The Initiative for Peacebuilding : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne

Our Research

Sustainable peace is one of the essential conditions for global security and wellbeing. One way that peace is pursued is through the prevention and transformation of violent conflicts, and the conditions that give rise to these conflicts. Another is through supporting the attitudes, institutions and structures that can sustain peaceful societies. With deep regional expertise and capabilities which bridge research and practice, the Initiative for Peacebuilding contributes to peacebuilding and conflict prevention by: • researching peacebuilding in innovative and regionally grounded programs • engaging with peacebuilding practice and policy from the standpoint of a university-based initiative • educating the current and next generation of peacebuilding practitioners and researchers

Researchers

Researchers in the research group. Showing 11 of 11.

Prof Adrian Little

Dr Anne Decobert

Dr Carla Winston

Prof Derek McDougall

Dr Gillian Howell

Prof John Langmore

A/Prof Lesley Pruitt

Dr Nerkez Opacin

Prof Rachael Diprose

Dr Tania Miletic

A/Prof Tilman Ruff

Projects

Projects conducted by research group members

Displaying 10 projects from 33 for the research group.

Navigating the Tides of Change

2025 - 2029

Active

Singing Indigenous Languages Collective: Connecting Communities Through Song Creation Across Australia

2024 - 2029

Active

Inclusive Arts for Children With Complex Disabilities

2026 - 2028

Active

Building Durable Responses to Gender Inequality in Indonesia

2023 - 2028

Active

Friends in Nature Casey: Cultivating Connection and Belonging Through Living Labs

2026 - 2027

Active

Research Impetus Grant

2025 - 2026

Active

Understanding Social Participation and Inclusion in Jurisdictional Approaches to Sustainable Environmental Management\202F

2023 - 2026

Active

The Art and Soul of Dialogue: Establishing Evidence-Based Approaches to Difficult Conversations Through Creative Music-Making

2023 - 2025

Completed

INT 1400 Evaluating Outcomes and Impacts of Community Mental Health Services in Australia

2025 - 2025

Completed

Myanmar Humanitarian Aid Research Initiative

2024 - 2024

Completed

Scholarly Works

Scholarly Works by research group members

Displaying 10 scholarly works from 812 for the research group.

Security Through Sustainable Peace: Australian International Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding

John Langmore, Tania Miletic, Aran Martin, Bob Breen

Report | 2020

Open access

Review of the Australian Department of foreign Affairs and Trade's experience with conflict prevention and peacebuilding and recom..

State Support for Peace Processes: A Multi-Country Review

John Langmore, Tania Miletic, Aran Martin, Nathan Shea

Report | 2017

Open access

Launched by Ms Frances Adamson, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 7 June 2017, State Support for Peace P..

Effectiveness of a nature-based social prescribing intervention on loneliness and health-related quality of life among vulnerable urban adults (RECETAS-BCN): an observer-blinded randomised controlled trial

L Coll-Planas, M Masó-Aguado, L Briones-Buixassa, A Morató, S Mendez, A Carbó, A Fuente-Vidal, M Olivella-Cirici, C Casajuana Kögel, A Bartova, L Cattaneo, AH Jansson, A Kolster, B Novotna, N Opacin, V Papon, S Puntscher, LJ Rautiainen, U Rochau, S Blancafort-Alias, et al.

Journal article | 2026 | Lancet Regional Health Europe

Open access

Background: Loneliness is a major public health problem disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations and has well-recognise..

Strategy amidst indifference: Australia and the Indian Ocean Islands, 1803–2025

Derek McDougall

Journal article | 2026 | Journal of the Indian Ocean Region

Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific

Derek McDougall

Journal article | 2026 | The Round Table

Search for security: AUKUS and the new militarism

Derek McDougall

Journal article | 2026 | The Round Table

Harms and Negative or Unintended Consequences of Social Prescribing: A Scoping Review

V Papon, J Schöpf, J S. Litt, M Arvandi, N Opacin, E Nöhammer, N Lorenzoni, KH Pitkälä, A Jansson, J Stratil, U Siebert, U Rochau, S Puntscher

Journal article | 2026 | Healthcare Switzerland

Open access

Background/Objectives: Social Prescribing (SP) seeks to address non-medical needs by connecting individuals to community-based res..

Effects of Nature-based Group Intervention on Cognition and Nature Connectedness Among Lonely Older Adults Living in Assisted Living Facilities—Secondary Analyses of an RCT

KH Pitkala, UL Aalto, LJ Rautiainen, H Kautiainen, A Kolster, ML Laakkonen, T Partonen, HM Roitto, S Puntscher, U Rochau, U Siebert, A Bartova, I Holmerova, L Coll-Planas, JS Litt, TE Strandberg, AH Jansson, B Novotna, M Masó-Aguado, L Briones-Buixassa, et al.

Journal article | 2026 | Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

Open access

Objectives Nature experiences shared in peer groups according to the “Friends in Nature” (FiN) intervention in assisted living fac..

Revisiting the Anti-Zionism of Sir Isaac Isaacs, Australia's First Native-Born Governor-General—and a Jew

D McDougall

Journal article | 2026 | Australian Journal of Politics and History

Sir Isaac Isaacs, Australia's first native-born Governor-General (1931–1936) was a leading figure in the controversy on Zionism wi..

Reimagining Health Care and Social Connection with Asylum Seekers and Refugees through Contextually Grounded Nature-Based Social Interventions

Nerkez Opacin, Katherine Johnson, Nicholas Hill, Alba Morato, Ian Seal, Jill Litt, Sarah Bekessy

Journal article | 2026 | Wellbeing, Space and Society

Open access

Nature-based social prescribing (NBSP) is gaining recognition as a means of addressing loneliness and fostering social connection,..

News

News by research group members

Displaying 10 news articles from 56 for the research group.

When we took 37 strangers into the urban bush, their loneliness began to ease

Nerkez Opacin, Katherine Johnson, Sarah Bekessy

One in three Australians says they are lonely. To be lonely is to feel a lack of adequate social connection. Loneliness is about feeling di..

May 17, 2026

conversation Article

Health-care workers should not be a target. In Gaza, their detention and death affect the entire population

Tania King, Fiona Stanley, Guy Gillor, Rob Moodie, Tilman Ruff

A freeze on aid entering the Gaza Strip, imposed by Israel last week, means once again tons of urgent medical supplies and medicines are st..

March 11, 2025

conversation Article

Q&A: What the fall of Assad means for Syria

Derek McDougall

After what may have seemed like a lightning offensive, rebel forces led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have toppled the 50-year-lo..

December 10, 2024

pursuit Article

What came out of the Samoa CHOGM

Derek McDougall

In October, leaders of 56 nations (including King Charles as the symbolic head of the Commonwealth) gathered in Samoa for the 27th Commonwe..

November 19, 2024

pursuit Article

Is the UN’s Pact for the Future a breakdown or a breakthrough?

John Langmore AM

The world is moving closer to the brink of instability, according to United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres. “…our world is..

October 8, 2024

pursuit Article

Episode 1: The threat to our global public institutions

Jon Faine, Carrie McDougall, Alison Duxbury, Tania Miletic

With the world in seemingly endless escalating crises what role do our global public institutions such as the United Nations and the Intern..

September 5, 2024

pursuit Article

‘The more you tell a story, the stronger the story becomes’

The benefits of music are something many of us understand intuitively. The fact that music can improve health, wellbeing and community has ..

July 9, 2024

pursuit Article

How German media attention idealises female Ukrainian refugees

Antje Missbach, Lesley Pruitt

According to the latest available data, around 3.7 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, while nearly 6.5 million have registered as..

May 14, 2024

conversation Article

Indigenous knowledge has the power to help address the climate crisis

Kirsten Clark, Barry Judd, Adrian Little

The role of Indigenous knowledges in the climate crisis became a focal point of COP28, the United Nation’s climate change conference. At th..

December 14, 2023

pursuit Article

Opening the flood gates at Fukushima

Sarah Hachman, Tilman Ruff AO

The Japanese government intends to discharge all 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, an ope..

August 28, 2023

pursuit Article

Support Our Research

Please contact us at the details below if you would like to learn more about supporting the Initiative for Peacebuilding.

Contact Us

Emailpeace-team@unimelb.edu.au

The Initiative for Peacebuilding

The Initiative for Peacebuilding brings together multidisciplinary research, engagement, and education to advance peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the Indo-Pacific region.

Our Research

Researchers

Projects

Navigating the Tides of Change

Singing Indigenous Languages Collective: Connecting Communities Through Song Creation Across Australia

Inclusive Arts for Children With Complex Disabilities

Building Durable Responses to Gender Inequality in Indonesia

Friends in Nature Casey: Cultivating Connection and Belonging Through Living Labs

Research Impetus Grant

Understanding Social Participation and Inclusion in Jurisdictional Approaches to Sustainable Environmental Management\202F

The Art and Soul of Dialogue: Establishing Evidence-Based Approaches to Difficult Conversations Through Creative Music-Making

INT 1400 Evaluating Outcomes and Impacts of Community Mental Health Services in Australia

Myanmar Humanitarian Aid Research Initiative

Scholarly Works

Security Through Sustainable Peace: Australian International Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding

State Support for Peace Processes: A Multi-Country Review

Effectiveness of a nature-based social prescribing intervention on loneliness and health-related quality of life among vulnerable urban adults (RECETAS-BCN): an observer-blinded randomised controlled trial

Strategy amidst indifference: Australia and the Indian Ocean Islands, 1803–2025

Neighbours: Australia and the Pacific

Search for security: AUKUS and the new militarism

Harms and Negative or Unintended Consequences of Social Prescribing: A Scoping Review

Effects of Nature-based Group Intervention on Cognition and Nature Connectedness Among Lonely Older Adults Living in Assisted Living Facilities—Secondary Analyses of an RCT

Revisiting the Anti-Zionism of Sir Isaac Isaacs, Australia's First Native-Born Governor-General—and a Jew

Reimagining Health Care and Social Connection with Asylum Seekers and Refugees through Contextually Grounded Nature-Based Social Interventions

News

When we took 37 strangers into the urban bush, their loneliness began to ease

Health-care workers should not be a target. In Gaza, their detention and death affect the entire population

Q&A: What the fall of Assad means for Syria

What came out of the Samoa CHOGM

Is the UN’s Pact for the Future a breakdown or a breakthrough?

Episode 1: The threat to our global public institutions

‘The more you tell a story, the stronger the story becomes’

How German media attention idealises female Ukrainian refugees

Indigenous knowledge has the power to help address the climate crisis

Opening the flood gates at Fukushima

Support Our Research

Contact Us

Acknowledgement of Country