Leaders navigating their group away from an intractable conflict confront real and conceptual duality during the crucial stage of peace processes. This article offers a brief sociopsychological ...conceptualization of peace processes and of the role leaders play in this context in addressing deprived security and control needs, adapting collective beliefs and emotions, and mobilizing the group and coping with social polarization. Using the Northern Ireland peace process as a case study, it analyzes how leaders undertake these tasks. Based on a qualitative content analysis of speeches made by the leaders of both sides, we elucidate the distinctive themes used by Gerry Adams and David Trimble. The findings indicate the importance these leaders attached to addressing and being attentive to the needs and values of their group while taking divergent paths. Implications for sociopsychological aspects of conflict resolution and leadership are discussed.
The process of implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Bosnia has come to a halt. Particularly since 2006, nationalist rhetoric has increased, political, economic, and social reforms have ...stalled, and some analysts warn that the country might be sliding towards collapse. This article traces the roots of the current crisis in the 2006 failed constitutional reform attempt, which has highlighted the precarious state of the Bosnian political situation and, more broadly, in the limited impact of the international community's illiberal, top-down strategies employed in the country since almost the beginning of the peace process. It concludes by suggesting the need for a new approach, led by the European Union, and aimed at reviving the domestic political process.
The myth of the democratic peacekeeper: civil-military relations and the United Nations. By Arturo C. Sotomayor. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. 280 pp Reprinted by permission of ...Blackwell Publishers
Can sports-and if so how-serve as a vehicle for reconciliation and increased social cohesion in countries wrecked by civil conflict? This article analyses the case of South Africa and its experiences ...in the sports sector since the fall of apartheid, in an effort to explore the processes necessary to understand the potential sports may hold for peace building. By identifying initiatives in South Africa employed at the national, community and individual level of analysis, the article outlines the possible effects of sports on reconciliation in divided states. Through linking experiences from state policies, ngo activities and donor projects with social identity and reconciliation theory, the article outlines the possible positive and negative aspects of sports. Finally, important avenues for further research to uncover how to turn sports into effective political tools for post-conflict peace building are suggested.
The Philippines in 2011 De Castro, Renato Cruz
Asian survey,
01/2012, Letnik:
52, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Early this year, a majority of Filipinos indicated in a national survey that they are not sure if Benigno Aquino, III, will succeed or fail in his presidency. This uncertainty stems from his ...unconventional style of governance and the gravity of the domestic and international problems he faces. Moreover, his style of governance is generally perceived by the Filipinos as reactive and lackluster—a fact attributed to his first year in office, a difficult period of learning and adjustment.
The killing of thirteen Arabs by Israeli police forces in October 2000 points to the mounting tension and hostility between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Encounter and coexistence programs constitute one ...of the few channels for the development of communication, trust, and genuine understanding of the complex Arab‐Jewish reality in Israel. Thus, it is essential that these encounters be examined and professionally developed to respond to the needs of the two communities. This article examines certain shortcomings of these encounter programs and provides suggestions to improve their efficacy. The conclusions are based on an earlier empirical study conducted between 1992 and 1998, which investigated six encounter programs, and on a series of interviews with Arab‐Jewish facilitators conducted in 2001.
This article explores the representation of the Kurdish issue in Turkey's media. It does so by focusing on four newspapers that are representative of different ideological stances and economic ...relations with the Turkish government. The time period is during two key events: the Kobanî protests in 2014 and the elections in 2015. The research findings indicate that the media's framing of the armed conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK is a contested discursive site; one determined not only by ideological affiliation but also by the relative politico-economic autonomy of the media institutions from the central political power.
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