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Many contemporary studies on political violence/social unrest rely on conflict event datasets derived primarily from major international/national news reports. Yet, a large body of research identifies systematic patterns of 'missingness' in these data, calling into question statistical results drawn from them. In this project, we explore three specific opportunities for additional data collection to help recover systematically excluded events and to potentially assist in addressing resulting bias. We find that all three approaches result in additional and often systematically different material than that reported in news-based datasets, and we reflect on the advantages and drawbacks of these approaches.

International relations theory, with a few honourable exceptions, has generally avoided drawing attention to the biases of the 'Greats' and their contributions on the politics of social order, change, and progress within the state or the international system. Yet, they have been deeply – and somewhat problematically – influential in providing the basis for a contemporary 'international peace architecture' (IPA). The limitations of the 'Greats' help explain its conceptual and practical instability, as the following essay outlines. Work on the state, international system, justice and rights, and intervention, did not anticipate the limited scope of such concepts and have themselves become sources of instability 'after liberalism'. Part II of this article develops the argument that in a century of industrialised warfare, the international peace architecture (IPA) was caught in a series of contradictions. It was drawn into a delicate balancing act of expanding rights and decolonizing former empires, building law and international institutions, making peace and managing war. Critical arguments emerged about appropriate responses to these issues, drawing on, but also heavily constrained by, their genesis in the 'Greats'. Part II of this article examines this contradictory process in greater detail.

Conventional peacebuilding literature posits strong state capacity or empowerment of local knowledge as potential mechanisms for conflict resolution. Using process-tracing and ethnography, I show that an alternate pathway to peace lies in a dialectical approach by examining the armed conflict between indigenous Igorot communities against the Philippine state. When indigenous peoples strategically modernise by 'cherry-picking' and adapting traditions, they create opportunities to manoeuvre around and access state power. Exploiting the state's own preconceived notions of indigeneity, Igorot communities defined the terms of their autonomy. This study introduces the understanding that statebuilding and indigenisation as hybrid processes for peacebuilding.

This paper examines how the research on, and the practice of, peace mediation has evolved in the past 25 years, with a particular focus on the hypothesised factors that explain mediation 'success' and argues for an explicit re-centring of the political in peacemaking. The analysis highlights how research on peacemaking has seen a growth of quantitative studies, while at the same time the practice field of peace mediation has been characterised by a process of professionalisation. We argue that in parallel to these two trends, there has been a shift away from focusing on exogeneous factors, such as those pertaining to the conflict context, to explain 'success' or 'failure' towards those endogenous to the peace process. A rapidly growing literature on elements of peace process design ranging from inclusivity, mediator characteristics, mediation styles, as well as the substance of negotiated agreements has both informed and been informed by developments in the practitioner community of mediation. These mutually reinforcing trends, while enriching the field, risk portraying mediation as a technical and de-politicised exercise and create inflated expectations of the role and capacity of mediators. We illustrate these trends with a discussion of the case of UN peacemaking in Yemen.

Colombia's Victims and Land Restitution Law of 2011 (Law 1448) has established an ambitious reparation framework. Using primary data from six municipalities in Tolima, we highlight how the limited realisation of Law 1448's transformative aspirations has contributed to a complex co-existence of 'victim' and 'survivor' identities. We argue that this pattern reflects the ambiguities of a reparation framework that emphasises the transformation of victims into empowered agents but struggles to fulfil its promises due to insufficient resources. To fully understand pitfalls and opportunities of transformative justice, researchers need to pay closer attention to its impact on people's everyday survival strategies.

Political participation by the former FARC-EP in Colombia remains challenging. Yet, despite limited acceptance of ex-rebels by Colombian society, ex-insurgent Guillermo Torres successfully ran for office in the municipality of Turbaco. We observe how he negotiated his identity as former rebel, revolutionary musician, and son-of-the-soil, to make himself a credible candidate, and to implement a progressive agenda. We challenge mainstream perspectives on 'political reintegration' and localise the 'rebel-to-party' debate. We suggest four elements to understand ex-insurgents political participation in local realms: identity and sense of belonging, insurgent and post-insurgent relations with local society, interaction with regional elites, and partisan competitiveness.