Dear all, 
We are please to announce that our second meeting of the International Development Forum will be on the theme of War and Development, entitled: Securing Peace: the role of the military in Sri Lanka’s post-war reconstruction. It will be on Thursday 01/12/2011 at 17:30, Westminster Forum, 32-38 Wells Street, W1T 2UW. The speakers will be: Dr Jonathan Goodhand and Dr Dave Rampton from School of Oriental and African Studies. See abstract of their paper below.

I hope to see you all at the meeting,
Farhang

Securing Peace: the role of the military in Sri Lanka’s post-war reconstruction

Abstract
This article examines the inter-linkages between development, security and the military in Sri Lanka. It foregrounds developments in the final stages of the war and the 'post war' period (2007 - 2011), with particular reference to the role that military actors have played in 'securing' the north east. Contemporary politico-military dynamics are however placed in an historical perspective and it is argued that the current militarization of development (drawing on Duffield et al's conceptualization of development as a technology of governance) is a manifestation of long standing trends, linked to the nature of the post colonial state, discourses of nationalism and development and transformations induced by three decades of civil war. Our exploration of the Sri Lankan case critically engages with and aims to nuance broader debates on security, rights and development, which in our view tend to overstate the hegemonic role of international actors and underplays the agency of domestic actors in defining and implementing 'nationally owned' (but frequently illiberal) development agendas.