Canadian Consortium on Human Security
Fellow Profile: Robert Barrett
Rob Barrett is a PhD Candidate at the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. Rob’s research combines the study of intervention practice with the social-psychological dimensions of deadly inter-group conflict. Rob is particularly interested in examining the forces of volunteerism, recruitment, and indoctrination into deadly groups in order to assess if, and how, early-stage intervention may be improved.
Rob is using his Human Security Fellowship funds to organize and lead a study in central Nigeria which seeks to understand the various group forces at play during that country’s Toto Local Government conflict. The conflict - still simmering today - resulted in regional inter-group killing and massive internal displacement. To date, no study of this kind has yet examined the inter-group dynamics of this deadly conflict. For Rob, the Toto conflict represents an opportunity to conduct original research on the type of conflict conditions interventionists seem to find most challenging: those in which non-uniformed civilians constitute the bulk of the combatant forces. If one considers in addition, Nigeria’s struggling democratization, its religious divides, its unprecedented levels of ethnic-based conflict, and its questionable oil-industry practices, one has an exceptional case study for the analysis of human security technologies and interests. Rob has also received funding for this research project from the Security and Defense Forum and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
After visiting central Nigeria in 2005, Rob was able to set up a research team comprised of Nigerian professors and graduate students tasked to conduct local-language interviews with witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of the Toto conflict. The interviews – underway at the time of this writing – seek insight into the stages of conflict intensity (as defined by the interviewees), the observable markers or triggers for these stages, the types of individuals who joined at each stage and why, what types of recruitment or indoctrination techniques were used and by whom, and finally, what forms of intervention might have worked to quell the group mobilization at each stage. Using Nigerian scholars as interviewers was essential in order to establish trust with the subjects, to ensure adherence to contextual communication styles, and to overcome language barriers. While the concept and method of this approach required significant organizational persistence, the project is now yielding some promising insights.
The results of this field research will be evaluated in light of peacekeeping “best practices” with a focus on current methods used for understanding, measuring, tracking, and engaging deadly groups. Interviews with senior military officers, analysts, and scholars at the UN DPKO Best Practices division in New York will be sought, as well as those at the Canadian Forces Staff College, in Toronto.
Rob’s enthusiasm for the analysis of group behaviour and group conflict has also attracted the attention of academics within the medical and aviation fields concerned with team performance and conflict. In 2005, Rob was invited into the neurosurgical operating room to analyze and assess group dynamics and make recommendations on measuring and enhancing team performance, and in 2007, Rob presented new ideas for astronaut training, designed to reduce the risk of intra-crew conflict during lengthy exploration-class missions (Mars and ISS). This latter study was conducted with the support of senior members of the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut training department and medical staff, and was presented at the 2007 International Aerospace Medicine Conference, in New Orleans.
Most recently, in the summer of 2007, Rob was asked to write and facilitate a 2-day seminar on intercultural negotiation for 120 NATO and non-NATO Majors and Lieutenant-Colonels. The seminar, which was co-facilitated, included contemporary intrastate conflict dynamics and inter-cultural communication and negotiation styles.
Rob can be reached at rob.barrett (at) shaw.ca
Publications:
“Borrowing from Security Strategy: can red teams help astronauts prepare for crew conflict in space?” (2007) (Currently in peer review)
“The Analysis of Complex Societal Conflicts Using Sequenced Structuration” (2007) (Currently in 2nd peer review with conditional offer of publication).
“Where is the West? Dominant Western attitudes toward ethnic conflict in Africa” In Olayemi Akinwumi Ed., (2006), New Trends in Inter-Group Relations in Nigeria, Makurdi: Aboki Academic Publishers.
“CRM touches the OR: ORM takes flight” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 76:3, March 2005. (Co-authored and peer-reviewed abstract publication).
“Composite Diplomacy: Canadian Innovation amidst Global Uncertainty”, Innovations: A Journal of Politics, (2005), Volume 5, 33-48.
“The Potential Role of CRM in the Neurosurgical OR” (23 November 2006), Second Annual International Neurosurgery Conference, Annals of Neurosurgery Conference Proceedings, www.annals-neurosurgery.org
"Understanding the Challenges of African Democratization through Conflict Analysis" (June 1, 2005). IACM 18th Annual Conference, Social Science Research Network http://ssrn.com/abstract=726162
Conference Papers and Presentations:
“Afghanistan Briefing” (Member of conference organizing committee and presenter of the “Afghanistan Briefing” to the Delegates). Coordinated Approaches to Security, Development, and Peacemaking: Lessons Learned from Afghanistan and Liberia. The Peacebuilding, Development, and Security Program, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. March 30-31, 2007.
“Borrowing from Security Strategy: Accelerated Preparedness for Interpersonal and Inter-group Challenges in Extended Space Flight through the use of Red-Teaming” 2007 Aerospace Medicine Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.
“CRM touches the OR: ORM takes flight” 2005 International Aerospace Medicine Conference, Orlando, Florida. Documented in: Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 76:3, March 2005.
“Understanding the Challenges of African Democratization through Conflict Analysis”, International Association of Conflict Management Conference, Seville, Spain. June 11-15, 2005
“Where is the West? Dominant Western attitudes toward ethnic conflict in Africa” Inter-Group Relations in Nigeria in the 20th Century. Nasawara State University, Keffi, Nigeria. June 8 – 11, 2005
"Composite Diplomacy: Canadian Foreign Policy for Modern Intrastate War" 2004 SMSS Conference, Calgary
"Composite Diplomacy: Innovation Amidst Global Uncertainty" 2004 CIIA Conference, Calgary
"Fueling Terrorism: The Misalignment of Western Intervention Policy in a Democratizing World" 2004 IUS Conference, Toronto
