We are delighted to announce that Sophie Haspeslagh’s Proscribing peace: How listing armed groups as terrorists hurts negotiations has won the 2022 BISA L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First Book Prize.
Comments from the judging panel:
‘Sophie has produced an impressive piece of research on peace processes and the proscription of “terrorists”. Her notion of a ‘linguistic ceasefire’ makes an original contribution to theorising peace processes by moving beyond Zartman’s classic concept of the ‘hurting stalemate’ as the most significant turning point in conflict dynamics. Haspeslagh shows that the hurting stalemate in and of itself is not enough: it requires the additional move of a change in discursive practices of the parties to the conflict, the conscious ‘de-vilification’ of one another. The book is based on exceptionally thorough fieldwork in Colombia and Havana, involving carefully nurtured direct access to the FARC well before they opened up to the outside world. Drawing on her practitioner experience in conflict resolution, Haspeslagh makes an outstanding contribution at the level of ideas based upon rock solid empirical research.’
Proscribing peace is part of the New Approaches to Conflict Analysis series.