Speaker: Dr Andrew Thomson
Date: Thursday 27 March 2025
Time: 16:00 to 17:30
Address: School III
This talk explores when and why governments negotiate peace and/or demobilization with “pro-state” paramilitary groups/pro-government militia. I argue that governments are more likely to negotiate with paramilitary groups when the government has limited control over paramilitaries, when paramilitaries conduct mass human rights violations, and when the government faces domestic and international pressure to account for paramilitary violence. I build this argument drawing on examples from around the world and then by reviewing the Colombian government’s negotiated agreements with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) in Santa Fe de Ralito in 2003-2005.
Dr. Andrew Thomson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast and a Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. His research focuses pro-government/pro-state militias in civil conflicts and attempts at peace with such actors. His research in these areas has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism among others. Dr. Thomson also leads projects such as the Positive Peace in Northern Ireland: A Northern Irish Peace Index and has recently published a book titled A Short History of the War on Terror.