Centre for Peace, Diplomatic and Development Studies
The Centre studies and teaches the work of keeping the peace: how conflicts are settled, how states and their neighbours negotiate, and how governance and development affect the lives of the people they are for.
Peace, diplomacy and development
The communities the University serves carry the burden of conflicts that began elsewhere, so the study of peace is not academic for them. The Centre works on the questions that decide whether a conflict is settled or merely paused: negotiation, mediation, the return of displaced people, and the working of government at the level of the state and the local authority.
Development is studied alongside it, because the same questions of land, water, trade and employment that decide who is poor also decide who has something to lose in a dispute. The Centre teaches these subjects to undergraduate and postgraduate students and to practitioners in the region.
Teaching and outreach
- Short courses for civil servants, local government staff and community leaders on negotiation, mediation and dispute resolution.
- Postgraduate teaching in peace and conflict studies, diplomacy and development studies.
- Research on the conflicts affecting the Lake Chad basin, and on the settlements that have ended them.
- Public lectures and round tables bringing together the University, government and the organisations working in the region.
Fields of work
Four fields under the Centre.