Conflict and Peace Studies Journal

Enhancing Inclusive Participation of Vulnerable and Marginalized People in the Peacebuilding in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces

2025-12-25T10:05:25+07:00

Peace negotiations and peacebuilding processes must be pursued in tandem, particularly in protracted conflict contexts such as Thailand’s southern border provinces. This article examines the participation of vulnerable and marginalized groups in the peace process under the project Inclusive Peacebuilding in Southern Thailand Provinces (2022–2025). Employing a mixed-methods approach combined with participatory research, data were collected from 169 participants across ten target groups, including widows, caregivers for orphans, persons with disabilities, the elderly, the housing-insecure, coastal fishers, at-risk youth, LGBTQ+ individuals, religious minorities, and those affected by special laws. The analysis draws on the frameworks of peacebuilding, inclusive participation, intersectionality, and conflict transformation. The findings indicate that although physical violence has declined, distrust, inequality, and social exclusion persist. Meaningful inclusion of marginalized groups is therefore a crucial factor in advancing positive peace and fostering disempowered development.

Transboundary Mining Pollution and Environmental Justice in the Kok–Sai–Ruak River Basin: Applying Nancy Fraser’s Three-Dimensional Framework of Justice

2026-04-18T17:44:43+07:00

This article aims to analyze the heavy metal pollution crisis in the Kok River, the Sai River, and the Ruak River as a structural environmental justice issue, applying Nancy Fraser's three-dimensional framework of redistribution, recognition, and representation. The article uses a literature review of documents and reports from government agencies, the media, civil society organizations, and relevant literature, synthesizing them with Nancy Fraser's theoretical framework. The issues presented explain the expansion of rare earth mining in Shan State under the global political-economic structure, making communities in the Thai border river basins downstream recipients of health, economic, and food security burdens. Meanwhile, the benefits flow to multinational capital and major powers. The voices and wisdom of communities are rendered invisible and they have almost no representation in cross-border decision-making forums. The author proposes that this crisis management be redesigned as an environmental justice project that integrates mechanisms for remediation, recognition of community rights and knowledge, and opening up spaces for community representation in river basin management and mineral supply chain governance at the national, regional, and ASEAN levels.

ASEAN Centrality and the Revitalisation of Regional Connectivity

2026-06-06T06:07:48+07:00

Beyond Digitization: Recruitment Governance Systems Gaps and the Persistent Exploitation of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in Malaysia

2025-12-27T19:26:46+07:00

This study examines the recruitment governance of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia, which has evolved from the ePPAx and SPPA systems (2016–2018) to the current Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS). While these reforms aimed to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability, informal recruitment networks run by private agencies and syndicates continue to dominate the process, undermining worker protection. The study adopts a qualitative research design, integrating interviews with government officials, employers, NGOs, and migrant workers, alongside analyses of policy documents, bilateral agreements, and media reports. The findings highlight four key dynamics: 1) digital platforms improve procedural efficiency but fail to address structural vulnerabilities 2) informal recruitment channels perpetuate high fees, quota manipulation, and debt bondage 3) workers experience persistent rights violations and 4) stakeholders remain divided, with employers prioritizing convenience and authorities constrained by enforcement gaps. The study concludes that Malaysia’s recruitment governance remains largely procedural rather than protective and calls for a framework that prioritizes workers’ rights, accountability, access to justice, and migrant agency.

Military Labour, Neoliberal Securitisation, and the Reconstruction of Peace in Contemporary Geopolitics

2026-04-17T16:54:34+07:00

This article examines how military labour operates within contemporary neoliberal security regimes and how these conditions affect the reconstruction of peace. Existing studies of militarisation and securitisation have paid limited attention to the mimetic mechanisms through which security narratives reproduce militarised social relations. The study employs a qualitative interpretive methodology combining conceptual analysis, comparative textual interpretation, and critical examination of historical and contemporary sources. Classical accounts of mimesis in Plato, Aristotle, and Bergson are analysed alongside contemporary discussions of neoliberal governance, alliance politics, burden-sharing, and technological securitisation. The findings suggest that, within many neoliberal contexts, military labour extends beyond conventional warfare into broader systems of political and economic securitisation. Security narratives normalise permanent crisis management, reinforce asymmetrical power relations, and weaken the political conditions necessary for peace.This article examines how military labour operates within contemporary neoliberal security regimes and how these conditions affect the reconstruction of peace. Existing studies of militarisation and securitisation have paid limited attention to the mimetic mechanisms through which security narratives reproduce militarised social relations. The study employs a qualitative interpretive methodology combining conceptual analysis, comparative textual interpretation, and critical examination of historical and contemporary sources. Classical accounts of mimesis in Plato, Aristotle, and Bergson are analysed alongside contemporary discussions of neoliberal governance, alliance politics, burden-sharing, and technological securitisation. The findings suggest that, within many neoliberal contexts, military labour extends beyond conventional warfare into broader systems of political and economic securitisation. Security narratives normalise permanent crisis management, reinforce asymmetrical power relations, and weaken the political conditions necessary for peace.

Alliance Partnership between South Korea and the United States

2025-12-09T14:28:01+07:00

This qualitative research article uses a documentary analysis method to study how economic development, democracy and the democratization process affect the relationship between South Korea and the United States. It also aims to examine factors that sustain their alliance despite South Korea’s achievement of economic, social, and political stability comparable to that of a developed country. Using realist theory, the balance of power framework, and democracy and the democratization process concepts, the study finds that the alliance between South Korea and the United States originated from and is based on state security concepts derived from realist theory and the balance of power framework. Meanwhile, economic development and the democratization process have not only led to a restructuring of the alliance but have also increased the complexity of the relationship. This research offers a new approach to analyzing the alliance relationship by incorporating internal factors – South Korea’s economic development and democratization – as additional components alongside traditional security dimensions, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of the alliance partnership between states.