Violence, disarmament and arms control in Latin America

Research associated with this thematic area investigates the role of weapons, their flows and the practices aimed at their control in the constitution of violence patterns, peace processes and the construction of citizenship in Latin America. The ways in which disarmament and arms control practices, developed in the local, regional and global levels, interact with peace processes and with the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of non-state combatants in the region are being studied. This entails an attention to the inclusions and silences towards the place of weapons in peace negotiation agendas and, more broadly, in discussions about the constitution of political communities in the region. Therefore, our starting point is the centrality of weapons for an understanding of practices of organized violence, as well as of their transformation. Moreover, this research agenda proposes an approximation between discussions on arms control regimes and on peacemaking, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict transformation.