The ICCCR has been awarded $129,844 by the United States Institute of Peace to fund a proposal submitted to the 2012 Annual Grant Competition to conduct research on the key elements that could enhance or threaten the sustainability of recent sociopolitical developments in Myanmar, particularly with respect to national reconciliation. Under the leadership of the ICCCR’s Director, Dr. Peter T. Coleman, and SIPA graduates Josefine Roos and Stephen Gray, the research team will be using Dynamical Systems Theory (DST) in the context of conflict, an approach pioneered at Columbia University. DST provides powerful tools to characterize complex systems and identify the factors that shape them and influence their degree of stability. The value of this methodology is that researchers and participants can envision not just how positive change can be achieved, but how it can be sustained, expanded and stabilized over time.The project will combine applied research, training and advisory activities, working with the Myanmar-based International Peace Support Group and the Myanmar Peace Centre in Yangon. Activities will include a needs assessment of international and domestic peacebuilding capacity, peacebuilding training for local stakeholders, assessment of Myanmar's conflicts that will result in recommendations for effective peacebuilding interventions, and advisory work with international actors (development, peacebuilding, government and business investors) to ensure conflict-sensitivity and the efficacy of peacebuilding interventions.