On 27 February 2014, the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law convened its Second Annual Conference on security and rule of law in the 21st century. With a focus on identifying and unpacking our assumptions alongside the issues ‘Violence on the Periphery’, ‘Globalization and Social Justice’, and ‘New Approaches to Security’, the conference comprised an exciting and inspiring menu of topics.
The conference succeeded in welcoming several innovative thinkers – among others - Juma Assiago (UNHABITAT, Kenya), Joshua Simmons (Global Financial Integrity, USA), Isabel Aguilar Umaña (Interpeace, Guatemala), Jeroen de Lange (moderator), and Jok Madut Jok (The Sudd Institute).
The approximately 150 participants of the conference actively engaged in choosing the topics for the afternoon breakout sessions by voting for the issue they found most relevant to pursue. The menu of potential topics was derived from the presentations of the key note speakers, previous discussions on theories of change and context analysis responding to the evaluation of the Dutch Foreign Policy in Fragile States from 2005 – 2011, and the main outcomes of the recent online debate on Foreign Engagement in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Contexts.
In the afternoon, the Platform’s vibrant network of national and international policy makers, practitioners and researchers split up into interactive breakout groups on the following voted topics:
Violence on the Periphery
- Urban surge: multi-layered violence | Facilitated by Jok Madut Jok
- Organized crime in ungoverned areas | Facilitated by Summer Brown
Globalization and Social Justice
- The global trade in natural resources| Facilitated by Mariken Gaanderse
New Approaches to Security
- The partner’s dilemma: who is ‘legitimate’? |Facilitated by Berlinda Nolles
- Expanding the toolbox: do our instruments live up to our ideals? | Facilitated by Pascal Richard
- Comprehensive, successive approach? Can different end-goals be sequenced? |Facilitated by David Connolly
During the breakouts, new ideas within the realm of security and rule of law in the 21st century were explored with the goal of informing the thematic foci for the Platform in 2014. These foci will be announced by the Steering Group.
Rob Swartbol, Director General for International Cooperation from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, closed the day with a speech in which he reaffirmed the commitment of Minister Ploumen to support the Platform’s work.
The day ended with the highly-anticipated announcement of the first calls for proposal developed by the Platform based on the research agenda as developed in 2013 by the Working Group Employment for Stability and the Working Group Justice, Power & Politics. The first calls for proposals were launched on 17 March.
The full presentations of the key note speakers are available:
Please find below the Program Booklet of the Conference in pdf.
