researchers (Furnari), and NGO partners she has created new framework for researching across organisations and countries.
UCP is defined as the work carried out by unarmed civilians to reduce violence and protect civilians, based on the principles of nonviolence and nonpartisanship, and based in local communities. Julian’s research places UCP in the context of protection and peacekeeping research [3.1] and was the basis to establish the UCP Research Network, hosted by Leeds Beckett Peace Research Programme.
Julian has pushed forward the field of UCP research through this network, collaborating with other academics and researcher-practitioners to challenge a key assumption in peacekeeping studies and practice: that only the use of soldiers and threat of force can work in responding to violence [3.2, 3.3]. Her research addresses how and why UCP can effectively protect civilians while simultaneously supporting local peacebuilding work, focusing in particular on how it helps to restore relationships between conflicted parties, and change attitudes and behaviours among armed actors [3.2]. Research evidence reveals that unarmed civilian peacekeepers around the world have successfully undertaken the same core tasks normally assigned to armed/UN peacekeepers, thus challenging the tacit assumption that armed military personnel are essential to peacekeeping [3.3]. Julian argues for the potentially transformative impact of UCP in providing a new framework for analysing security, threats of violence, and the actions of armed actors, based on principles of nonpartisanship and nonviolence. She grounds her argument in analysis of the evidence of UCP’s effectiveness in saving lives, preventing displacement, facilitating peace and human rights work, and tackling violence and threats of violence – although she notes that its impacts take time [3.4]
Julian has also made significant methodological and epistemological interventions through the new field-based research that she has led (Raising Silent Voices, Myanmar, 2017; Impact of Civilians Monitoring the Philippines, 2019-2020). Julian was PI on both projects, which were developed and carried out in partnership with Nonviolent Peaceforce, a leading international NGO working in the field of UCP. This empirical research used a feminist narrative approach and participatory methods appropriate to working with vulnerable and traumatised people. Experiential knowledge held by people who live in the midst of violent conflict has largely been excluded from understandings of conflict. This research demonstrated that accessing such knowledge is a) necessary to inform meaningful bottom-up strategies for protection from violence; and b) possible through conversational and arts-based approaches (3.5). It was the first funded empirical research on UCP, supported by grants from the AHRC and the United States Institute for Peace. Its findings also contributed to Julian’s analysis of the transformative impact of UCP (3.4).
3. References to the research
Julian, R. and Schweitzer, C. (2015) “The origins and development of Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping.” Peace Review: a Journal of Social Justice, 27(1): 1–8. [foundational article which sets out the key definitions and boundaries of the field of study]
Furnari, E., Oldenhuis, H. and Julian, R. (2015) “Securing Space for Local Peacebuilding: the role of international and national civilian peacekeepers.” Peacebuilding, 3(3): 297-313.
Julian, R. and Gasser, R. (2018) “Soldiers, civilians and peacekeeping – evidence and false assumptions.” International Peacekeeping, 26(1): 22–54.
Julian, R. (2020) “The transformative impact of unarmed civilian peacekeeping. Global Society, 34(1): 99-111.
Julian, R., Bliesemann de Guevara, B., and Redhead, R. (2019) “From expert to experiential knowledge: Exploring the inclusion of local experiences in understanding violence in conflict.” Peacebuilding 7(2): 210-225.
4. Details of the impact
Dr Julian’s research was instrumental in establishing the efficacy and credibility of UCP in evidence-based policy. It has directly supported campaigns by two NGOs to incorporate for the first time language and actions supporting and recognising UCP as a viable peacekeeping approach in official policy documents from the UN, and the governments of the United States and Germany. Julian’s research is the foundation for a new field of scholarship that has emboldened NP to conduct primary research to inform its own practice.
1) Influencing international acceptance of UCP as a peacekeeping method
Dr Julian and her research have been essential to growing acceptance of UCP as viable peacekeeping method [a,b,c, d & g] among international organisation. Decision-makers need to be convinced that UCP works. By demonstrating the effectiveness of UCP, Julian’s research has created a robust evidence-base that has strengthened the negotiating position of the international NGO Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) that campaigns for recognition and wider adoption of UCP.
In 2015, she was invited to give a keynote talk at a UCP Symposium in Bonn (10 October). She set out the known impacts of UCP based on the available evidence. NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach considers this to have been a pivotal point in establishing the credibility and feasibility of UCP: “This was where I think many of us went ‘woah—there it is! It put us in a whole different academic context.” He uses the key points in a powerpoint presentation that he uses in “almost all” of the estimated 40 talks that he gives each year [b,e]. NP’s Head of Mission in the Philippines explained how Dr Julian’s research helps him in talks with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members: “Decision-makers need evidence, they need the data, they also need the argumentation. We cannot just say, ‘Sir, UCP applies in Mindanao [Southern Philippines], you should adopt UCP in Indonesia or in Thailand or in Myanmar.’..That’s why we need this research and its really useful for us.”[c]
Julian’s engagement with NP’s work with the UN has been central shifting ingrained and long-held views on the efficacy of UCP. Since 2015 UCP has been gaining wider acceptance among UN departments and Permanent Missions and governments: between 2015 and 2018 there were 14 documented references to UCP, compared to 2 in the previous 3-year period [a]. In 2016, Julian was invited to facilitate the beta test of a UN Institute for Training and Research course on UCP, developed in collaboration with NP and now runs twice a year.[f] In 2017, NP used Julian’s findings in a briefing to the UN Security Council on unarmed approaches for the protection of civilians (1 December).[f] Julian was then invited to present at a “Sustaining Peace and Preventing Violence Through Unarmed Civilian Protection” side event to the UN Security Council's Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians (24 May 2018).[f] NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach believes Julian’s presentation “added a great deal of credibility to the event.”[b]
Julian’s research has also informed the inclusion of UCP in other high-level peacekeeping policy discussions and guidance. It is cited in discussions on UCP in an Overseas Development Institute (ODI) working paper “Crossing Boundaries in Protecting Civilians,” a UK Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) report on “Peacekeeping after Brexit,” and the Multinational Capability Development Campaign’s “Understand to Prevent” handbook, which is “designed primarily to support strategic and operational military planning for the prevention of violent conflict.”[g]
2. Influencing inclusion of UCP in national policy documents
Working in partnership with the German NGO, Federation for Social Defence (Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, (BSV), Julian’s research has influenced the favourable inclusion of UCP in a policy paper from the German government. In 2016, Julian was invited to present on UCP at a public hearing of the German Parliament Subcommittee on Civil Crisis Prevention and Conflict Transformation (14 March 2016). In 2017, language supportive of UCP was included in the German government’s policy paper “Prevent Crisis, Solve Conflicts, Consolidate Peace.”[a] BSV’s Managing Director believes that Julian’s presentation fed directly into the support for UCP among parliamentarians. She “heard many people referring positively” to the talk and the way that Julian “tried to convince people that this is feasible and makes sense.” She said that UCP is “not well known” and people “think it cannot work because only violence works,” but “the examples given in Rachel’s presentation and the fact that people do research on this means that it is something to be taken seriously.”[d]
In the US, Julian’s research, and in particular the language from her research, was used successfully by NP to have, for the first time, language supporting UCP included in the report accompanying the United States’ Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Bill (March 2019); in its follow-up campaign for the inclusion of financial support for UCP in the US Appropriations Bill; in articles; and in talks.[e]
3. Enhancing NP’s organisational practices and interventions
Nonviolent Peaceforce’s work with Prof Julian has informed the NGO’s organisational practice and has influenced some of its interventions in the field. It partnered with Prof. Julian on her empirical research in Myanmar (‘Raising Silent Voices’ 2017) and the Philippines (‘Impact of Civilians’ 2019/2020). UCP is dependent on community engagement and accessing local knowledge is critical to the effectiveness of NP’s interventions and strategies on the ground.
As part of Raising Silent Voices research project, local researchers received training in participatory methods such as storytelling, arts and craft, enabling them to access local knowledge and understanding of the conflicts, violence, and peace strategies in culturally appropriate ways. NP’s Myanmar Head of Mission said that they learned practically how to give local people an opportunity to talk in contexts where people had little experience of dealing with civil society organisations and were generally distrustful.[i]
In the Philippines’ partnering with Prof. Julian has led to better understanding of the needs of civilians and their capacity in unarmed civilian peacekeeping. Local practitioner researcher explained her observation: “Before the research, I was thinking along the lines that local communities have the power to participate and defend themselves…. It was an eye opener for me. … [Civilians] have to be fully capacitated – to be seen not as subjects of intervention but as partners … [and to be treated] not just as sources of information but as partners.” (j)
4.Widening the academic foundation for UCP
Inspired by Prof. Julian’s research, her NGO partners NP and BSV incorporated engagement with universities into their campaigning activities. They recognise that maintaining and extending the momentum of research on UCP is necessary for its acceptance as evidence-based policy. NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach believes that Julian has played a leading role in “bolster[ing] confidence in the work that we do.”[b] Julian initially engaged NP in the Southeast Asia university network, and NP is now working to install UCP in academic programmes. [c] NP has also developed its internal capacity to undertake research and to determine its own research priorities and strategies to inform its practice. For example, NP Myanmar used the findings of the ‘Raising Silent Voices’ project to design and secure funding from USAID for a research project in Shan state.[i] NP Philippines’ has put research on their agenda and have established a new research collaboration with Aberystwyth University.[c]
BSV’s Managing Director refers to Julian’s research in her outreach to the academic community, the “new stage” in their UCP campaign: “We like to refer to Leeds [Beckett] as one of the universities that takes the concept of UCP seriously. It really adds to the credibility of this approach to be able to say that there are universities, there are established researchers, who do work on this concept or work with this concept.”[d]
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
a) “Recent Inclusion of Unarmed Protection of Civilians in UN and UN Related Documents,” https://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/images/Recognition_UCP.pdf
b) Mel Duncan, NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach, 17 March 2020 (interview).*
c) Ronnie Delsy, NP’s Head of Mission in the Philippines, 6 March 2020 (interview).*
d) Christine Schweitzer, Managing Director, BSV, 12 March 2020 (interview).*
e) Use of Rachel Julian’s Research by Nonviolent Peaceforce: A Survey Report. Shows NP’s direct use of Julian’s research. Evidence items: (i) Julian’s presentation at the UCP Symposium in Bonn (2015); (ii) Julian’s presentation at the UN Security Council side event on UCP (2018); (iii) NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach’s testimony for the US House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; (iv) report accompanying the US Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Bill; (v) the ‘talking points’ for NP’s public campaign for the inclusion of financial support for UCP in the US appropriations bill; (vi) an article by NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach in Courier; (vii) NP’s South Sudan Head of Mission’s opening comments for a Pax Christi conference The Path of Nonviolence: Towards a Culture of Peace; (viii) powerpoint slide used by NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach.
f) Emails from Mel Duncan (NP’s Director of Advocacy and Outreach) to Rachel Julian. Evidence items: (i) email dated 29 June 2016 confirming Julian as facilitator for UNITAR’s UCP course beta test; (ii) email with attachments dated 14 December 2017 evidencing NP’s use of Julian’s research in its briefing to the UN Security Council; (iii) email with attachments dated 15 May 2018 confirming Julian as a speaker at the UN side event on 24 May 2018.
g) Citation of Julian’s research in reports and practice guidance. Evidence items: (i) Larrisa Fast. 2018. “Crossing Boundaries in Protecting Civilians.” Humanitarian Policy Group Working Report. London: Overseas Development Institute. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/12334.pdf; (ii) David Curran, Georgina Holmes and Philip Cunliffe. 2018. “Peacekeeping After Brexit.” RUSI. https://rusi.org/publication/conference-reports/peacekeeping-after-brexit; (iii) MCDC. 2017. “Understand to Prevent: Practical Guidance on the Military Contribution to the Prevention of Violent Conflict.” https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/618886/dar_mcdc_u2p_handbook.pdf.
h) “Finding an Unarmed Approach to Keeping the Peace.” Yorkshire Post, 23 June 2018.
i) Rosemary Kabaki, NP Head of Mission in Myanmar,12 July 2019 (oral communication during project de-briefing)*
j) Radzini Oledan, participant-researcher, 17 March 2020 (interview).*
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
Grant number | Value of grant |
---|---|
AH/N008464/1 | £99,920 |
1804-18482 | £88,000 |