International Conference on

Peacebuilding and Development in Southeast Asia (PDSEA 2024)

October 4-6, 2024

Crystal Hotel Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand

In 2024 Southeast Asia finds itself embroiled in several persistent conflicts that have yet to be resolved. At the same time, issues of human rights and transitional justice are related to these conflicts. Thus, the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) at Prince of Songkla University, the Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Southern of Political Science and Public Administration Association (SouthPSPA), and the Center of ASEAN Community Studies (CACS), Faculty of Social Sciences, Naresuan University will jointly hold a conference in Songkhla province, Thailand.

The purpose of the conference is to build specialized knowledge on the integration of peace, legitimacy and geoeconomics in Southeast Asia, as a means of mitigating conflict in areas where it exists in the region. The conference will be composed of several panels which look at various aspects of peacebuilding in different parts of Southeast Asia.

The violent conflict in Thailand's Deep South has become a systemic phenomenon emerging from a host of interrelated factors. Thus, the conflict cannot be fully comprehended by its constituent parts but has to be considered as a whole. Like many other conflict areas, a combination of socioeconomic, cultural and political factors have led to the protracted and dynamic conflicts. In-depth academic and comparative studies are required to identify reasonable solutions.

Throughout the decade of violence in Thailand's southern border provinces, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani has engaged in attempts to bring about a peaceful settlement through scholarship; a critical arena for promoting communication and a common understanding among concerned parties and stakeholders. Non-violence and political transition are the essence of peace processes and academia has much to contribute through thoughtful engagement.

In August 2014, a network of faculties and institutions at PSU Pattani worked hand in hand to organize the “International Conference on Communication, Conflicts and Peace Processes: Landscapes of Knowledge from Asia and the Deep South of Thailand (CCPP 2014)”. (Download Proceedings here). It was the first international academic conference in humanities and social science ever to be organized in this conflict region since 2004. It proved that an international conference could take place in a region still considered by some peace experts to be under an ongoing 'armed conflict.'

On 30 September 2015, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani together with other universities in the Deep South and Southeast Asia organized another International Conference entitled, “TriPEACE via ASEAN Muslim Societies: Muslim Societies, Knowledge, and Peacebuilding in Southeast Asia”. The conference inaugurated academic partnerships between universities in the Philippines' Mindanao and Aceh in Indonesia, thereby establishing and affirming the significance of a regional network to promote peace in the Southeast Asia region through collaboration and exchange.

Two years later, on 24-26 January 2017, Center for Conflict and Cultural Diversity (CSCD), Institute for Peace Studies, Prince of Songkla University, together with academic partners from various academic organizations, and CSOs, organized an international conference on “Political Transition, Non-violence and Communication in Conflict Transformation” (PNC 2017). (Download Proceedings here).  The conference acted as an academic common space to engage and inspire participants and to explore solution amidst a climate of indeterminates politics.

For this conference to be held in October 2024, at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, the centrepiece of the conference will be a double panel which looks at peace building 1) in comparative and in theory; 2) in Thailand’s Deep South and in Southeast Asia (such as Mindanao-Philippines, Papua-Indonesia, Aceh-Indonesia, Timor L’Este, Myanmar, and Malaysia). The discussion within this double panel will be based upon a metric which synergizes concepts of legitimacy, geopolitics, and peace. By holding this conference, views can be shared about how to overcome conflict and look towards overcoming peacebuilding obstacles and solutions.

The conference will have two pre-organized panels but will mainly rely on papers and panel proposals from scholars from Thailand and other Asian countries. Interested scholars from outside of Asia are welcomed.

The main language of the conference will be English but there will be some panels in Thai. The conference welcomes single papers and panel proposals relating to the following themes but not limited to:

     - Comparative peacebuilding and peace process, particularly in Southeast Asia
     - Geopolitics, legitimacy and peacebuilding
     - Case studies and comparisons of “politicisations” and shifts from violent to non-violent struggles of resistance and political change movements
     - Conflict transformation and peace process
     - State strategies engaging with violent and non-violent resistance and political change movements
     - Proscription of resistance movements and their implications for peacebuilding and peace process
     - Governance, conflict and peace
     - Institutional aspects of peace process (Infrastructures for Peace Support, Peace Secretariats, Government Structures for conflict transformation etc.)
     - The role of international agencies in peace process, peacebuilding and sustainable development
     - Role of CSOs, women, youth, religious leaders, and communities in peace process, peacebuilding, and sustainable development
     - Religion, conflict transformation and peacebuilding
     - Peace journalism and the role of communication and media in conflict transformation and peacebuilding
     - Conflict and Peace Discourses and Narratives
     - Education and peacebuilding
     - Peace survey and conflict monitoring

     - Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) 
     - Center of ASEAN Community Studies (CACS), Faculty of Social Sciences, Naresuan University 
     - Southern of Political Science and Public Administration Association (SouthPSPA), Thailand 
     - Talents Hub for Monitoring Violence and Conflict (HMVC), Institute for Peace Studies, Prince of Songkla University, endorsed by National Research Council of Thailand 
     - Minority Right Groups
     - Faculty of Law & International Relations, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA), Malaysia 
     - Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Jakarta, Indonesia

Mr. Varich Ritmoon

E-mail: pdsea.ips@gmail.com

Institute for Peace Studies, Prince of Songkla University
15 Kanjanavanich Rd, Kho Hong, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110, Thailand
Phone : +66 (0) 74-28-9456, +66 (0) 74-28-9461

 Please bear in mind that office hours are Monday - Friday, 08.30-16.30
**Note: Thailand time is GMT+7

Introduction to PDSEA 2024

Booklet for PDSEA2024

Highlights from PDSEA2024