Conflict resolution and democratisation in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami: A comparative study of Aceh and Sri Lanka

Contemporary peace processes in developing countries are commonly elite-focused and use developmental interventions to depoliticise contentious issues and achieve negotiated peace pacts. These characteristics raise concerns regarding the links between dev elopment and peace and regarding the means and prospects of reworking state/society-relations in a democratic direction. The objective of the project is to address these concerns through a comparative analysis of conflict resolution and democratisation in Aceh and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami disaster. The research will address three main research questions: 1. How and to what extent has reconstruction/development been linked to processes of conflict resolution and human rights based democratisation ? 2. How and to what extent have the parallel processes of reconstruction/development and conflict resolution generated political transformations among the main state and non-state stakeholders to the conflict? 3. How and to what extent have the parallel processes of reconstruction/development and conflict resolution been related to a process of human rights based democratisation? The project will be conducted by a core research team consisting of Olle Törnquist, Kristian Stokke and Gyda Marås Sindre at the University of Oslo, working in close collaboration with researchers at Gadjah Mada University and Demos in Indonesia and the Social Scientists? Association in Sri Lanka. The project will be conducted as a three-year research project, moving from an initial formulation of a comparative analytical framework in the first stage (2006), through a second stage with emphasis on fieldwork (2006-2007), to a final stage of analysis, writing and dissemination of results (2007-2008). The principal output from t he project will be in the form of academic articles in international journals, one co-authored monograph published internationally and one Ph.D. dissertation in political science.