Reconciliation and Peacebuilding

2021 ◽  
pp. 505-519
Author(s):  
Gráinne Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Intrastate Conflicts

There is near universal agreement on the need for reconciliation following violent conflict, and yet the specific elements of what reconciliation involves, how it relates to wider peacebuilding processes, and how to achieve it remain contested. In the context of a growth in intrastate conflicts, this chapter outlines some of the key debates around reconciliation as a process or end-state and explores its key components or tasks. In addition, it describes the multilevel nature of reconciliation and the requirement to tailor interventions accordingly. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future paths of inquiry that might add greater clarity and nuance to the challenge of reconciliation after conflict.

Water weaponization in the Syrian conflict: strategies of domination and cooperation

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1347-1366
Author(s):  
Marwa Daoudy
Keyword(s):  
Water Systems ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Intrastate Conflicts ◽  
Water Cooperation ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Conflict Strategies ◽  
Syrian Conflict

Abstract How do actors weaponize water in intrastate conflicts? Existing typologies of water weaponization make deterministic differentiations between state and non-state actors and invoke opaque labels like ‘terrorism’. Furthermore, these typologies ignore how various actors engaged in violent conflict also cooperate over water, and whether water weaponization occurs beyond war. I propose a new typology for water weaponization in an analysis of the case of Syria, drawing on the leaked ‘ISIS papers’ as well as primary sources and interviews. The study begins by charting how the Ba'athist regime used water as a weapon of domination and legitimacy against its Kurdish population with infrastructure that would later facilitate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) ability to take hold of northeast Syria. I then turn to how non-state armed groups like ISIS and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have adopted strategies of water weaponization similar to the Syrian government by targeting and channelling water systems with major tactical implications. Finally, I show how enemy parties such as ISIS and the al-Assad regime weaponized cooperative water agreements to advance their mutual interests with violent implications for civilians. As such, I sort strategies of water weaponization into four categories: domination and legitimacy, military tools, military targets, and cooperation. In doing so, this new typology makes three main contributions, by: 1) accounting for how water is weaponized in state-society relations outside conflict; 2) refining existing definitions of water as a military tool and target; and 3) appraising the weapon-like effects of water cooperation.

Classical Conceptions of Visuality and Representation in John of Damascus' Defense of Holy Images1

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-308
Author(s):  
James A. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Word And Image ◽  
John Of Damascus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Culture ◽  
Common Era ◽  
Iconoclastic Controversy

The Defense of Holy Images by John of Damascus stands as the archetypal exposition of the Christian theology of images. Written at the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy, it has been mostly valued for its theological content and given scholarly short shrift as a narrowly focused polemic. The work is more than that. It presents a complex and profound explication of the nature of images and the phenomenon of representation, and is an important part of the “history of looking”in western culture. A long chain of visual conceptions connects classical Greek and Roman writers, such as Homer and Quintilian, to John: the living image, the interrelation of word and image, and image and memory, themes elaborated particularly in the Second Sophistic period of the early Common Era. For John to deploy this heritage so skillfully to the thorny problem of the place of images in Christianity, at the outbreak of a violent conflict that lasted a further 100 years after his writing, manifests an intellect and creativity that has not been sufficiently appreciated. The Defense of Holy Images, understood in this context, is another innovative synthesis of Christianity and classical culture produced by late antique Christian writers.

Overcoming the Paradox of Conflict Prevention

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Newman ◽  
Eamon Aloyo
Keyword(s):  
Violence Prevention ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Structural Conflict

Progress in conflict prevention depends upon a better understanding of the underlying circumstances that give rise to violent conflict and mass atrocities, and of the warning signs that a crisis is imminent. While a substantial amount of empirical research on the driving forces of conflict exists, its policy implications must be exploited more effectively, so that the enabling conditions for violence can be addressed before it occurs. Violence prevention involves a range of social, economic, and political factors; the chapter highlights challenges—many of them international—relating to deprivation, inequality, governance, and environmental management. Prevention also requires overcoming a number of acute political obstacles embedded within the values and institutions of global governance. The chapter concludes with a range of proposals for structural conflict prevention and crisis response, as well as the prevention of mass atrocities.

Why Sovereignty Matters Despite Injustice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Support Intervention ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Base Of Support ◽  
External Intervention ◽  
Target Country

This chapter argues for greater reluctance to launch humanitarian military interventions, without appealing to any inherent value in sovereignty or autonomous political community. Instead, it appeals to the likely consequences of such intervention—both within the target country and for international relations. Miller considers four types of candidate for intervention: stable tyrannies, unstable tyrannies, popular secessions, and ongoing large-scale killing and displacement. Only in the last of these should we be disposed to support intervention according to Miller, since the likely consequences that plague the other three types are here less challenging. Stable tyrannies are usually maintained because the regime has engineered a wide base of support among elites. External overthrow thus risks unleashing violent conflict between divided groups. In unstable tyrannies internally-driven regime change is preferable. Finally, in popular secession external intervention can stoke Great Power worries about spheres of influence and inspire military build-up.

scholarly journals Drivers of violent conflict

2007 ◽  
Vol 100 (12) ◽  
pp. 538-538
Author(s):  
Bradley A Thayer
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict
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