Suchergebnisse

By siding with Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey is primarily pursuing the goal of undermining the current status quo of the region. Ankara aims above all to secure a place at the table where a solution to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be negotiated in the future. The Syrian scenario should serve as an example. Turkey thus wants to negotiate with Russia in the South Caucasus, preferably without Western actors. Ankara's plans are not uninteresting for Moscow. However, because of the complexity of Turkish-Armenian relations, there is a risk that Armenia and Turkey might become the eventual opponents in this conflict, rather than Armenia and Azerbaijan. The EU's engagement should not be determined by its tense relationship with Turkey, but rather by the UN Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh.

By siding with Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey is primarily pursuing the goal of undermining the current status quo of the region. Ankara aims above all to secure a place at the table where a solution to the conflict between Arme­nia and Azerbaijan will be negotiated in the future. The Syrian scenario should serve as an example. Turkey thus wants to negotiate with Russia in the South Caucasus, preferably without Western actors. Ankara's plans are not uninteresting for Moscow. However, because of the complexity of Turkish-Armenian relations, there is a risk that Armenia and Turkey might become the eventual opponents in this conflict, rather than Armenia and Azerbaijan. The EU's engagement should not be determined by its tense relationship with Turkey, but rather by the UN Security Council resolu­tions on Nagorno-Karabakh. (author's abstract)

Peacebuilding and development are two sides of the same coin yet integrating the two processes remains an ongoing challenge. One tool for achieving such integration is capacity building, which often translates as "training." However, if we intend to use training to contribute to the goal of integration, it would behoove development and peacebuilding practitioners alike to embrace a more holistic approach to training design. Building on lessons learned by the authors during the design and implementation of diverse development and peacebuilding programming in Central Africa and the Sahel, we analyse three specific "mispractices" encountered in the field. We ask, "Why, as trainers, do we continue to engage approaches that don't work?" "What practices should we end?" and "What should we be doing instead?" The article concludes with recommendations on how trainers can improve the integration of peacebuilding and development training.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the research literature on how sport can be used more productively as a peacebuilding device in post-conflict countries.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses interviewing method that includes both semi-structured and unstructured interviews with trainers, instructors and children involved in implementing Open Fun Football Schools (OFFSs) in Kosovo.


Findings
Findings show that OFFSs have played a vital role in peacebuilding in Kosovo by bringing together people from different ethnic backgrounds in Kosovo, which contributed to social inclusion of Albanians and Serbs, and other communities by changing their initial attitudes toward one another.


Research limitations/implications
The main research limitation is the usage of semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires instead of structured questionnaires, which would provide more generalized conclusions about the OFFSs. More research is needed on this topic to investigate the effect of similar programs in other country contexts.


Practical implications
The most important practical implication of the research is that conflict mitigation through football sports programs and activities can be used in other similar contexts by donors and the international community. OFFSs offer a hope for peacebuilding, and if adequately implemented can contribute to peacebuilding in post-conflict societies similar to Kosovo's context. The positive attitude changes as a result of participation in the OFFS programs shows that these joint programs can promote better ethnic relations. There is a need for the expansion of such programs to reach more people.


Originality/value
The study provides an original contribution as there has been almost no prior research which actually measured the effects of OFFSs on change of youth attitudes through the integrated sport programs with different ethnicity in Kosovo.

Guided by the theory of conflict transformation, this article contributes to knowledge through articulating the significance of peacebuilding that is centred on civilian survival strategies (CSS) of flight, silence, voice, and joining the perpetrators of violence. The purpose is to articulate what could be done to promote reconciliation and build peace in a heavily polarised environment. CSS aid in identifying, from the perspective of the victims and even witnesses, the aspects that need to be built into the reconciliation process in Zimbabwe, and how these can enable reconciliation to take place. The CSS model demonstrated that citizens wanted reconciliation to be effected through truth-telling, ending political violence, and eliminating structural factors that lead to political violence, tolerance, and the mending of relationships. This article thus reveals the utility of reconciliation that benefits from CSS. Zimbabwe can potentially benefit from civilian input in carrying out a locally initiated and durable reconciliation programme.

The EU seeks extensive partnership with other international organizations when it comes to security challenges. This is puzzling as the EU relies for its resources mostly on its member states. The relations between the EU and other international organizations have thoroughly been studied, yet scholars rarely question the actual rationale for partnership. We start from resource dependency theory which explains that almost all organizations are dependent on the resources of their partners. Yet we extend this theory by distinguishing between macro, meso and micro-level dependencies. To illustrate resource dependencies between the EU and other international organizations, we analyse EU's peacebuilding policies in Kosovo, Mali and Armenia. By accounting for macro- and micro-level dependencies we provide a more holistic perspective than conventional meso-level explanations. Our contribution is therefore to expand the scope of the resource dependency theory and provide a framework to analyse dependencies between the EU and other international organizations.

This exploratory qualitative study recruited twelve members of the Syrian refugee diaspora living on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, to explore how they perceive conflict and peace in their homeland, what would constitute sustainable peace in Syria, and how do they intend to contribute to peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts in post-conflict Syria. Since conflict eruption in 2011, the study participants have lost close family members. They incurred various forms of hardships in their journeys of displacement. They expressed their desire to return to their communities in Syria upon the cessation of violence, and the restoration of peace and safety. The participants' proposed path to sustainable peace and conflict transformation in Syria include a constructive role for regional and external powers in the peacebuilding efforts, and that democratization, the organization of free elections, freedom, the rule of law, equality, and inclusiveness must be embedded in a new peace architecture. Further, to transform the conflict they proposed the inclusion in the peacebuilding process of retribution, forgiveness, communal peacemaking and community trust-building, and educational system reform. The participants' in-depth conflict analysis and their approaches to transform the conflict provide some interesting insights to build sustainable peace in this violent and divided society. This study contributes to the Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) literature by highlighting the crucial role of diasporas in peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts, and informing the peacebuilding enterprise policymakers about the necessity to incorporate locals in conflict analysis and transformation processes. ; May 2019