scholarly journals Armed Group Transition from Rebel to Government

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Avis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
War Termination ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Protracted Conflict ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Post War

Governments and political parties with an armed history are not unusual, yet how these groups function during and after the transition from conflict has largely been ignored by the existing literature. Many former armed groups have assumed power in a variety of contexts. Whilst this process is often associated with brokered peace agreements that encourage former combatants to transform into political parties, mobilise voters, and ultimately stand for elections, this is not always the case. What is less clearly understood is how war termination by insurgent victory shapes patterns of post-war politics. This rapid literature review collates available evidence of transitions made by armed groups to government. The literature collated presents a mixed picture, with transitions mediated by an array of contextual factors that are location and group specific. Case studies are drawn from a range of contexts where armed groups have assumed some influence over government (these include those via negotiated settlement, victory and in contexts of ongoing protracted conflict). The review provides a series of readings and case studies that are of use in understanding how armed groups may transition in “post-conflict” settings.

scholarly journals Peace Governance and Multiculturalism: What role for Peace Education in the Balkans

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidija Georgieva
Keyword(s):  
Peace Education ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Negotiated Settlements ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Violent Conflicts

This article will focus on theoretical and practical dilemmas related to the concept of peace governance, and within this context on the possible transformative role of peace education trough facilitation of contact between communities in conflict. The basic assumption is that violent conflicts in the Balkans have been resolved trough negotiated settlements and peace agreements. Yet, education strategy including peace education and its impact on post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation are underestimated. Peace governance is recognized as a dynamic but challenging process often based on institutional and policy arrangements aimed to at least settle conflict dynamics or in some cases even to provide more sustainable peace after signing of negotiated settlement in multicultural societies. We will argue that education in general is one of the critical issues of peace governance arrangements that could facilitate peacebuilding and create a contact platform between communities. The first question addressed in this article is to what extend peace agreements refer to education as an issue and the second one relate to the question if education is included in peace agreement to what extent it contributes for contact between different conflicting communities. Although it is widely accepted that contacts between former adversaries contributes for multicultural dialogue it is less known or explained if and in what way peace agreements provisions on education facilitate contact and transformation of conflicting relations.

The Politics of Apology and the Prospects for ‘Post-conflict’ Reconciliation: The Case of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
General Model ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Republican Movement ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation ◽  
Political Framing

Abstract This article analyses the Irish Provisional Republican movement and the evolution of its approach to the politics of apology. The first section analyses recent scholarship regarding ‘political apologies’, and provides a challenge to the existing literature, which concentrates upon ‘official’ or state apologies, rather than examples involving non-state armed groups (paramilitary or ‘terrorist’ organisations). This section argues that it remains difficult to discern an adequate general model for establishing criteria for a ‘successful’ or ‘sincere’ political apology involving such groups. The second section considers a number of case studies, including the statements of the IRA in 2002, and after the Enniskillen bombing in 1987. It is argued that the Provisional movement’s apologies have not generally proven helpful to its declared aim of post-conflict reconciliation. This article argues that attempted apologies or quasi-apologies by non-state groups may not ameliorate the sense of grievance experienced by victims/survivors, and may also serve to revivify social and political ‘framing battles’ over the past.

scholarly journals Civil War and Female Empowerment

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200272098340
Author(s):  
Ingrid Vik Bakken ◽  
Halvard Buhaug
Keyword(s):  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Female Empowerment ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Sustained Effort ◽  
Gender Specific

Recent research has directed attention to the transformative potential of war for female empowerment. As a disruptive shock, armed conflict can create a window of opportunity for advancing the societal role of women. We complement this research agenda by looking at how conflict severity and termination condition the outcomes for women in the aftermath of civil conflict. We expect that both level of violence and mode of resolution affect subsequent female empowerment, where severe conflicts ending by a negotiated settlement have the greatest transformative potential. Consistent with expectations, we find that post-conflict improvements in female empowerment occur primarily after high-intensity civil conflicts. However, subsequent tests reveal that this effect is driven largely by conflicts terminated by peace agreements. The greatest improvement in female empowerment is seen when peace agreements have gender-specific provisions. These results support calls for a sustained effort toward mainstreaming gender issues in conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.

A Representative Peace? Opposition Political Parties in Peace Negotiations

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-37
Author(s):  
Nicholas Ross
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Peace Settlement ◽  
Armed Actors ◽  
Opposition Parties ◽  
Peace Settlements

Abstract This article presents four case studies in which peace was negotiated between governments and political opposition parties, and in which major armed groups involved in the conflict were excluded from some or all of the negotiations. The inclusion of opposition political parties and exclusion of some armed actors in these cases derived from the desire of mediators and some of the parties to foreground political concerns (at the expense of military considerations). Opposition political parties were able to play a role in bringing armed groups into peace settlements under some conditions, although strong international pressure and support helped to create the preconditions for this role. This evidence suggests a challenge to arguments that major armed groups must be included in peace negotiations if they are to abide by the resulting peace settlement.

Cui Bono

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E. Eckert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Private Military Companies ◽  
Positive Peace

The emergence of a new market for private force has altered many aspects of war fighting, including those pertaining to victory and post-conflict settings. While some literature suggests that private military companies (PMCs) can sometimes lead parties to negotiate a peace agreement more quickly, the value of this victory is open to debate. Empirical evidence and case studies of civil wars explored in this chapter suggest that the peace achieved through the use of PMCs is unlikely to endure or to bring substantial improvement to the lives of the most vulnerable victims of war—that is, instead of a positive peace, PMCs achieve a negative peace. Moreover, states often mortgage their natural resources to PMCs as a form of payment. In other words, both the war and the victory secure considerable benefits for PMCs and accomplish little for the civilian populations within war-torn states.

scholarly journals Transforming State Visions: Ideology and Ideas in Armed Groups Turned Political Parties – Introduction to Special Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon E.A. Curtis ◽  
Gyda M. Sindre
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The State ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The Third ◽  
Post War

How do the visions of the state articulated by armed movements during conflict change when they become political parties after war? We show that ideas about the state are often central to the strategies and direction of these new parties, but there is variation in the extent to which these ideas have changed. The first part of this article shows why a focus on former rebel parties provides valuable insights into the role of ideas in post-war politics. The second part draws on the literatures on civil wars and political parties to highlight their relevance for former rebel parties. The third part provides a framework for understanding the variation in the role of ideology in former rebel parties, by focusing on ideological content and explanations of post-war ideological continuity and change. This part also introduces the other articles in the special issue and wider collection. Finally, we discuss the effects of these ideologies when they encounter other logics of post-war politics.

To Conform or to Confront? CSOs and Agrarian Conflict in Post-Conflict Guatemala

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATHIJS VAN LEEUWEN
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Conflict Settings ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Strategic Options

AbstractThis article is about the role of civil society after violent conflict. It argues that the transformations that civil society organisations (CSOs) make are more ambiguous than supporting donors and NGOs presume. The article analyses how, ten years after the 1996 peace agreements, Guatemalan CSOs deal with agrarian conflict. It discusses in detail the case of a church-related organisation assisting peasants with agrarian conflicts and the challenges it faced in defining its strategies. The article argues that supporting donors and NGOs should stop seeing the difficulties of organisational change in post-conflict situations exclusively in terms of the internal incapacities of civil society. Instead, they should re-politicise their analyses and focus on the importance of broader social and political processes in post-conflict settings for the strategic options open to CSOs.

scholarly journals Unmapped Potential

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Erin Aylward
Keyword(s):  
Armed Groups ◽  
Humanitarian Emergencies ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Settings

Armed groups in humanitarian emergencies have long acknowledged the agency, strengths, and leadership of youth (sommers, 2007: 102). Humanitarian research in post-conflict settings, by contrast, has only recently begun to recognise youth’s capabilities and potential through the implementation of participatory, youth-focused research.

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