Suchergebnisse

This paper offers a critical account of the amnesty programme introduced by the Nigerian state in 2009. It examines the impact and limitations of the amnesty as an instrument of peacebuilding, and emphasises the need for wider reforms that address underdevelopment and poverty in the Niger Delta region. The paper argues that the amnesty programme is a laudable effort but is by no means a silver bullet. It is better understood as a specific response to a resource-driven conflict that requires a broader, comprehensive resolution.

Perceptions of peace and conflict differ among various actors. Exploring them can enhance our understanding of meanings that international and local actors ascribe to a conflict, and what strategies are chosen to respond to it. Drawing on academic literature and empirical data gathered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article analyses how perceptions of the conflict in the DRC influenced the different local and international peacebuilding strategies and the outcomes of their interaction. The international community's priority was the restoration of the state because they saw the conflict as a breakdown of authority at the national level. The liberal state that the international community had foreseen was however hybridized with local authority structures in the course of its interaction with local perceptions and experiences. At the same time, international strategies eschewed or only belatedly included local priorities, such as reconciliation between antagonistic communities and land conflicts. The article thus argues that the interplay of priorities -- the space where friction occurs -- remains dominated by international actors. As a consequence, it suggests exploring more carefully and pragmatically the potential intermediary role that local peacebuilding actors can play in rendering international strategies more relevant at the local level. Adapted from the source document.

What leads peacekeeping forces to secure the support of the people they serve? This paper answers this question by examining public support for MINUSTAH, the peacekeeping force currently deployed in Haiti. Our analysis of public opinion data finds that in Haiti, peacekeepers have not fared much better than most domestic institutions in terms of legitimacy. We find that both before and after the 2010 earthquake, public support for peacekeepers trailed the low levels of support for domestic institutions. To understand why MINUSTAH has struggled to earn the support of the people it serves, we examine public evaluations of the peacekeeping mission and identify the determinants of support for peacekeepers, focusing in particular on the role of service provision in predicting people's support for MINUSTAH.

Alternative Perspectives on African Peacekeeping / Thierry Tardy ; Marco Wyss 171-177 . - When They Overstay Their Welcome: UN Peacekeepers in Africa / Denis M. Tull 179-200 . - Protecting Civilians in Africa: The Risks of Issue-Linkage between RtoP and Peacekeeping / Thierry Tardy 201-221 . - Fighting for Peace in Somalia: AMISOM's Seven Strategic Challenges / Paul D. Williams 222-247 . - From Strategic Adjustment to Normative Learning? Understanding China's Peacekeeping Efforts in Africa / Chin-Hao Huang 248-271 . - Brazil's Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Policies in Africa / Kai Michael Kenkel 272-292 . - 'Bending the Rules': The Space between HQ Policy and Local Action in UN Civilian Peacekeeping / Diana Felix da Costa ; John Karlsrud 293-312 . - Civil Non-State Actors in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding in West Africa / Abu Bakarr Bah 313-336 . - From Rhetoric to Reality: A Pragmatic Analysis of the Integration of Women into UN Peacekeeping Operations / Julia Bleckner 337-360 . - Navigating the Complexity of HIV/AIDS in African Peacekeeping Missions: Challenges and Prospects / Ayodele Akenroye 361-384

In recent years, the peacebuilding and development fields have witnessed an upsurge of interest in the concept and practice of hybridity (Boege et. al 2009; Hoglund and Orjuela 2012). This special issue seeks to provide a state-of-the-art account of the utility of the concept, with case studies illustrating how hybridity can be used as a lens through which to understand peacebuilding and development contexts.

This article highlights the gap between institutional approaches to peacebuilding – which narrowly focus on post-conflict reconstruction of formal state institutions – and the lived experiences of grassroots peacebuilders. It analyses the documented stories of participants in the Women PeaceMakers1Program at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego, demonstrating that peacebuilding does not occur simply after conflict, but at all phases of peace processes. The article and its three case studies – developed with three women peacemakers from the Philippines, Guatemala and South Africa – contend that this expands and deepens the practical and academic definitions of peacebuilding. Without this evolved understanding of the concept, women's actions to build peace will continue to be overlooked and underfunded.

This special issue critically interrogates the current practices of international 'peacebuilding interventions' and 'peace missions' to highlight the violence that inheres in their attempts to enforce socio-economic and political changes (such as regime change) from the 'outside'. As in the Latin adage: 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' ('if you wish for peace, prepare for war') the starting point of this special issue was the basic observation that these interventions and missions have little to do with peace but, rather, are violent from their outset. By combining conceptual analysis with case study articles, we hope that this special issue contributes to the on-going debate about how something normatively desirable -- 'building peace' -- has turned out so badly. Adapted from the source document.

Financing for peacebuilding has increased significantly and there are signs that it may continue to grow in the next few years. However, aid for peacebuilding is also characterised by problematic trends, including the existence of 'aid orphans', and volatility and delays of allocations. In order to reverse these trends and sustain higher levels of financing for peacebuilding, a broader concept of aid effectiveness is required that is better adapted to countries affected by conflict and fragility. Much of the debate has been focused on the advantages of pooled funds, but there is a need for a mix of aid instruments to achieve aid effectiveness.

The post-Cold War trend towards the privatization of some of the security and military functions of post-conflict and conflict operations conducted by states is extending to peacekeeping operations undertaken by the UN and other organizations. This article examines the policies behind the increased use of private military and security contractors (PMSCs) in peacekeeping, considers the obstacles to accountability and responsibility caused by this development, and suggests ways of overcoming these obstacles to provide remedies for victims of human rights abuse at the hands of such contractors.

A key purpose of this article is to contribute to the development of a United Nations detention policy by examining two issues: (1) the definition of detention; and (2) the categorisation of detainees. This article examines the practice of United Nations peacekeepers taking and handling detainees and in that context develops a definition of detention that focuses on the nexus between the deprivation of an individual's liberty and their consent in relation to that deprivation. The practice of United Nations peacekeepers suggests that there are at least two categories of detainees – those that are detained because they are suspected criminals, and those detained because they are considered a security threat to the operation.

Both because the United Nations (UN) spectacularly failed in Rwanda and because of the close links between the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the continuing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) – formerly the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) – constitutes an important test-case for UN peacekeeping. However, since MONUSCO is ongoing, it is too early to assess whether or not it has passed this test. This article, however, focuses on a particular issue that may ultimately cause the mission to fail, namely contradictions within its ever-expanding mandate. It argues that MONUSCO itself is helping to fuel these tensions through its flawed approach to one of the key components of its mandate, namely DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration) and DDRRR (disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration). It thus suggests how MONUSCO might revise its approach to these processes, particularly through a more 'bottom-up' focus that engages directly with local communities and with former combatants as individuals.