The case of the Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó (San José de Apartadó Peace Community) in the Urabá region of Antioquia, Colombia—a geostrategic territory disputed by various actors in ...conflict—calls attention to the importance of the transformation and handling of social and political conflicts and building a culture of peace.
El caso de la Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó en la región de Urabá en Antioquia, Colombia, un territorio geoestratégico disputado por diversos actores en conflicto, nos remite a la importancia de la transformación y manejo de los conflictos sociales y políticos, así como la construcción de una cultura de paz.
Do democratic dyads handle their disputes more peacefully than non-democratic dyads, or have they cleared the most contentious issues (that is, unsettled borders) off their foreign policy agenda ...before becoming democratic? This study compares the conflicting answers of the democratic peace and the territorial peace and examines the empirical record to see which is more accurate. It finds that almost all contiguous dyads settle their borders before they become joint democracies. Furthermore, the majority of non-contiguous dyad members also settle their borders with all neighboring states before their non-contiguous dyad becomes jointly democratic. Such findings are consistent with the theoretical expectations of the territorial peace, rather than the democratic peace. They also weaken a core argument of the democratic peace, for this analysis finds that one reason democratic dyads may handle their disputes more peacefully than non-democratic dyads is not because of their institutions or norms, but rather because they have dispensed with the disputes most likely to involve the use of military force prior to becoming democratic.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) not only distrusted, but also feared, the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s assertion to be peace-loving. The reason was that the PRC ...used its peacefulness claim to negotiate whether the ROC or the PRC should represent 'China' in the United Nations, based on a specific definition of 'peacefulness' and on the socialist World Peace Movement as a platform of public diplomacy and international networking. This explains a function of the PRC's peacefulness claim in the Cold War and rewrites the chronology of the PRC's gradual United Nations entry.
How is the Women, Peace and Security agenda enacted in local contexts? In the post-conflict landscape of Iraq, women are not just receiving frameworks, but working in varied sites of political ...activity and contestation. The article brings attention to the importance of space and scale in how international policies are enacted.
Abstract
While space, positionality, hierarchy and location have been central undercurrents to understanding women's participation and uptake of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, there has been little conceptual clarity about how these dynamics play out in post-conflict settings, nor on the impact that this has on women's civil society networks in these locations. In turn, this silence depoliticizes, decontextualizes and flattens the complex and diverse uses of the WPS agenda in post-conflict settings, as well as the diverse civil society arrangements underpinning this activity. This article makes the issue of space and its political nature central (captured through the use of the ‘politics of scale’), with reference to Iraq as a context for unpacking these dynamics. I explore how Iraqi women participate across different scalar contexts linked to the WPS agenda, and navigate exclusions and opportunities within and across them. Drawing on interviews, speeches and policy material from Iraqi women's organizations and their international partners, I argue that grasping how hierarchies related to scale, identity, resourcing and positionality are reproduced in local and national contexts is vital to understanding the uptake and rewriting of the WPS agenda in post-conflict settings. Further, I explore how Iraqi women's organizations are responding to openings and attempting to challenge the spatial arrangements within and across the different scales they work and participate in.
This article examines competing claims to political legitimacy and sovereignty in Myanmar's conflict-affected areas of "limited statehood." In the context of ceasefires and an emerging peace process ...since 2012, non-state-controlled "liberated zones" and areas of mixed insurgent and government authority constitute new political spaces, where multiple state and para-state actors demonstrate governance authority, extract resources and provide services to local communities. This article explores the dynamics and implications of these developments with reference to the emerging literatures on "rebel rulers" and "hybrid governance," and examines the practices of donors and aid agencies operating in these areas. I argue that external actors seeking to "think and work politically" should move beyond standard peace-building and development packages based on strengthening the state, and adopt more conflict and context-sensitive approaches. Effective state building should take account of governance structures and service delivery functions established by ethnic armed organisations, which although under-resourced enjoy significant political legitimacy.
This forum reflects upon the current state of research on post-conflict natural resource management. It identifies two dominant perspectives on environmental peacebuilding in the literature: one ...focused on environmental cooperation, the other on resource risk. Both perspectives share a concern for the sustainable management of natural resources in post-conflict settings and prescribe environmental cooperation at large as a means to foster peace and stability. Yet both perspectives also feature notable differences: The cooperation perspective is driven by a faith in the potential of environmental cooperation to contribute to long-term peace through spillover effects. The resource risk perspective, however, recognizes that resource-induced instability may arise after intrastate conflict; stressing the need to mitigate instability by implementing environmental cooperation initiatives. Despite the significant contributions of both perspectives, neither has provided any cohesive theoretical understanding of environmental peacebuilding. This article suggests a timely revision of the research agenda to address this gap.
Existing research on war and peace lacks analysis of what allows peace-building to succeed at the subnational level. Instead, most scholars focus on peacebuilding failure and macro-level dynamics. ...This is unfortunate because the obstacles to peacebuilding are such that the most puzzling question is why international efforts sometimes succeed, rather than why they fail. The lack of focus on success is also problematic because it results in ambiguous findings. On the one hand, there is an emerging consensus that local conflict resolution is crucial to building peace. There is also an agreement that, all else being equal, international support tends to increase the chances of successful peacebuilding. On the other hand, when international actors have tried to back local initiatives, they have often generated counterproductive consequences and worsened the situation. Should international actors support local peacebuilding processes? If so, how can they actually do this? Drawing on in-depth interviews, field and participant observations in nine different conflict zones, and document analysis, this article takes the first step in explaining whether, how, why, and under what conditions international interveners (including donors, diplomats, peacekeepers, and the foreign staff of international and non-governmental organizations) can contribute to successful local and bottom-up peace efforts. It makes three central contributions. First, it shows that the policy and scholarly literatures suffer from a dearth of findings on successful international support to local conflict resolution. Second, it emphasizes the critical—and under-researched—role of assumptions in shaping peacebuilding initiatives. Third, it develops a theoretical framework to analyze how assumptions influence international peace efforts. By way of illustration, the article analyzes three widespread assumptions about peacebuilding and the role of peacebuilders. In each case, it challenges assumptions that international interveners take for granted but that are actually unfounded and detrimental, while identifying assumptions that promote peacebuilding effectiveness.
As of June 2021, the pandemic has killed over four million people and continues to impact healthcare systems, the economy and governance. Though the pandemic has affected all world regions, it has ...significantly impacted the most impoverished and vulnerable. The COVID-19 outbreak forced peace and security actors to quickly adapt to a ‘new normal’ and reorganize their work to continue operating in this new context. Some of the sudden adopted changes initially meant to be temporary seem to be destined to remain in place and have the potential to reshape the sector in the medium to long term. The COVID-19 health crisis has a direct impact on many aspects of the civil dimension of security especially on human security, health security, food security and economic security. The economic and political implications of the pandemic will ripple through the world for years. The pandemic is raising geopolitical tensions, and great powers are jockeying for advantage and influence. States are struggling to cooperate and in some cases are undermining cooperation to respond to the pandemic and its economic fallout. The post-coronavirus world could be a world of intensified nationalist rivalries on the economic revival and political influence. However, strengthening cooperation among nations at different levels will lead to the growth of health, economy, and security. While much remains uncertain, it is clear COVID-19 is both a multidimensional crisis and an opportunity for change.
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