Peace work has long been framed in normative terms—conflict resolution or peacebuilding. Yet the field has continually evolved. As understandings of threats to peace have shifted, so too have the paradigms and practices used to address them. The post-9/11 period, for example, generated markedly different approaches from those that followed the end of the Cold War.

Today, however, the accelerating and interconnected challenges of the polycrisis demand renewed reflection. Drawing on interviews with 156 peace practitioners conducted over eight years, this lecture argues that more deeply interdisciplinary forms of peace work are required to address climate change, global and domestic inequality, mass mobilisation, AI-driven polarisation, pandemic risks, and the fragility of global order.

The findings demonstrate that contemporary peace challenges have become increasingly complex and resistant to single-disciplinary approaches. A shift toward more radical interdisciplinarity is necessary to build future peace.

Gearoid Millar is a Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen, in the UK, where he also Coordinators both the MSc in Peace and Conflict Studies and the MSc in Policy Evaluation. His West Africa research focuses on examining the local experiences of international interventions for peace, justice, and development – primarily in Sierra Leone – and he has published widely on the complex and unpredictable interactions (characterised by Hybridity and Friction) between international peacebuilding interventions and the local communities and individuals who experience them. He has contributed widely to the field of Peace and Conflict studies over the past 15 years, with four books and more than two dozen contributions to key journals, such as the Journal of Peace Research, Cooperation and Conflict, International Peacekeeping, the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Third World Quarterly, Peacebuilding, and many others.

This lecture is organized by University College Roosevelt in collaboration with
TG02 Conflict Transformations and Peacebuilding, International Sociological Association