Cécile Mouly

Cécile Mouly is currently working as lecturer-researcher at FLACSO university in Ecuador, coordinating the master’s programme in international studies, and teaching postgraduate courses on peace and conflict studies, human rights and academic research. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge for her research on the contributions of three civil-society-led peace initiatives to the peacebuilding processes of Nicaragua and Guatemala. Recent publications include a forthcoming article entitled “Zones of Peace in Colombia’s Borderlands” in the International Journal of Peace Studies, an article on the manifold manifestations of power in a local peace initiative in Guatemala in the journal Peace, Conflict and Development, an article on Nicaraguan peace commissions in the journal International Peacekeeping, an article on the nonviolent movement in Syria in the Revista Sul-Americana de Ciência Política, and a book chapter on the role of the mesas de concertación in building peace in Guatemala. She is also the author of an entry on community peacebuilding initiatives for the International Encyclopedia of Peace (Oxford University Press).

In addition to her academic skills, Cécile possesses practical experience in peacebuilding and conflict transformation in different countries. She thus served as UN civil affairs officer in Burundi in 2005 to support the efforts of local governments and civil society in implementing the Arusha peace agreements. Then, she worked at the Situation Centre of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations for two years, monitoring developments in areas of UN peacekeeping operations and producing research documents in preparation for future operations. Subsequently, she became Nepal desk officer at the UN Department of Political Affairs, where she backstopped the newly established UN Mission in Nepal. One year later, Cécile assumed the coordination of The Carter Center in Ecuador, managing a project of conflict prevention aimed at improving relations between Ecuador and Colombia and preventing their further deterioration. As the project came to a close, Cécile went to coordinate a Carter Center observation team to monitor the peace process in the Far Western region of Nepal before returning to the academia in early 2010. In addition to these positions, she has done short-term consultancies for the UN and the OAS on conflict-related issues and is currently one of the resource persons in “Conflict Prevention: Analysis for Action” of the UN System Staff College. Recent assignments include a four-month consultancy with the OAS to promote confidence-building initiatives between Ecuador and Colombia, a training in conflict analysis for prevention and peacebuilding for the UN in Mexico, the facilitation of a strategic planning workshop for a UN joint programme in conflict prevention in Haiti, the coordination of a training programme on a culture of peace for UNESCO, as well as various trainings in peace journalism and conflict prevention in Ecuador and Mexico, and an online course on conflict analysis for the NGO PATRIR.