Search results

"This path-breaking book uncovers the important, under-appreciated role of armed opposition groups turned political parties in shaping long-term patterns of politics after war. Based on an empirically grounded and theoretically informed retrospective on nearly thirty years of post-conflict democratic state-building efforts, it examines whether this practice has contributed to peace and finds that engaging post-rebel parties in electoral politics has proven to be a viable long-term strategy for bringing political stability, that disparate post-rebel parties from different political contexts invest heavily in electoral politics and that few post-rebel parties actively seek return to civil conflict as a solution after becoming a political party. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in democracy, governance, elections, political parties, post-conflict peacebuilding, and more broadly to international relations, comparative politics, and regional politics"--

Over the two decades since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, peacebuilding interventions around the globe have increasingly incorporated gender perspectives. These initiatives have used both development programs and gender mainstreaming to advance women's empowerment, with the aim of making peacebuilding more effective as well as building more stable societies and efficient economies. This goal has been manifested in a wide range of programs and projects-or "gender interventions" - including economic empowerment measures, gender quotas, gender-responsive budgeting, and legal reforms. Yet, the results have been uneven, provoking a sizable debate among scholars and practitioners seeking to explain the shortcomings and improve the outcomes.In Building Peace, Rebuilding Patriarchy, Melissa Johnston explains why gender interventions often fail to help those who most need them, using the case of Timor-Leste, a country subjected to high levels of peacebuilding and gender interventions between 1999 and 2017. Looking at three types of gender interventions - gender-responsive budgeting, the law against domestic violence, and microfinance initiatives - Johnston argues that these reforms have produced mixed results because they reinscribe entrenched class and gender hierarchies in their implementation. Focusing on the connection between politics, economics, and gender, Johnston identifies the emergence of an elite class coalition, built on kinship and gender order in Timor-Leste as the root of the problem. Peacebuilders have made concessions to elites and violent men to keep the peace, a tendency amplified by "local turn" approaches to peacebuilding. As a result, deep inequalities remain and violence against women is endemic across the country. Compelling and insightful, Building Peace, Rebuilding Patriarchy makes the case that as peacebuilders seek to rebuild war-torn societies, understanding the intersection of social and gender order is more important than ever.

"This book adopts a comparative politics model in order to analyze and evaluate pressing issues in Guatemala, including a floundering economy, backsliding in the military's civilianization, retreats in state power and peacemaking commitments, autocratization, and the repression of social movements"--

Michael Thumann lebt in Moskau und berichtet seit über 25 Jahren aus Osteuropa für die ZEIT. Er legt nun ein atemberaubend geschriebenes Buch vor, das Russlands Absturz in eine zunehmend totalitäre Diktatur und den Weg in Putins imperialistischen Krieg aus nächster Nähe nachzeichnet. Das Motiv des Diktators und seiner Getreuen: Revanche zu nehmen für die demokratische Öffnung nach 1991 und die vermeintliche Demütigung durch den Westen. Putins Herrschaft radikalisiert sich weiter. Es ist das bedrohlichste Regime der Welt. "Anschaulich analysiert Thumann die Säulen von Putins Macht – das Justizsystem mit seinen politischen Urteilen und den Straflagern, das Staatsfernsehen, das den Hass auf den Westen, die Ukraine und alles Abweichende verbreitet sowie die Geschichtserzählungen von imperialer Größe. Es gehe Putin um Revanche für den Zerfall der Sowjetunion. Er sei zu jener imperialen Obsession zurückgekehrt, die Michail Gorbatschow beendet habe, so Thumann. Eine Obsession, die Putin zum Überfall auf die Ukraine führte. Wer die Vorgeschichte dieses Krieges besser verstehen will, sollte das Buch von Michael Thumann lesen" (taz). "1999 begegnete Michael Thumann Wladimir Putin zum ersten Mal bei einem Interview. Seitdem beobachtet der Osteuropa-Experte der ZEIT das Handeln des russischen Staatschefs. In seinem neuen Buch zeichnet er die Stationen der zunehmenden Eskalation nach, die im Krieg in der Ukraine münden. Putins Antrieb, laut Thumann: Rache für den Verlust der Sowjetunion" (Platz 10 der Sachbuch-Bestenliste für Mai 2023)

This book examines the possibilities and realities of promoting citizenship, peace, and reconciliation through schooling in divided and post conflict societies. With specific attention to the case of Northern Ireland and the Local and Global Citizenship (LGC) initiative, the book investigates the faltering progress to develop and teach school curricula aimed at promoting citizenship as well as peace, tolerance, and mutual understanding. Following an overview of the scholarship on citizenship education, the author provides a broad social and political historical context within which to understand the educational reforms and changes that have taken place in Northern Ireland, highlighting various education initiatives of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s that sought to foster understanding of "the other" and promote reconciliation. The book's focus then shifts to the implementation of LGC, which began in 2007. Despite initially strong political support and a considerable investment in terms of financial and human resources, LGC has had limited impact. The book analyzes the obstacles impeding its success, which include marginalization within the curriculum and competing conceptions of the purpose of education. A concluding chapter reflects upon what we can learn from LGC's implementation and highlights innovative recent initiatives to bring the young people of Northern Ireland together. This book will appeal to scholars and students of education studies with interests in citizenship education, peace studies, educational policy, and curricula and practice.

The frequent failure of military or armed interventions to protect civilians is well known. This edited collection provides a comprehensive account of a different, effective paradigm: unarmed civilian protection (UCP). The principles and methods of UCP have been used for many decades to protect both specific, threatened individuals as well as whole communities. Featuring contributions from around the world, this book brings together a wide range of UCP practices in order to examine their underlying theory and interrelated strategies.

This book examines the operational and political challenges facing UN peace operations deployed in countries where civil war and protracted violence have given rise to the complex and distinctive political economies of conflict. The volume explores the nature and impact of such political economies – informal systems of power and influence formed by the interaction of local, national, and region-wide war economies with the political agendas of conflict actors – on the course of UN peace operations. It focuses in detail on the UN's long-running peace operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Somalia. The book is centrally concerned with the interaction of UN missions with the power structures and local conflict dynamics that shape individual mission settings, and the challenges these pose for mediation, protection of civilians, and other tasks. It also offers a critical assessment of the various ways in which the UN 'system', from its headquarters in New York to the field, has confronted the policy challenges posed by political economies of conflict-affected states, societies, and regions. It advances a pragmatic set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the UN's ability to confront predatory and exploitative war economies. At the same time, the volume makes it clear that political and institutional obstacles to more effective UN action are certain to remain profound and are unlikely ever to be fully overcome let alone eradicated. Despite making some progress since the 1990s to better understand the political economy of civil wars, the UN has struggled with how to tackle informal networks of power and their consequences for efforts to end wars.

Persistent international conflicts, increasing inequality in many regions or the world, and acute environmental and climate-related threats to humanity call for a better understanding of the processes, actors and tools available to face the challenges of achieving global justice. This book offers a broad and multidisciplinary survey of global justice, bridging the gap between theory and practice by connecting conceptual frameworks with a panoply of case studies and an in-depth discussion of practical challenges. Connecting these critical aspects to larger moral and ethical debates is essential for thinking about large, abstract ideas and applying them directly to specific contexts. Core content includes: Key debates in global justice from across philosophy, postcolonial studies, political science, sociology and criminology The origins of global justice and the development of the human rights agenda; peacekeeping and post-conflict studies Global poverty and sustainable development Global security and transnational crime Environmental justice, public health and well-being Rather than providing a blueprint for the practice of global justice, this text problematizes efforts to cope with many justice related issues. The pedagogical approach is designed to map the difficulties that exist between theory and praxis, encourage critical thinking and fuel debates to help seek alternative solutions. Bringing together perspectives from a wealth of disciplines, this book is essential reading for courses on global justice across criminology, sociology, political science, anthropology, philosophy and law.

Can war be justified? Pacifists answer that it cannot; they oppose war and advocate for nonviolent alternatives to war. But defenders of just war theory argue that in some circumstances, when the effectiveness of nonviolence is limited, wars can be justified. In this book, two philosophers debate this question, drawing on contemporary scholarship and new developments in thinking about pacifism and just war theory. Andrew Fiala defends the pacifist position, while Jennifer Kling defends just war traditions. Fiala argues that pacifism follows from the awful reality of war and the nonviolent goal of building a more just and peaceful world. Kling argues that war is sometimes justified when it is a last-ditch, necessary effort to defend people and their communities from utter destruction and death. Pulling from global traditions and histories, their debate will captivate anyone who has wondered or worried about the morality of political violence and military force. Topics discussed include ethical questions of self-defense and other-defense, the great analogy between individuals and states, evolving technologies and methods of warfighting, moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, broader political and communal issues, and the problem of regional security in a globalizing world. The authors consider cultural and religious issues as well as the fundamental question of moral obligation in a world saturated in military conflict. The book was written in the aftermath of the war on terrorism and includes reflection on lessons learned from the past decades of war, as well as hopes for the future in light of emerging threats in Europe and elsewhere. The book is organized in a user-friendly fashion. Each author presents a self-contained argument, which is followed by a series of responses, replies, and counter-arguments. Throughout, the authors model civil discourse by emphasizing points of agreement and remaining areas of disagreement.

The end of the Cold War was an opportunity – our inability to seize it has led to today's renewed era of great power competition. 1989 heralded a unique prospect for an enduring global peace, as harsh ideological divisions and conflicts began to be resolved. Now, three decades on, that peace has been lost. With war in Ukraine and increasing tensions between China, Russia, and the West, great power politics once again dominates the world stage. But could it have been different? Richard Sakwa shows how the years before the first mass invasion of Ukraine represented a hiatus in conflict rather than a lasting accord – and how, since then, we have been in a 'Second Cold War'. Tracing the mistakes on both sides that led to the current crisis, Sakwa considers the resurgence of China and Russia and the disruptions and ambitions of the liberal order that opened up catastrophic new lines of conflict.

Intro -- About This Book -- Contents -- About the Author -- List of Figures -- 1 Introduction: What Is Network Diplomacy? -- References -- 2 Theoretical Analysis and Implications of Network Diplomacy Concept -- Concepts of Diplomacy: From the Club to Network Approach -- Diplomacy: An Ever-Evolving Tool -- Debate Over Semantics -- The Origins of Network Diplomacy -- Between Realism and Liberalism: A Theoretical Overview of Network Diplomacy -- Importance of Network Diplomacy in Multilateral Decision-Making -- Rethinking Network Diplomacy -- Conclusion -- References -- 3 Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Russia's Network Diplomacy -- The System of Transmitters in Russia's Foreign Policy -- Vertical Structures -- Horizontal Structures -- Russian GONGOs of Network Diplomacy: Horizontal and Vertical Relations with Relevant Departments and NGOs -- Examples of Russian International NGOs Include Relations with GONGOs and Relevant Agencies -- Dimensions of Russian Network Diplomacy: Horizontal and Vertical -- Conclusions -- References -- 4 China and US Network and Public Diplomacy -- Public Diplomacy and Network Diplomacy: Analysis -- Example Case Studies of Network and Public Diplomacy -- Network and Public Diplomacy in the People's Republic of China -- Public Diplomacy Tools -- Network and Public Diplomacy in the United States -- US Network Diplomacy Capacity -- US Public Diplomacy Tools -- Current Issues Facing US Network and Public Diplomacy -- Conclusion -- References -- 5 Problems and Prospects of Network Diplomacy in the Twenty-First Century -- Problem №1: States Are Losing Sovereignty in Decision-Making Process -- Problem №2: Excessive Bureaucratization -- Problem №3: Clashing Values and Goals -- Problem № 4: Progress in the Development of Information Technology as a Challenge to the Network Diplomacy.