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Like other types of diaspora groups, conflict-generated diasporas display a strong attachment to their countries of origin, and structure their identities and ideologies around discourses referring to their homeland. However, their inner cleavages, born out of the conflicts raging in their home countries, can run very deep. The maintenance of their ethnic, religious, linguistic or political divisions even generations after the migration process has taken place sometimes leads to conflict transportation processes, whereby the conflicts raging in their home countries are reproduced and maintained in countries of settlement. Incidents opposing rival diaspora groups are thus often interpreted as a prolongation or reproduction of core conflicts raging in their regions of origin. Against this assumption, this article argues that if transported conflicts often formally take the shape of core conflicts, and emulate them by using the same language, symbols and ethnic/religious/linguistic categories, they are also deeply transformed by the migration process itself. In this perspective, this article explores the transformation and reinvention of conflict-generated diasporas' politics, and proposes to look at the autonomisation processes they display vis-à-vis the core conflicts, in terms of content but also of objectives, ultimately generating a drift at the political and organisational levels.

Although the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 by the main actors of the Northern Ireland conflict clearly mentioned the issue of the reintegration of members of armed groups who were imprisoned, the problems generated by this reconversion remain unresolved and are still a taboo subject. In the eyes of much of the population, these (former) members of armed groups can be placed in the same category as common criminals, and many of them have indeed turned to criminal activities such as racketeering and drug trafficking. The media attention that these activities attract nevertheless overshadows the considerable investment they make in other sectors so as to make the best of their integration into the political, economic, and social fabric. Many of them work in peace-building programmes funded by the UK or the European Union, while others are especially active in political, voluntary or cultural fields. While these various itineraries of reconversion seem insufficient for perpetuating or even renewing their collective identity, they nevertheless allow them to put their own war into words and into perspective, as well as to re-examine the meaning of a combat that they sometimes waged over several decades. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between the Europeanization process & the anti-globalization agenda in Europe. It is based on fieldwork, observations & interviews carried out in the framework of the European research project EUROPUB (2001-2004). The emergence of a European public space generates a whole series of questions for the anti-globalization movement: how can it integrate the European level into its usual issues? Should it gain leverage from this space of political opportunity to build gradually a broader transnational movement, or should it disregard & denounce it as a tool of neo-liberalism, like most other international organizations? Controversies that arose inside ATTAC France about the setting up of '100 % alternative globalization' lists for the European elections of June 2004 bring to light the many rifts dividing the antiglobalization movement, & perfectly illustrate the challenge European integration poses for anti-globalization activists, torn between the options of participating in the political game, acting as an opposition force, or standing back from the fray. Adapted from the source document.

Northern Ireland's Apr 1998 power-sharing & disarmament agreement does not resolve underlying hostilities or violence. The decisions, made by the elite & politicians, do nothing to reconcile Catholics & Protestants, & mass-driven conflict replaces elite-driven conflict. Political discourse often reinforces the animosity. Effectual negotiations & decisions must occur in a genuine public space. E. Taylor

This article advances the idea that community conflicts, the resurgence of which at the present time is bringing the issue of unrealised group identities to the fore, seem to produce a fiction of never-ending war. The whole of their internal structure appears to induce the protagonists to settle in for the long term and to perpetuate confrontations by constantly re-enacting a sort of primitive and ageless conflict. These new Hundred Years Wars would seem to be generated by three main contributing factors: first, the ritualisation of violent practices which bind enemies together in a pact of reciprocal cruelty; next, the adoption of a rhetorical stance proclaiming that negotiation is impossible and unthinkable, thus enabling each party to present its own struggle as part of the unshakable defence of the honour of the threatened community; and, lastly, the extension of conflicts by making a habit of division, of hate-filled exhortations and of memory games which cut across each and every kind of social activity, creating a sort of spontaneous apartheid society. It is to be asked whether this shared fantasy of the impossibility of peace might not also ultimately stem from a painful need for recognition. (Original abstract)

This article advances the idea that community conflicts, the resurgence of which at the present time is bringing the issue of unrealized group identities to the fore, seem to produce a fiction of never-ending war. The whole of their internal structure appears to induce the protagonists to settle in for the long term & to perpetuate confrontations by constantly reenacting a sort of primitive & ageless conflict. These new Hundred Years Wars would seem to be generated by three main contributing factors: (1) the ritualization of violent practices which bind enemies together in a pact of reciprocal cruelty; (2) the adoption of a rhetorical stance proclaiming that negotiation is impossible & unthinkable, thus enabling each party to present its own struggle as part of the unshakeable defense of the honor of the threatened community; &, (3) the extension of conflicts by making a habit of division, of hate-filled exhortations, & of memory games that cut across each & every kind of social activity, creating a sort of spontaneous apartheid society. It is to be asked whether this shared fantasy of the impossibility of peace might not also ultimately stem from a painful need for recognition. 24 References. Adapted from the source document.

Building on different cases of conflicts in homelands triggering diaspora mobilization, we develop a theory of diaspora formation through processes of conflict deterritorialization. We argue that an armed conflict in the country of origin can trigger specific processes of diaspora formation in the countries of settlement and in the transnational space, depending on the actors involved and the particular context in both the home and host countries. We suggest that this specific non-linear process of diaspora formation can happen at the individual and collective levels, and can both turn a migrant into a diasporic individual as well as mobilize diasporic individuals for collective action. This mobilization, we argue, builds on narratives about and from the homeland, the country of residence, and the transnational space, and can, in turn, lead to conflict autonomization in diaspora settings. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Der Forschungsbericht zur Demokratisierung in der Europäischen Union (EU) informiert über ein Projekt von 2001 bis 2004, das die Anwendung eines Demokratie-Modells auf die EU umfasst. Dabei konzentriert sich die Studie auf zwei Schlüsselbereiche des europäischen öffentlichen Bereiches: die Ebene der Politikgestaltung und die Offenheit bzw. Möglichkeit der politischen Partizipation sowie den politischen Diskurs über Europa, insbesondere zur Maßnahme der politischen Integration. Die Analyse umfasst dementsprechend (1) eine Reihe politischer Fallstudien auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Governance in einigen EU-Staaten sowie (2) die Befragung bzw. die Pfadanalyse der Karrieren von Mitgliedern der europäischen politischen Klasse. Die gewonnenen Ergebnisse werden sodann in ein Bewertungsmodell für die Betrachtung der europäischen Demokratie mit rund 400 Indikatoren integriert. Die Untersuchung macht deutlich, dass eine signifikante Variation unter den Politikbereichen hinsichtlich der institutionellen Opportunitätsstrukturen zur politischen Partizipation und der tatsächlichen Intensität der partizipatorischen Praxis besteht. Allerdings stehen diese beiden Dimensionen nicht in direkter Beziehung zueinander. Das heißt erstens, dass die partizipatorische Praxis nicht abhängig von den Opportunitätsstrukturen zur politischen Partizipation istund zweitens, dass ihre Existenz nicht immer zu dem gewünschten demokratischen Input in den politischen Entscheidungsprozessen führt. Somit muss eine Beleuchtung der Demokratisierung in Europa die politischen Institutionen auf europäischer und nationaler Ebene, aber auch die einflussnehmende Zivilgesellschaft berücksichtigen. Doch trotz dieser Variation lässt sich ein Aufkommen der europäischen Öffentlichkeit beobachten, und zwar in den Formen der Deliberation sowie der Debatten über öffentliche Themen mit Beteiligung der Bürger bzw. Bürgerrepräsentanten. Gleichzeitig lassen sich aber innerhalb von EU-Staaten auch Versuche seitens staatlicher Institutionen beobachten, in manchen Politikbereichen gesellschaftliche Akteure aktiv aus politischen Debatten auszuschließen. (ICG2)

From a decidedly multidisciplinary perspective, the articles in Transnational Political Spaces address the notion that political space is no longer fully congruent with national borders. Instead there are areas called transnational political spaces—caused by factors such as migration and social transformation—where policy occurs oblivious to national pressure. Organized into three sections—transnational actors, transnational spaces, and critical encounters—this volume explains how these spaces are formed and defined and how they can be traced and conceptualized.Aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive gehen die Beiträge der Frage nach, wie transnationale politische Räume hervorgebracht und gestaltet werden. Dabei sind diese nicht rein territorial definiert: Einbezogen werden Identitäten und Interaktionen, die nationale Grenzen überschreiten – wie sie etwa durch Migration entstehen.