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This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.5, issue 1 (January 2006) ; Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

In this article, I examine the contradictions and tensions in Colombia's simultaneous embrace of REDD+ and a peace-building process premised on continued extractivism. Colombia is emerging from an internal conflict that lasted more than 50 years. In this process rural land-use is being transformed, generating new conflicts over land use and control with detrimental effects on Colombia's forests. Based on official documents, reports, existing scholarly work, interviews and observations collected during fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon, I analyze the ways in which peace-building and post-conflict transition have precipitated factors which have aggravated land conflicts and led to the escalation of deforestation in Colombia. I argue that Colombia's current REDD+ efforts mainly serve to attract international funding and legitimize the status quo since they remain disconnected from the structural processes that directly and indirectly drive deforestation. As such, REDD+ in Colombia contributes to a contradictory neoliberal approach to development, which promises to safeguard the environment, while supporting large-scale extractive industries, mining, cattle ranching and intensive agriculture, resulting in the increase in deforestation and forest degradation.Key Words: Colombia, post-conflict, peace-building, extractivism, deforestation, REDD+

In the early 2000s, Liberian women wearing wrap skirts and white T-shirts, shouting: 'We want peace, no more war', attracted international attention. After almost fifteen years of civil war, the enduring active, multifaceted, and non-violent campaigning for peace by women's organisations contributed to the end of the fighting and the signing of a peace agreement between the warring factions. Although it is widely assumed that women's inclusion in peace processes yields greater attention to women's issues and needs in the aftermath of a conflict, this is only partly the case in Liberia. Thus, this analysis looks beyond the extraordinary commitment by women in Liberia and deals with the questions to what extent their role in the peace process has contributed to gender-sensitive outcomes in post-conflict Liberian society and why greater gender sensitivity was not achieved. By focusing on manifestations of patterns of masculinity in the public and private spheres, Anne Theobald identifies factors at different levels of analysis within different time frames that elucidate the unexpected outcome. Not only does this provide for a more encompassing understanding of dynamics of gender relations and context-specific variables impeding gender sensitivity in post-conflict settings, but it also helps to refine prevailing theoretical approaches on gender in peacemaking and peacebuilding and to develop more holistic, context-specific, and efficient policy approaches, which can effectively lead to gender-sensitive peace

How can legitimate and sustainable states best be established in the aftermath of civil wars? And what role should international actors play in supporting the vital process? Addressing these questions, the authors of Building States to Peace explore the core challenges involved in institutionalizing postconflict states. The combination of thematic chapters and in-depth case studies covers the full range of the most vexing and diverse problems confronting domestic and international actors seeking to build states while building peace.

How to create a better world with less violence and war by institutionalising peace at many levels of society. Vijay Mehta shows how the establishment of Departments of Peace and Peace Centres worldwide will result in saving of trillions of US dollars which governments can utilise in jobs creation, healthcare, education and peace building.

2015 Spring. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Representative testimony is showcased from four living women Nobel Peace Prize laureates from a multitude of public texts, presentations, and interviews that document their voices and experiences to advance international peacebuilding. Critical feminist theory and critical literacy theory provide the theoretical framework to support my cross-case study. Mindful inquiry and appreciative inquiry are also employed as methods. Thematic findings include both an individual case study and a cross-case study presentation, which showcased two themes for each participant. The cross-case study findings reveal four predominant themes; 1) having access, power, and a platform as Nobel Peace Prize laureates, 2) social justice identity construction, 3) non-violent action, and 4) promoting a strategy of hope. The implications of my research highlight the importance of including women's voices in international peacebuilding and how their political leadership and activism promote human rights and democracy for all people. Recommendations for future research include greater gender equality in language construction and in fostering political peacebuilding leadership roles. Understanding how to replicate the exceptional qualities embodied by these four women is key in advancing future such leaders.

This study critically examines the range of policies and programmes that attempt to manage economic activity that contributes to political violence. Beginning with an overview of over a dozen policies aimed at transforming these activities into economic relationships which support peace, not war, the book then offers a sustained critique of the reasons for limited success in this policy field

The myths of peace and democracy in Africa are at the heart of this volume. Democracy and peace have become buzz words across postcolonial Africa. The gospel of democracy and peace is preached by national governments and by civil society and international organisations alike. But to what extent are the ongoing sideshows and charades of quasi-oligarchies in Africa really democracy? What do ordinary Africans mean when they hunger and thirst for democracy and peace? Positive and noble as the loud sounding rhetoric about democracy and peace in Africa might seem, the reality of propaganda and dissemblance and of multi-dimensional violence are simply too overwhelming not to be disillusioning. This book interrogates the rampant violence, enduring conflicts, autocratic governance, and facades of democracy amidst claims and calls for enduring peace on the continent. This is a monumental resource book for human rights activists, conflict management practitioners, civil society activists, political scientists, statesmen and development practitioners. It poses a challenge to those African governments who claim to embrace principles of democracy and respect for human rights to rethink and reconsider their role as ambassadors of peace, hope, transformation, and good governance.

This book argues that we can capitalize on the tolerance of ambiguity-enhancing potentialities inherent in visual images -- their non-coherence -- and thus increase our capability of tolerating ambiguities. Studying international relations equals studying ambiguity. The international system is complex, and where there is complexity, there is also ambiguity. Crucially, in a world saturated not only with ambiguities but also with visual images, it is mandatory to think ambiguity and visuality together. The authors analyze the constructive and peaceful potentialities of ambiguities through an exploration of journalistic imagery in the context of post-war Bosnia and post-siege Sarajevo. The book is a theoretically sophisticated, yet accessible, and politically relevant exercise in inter-disciplinary thinking, uniquely combining literature on complexity, ambiguity and visuality thus offering important readings for international relations, peace and conflict research, and security studies.