IICRR took part in an international peace studies conference in Tbilisi, Georgia on October 6th. The event was part of PESTUGE, a three-year project to develop peace and conflict studies in the Republic of Georgia, which is coordinated by DCU. Representing IICRR was Associate Director Dr Walt Kilroy, and PhD students Liridona Veliu and Tajma Kapic. This conference was the first event to be hosted by the newly-established Institute for Peace Studies at Caucasus University. It is one of the key outputs of the PESTUGE project, and represents two years’ of collaborative work by the eight project partners.

The conference covered a range of themes such as comparative peace processes, youth and peacebuilding, international and local conflicts and identity, memory and peace narratives in conflict transformation. An eclectic range of scholars and practitioners contributed to the event, including Dr Kakha Shengelia, President of Caucasus University and IAUP President; H.E. Ambassador Niels Scott, UNDP Resident Representative in Georgia; Prof Sergi Kapanadze, Member of Parliament; Prof Wolfgang Dietrich, head of peace studies, University of Innsbruck; Prof Gillian Wylie, Trinity College Dublin; and Dr Iain Atack, Trinity College Dublin.

This visit also involved a series of project management meetings and dialogue of future cooperation for the PESTUGE partnership. PESTUGE is a three-year project funded by Erasmus + Key Action II Capacity Building in Higher Education.  It has eight partners – four from the EU (DCU, TCD, University of Innsbruck, Ulster University) and four from Georgia (Caucasus University, Ilia State University, Tbilisi State University and Sokhumi State University).