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AbstractThis article investigates the benefit of participation in policymaking. Based on data from interviews with various interest groups, private organisations, and representatives of regions that had been involved in recent policymaking processes in Switzerland, this study analyses the relationship between participation and satisfaction with the policy outcome. The study looks at two different aspects of outcome satisfaction: perceived consensus of a decision and preference attainment. The results show that the level of participation is related to both aspects of outcome satisfaction but that the strength of association is dependent on the type of interest group and the level of conflict among the groups participating in the decision‐making process.

Am Beispiel der Interventionen zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure in die Konflikte im ehemaligen Jugoslawien zwischen 1990 und 2002 entwickelt die Studie auf der Basis der erhobenen Daten einen inklusiven Rahmen zur Beschreibung von Konfliktinterventionen und beschreibt Strategie und Ansätze zivilgesellschaftlicher Konfliktintervention. Diese Dissertation, die am Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies der Universität Coventry angefertigt wurde, beschäftigt sich mit den Interventionen zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure in die Kriege im ehemaligen Jugoslawien in den 1990er Jahren. Dabei wird ein sehr umfassendes Verständnis von 'Intervention' zugrundegelegt, das alle Arten von Aktivitäten umfasst, die sich auf die Konflikte beziehen. Aufbauend auf einem Survey von Aktivitäten im Zeitraum zwischen 1990 und 2002 hat die Autorin einen Definitionsrahmen für die Kategorisierung von Interventionen entwickelt. Er basiert auf den ursprünglich von Johan Galtung definierten Friedensstrategien des "Peacemaking", "Peacekeeping" und "Peacebuilding" und fügt diesen drei Strategien als vierte Kategorie "Information, Unterstützung, Protest und Advocacy" hinzu. Insgesamt rund 230 verschiedene Instrumente der Konfliktintervention wurden identifiziert. Die Studie kommt zu dem Schluss, dass zivilgesellschaftliche Akteure drei unterschiedliche Rollen spielten. 1. Sie ergänzten die Tätigkeit staatlicher Akteure; 2. Sie waren die Avantgarde für Ansätze, Strategien und Methoden, die später 'mainstream' in der Konfliktintervention wurden, und 3. in manchen Fällen gelang es ihnen, das Handeln von Regierungen durch Advocacy oder direkte Aktion zu kontrollieren oder zu korrigieren. Die Entwicklung von Instrumenten ziviler Konflikttransformation wurde durch dieses Engagement in den 90er Jahren sehr stark befördert. Die Studie unterstützt die Position, die in jüngerer Zeit von manchen WissenschaftlerInnen ergriffen wird, die vergleichende Studien über Fälle der Konfliktintervention durchgeführt haben, in Bezug auf die begrenzte Rolle, die Dialog und Versöhnungsarbeit bei der Behandlung der Gesamtkonflikte einnahmen: Obwohl "Versöhnung" und interethnische Kooperation im Kern der großen Mehrheit von Projekten und Programmen in dem Gebiet waren, sind die Indikatoren für wirklichen Einfluss im Hinblick auf einen positiven Wandel in der Gesellschaft und Verhinderung zukünftiger Gewalt eher schwach. Die Studie stellt weiterhin fest, dass es eine soziale Bewegung in vielen westlichen Ländern gab, die sich mit dem ehemaligen Jugoslawien befasste und die in bis dahin nicht gekannter Weise traditionelle Methoden des Protests und der Lobbyarbeit mit konkreter Arbeit vor Ort kombinierte.

Democratic regimes' resorting to excessive force when fighting against terrorists is chrestomathically defined as "deviations" or "mistakes". However, the frequency with which such "deviations" and "mistakes" take place and regular repetition of several scenarios give us the right to speak not so much about random dysfunctions as about standard political situations in whose framework, contrary to assertions of democracies' immanent softness and moderation in administering violence even to their avowed enemies, democratic regimes with high probability can apply excessive force to their armed antagonists. This article wants to probe deeper into the question of the causes of such behaviour of democratic governments and to outline most probable sociopolitical scenarios of these governments' falling into excess while combating terrorists.

Substantial progress was achieved in the bicommunal negotiations that were ongoing for almost two years and led to the decision to continue the talks in Switzerland. The aim was to create conditions conducive to a final bargaining agreement between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and the three guarantor states of the Republic of Cyprus: Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Although recent talks in Switzerland failed to deliver a breakthrough, negotiations continue, and hope survives. With the exception of negotiations on security and guarantees -a chapter whose negotiation inevitably also involves Cyprus' three guarantor states- convergence on negotiations in all other chapters, namely territory, property, governance and power sharing, as well as economic and EU matters, have resulted in agreement or have brought the positions of the parties within the radius of an agreement. (Autorenreferat)

Since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has seen a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks. The country's military-led government has undertaken massive counterterrorism operations in the Sinai Peninsula, where professionalization of terrorism has risen sharply in recent years. These include shoot-to-kill policy at checkpoints, curfews, the destruction of tunnels, and the arrest of suspected terrorists. The government has evacuated entire residential areas and started building a buffer zone along the border with Gaza. Its harsh crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the repression of any form of public dissent has also been at the core of its fight against terrorism. However, terrorist attacks still plague Egypt almost on a daily basis, and terrorism in Sinai has taken on particularly dire proportions. Why is the Egyptian government failing?

Why do some authoritarian governments respond beneficently to political protest while others opt for repression? This article argues that beneficent government responses in the form of concessions or institutional inclusion are fostered by three interrelated mechanisms working at three distinct levels: institutionalization of political protest within the polity, external certification of protest demands by legally legitimized authorities, and interest polarization between protesting groups and the government. Empirical comparison of government responses to youth protests before and during the 2011 uprisings in Morocco and Egypt proves that the divergent strategies in the two countries were not the result of spontaneous decision-making in times of heightened regime contention. Rather, they mirror established patterns of protest politics that are relatively resistant to ad-hoc manipulations. By extending the focus beyond a particular episode of contention, this study offers important insights into government-challenger relations in authoritarian regimes.

This paper considers aspects of the relationship between policies promoting private sector investment and growth, and policies consolidating peace. It covers post-conflict transitions where external authorities play a major role. A core contemporary peacebuilding policy assumption is that stimulating economic recovery is vital to sustaining political settlements and social cohesion. Yet how do we respond when policies to stimulate investment and imperatives to consolidate peace lead to contradictory choices? The paper considers framing investment-promotion activities as quasi-regulatory in nature, given that external actors are shaping and influencing private sector impacts on peacebuilding. It reflects on ideas of "transitionalism" as a distinctive policy mindset during exceptional recovery periods. It addresses three questions: (1) what is distinctive about transitional approaches to influencing the ways that business actors may impact peacebuilding (compared with "routine" developmental settings)? (2) What is distinctive about promoting conflict-sensitive business activity and investment, and how might this require different priorities? (3) What is the proper balance in transitional policymaking between attracting investment to capital-starved settings, and requiring investment to be responsible? (author's abstract)

In theoretical terms 'peace' remains a largely contested concept. Academics propose competing definitions and conceptualizations, which possess their own normative and analytical advantages or disadvantages. Yet despite heated academic and theoretical debates, studies looking at the empirical understandings of peace and conflict-settlement strategies of different states are largely missing. The paper set out to cover this gap and ask how similarities and differences in the actors' conceptual understandings of peace play themselves out in their agreement and disagreement over the advocated 'peace strategies'. Employing qualitative/ quantitative content analysis of the statements made by the representatives of the Russian Federation and the United States at the UN Security Council, Evgeniya Bakalova and Konstanze Jüngling analyze the debates around four recent and/ or ongoing conflicts (Georgia 2008, Libya 2011, Syria 2011-2014 and Ukraine 2014). The study reveals that while agreement over the conceptualization of peace does not impede further disagreement as to the advocated peace strategies, disagreement at the conceptual level breeds deeper disagreement.

Where and how have precolonial institutions of conflict resolution remained intact? Although it is often argued that "traditional" institutions can play a key role in managing communal conflicts, little is known about the conditions of their "survival." This article argues that historical, political, and cultural topographies are essential to understanding patterns of the persistence and demise of precolonial institutions. Traditional modes of conflict resolution remain strong where they have been internalized over centuries: in the cultural and political centers of precolonial states. I use original geocoded survey data and historical spatial information on precolonial Burundi to analyze this hypothesis. The estimations yield robust correlations between the geographic patterns of the precolonial kingdom and current modes of resource-related conflict resolution.

"Effective implementation of harassment Act might be inevitable to acquiring gender equality in higher education institutions and diminishing the influence of patriarchal and conservative mind
set. This study intended to explore implementation of the harassment Act (2010) in universities. Although Government of Pakistan has enforced harassment Act and Higher Education Commission
(HEC) made it mandatory to implement, none of the university in the sample has implemented it.
Various incidence of harassment has been reported by study participants and in certain cases, victims
are asked to resign the jobs as they refuse or fail to comply with the drives of male colleagues and heads. Lack of state and organizational control leads women to be silent and tolerant of harassment
and ultimately, it encourages perpetrator to continue the derogatory behaviour." (author's abstract)