Satire, masculinity and the rhetoric of conflict resolution in War Chhod Na Yaar and Kya Dilli Kya Lahore

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailendra Kumar Singh

Unlike its western counterparts, Hindi war films constitute a rather peripheral genre, one that has understandably received scant critical attention over the last two decades. The conventional aesthetic registers and thematic templates of these films reveal an explicit engagement with questions relating to heroic masculinity, exceptional leadership and nationalist triumphalism. And yet, movies such as War Chhod Na Yaar (‘Quit the war, dude’) (Haider 2013) and Kya Dilli Kya Lahore (‘Delhi and Lahore are not so different after all’) (Raaz 2014) categorically denounce idealistic notions of armed conflicts and sensationalized portrayals of ostensibly justified violence. This article examines the rhetoric of conflict resolution that constitutes the organizing principle of these two films. It demonstrates how War Chhod Na Yaar discursively satirizes the earlier Hindi war films through a pronounced emphasis on the fanciful camaraderie that exists between the respective battalion captains of India and Pakistan. By contrast, the anti-war rhetoric of Kya Dilli Kya Lahore is not only historically situated within the larger framework of Partition narratives, but is also facilitated by an alternative configuration of masculinity that resists territorial divisions in favour of affective solidarities and shared lived experiences.

Africa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Miran-Guyon

ABSTRACTThe nativist ideology of ivoirité of the 1990s generated brutal discriminatory policies against those labelled as ‘strangers’, especially Muslims. Reversing that perspective, this article focuses on the interface between religion and national identity in twentieth-century Côte d'Ivoire from within Muslim society. The argument is divided into two parts. The first puts forward the counter-hegemonic, patriotic-cum-cosmopolitan narratives that a new Muslim leadership formulated in order to write Islam into national history. The second focuses on grass-roots, demotic, day-to-day realities. It explores Muslim takes on belonging and alienation in practice, paying careful attention to the community's internal diversity. It shows how, over time, Ivorian Muslims have showcased varying degrees of cosmopolitan patriotism but also of their own, local xenophobia. The concluding section returns to the new Muslim leadership and its multifaceted endeavours to reconcile Muslim lived experiences with their cosmopolitan patriotic aspirations. The article ends with a short epilogue surveying the violent armed conflicts of the period 2002 to 2011 and how Muslims were a part of them.


2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Terlinden

Most development NGOs have not explicitly committed themselves to the task of violence prevention in African armed conflicts, even though a growing number of the organisations are somehow active in this field. The article summarizes a study about the reasons behind this lack of commitment, which becomes visible in the discrepancy between NGOs' limited practice and their far greater potential and also harms the quality of the organisations’ activities. NGOs face difficulties that relate to the characteristics of violence prevention; however, these obstacles are not only a cause of the NGOs' hesitance, but also a consequence of it. This insight, together with the undeniable linkages between violence prevention and development and the account of a number of good experiences, call for an explicit and comprehensive commitment by the organisations to preventive action in violent conflicts. Such a commitment must involve an advocacy strategy that complements NGO field activities, mobilising donor governments for peaceful conflict resolution instead of facilitating their disengagement.


Author(s):  
Andrii Baginskyi

We can distinguish two approaches to the periodization of peace and conflict theories. Both are related to the separation of “generations of theories” with their characteristic accents, conceptual apparatus, paradigms. Generations of theories differ both in their understanding of the external factors of peace formation and in their varying degrees of consideration of internal societal factors in conflict resolution. The first generation of theories uses the basic features of political realism in maintaining peace – the main actors in peacekeeping processes are states that contribute to the end of the conflict at the international level, interacting with other states through diplomacy. The second generation of theories of peace and conflict seeks to move away from the imperatives of the Westphalian international system and focuses on basic human needs and the structural causes of conflict. Thus, the second generation of theories has expanded both methodological approaches and levels of conflict resolution analysis, postulating positive peace as the desired goal of conflict management. In the 1980s, influential theories emerged that not only referred to the deep social determinants of conflict, explored negotiations and mediation, but also drew attention to the temporal dimension of conflict. The concepts of “intractable conflict” and “ripeness of conflict” refer to the next stage in the development of theories of conflict and peace, when, on the one hand, the presence of long-term multilevel conflicts reduces scientists’ optimism about their rapid transformation, and on the other hand can change the dynamics of the conflict towards peaceful processes. The emergence of these theories was the result of paradigm shifts in practical peacekeeping - improving methods of conflict resolution, the transition from a policy of negative peace to a policy of conflict transformation provided a broader interpretation and reinterpretation of social relations within conflict societies. State-centric models of peace, which could be imposed in a rather unilateral way by a third party, were difficult for the international side to extend to the local traditional specifics of social systems and did not ensure the onset of lasting peace.


Conflicts and the ways of conflict resolution have prevailed since prehistoric times. Even when the Second World Warconcluded in 1945, it is observed that the number of armed conflicts hasn’t been reduced. On the contrary, there has been a rise in these numbers. Opportunely the 20th century has also seennumerous peace building efforts. A New World Order perceived by the then leaders, is seen take shape even though it is extremely dynamic in nature. This article studies the statistics of the state-based armed conflicts and peace-building efforts in the form of treaties that were taken at that time to resolve the conflicts.


Author(s):  
Gülay Türkmen

Out of the 111 armed conflicts that took place worldwide between 1989 and 2000, only seven were interstate conflicts. The others were intrastate in nature. As a result, the last decade and a half witnessed a boom in the publication of works on civil wars. While the percentage of civil wars involving religion increased from 21% to 43% between the 1960s and 1990s, scholars have been rather slow to integrate the study of religion into the overall framework of conflict in general, and of civil wars in particular. Operating under the impact of the secularization thesis and treating religion as an aspect of ethnicity, the literature on civil wars has long embraced ethnonationalism as its subject matter. Yet, since the early 2000s there has been a rapid increase in the number of works focusing on religion and civil wars. While one branch treats religion as a trigger for and an exacerbating factor in conflict, another focuses on religion as a conflict resolution tool. Turkey is an apt case to ponder the latter as several governments have deployed religion (namely, Sunni Islam) as a tool to suppress ethnic divisions for years. During the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, religion has gained even more visibility as a conflict resolution tool in the 33-year-long armed ethnic conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Yet, the role of religion in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict still remains understudied. Increased attention to this topic could deliver important insights not only for those who conduct research on the Kurdish conflict in Turkey specifically, but also for those who explore the role of religion in civil wars more generally.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
Matthew Nyaanga ◽  
Zwelibanzi Mpehle

The growing number of armed conflicts in Africa has impacted adversely on women who fall victims to violence, sexual abuse and harassment. Women play a minimal role as combatants during the armed conflicts and as peace negotiators after the armed conflicts. This article looks at the role women play in the pre-armed and post-armed conflict phases in an African context. Data for this article were gathered through questionnaires distributed to twenty women officers who participated in the Joint Senior Command and Staff Programme (JSCSP) at the South African National War College. The findings make it evident that women often participate unwillingly as combatants in an armed conflict; they face social changes in the post-armed conflict phase that make their roles change in both their families and communities, and often neglected in the postarmed conflict negotiations and conflict resolution processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Mohammad Tarikul Islam

Peacemaking involves a set of goals, policies, and strategies, and those are directed to prevent the occurrence of armed conflicts and to avoid violence. Peacemaking solicits a legitimate framework through which all actors could peacefully participate in social, economic, and political life of the nation. The role of civil society groups in peacebuilding has not been adequately discussed in both academic writings and policy analysis of Nepal. The pro-democracy movement jointly launched by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) witnessed a shift in the political landscape of Nepal, bringing an end to the decade-old Maoist insurgency as King Gyanendra stepped down on April 24, 2006. Therefore, the study carefully exemplifies the various activities which different civil society groups performed and attempted to analyze their roles in the prolonged process of peacebuilding. The responsibilities of civil society in Nepal, particularly in the aftermath of Maoist Revolution, are found to be focused and calculated, and effective to some extent. Collective efforts of different civil society groups helped to restart searching common ground for conflict mediation and peace in Nepal after a decade-long Maoist conflict. The underlying community interests for conflict resolution have been the business for all and where civil society has a spirited stake.


2020 ◽  
pp. 64-73
Author(s):  
Ganna Palii

The article analyzes the experience of the Balkan countries in de-occupation and reintegration of territories. Cases of conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1993–2019, North Macedonia since 2019) are being studied. The analysis is based on a study of all stages of conflict resolution. The article examines the sequence of key aspects of the settlement. Consideration of all stages of armed conflicts in the Balkan region has shown that international peace-keeping missions, with military and civilian components, play a significant role. The participation of various international organizations (UN, NATO, EU) and countries (USA) and in resolving those conflicts and further integration also had a decisive influence. The reintegration processes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia were based on peace agreements, as well as the full restoration of border and territory controlling. The next stage was to ensure demilitarization and disarmament. The fully fledged process of integration also included law enforcement reform, election preparation and conduct. The issues of post-war justice, punishment for war crimes and mass human rights violations were among the top priorities. In the implementation of all these reintegration measures, international organizations were involved, which actively provided assistance and performed a monitoring function. Among the necessary conditions for de-occupation and peaceful reintegration are the following: consolidation and consistency of the positions of the political and military leadership, the presence of a powerful army, implementation of sanctions, economic and military-political pressure on the aggressor side, demilitarization and control of the territory, justice and amnesty with fixed frameworks. The prospect of further research is that valuable experience with conflict resolution settlement and reintegration contains effective mechanisms that can be adapted in the case of Ukraine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e59057
Author(s):  
Mariana Germana Miquelino Alves de Oliveira

Neste artigo, buscamos entender as implicações das relações de gênero para a resolução de conflitos armados e as possíveis contribuições resultantes da inclusão de mulheres nos processos de paz. À luz das teorias feministas das Relações Internacionais, propomos a hipótese de que não se pode compreender amplamente as dinâmicas de um conflito armado sem considerar a influência das relações de gênero para a sua eclosão e continuidade e, por conseguinte, não se pode implementar medidas de resolução que sejam plenamente eficientes. Mais do que isso, sugerimos que as mulheres sejam parte ativa dos esforços de construção da paz  para que esse processo  se torne mais representativo e possa responder também às fontes de insegurança feminina.Palavras-chave: Resolução de conflitos; Construção da paz; Mulheres.ABSTRACTIn this article, we seek to understand the implications of gender relations for the resolution of armed conflicts and the possible contributions resulting from the inclusion of women in peace processes. In the light of feminist theories of International Relations, we propose the hypothesis that one cannot fully understand the dynamics of armed conflict without considering the influence of gender relations for its outbreak and continuity and, therefore, resolution measures that are fully efficient cannot be implemented. Furthermore, we suggest that for the peace process to become more representative and to respond to sources of female insecurity as well.Keywords: Conflict resolution; Peace building; Women. Recebido em: 10/04/2021 | Aceito em: 27/07/2021. 


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