Suchergebnisse

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In 2014, mass civil disobedience in Guatemala effectively resisted government and corporate efforts to nationally legalize the patenting of genetically modified seeds. This paper examines the dynamics of seed patenting, with attention to the corporate interests and actions that propagate this trend and to the externalities that fall upon civilians and their cultural, economic and food security rights. Next, the paper examines the risks posed specifically to Guatemalan civilian and indigenous concerns when the government passed a decree to legalize seed patenting. This event is examined through the political and economic histories that influenced this conflict and the civilian interests that were threatened, specifically regarding the dynamics of the dietarily and culturally essential maize plant. Finally, the paper examines the strategies and organizations that effectively abolished the decree, emphasizing the potential of civilian disobedience in protecting civil rights. ; Peer reviewed

The indigenous people of West Papua have contested their controversial annexation by Indonesia since 1969. In response, the Indonesian military (TNI) has launched a series of counterinsurgency operations to defeat the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPN-PB) while simultaneously trying to inculcate a sense of Indonesian nationalism among West Papuan civilians. To obtain legitimacy and achieve success, counterinsurgency operations must gain the support of civil society. This article examines the TNI's on-going counterinsurgency campaign in the West Papuan highlands regency of Nduga. Since late 2018, the TNI has been unsuccessful in winning over civil society to its objectives in Nduga. Instead of cultivating good relationships with Nduga civil society by respecting property and local culture, the military has used indiscriminate violence against Nduga citizens and added to their history of collective trauma. In this article, we argue that through acts of non-cooperation such as internal migration/ displacement, disobedience and resistance, the people of Nduga have defied the TNI and undermined its counterinsurgency efforts. We conclude that the counterinsurgency operation has created more harm than good in Nduga. And, counter to its aims, it has not only failed to win local support, it has also re-energized the West Papuan movement for independence in Nduga. (Contemp South-East Asia/GIGA)

AbstractWhy do armed groups fighting in civil wars establish different institutions in territories where they operate? This article tests the mechanisms of a theory that posits that different forms of wartime social order are the outcome of a process in which an aspiring ruler—an armed group—expands the scope of its rule as much as possible unless civilians push back. Instead of being always at the mercy of armed actors, civilians arguably have bargaining power if they can credibly threaten combatants with collective resistance. Such resistance, in turn, is a function of the quality of preexisting local institutions. Using a process-driven natural experiment in three villages in Central Colombia, this article traces the effects of institutional quality on wartime social order.The FARC were everything in this village. They had the last wordon every single dispute among neighbors. They decided whatcould be sold at the stores, the time when we should all go home, andwho should leave the area never to come back.... They alsomanaged divorces, inheritances, and conflicts over land borders.They were the ones who ruled here, not the state.— Local leader, village of Librea, municipality of ViotáWe [the peasant leaders] are the authority here.People recognize us as such. [The FARC] could not takethat away from us. They didn't rule us.— Local leader, village of Zama, municipality of Viotá