By Halima Olajumoke Sogbesan
As tens of thousands of people fled the dangers of their countries to seek refuge in safer territories, international researchers and policy practitioners came together for a three-day workshop at Carleton University on “Understanding Power and Influence in the Global Refugee Regime.”
In his opening remarks, Dr. James Milner, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, highlighted that the workshop was held to discuss and examine the roles various actors play in the global refugee regime with a specific emphasis on their level of power and influence.
Milner said that as a core objective, the workshop would attempt to answer questions about “who has the ability to make the regime work and ensure cooperation, who has power within the regime, who has influence, how we know power when we see it, and how a more rigorous understanding of power and influence can help us find ways to ensure that the regime is more predictably able to fulfill its core mandate function of protection for refugees and finding a solution for their plight.”
The workshop also served as an appropriate platform to exchange research on the ability of various actors with influence in the global refugee regime, and to develop a community that can engage in further dialogue on the subject. Participants also discussed the need to share knowledge created at the workshop to encourage future research in the area.
The papers presented at the workshop will form the basis of the special issue of the journal, Refuge.
The workshop included paper presentations and discussions from universities in Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Read more about Professor Milner’s research here.
Friday, October 2, 2015 in Groundbreaking Research, News
Share: Twitter, Facebook