Inaugural Research Fellow named at MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement

On Thursday, October 29, 2015, seventy people gathered in the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement (CPA) to join Project Ploughshares (an affiliate member of the CPA) in celebrating the launch of Ernie Regehr’s book entitled, Disarming Conflict: Why Peace Cannot Be Won on the Battlefield.

Regehr, the co-founder of Project Ploughshares and recipient of numerous honours including the Order of Canada and Pearson Peace Medal, was introduced by Cesar Jaramillo, Ploughshares’ current Executive Director. Regehr’s brief overview of his book’s origins and content emphasized that the overwhelming majority of wars fought over the past quarter-century ended in military stalemate; thus the international community’s response to conflict should focus on the one place where success has consistently been achieved: the negotiating table.

Branka Marijan, a new Program Officer at Ploughshares, provided a response to Regehr’s remarks. She noted that, in addition to its scholarly rigor, the book “captures the lived and everyday experiences of peace” and should become required reading in the field of peace and conflict studies. What sets the book apart most though is that Regehr “does something critical scholarship struggles with… going beyond the critique and offering very real ways to address contemporary conflicts.”

CPA Director Paul Heidebrecht concluded the program by announcing that Regehr has been appointed the inaugural MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement Research Fellow. This appointment recognizes Regehr’s past many contributions to advancing peace, and, more importantly, signals a shared commitment to pursuing new opportunities for collaboration through research.

In addition to Disarming Conflict, Regehr regularly publishes briefing papers and reports that explore the roles and limits of military forces in supporting human security in his capacity as Senior Fellow in Arctic Security at the Simons Foundation.

The MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement is located at Conrad Grebel University College on the University of Waterloo campus. The Centre recognizes the value of collaborative, inter-disciplinary, and multi-sector approaches to the advancement of peace.  6,000 square feet of space is occupied by a range of peace scholars from the University of Waterloo, as well as practitioners from local peace building organizations. Through forging opportunities for collaboration in the form of research, training and/or community engagement, the Centre works to advance peace along with academics and practitioners from the University of Waterloo and beyond.

For more information:
Michelle Jackett
​Coordinator, MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement
Conrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6
michelle.jackett@uwaterloo.ca | 519-885-0220 x24221
uwaterloo.ca/centre-peace-advancement 

Cesar Jaramillo, Ernie Regehr, and Paul Heidebrecht