Expert Network Expert of the Month – February 2018 Contributor

SungYong Lee is a Senior Lecturer at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand. He has examined the conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding processes in Cambodia, Angola, Guatemala, South Thailand, and El Salvador. Some of key words that he is particularly interested in are post-liberal peacebuilding, local ownership in post-war reconstruction, international mediation and regional organisations, psychological aspects of peace negotiation. Currently, he is conducting a project on Asian grassroots models for peacebuilding by focusing on Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.

SungYong has also been serving as a co-managing editor of Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security (JCTS) and review panel of Peacebuilding. Previously, he had engaged with a number of non-governmental organisations and research institutes in South Korea, India, USA, Cambodia, and the UK as a programme manager or research affiliate.

---

Articles Authored

Advancing local ownership of peacebuilding: Moving beyond paternalistic capacity building (1 February 2018) - How do local peacebuilding actors develop their own models of post-conflict reconstruction? This question has been subject to extensive academic discussion since the limitations of mainstream liberal peacebuilding models became evident in the late 1990s. Many local peacebuilders in Cambodia and Mindanao have presented strong potential to promote advanced ownership of their programmes as well as limitations that should be addressed to offer good foundations for stable peace and sustainable development.

---