What Makes Peacebuilding Possible?

In a talk he gave on campus during Reunion weekend in May, Assistant Professor of Government Cheng Xu noted that “so much of what we research, what we choose to look at, is informed by our life experiences.”

In Xu’s case, that includes a nearly 10-year stint as an infantry officer and paratrooper in the Canadian Army.

“I never thought that I would become an academic,” says Xu, whose mother left China in the 1990s to settle in Canada after having separated from his father.

At the Royal Military College of Canada “I struggled at first with finding my footing,” Xu says. “But then the politics classes clicked with me. And by my sophomore year, I’d developed a strong interest in research and writing.”

Xu’s Reunion lecture, “The Rebel's Bargain: Informal Norms, Local Customs, and the Folk Practices of Conflict Management,” grew out of his research on rebel groups in the Philippines, and prospects for peacebuilding in the face of insurgency and state political violence.

Xu, who earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Toronto, is currently working on a book about peace agreements between the Philippine government and rebel forces. Fighting has gone on for decades with insurgencies led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, and Islamic separatists.

“I have talked to people on both sides, and these peace talks all have different trajectories,” he says. “I’ve found that a successful process has to do with the internal dynamics within these groups, and also the composition of who is doing the negotiating.”

At Smith this fall, Xu will be teaching a course on the government and politics of Southeast Asia, and a seminar class on insurgencies and civil wars.

In a recent interview, he shared some thoughts about his journey as a scholar, and his work at Smith.

How did you make the transition from military service to academia?
“Issues of peacekeeping were such a core aspect of the Canadian military during the time I served that they became part of my identity too. I took a year to earn a master’s in global development studies at Queens University, and then went back and served out the rest of my term in the Army. The whole time, I was thinking about how much I wanted to get back into doing research. When events happened that I described in my Reunion talk—the kidnapping of a friend’s father by Philippine rebels—those research skills and questions became very personal to me. I knew then that this was going to be my next chapter.”

What key lessons have you drawn from your research on civil wars and insurgencies?
“One is that there is so much more working against peace agreements than working for them—even when both sides want to stop fighting. There are issues of trust, credibility, information, and organization that have to be addressed.”

Is there a successful formula for achieving peace?
“I hesitate to call it a formula, but it is easier to come to an agreement when the groups doing the negotiating are smaller, more local, and there is less expectation of military victory. So, indigenous groups in the Philippines want their rights, but don’t necessarily want to overthrow the government. The Communist Party of the Philippines, on the other hand, wants that overthrow. And each side in a negotiation has to have a united front so the process has credibility. When there are factions and divisions, that’s more difficult.”

Before coming to Smith, you worked as a senior policy analyst in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs advancing a “feminist foreign policy.” What did that involve?
“Canada was a signatory to the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda. Countries were developing National Action Plans and foreign assistance was supposed to take a feminist lens [to better meet women’s needs]. My job was in strategic policy and I’m very proud of the work we did in drafting the white paper on Canada’s feminist foreign policy that extended beyond Women, Peace and Security and international assistance to all aspects of our international engagement. It was a great effort. Unfortunately, the policy paper was never published. There was a global backlash against feminism, and wars in Gaza and Ukraine meant the effort had to take a back seat.”

What drew you to Smith?
“Being on campus felt familiar to me because the college I attended was also small, with students living in houses. Also, although I wasn’t very good at literature classes in college, I had taken a particular liking to the work of Sylvia Plath. Her writing stuck with me. My focus on Southeast Asia also felt serendipitous because the Smith government department was looking to fill that spot. Everything just seemed to come full circle.”

How do your Smith students react to hearing about your time in the military?
“I know that for some, the military is entwined with difficult ethical questions. I have found students are much more curious than judgmental. You really can’t use a quick hand to determine what a person’s politics are, based on whether they are in the military. When I do sometimes get pushback, I say, ‘Don’t you want people who have strong moral views to be in these positions?’”  

What keeps you hopeful?
“Smith students do not take learning for granted. Students come to Smith because they’ve done their research, and they’ve decided this is the place for them. Being here has reinvigorated my love for teaching and revived my faith in higher education. If we send these students out into the world, I know we’ll be OK.”