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Klitzsch

Nicole Kitzsch, PhD student (MA, University of Göttingen)

nklitzsch01@qub.ac.uk

Thesis

Working title: “Predicaments of ‘disaster diplomacy’: Tracing causal processes of conflict and ‘natural disaster’ in tsunami-affected Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia”

This research contributes to a body of recent conflict studies acknowledging the long-ignored intertwined nature of social conflict and environmental vulnerability. Research in the effects of diplomatic endeavours in post-disaster environments (‘disaster diplomacy’) found that disasters can catalyse pre-disaster conflict developments. It is, however, not clear why sometimes disasters contribute to conflict escalation and sometimes to mitigating conflict.

My research aims to explain these opposed dynamics by exploring how the disaster-induced catalyst effects build up, drawing on the opposed post-tsunami experiences of violence in Sri Lanka and the Indonesian province of Aceh. The case analyses trace the causal processes of disaster and violence from the times of colonial rule until the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster 2004 with the objective to reveal critical junctions and causal links between the processes degrading social and environmental resilience.

Applying criteria drawn from social-scientific disaster research, multidimensional profiles of the regions’ socio-environmental vulnerability are generated. These provide the basis for the analysis of the relationship between identifiable conflict issues and international relations, domestic politics, and environmental/economic vulnerability, allowing for the assessment of the asymmetrical impact of these political arenas on post-disaster peace-building.

The study thus identifies predicaments to peace-building in developing countries and shall help identify ways to disentangle local and regional peace-building from those predicaments.

Research Interests

My primary research interests are interdisciplinary and include the causes and effects of protracted violence; the relations between political economy, climate change, the sustainability of resources and intra-state conflict; conflict transformation; disaster research; and normative dimensions of ‘sustainable development’ (green theory in relation to social and environmental justice). I also have an interest in the micro-politics of armed groups.

Supervisors

Dr. Neophytos Loizides and Dr. John Barry