Study Plan, Methods

The objective of this study is to consider the complex relationship between conflict and development, and to seek the potential for development assistance as an active practical policy for peace building. Breaking it down, the study will proceed on the following subjects: (1) consider peace in the course of development assistance, (2) consider the roles of international institutions and NGOs in development assistance, and their impacts on peace and conflict, (3) consider the influence of development of interested states in mid-and-long terms. The study plans to accomplish its goals in four fiscal years from April 2003 through March 2006.

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(1) As for the consideration of peace in the course of development assistance, the research will mainly proceed in three areas.

This study adopts the style where it will build a theoretical framework based on actual conditions in the survey. The actual areas are A) the Balkan area, B) Mideast and central Asia, especially Afghanistan, C) China and Southeast Asia. Needless to add, the Balkan area includes the area where the Yugoslavia conflict erupted, thus the themes in this area of the research would be; development as the cause of conflict, the immaturity of development, or the role of development for peace building. On the other hand, the Mideast and Central Asia, especially Afghanistan, had experienced invasion by the former Soviet Union and the Afghanistan War. In these areas, it is essential to consider removing the trigger factor for conflict and post-conflict reconstruction of the nations. As of China, it shares borders with many countries and has been fighting many territorial conflicts. It, as a poor country, has received huge amounts of development aid, although it recently is showing remarkable economic growth. Looking from the viewpoint of development and conflict, we may find many issues we have not been aware of. In addition, it is also important to sum up the experiences of Cambodia, Indochina and East Timor from the viewpoint of post-conflict reconstruction and preventing conflict recurrence.

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(2) No matter how the research is confined to the specific areas of “conflict and development” or “development and peace building”, it will be difficult to unveil the complex structures without focusing on a specific matter. This study will aim to grasp the roles of international institutions and NGOs in development assistance. It will illuminate the relationships between conflict and development using hearing investigations and collecting information from international institutions and NGOs. Among international institutions, there are the UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNESCO and World Bank. Their regional offices will also be the targets of the research. Since it is also necessary to associate with them, the research study plan includes research into international NGOs such as International Alert, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Oxfam.

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(3) Considering the influence of development on interested states in mid-and-long term terms would be done from a refugee-assistance perspective. This research will dig into the negative effects of emergency humanitarian assistance on peace building, as well as the positive effects. The main area of study regarding refugee-assistance will be A) the Balkan area and B) Mideast and central Asia, especially Afghanistan. International institutions such as UNHCR and international NGOs such as Oxfam are not only important as an information source, but also as a subject for our investigations.

Since the three study subjects are interrelated, we will comprehensively approach each issue in development and conflict.

[Fiscal Year 2003]

The first half of the 2003 fiscal year would be mainly spent collecting information, and the last half conducting a foundational field study. Regarding the importance of understanding the regionality and history of each interested country, we would be accumulating data in the first half of the year by actively collecting foundational data in Japan. The international research here would be mainly preparation and collecting information from documents. As for the actual study fields, the Balkan area would be researched in common style; Ms.Nakanishi would be in charge for Mideast and Central Asia, especially Afghanistan, Mr.Sakurai for China, Mr.Sato for Southeast Asia. Mr.Otsubo and Mr.Ohira would be responsible for the research of international institutions involved in development assistance and emergency humanitarian assistance, and Mr.Kodama will conduct the research of international NGOs.

[Fiscal Year 2004]

In the second year of the study, the actual research for each subject will be conducted based on the data collected mainly from documents in the first year. A basic series of hearing surveys in international institutions and NGOs are to be conducted during this year. Each person in charge will distribute a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be based on the research results in the previous year, which involves common questions to enable a comparative analysis. Looking only into one area is not enough to examine the role of development in peace building; we must conduct field surveys, centering in the four areas, which are the specialties of the person in charge.

[Fiscal Year 2005]

In accordance with the basic research of the second year, we will conduct full-scale research studys into each area by each person in charge of that specific area. In doing so, the interrelationships between the study subjects mentioned above -(1), (2) and (3)- would be the main themes. The survey results from each region would be comparatively analyzed in relation to each other, measured with the degree of contribution to the establishment of democratization and the removal of the structural causes of conflict. The research of this year would basically be field surveys as in the previous year, which requires cooperation and collaboration with regional research bodies, international institutions and international NGOs. This will lead to the examination of the interrelationships between the data from each area, the international institutions and the international NGOs, from the viewpoints of ‘conflict and development’, and ‘development and peace building’, which we plan to complete in fiscal year 2006.

[Fiscal Year 2006]

During this last year, we will consider all the data that has been collected in a comprehensive manner. It will not be easy to produce a clear conclusion from the given data, since the factors surrounding conflict and development are intricately intertwined with each other. The final report would be made by unwinding the structure from the enormous amount of data, with all the people who associated with the study group, such as the members of international institutions and international NGOs.

In addition, the allocation for the overseas research costs of each person in charge in each year would be decided considering the situation in the target area. As a reference, the principle ratio would be three to two: three for field surveys and two for surveys of international institutions and NGOs. The following shows the outline of the fieldwork and the division of the roles.