Conflict Prevention in a (Post?) Post-Conflict State: Anthropological Insights on the Uncertain Fate of Early Warning in Liberia

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This talk will be presented online using Zoom. Registration is required before 3:00 pm on Tuesday, 12 November 2024. Log in information for Zoom will be emailed to those who have registered with their registration confirmation.

Title: Conflict Prevention in a (Post?) Post-Conflict State: Anthropological Insights on the Uncertain Fate of Early Warning in Liberia

Abstract: There is a little doubt that preventing conflict is a laudable goal, but how to do this is in practice not straightforward. One common approach has been various forms of early warning and local-level peacebuilding. Since the end of conflict in Liberia in 2003, the country has been something of a petri dish for various such interventions. This presentation assesses some of these interventions, especially the Liberia Early Response Network, based on a research collaboration with the Monrovia-based Ducor Institute. Among issues shown are the divergent understandings of the function and purpose of early warning among different stakeholders and how, ironically, Liberia’s relatively successful peacebuilding and democratization process has led to what might be these interventions untimely death.

University. 2022-2024 Niklas worked as a Senior Research at Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden’s government agency for peace, security and development—work on which this presentation is based. An anthropologist by training, Niklas’ research sits at the intersection of anthropology, political science, and law, with a principal focus on West Africa. His work has addressed a broad range of topics connected to security and human rights, from small arms control to freedom of expression, from early warning to democratization, in primarily The Gambia and Liberia.

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