Day 1

Ilcheong Yi
Senior Research Coordinator

Ilcheong YI is Senior Research Coordinator in the Social Policy and Development Programme and in the Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development Programme at UNRISD. He joined UNRISD in October 2008. He was trained as a political scientist (B.A. and M.A. from the Department of Political Science, Seoul National University, Korea) and as a social policy analyst (D.Phil from Oxford University, UK). His research interests lie in the issues of poverty, social policy, labour policy, social economy, sustainability reporting measurement methodologies and historical analysis of the economic and social development process. Prior to joining UNRISD, Ilcheong was Associate Professor at Kyushu University, Japan (2004-2008), Korea Foundation Visiting Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia (2003-2004), and Visiting Research Fellow at the Stein Rokkan Centre, University of Bergen, Norway (2002-2003).

Major Publications & Research

• Towards universal health care in emerging economies: opportunities and challenges, London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan and UNRISD (2017) 
• Learning from Korean Developmental Success: Effective Developmental Cooperation and Synergistic Institutions and Policies , London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan and UNRISD (2014) 
• The Korean State and Social Policy: How South Korea Lifted Itself from Poverty and Dictatorship to Affluence and Democracy, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press (2011) 

“A Conceptual Framework of Bordering”

Chae-Han Kim 김재한
Professor

Chae-Han Kim is a professor of political science and director of the International Affairs Institute at Hallym University, Korea. He has been selected as a National Fellow by the Hoover Institution of Stanford University in 2008 and as a National Scholar by the Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea, in 2010. He founded and administers the Academy of DMZ Sciences. He was president of the Korean Public Choice Society as well as the Korean Association of Local Politics. Chae-Han Kim has written more than two hundred articles and books. He received the Ilsong Prize for his article which was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1991; the DMZ Peace Prize for his study of peace; and the Prime Minister’s Commendation for his education. His twelve books have been selected as an Excellent Book by the National Academy of Sciences or by the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Korea. Chae-Han Kim has a B.A. in international relations from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester with a pre-doctoral fellowship from Stanford University.

Major Publications & Research

• “Third-Party Participation in Wars,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1991
• “Explaining Interstate Trust/Distrust in Triadic Relations,” International Interactions, 2007
• “Lessons to Be Learned from Peace Parks around the World,” Space, 2014

“Rethinking the Margins: Conflict and change at the edges of the state”

Jonathan Goodhand
Professor in Conflict and Development Studies

By focusing on the political economy of the margins we aim to challenge how conflict, development and statebuilding are conceptualized and responded to. We are critical of the tendency amongst policy makers to view borderlands as marginal, disconnected and ungoverned zones that need to be pacified, incorporated and developed. This state-centric perspective, which views borderlands and frontier regions as passive receptors of state policies and initiatives, misses the role that the margins play in constituting power at the centre. By focusing on the state’s margins we aim to render visible, processes that are obscured in state centric modes of analysis. Whilst some borderlands/frontiers may indeed be ‘lagging’ regions, others are laboratories of political and economic change. In these marginal spaces, the battles over the mobilization of coercion, capital and representation are particularly intense and contested. The outcomes of these battles have broader significance, as they may shape the trajectory of statebuilding and development processes within countries and wider regions.

Major Publications & Research

• Principal Investigator, GCRF-funded ‘Drugs and (dis)order’ research programme: https://drugs-and-disorder.org/about-the-project/
• Goodhand, J (2019) ‘Fragility and Resilience Anaysis: the Political Econmoy of Development in Borderlands’ in ‘From Isolation to Integration. The Borderlands of the Horn of Africa’ World Bank, Washington
• Goodhand J, B Klem & O Walton (2017) ‘Mediating the Margins: the role of brokers and the Eastern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka’s post-war transition’ Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, p 1-20
• Goodhand, J (2013) ‘The View from the Border’ in Korf, B and Raeymakers, T (eds) Violence on the Margins. States, Conflict and Borderlands Palgrave MacMillan, London pp 247-264.

“War to peace transitions viewed from the margins”

Dr Patrick Meehan
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, SOAS University of London

Dr Patrick Meehan works in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, where he is a Co-Investigator on a four year research project entitled ‘Drugs and (dis)order: Building sustainable peacetime economies in the aftermath of war’, which focuses on Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar. His research explores the political economy of violence, conflict and development, and engages specifically with the relationship between drugs and processes of statebuilding and peacebuilding, with a primary focus on Myanmar’s borderlands with China and Thailand. He has also conducted research for The UK Government Stabilisation Unit, the World Bank, Conciliation Resources and Christian Aid. He is co-author of the 2018 Stabilisation Unit report, ‘Securing and sustaining elite bargains that reduce violent conflict’.  

Major Publications & Research

• Meehan, P. (2020). Precarity, poverty and poppy: Encountering development in the uplands of Shan State, Myanmar, International Journal of Drug Policy (accepted, forthcoming).
• Cheng, C., Goodhand, J., & Meehan, P. (2018). Synthesis Paper: Securing and Sustaining Elite Bargains that Reduce Violent Conflict. London: UK Government Stabilisation Unit.
• Meehan, P. (2015). Fortifying or fragmenting the state? The political economy of the drug trade in Shan State, Myanmar, 1988-2012, Critical Asian Studies, 47(2): 253–282.

“When Placemaking Meets Peacemaking: How Subnational Sovereigns are Remapping the South Asian Borderlands”

Nimmi Kurian
Professor

Nimmi Kurian is Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. She also serves on the External Advisory Board, India China Institute, The New School, New York. Her research interests include Asian borderlands, federalism and foreign policy; transboundary commons; and comparative regionalism. She is the author of India China Borderlands: Conversations Beyond the Centre (Sage, 2014) and co-author of India and China: Rethinking Borders and Security (University of Michigan Press, 2016). Her recent publications include ‘Re-engaging the ‘International’: A Social History of the Trans-Himalayan Borderlands’, Journal of Borderlands Studies, (Joensuu, Finland, 2020); ‘The Future is Federal: Why Indian Foreign Policy Needs to Leverage its Border States’ (Centre for Policy Research 2019).

Major Publications & Research

• ‘Re-engaging the ‘International’: A Social History of the Trans-Himalayan Borderlands’, Journal of Borderlands Studies, (Joensuu, Finland, 2020)
• India China Borderlands: Conversations Beyond the Centre (Sage, 2014)
• India and China: Rethinking Borders and Security (University of Michigan Press, 2016)

“Visual Autoethnography and International Security: Insights from the Korean DMZ”

Roland Bleiker
Professor of International Relations, University of Queensland

Roland Bleiker is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland, where he coordinates an interdisciplinary research program on Visual Politics. His research explores the political role of aesthetics, visuality and emotions, which he examines across a range of issues, from security, humanitarianism and peacebuilding to protest movements and the conflict in Korea. Bleiker has observed Korean politics for over 30 years. Between 1986 and 1988 he was Chief of Office of the Swiss Delegation to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Panmunjom. In this position he frequently traveled back and forth between North and South Korea. In later years Bleiker was Assistant Professor at Pusan National University and a Visiting Research Fellow at Yonsei University.

Major Publications & Research

• Bleiker, Roland. Divided Korea: Toward a Culture of Reconciliation (University of Minnesota Press, 2005, 240 pp. Paperback issue 2008.
• Bleiker, Roland (ed), Visual Global Politics (Routledge, 2018), 410 pp.
• Bleiker, Roland, “Visual Autoethnography and International Security: Insights from the Korean DMZ,” European Journal of International Security, Vol 4, 2019, pp. 274-299.

“Insights from Africa Borderlands”

Lily Murei, Ph.D.
Policy, Research & Data Specialist
Africa Borderlands Center 
UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa

Lily Murei, Ph.D. is the Policy Research and Data Specialist with UNDP Africa Borderlands Centre. She is a Programme Management Specialist, with a vast experience in inclusive evidence-based programming, program assessments and action research, result-based monitoring and evaluation, project information management and reporting. Dr. Murei has a hands-on experience in stakeholders’ mobilization, partnerships management, and capacity building and policy technical advisory. She previously worked with national, regional and international organizations as well the private sector. Her most recent positions include Technical Specialist for UNDP REDD+ Project and coordinator for UNEP/UNOPs /UNDP Switch Africa Green project in Kenya, IFRC, Global Communities, MSH among others. She started her career as a volunteer coordinating water catchment rehabilitation project that promote peace between farmers and pastoralists. She is a champion of inclusive programming and SDGs.
Dr. Murei’s academic credentials include a Doctorate in in Project Planning and Management, specializing in Monitoring and Evaluation from the University of Nairobi; Master’s Degree in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Sociology & Geography from Egerton University.