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Researcher

Cedric H. de Coning

Research Professor
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Contactinfo and files

cdc@nupi.no
+(47) 942 49 168
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Summary

Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor in the Research group on peace, conflict and development at NUPI. 

He co-directs the NUPI Center on United Nations and Global Governance, and the Climate, Peace and Security Risk project. He coordinates the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON) and contributes to the Training for Peace programme, the UN Peace Operations project (UNPO) and several others. He is also a senior advisor for ACCORD. He tweets at @CedricdeConing. 

Cedric has 30 years of experience in research, policy advise, training and education in the areas of conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and peace and conflict studies. Cedric has a Ph.D. in Applied Ethics from the Department of Philosophy of the University of Stellenbosch, and a M.A. (cum laude) in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Expertise

  • Africa
  • Peace operations
  • International organizations
  • United Nations

Education

2012 PhD, Applied Ethics, Department of Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch

2005 M.A., Conflict Management and Peace Studies, University of KwaZula-Natal

Work Experience

2020- Research Professor, NUPI

2012-2020 Senior Researcher, NUPI

2006-2012 Researcher, NUPI

2002- Senior Advisor (Consultant), ACCORD

2002 Training Officer, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)

2001-2002 Political Affairs Officer, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)

2001 Civil Affairs Officer, Office of District Affairs, UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)

2000 Assistant Director: Programmes, ACCORD

1999-2000 Civil Affairs Officer, Bobonaro District UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)

1997-1999 Programme Manager: Peacekeeping, ACCORD

1988-1997 Assistant Director, Department of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria, South Africa

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications
Book

Adaptive Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Peace-Making in Colombia, Mozambique, the Philippines, and Syria

This open access book introduces adaptive mediation as an alternative approach that enables mediators to go beyond determined-design models of mediation. Adaptive mediation is grounded in complexity theory, and is specifically designed to cope with highly dynamic conflict situations characterized by uncertainty. It is a facilitated mediation process whereby the content of agreements emerges from the parties to the conflict themselves, informed by the context within which the conflict is situated. The book presents the core principles and practices of adaptive mediation with empirical evidence from Colombia, Mozambique, The Philippines, and Syria.

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Climate change, peace and security in Afghanistan

How does climate change affect peace and security in Afghanistan? NUPI and SIPRI, under the Climate-related Peace and Security Risks project have published a new fact sheet on this topic. Read it here.
  • The Middle East and North Africa
  • Africa
  • Climate
  • United Nations
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Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Afghanistan

Afghanistan is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change: rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Currently, Afghanistan is experiencing its worst drought in 27 years, which, compounded with COVID-19 and the economic contraction that followed the takeover of the government by the Taliban in August 2021, has significantly increased livelihood and food insecurity and contributed to a growing humanitarian emergency.
  • The Middle East and North Africa
  • Africa
  • Conflict
  • Climate
  • United Nations
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Event
16:00 - 17:30
Zoom
Engelsk
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Event
16:00 - 17:30
Zoom
Engelsk
22. Feb 2022
Event
16:00 - 17:30
Zoom
Engelsk

The UN in South Sudan 2022: Risks and opportunities in an uncertain peace process

The UN Security Council will in March this year renew the mandate of UNMISS marking the tenth renewal of the Mission’s mandate since it began in 2011.

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

COVID-19 and the Resilience of Africa’s Peace and Security Networks

Many commentators predicted that the impact of COVID-19 on Africa, with its high levels of under-development and weak public health systems, will be particularly catastrophic. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and economic sectors have exposed and compounded preexisting social, political, and environmental vulnerabilities, especially in conflict-affected countries and regions, and have severely stress-tested their social cohesion and resilience. Global and local peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts in Africa have also been significantly disrupted. More than 1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, however, the emerging pattern is one of resilience rather than insecurity and chaos. This article assesses the disruption caused by COVID-19 to Africa’s peace and security networks and considers how a complexity informed Adaptive Peacebuilding approach can assist in strengthening community resilience and stimulating self-organized adaptive capacity. The spread of the virus is still increasing steadily, and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. The question is what can African civil society, governments and multilateral organizations do to further strengthen and support the pattern of resilience that has emerged over the first 1 year of the COVID-19 crises in Africa?

  • Defence and security
  • Security policy
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  • Defence and security
  • Security policy
Publications
Publications
Scientific article
Cedric H. de Coning, Florian Krampe

Why peace is important for COP and why COP26 is important for peace

In the medium to long-term, the most effective prevention against the worst effects of climate change - including violent conflict over scarce resources - is the reduction of carbon emissions. However, how we go about reducing emissions, and how we choose to adapt and mitigate, can either cause harm, including potentially triggering conflict, or it can contribute to sustaining peace.

  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Natural resources and climate
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  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Natural resources and climate
Publications
Publications
Report

Assessing the Effectiveness of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and The Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary- Ge...

This report assesses the extent to which the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) along with the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary- General on Cyprus (OSASG) – also called the mission of the Good Offices – is achieving its mandate enshrined in Resolution 164 of March 1964. In 2024, the UN Missions in Cyprus will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their presence in the country, and it seems timely to analyse their impact and effectiveness over the years. The EPON report looks for the first time at what the peacekeeping research community has called “legacy operations”, those born during the Cold War and still in place today. UNFICYP is the eighth peacekeeping mission created since 1948. The report looks also at the interaction between peacekeeping and peacemaking in the context of a frozen conflict, often referred to by researchers and scholars as the “Cyprus problem”. Cyprus is a unique case in international relations and peace operations. Its capital city is the only remaining divided capital in Europe and in the world. Cyprus is the only country in the world to have “Guarantors” with a right to intervene and station troops on a permanent basis. The report acknowledges the role of prevention of UNFICYP to the extent that the people in Cyprus tend to forget that no cease-fire agreement exists between the parties. Peacekeeping has been successful at creating a comfortable status quo that peacemaking has yet been unable to break down. In this context, the lack of will from the parties to engage in a meaningful political process has limited the UN’s effectiveness.

  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Peace operations
  • Conflict
  • Global governance
  • International organizations
  • United Nations
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  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Peace operations
  • Conflict
  • Global governance
  • International organizations
  • United Nations
Articles
Analysis
Articles
Analysis

Commentary: Russia’s ‘nyet’ does not mean climate security is off the Security Council agenda

On Monday, 13 December, Russia used its veto in the United Nations Security Council to block a thematic resolution on climate change and security put forward by Ireland and Niger. While the draft resolution contained specific actions, its main purpose was symbolic: to put the security implications of climate change firmly on the Security Council’s agenda, much as Resolution 1325 did with women, peace and security.
  • Security policy
  • Climate
  • United Nations
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Publications
Publications
Chapter

Fitting the Pieces Together: Implications for Resilience, Adaptive Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice.

This edited volume set out to explore how resilience, adaptive peacebuilding and transitional justice can help societies recover after collective violence. To do so, it examined diverse societies across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East that have experienced, or are continuing to experience, violence. The eight case studies – Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), Rwanda, Uganda, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, Guatemala and Palestine – provide in-depth conceptual and empirical analyses of resilience and adaptive peacebuilding in a range of transitional justice settings. This final chapter will reflect on what we have learned from the cases covered in this volume. In particular, it will discuss how they enrich our understanding of the concepts of resilience, adaptive peacebuilding and transitional justice, and what they tell us about the complex ways that resilience and adaptive peacebuilding manifest in transitional and post-conflict settings. The chapter begins with a discussion of adaptive peacebuilding and resilience in transitional justice contexts.

  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Peace operations
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Conflict
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  • Peace, crisis and conflict
  • Peace operations
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Conflict
Articles
New research
Articles
New research

Op-ed: Why Peace Should Matter for the COP, and Why COP26 is Important for Peace

Looking at COP26, it is clear that significant amounts of funding will be directed towards climate adaptation over the coming years, writes Cedric de Coning and Florian Krampe.
  • Foreign policy
  • Peace operations
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Climate
  • International organizations
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