About the Symposium: Recent wars have started to undermine the so-called “long peace” that emerged at the conclusion of World War II. The role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace and security, the containment of peripheral wars during the Cold War, the globalization of peace movements, and higher well-being due to economic development all partly contributed to this relative stability of the international order. High levels of conflict have become the new normal, with civil wars and continued armed violence in many parts of the world—from Myanmar to Sudan, Syria and Pakistan. And the wars between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, and most recently, the US, Israel and Iran are further contributing to the already deteriorating levels of global peacefulness.
This symposium brings together peace and security scholars to Hiroshima University to deliver special lectures and participate in a roundtable discussion that aims to interrogate the long peace and theorize the future of peace and peace studies based on their research and policy engagements. It is jointly organized by the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS), the Center for Peaceful and Sustainable Futures (CEPEAS) at The IDEC Institute, the International Peace and Co-existence Program, and the Peace Research and Reflexive Solutions (PRAXIS) Research Lab of Hiroshima University.
About the Roundtable Speakers
Aries A. Arugay is Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. He is also Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman and Editor-in-Chief of Asian Politics & Policy. Aries is Visiting Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Philippine Studies Programme at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (Singapore). He is co-editor of Games, Changes & Fears: The Philippines from Duterte to Marcos Jr. (ISEAS, 2024) and The Routledge Handbook of Security Sector Reform (2026). His research has been published in International Affairs, American Behavioral Scientist, Pacific Affairs, and Journal of Development Studies, etc.
John Lee Candelaria is Assistant Professor at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. A historian and peace studies scholar, his research explores how societies remember and memorialize violent pasts, with a focus on the Philippines and Southeast Asia. He is the author of War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2025) and lead editor of Marcos, Martial Law, and the Complexities of Memory in the Philippines (Routledge, 2026). His work has appeared in leading journals such as Memory Studies, the International Journal of Heritage Studies, and Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints.
Nadia Farabi is a lecturer and researcher in International Relations at Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia, where she also serves as Coordinator of Research and Community Service in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. She completed her PhD at Griffith University, Australia, as an Australia Awards Scholar, and was also a recipient of the Hadi Soesastro Prize. Her research focuses on peace and conflict, with particular interests in religion, everyday coexistence, humanitarian governance, and the politics of exclusion. Working primarily on Indonesia, she examines how peace is negotiated and sustained in plural societies.
Gayan Kahandawalaarachchi is a doctoral candidate in the International Peace and Co-existence Program at Hiroshima University. His PhD thesis explores pathways to reconciliation in Sri Lanka, with a particular focus on an emancipatory approach that moves beyond state-led, top-down approaches. His research interests include post-conflict reconciliation, power-sharing and devolution of power, multi-track peacebuilding frameworks, ethnic polarization and peace education. He holds a Master of Defence and Strategic Studies from Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka.
Mari Katayanagi is Professor and Director of the International Peace and Coexistence Programme at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Hiroshima University. She holds a PhD in Law from Warwick University, UK. Previously she served at the UN peacekeeping operation in Croatia and then the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a political adviser. Her research and teaching focus on peacebuilding and human rights. Her publications include Human Rights Functions of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (Kluwer Law International, 2002), and contributions to Preventing Violent Conflict in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Confronting Land and Property Problems for Peace (Routledge, 2014).
Giada Lagana is currently a Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University in the School of Law and Politics (LAWPL), where she has worked since 2019 in a variety of research and teaching roles before being appointed to a permanent position in 2025. Between 2023 and 2026, she held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust, which supported her research on socio-spatial governance between the island of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Her research focuses on conflict management, peacebuilding, governance, and European integration, with particular expertise on Northern Ireland. Her work has been supported by several national and international funders and has included visiting research and teaching positions in Germany, France, Ireland, and Denmark, as well as in Japan from 2026.
Primitivo III Cabanes Ragandang is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines. His research focuses on peace, memory, and youth agency in conflict-affected societies. His book ‘Peacebuilding and Memory in the Philippines: Transgenerational Resilience’ (Palgrave 2025) critically examines community resilience within peace and conflict studies. He has published in journals such as Peacebuilding, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Peace Review, and Conflict, Security & Development. He held fellowships in the United States, Japan, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Dahlia Simangan is Associate Professor of International Relations at Hiroshima University. She uses critical inquiry and qualitative methods to study various dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction to inform peacebuilding research and practice. In 2025, she received the PEACE Emerging Scholar Award from the International Studies Association’s PEACE Section. She holds a PhD in International, Political, and Strategic Studies from the Australian National University. She has published in leading disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals and is Associate Editor of the Review of International Studies, founding Associate Editor of Peace and Sustainability, Assistant Editor of Peacebuilding, and a member of the Planet Politics Institute.
We welcome participants to the preceding lectures leading to the symposium.
About the Lecture/Seminar Moderators
Raymond Andaya is an Associate Professor (Special Appointment) at the Center for Global Partnership, The IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University. His research bridges civil society and global governance to advance peacebuilding theory and practice. He holds a PhD in Human Security Studies from The University of Tokyo.
Raihan Yusoph is a PhD student in the International Peace and Coexistence Program at Hiroshima University, Japan, under the supervision of Dr. Mari Katayanagi. He is a recipient of the Japanese Government’s MEXT (Monbukagakusho) Scholarship. He has presented his research at various international conferences across Asia. His academic work focuses on Bangsamoro studies, peace and conflict studies, and biographical studies, with several publications in Scopus-indexed and peer-reviewed international journals. Prior to his doctoral studies, he served as a Peace Education Officer at Mindanao State University–Marawi Campus, where he also played a significant role during the decommissioning phase of the peace process in Mindanao.