Announcements: Military Assistance on Request in the International Legal Order Conference; BISA Working Group on Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

1. Conference: ‘What Room for Military Assistance on Request in the International Legal Order?’ On Thursday 5 and Friday 6 December 2019, the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (JUFIL, Routledge) and the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI) will host an international conference focusing on ‘military assistance on request’. Having regard to recent third-State interventions in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, the conference seeks to explore the legal framework governing such interventions, including relevant uncertainties and shortcomings as well as proposals de lege ferenda. Separate expert panels will be devoted to the ‘authority’ to invite outside intervention on the one hand, and the permissibility of third-State intervention in situations of civil war on the other hand. Confirmed panelists include inter alia Prof. Anne Orford (University of Melbourne), Prof. Eliav Lieblich (University of Tel Aviv), Prof. Gregory Fox (Wayne State University), Prof. Raphaël Van Steenberghe (Université catholique de Louvain-la-neuve), Prof. Karine Bannelier-Christakis (Université Grenoble-Alpes), Prof. Erika De Wet (University of Pretoria and University of Bonn), Prof. Alonso Gurmendi-Dunkelberg (Universidad del Pacifico), and Prof. Christian Henderson (University of Sussex). The conference programme and registration link are available here.

2. BISA Working Group on Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding. The BISA Working Group on Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, with funding from the BISA Postgraduate Network, is organising an interdisciplinary PGR workshop entitled ‘Militarisation and the Local in Peacekeeping: Ambition, Pragmatism and Adaptability’ to be held at City, University of London on 20 September 2019. The workshop is the first of a four part series incorporating practitioners as well as academics and will explore challenges to peacekeeping through the lens of the local. Approaches to peacekeeping operations are increasingly in tension between pragmatic approaches which seek realistically achievable outcomes and ambitious approaches rooted in humanitarian commitments and human rights. We have seen increasingly complex mandates, robust and militarised missions which may negatively affect the local. Topics of interest include how best to pursue human rights and to incorporate local needs, the effect of militarisation and counter-terrorism in peacekeeping mandates, and how these challenges impact human security and building peace. Please send abstracts (of no more than 250 words) to Alexander.Gilder {at} city.ac(.)uk and ss17sw {at} leeds.ac(.)uk no later than 31 July 2019. Further information, including travel bursaries and attendance, can be found here.