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

Author(s):  
Lidija Georgieva

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.

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200272098340
Author(s):  
Ingrid Vik Bakken ◽  
Halvard Buhaug

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.


2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Owen-Jackson

The number of countries involved in conflict appears to be growing. Global awareness of these conflicts grows as the increasing use of weblogs and mobile phone videos, alongside traditional technologies, demonstrates the day-to-day effects of conflict on those caught up in it. International organisations are drawn into negotiating ‘peace settlements’ and into monitoring post-conflict developments due to this growing global awareness of conflict and due to the influences of globalisation, increasing economic interdependence and other factors. International organisations, including the World Bank and agencies of the United Nations, try to find common ground between opposing factions in conflict situations in order to broker peace. This is not an easy task and compromises often have to be made. Peace agreements and settlements also need to take account of how the parties will work together in the future, and therefore, these may include aspects of educational provision. This article describes the role played by international organisations in negotiating the peace agreement that brought about the end of the conflict in the countries of the former Yugoslavia in 1995. It goes on to illustrate the consequences for education of this peace agreement and suggests that, whilst international organisations may have brokered peace on the streets, the opposing factions are continuing their war in the terrain of continuing educational conflicts, due at least in part to structures for educational provision laid out in the Dayton Agreement. The article provides support for Bush & Saltarelli's claim that education has two faces, and argues that in this case, unfortunately, the negative one predominates.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal

Why do warring parties turn to United Nations peacekeeping and peacemaking even when they think it will fail? Dayal asks why UN peacekeeping survived its early catastrophes in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans, and how this survival should make us reconsider how peacekeeping works. She makes two key arguments: first, she argues the UN's central role in peacemaking and peacekeeping worldwide means UN interventions have structural consequences – what the UN does in one conflict can shift the strategies, outcomes, and options available to negotiating parties in other conflicts. Second, drawing on interviews, archival research, and process-traced peace negotiations in Rwanda and Guatemala, Dayal argues warring parties turn to the UN even when they have little faith in peacekeepers' ability to uphold peace agreements – and even little actual interest in peace – because its involvement in negotiation processes provides vital, unique tactical, symbolic, and post-conflict reconstruction benefits only the UN can offer.


Author(s):  
Elena DE OLIVEIRA SCHUCK ◽  
Lívia BRITO

Armed conflicts have different impacts on women. In this regard, women’s civil society organizations are inserted in the international political arenas in order to guarantee their rights in warfare contexts. In the case of conflicts in Colombia, women are identified not only as combatants and victims, but also as members of women civil organizations for peacebuilding. These organizations played a prominent role in the elaboration of the peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana, Cuba, between 2012 and 2016. This article proposes an analysis of the theoretical production on peace, international security, feminism and subalternity, to present the specific case of the conflict in Colombia and its gender perspectives. The results indicate that peace agreements can be instruments of political inclusion and reparation for women affected by armed conflicts. In highlighting the role of political minorities in the international peace negotiations in Colombia, this research contributes to the development and expansion of critical perspectives —feminist and subaltern— on international security and studies for peace. Moreover, building upon the specific analysis of the Havana Agreement, this paper aims to contribute to the inclusion of a gender perspective in future peace agreements.


Author(s):  
Krista Wiegand ◽  
Erin Rowland ◽  
Eric Keels

Within this article, we explore how third-party knowledge of ongoing conflicts shapes the ability of mediators to successfully end conflicts through negotiated settlements. Since the primary role of mediators is to share information, and combatants have incentives to misrepresent information, contextual knowledge about the conflict and actors is critical. We argue that experienced diplomats with greater knowledge of the civil war state, close knowledge of the combatants, and connections with civil society are less vulnerable and more effective in mediation efforts. We propose that third parties seeking a diplomatic solution to ongoing conflicts may be more successful when they maintain strong diplomatic knowledge of the disputants as well as knowledge of the processes by which previous mediation efforts have attempted to resolve the dispute. Using a seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model on peace agreements from 1989 to 2005, we find strong support that diplomatic knowledge matters significantly.


Author(s):  
Chris Kwaja

In the aftermath of the violent conflict in Liberia, the issue of post- conflict rehabilitation took center stage, with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deeply involved in an elaborate post-conflict rehabilitation program in the country. Through the use of content analysis, this paper explores the involvement of ECOWAS in post-conflict rehabilitation in Liberia in the context of the devastating consequences of violent conflicts that the country experienced. In specific terms, it highlights key lessons learnt from the ECOWAS intervention in Liberia, as part of its mandate for peace, security and stability in the region.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002234332096115
Author(s):  
Lindsey Doyle ◽  
Lukas Hegele

Pre-negotiation is widely accepted as a means to convince intrastate conflict parties to negotiate formally; however, research has not yet established a causal link between early efforts to bring warring parties together and the outcome of any negotiated settlement. This gap begs the question: To what extent do activities during the pre-negotiation phase contribute to the signing of a peace agreement? Theory on interstate conflict suggests that pre-negotiation reduces risk, thereby convincing conflict parties that they have more to gain from negotiating than from fighting. However, in conflicts between governments and non-state armed actors, this article argues that reciprocity paves the way for reaching peace agreements. This article introduces a new dataset on pre-negotiation including nearly all intrastate armed conflicts between 2005 and 2015. Confirming previous findings, mediation is significantly and positively correlated with reaching a type of peace agreement; conflicts over government are more likely to end in a negotiated agreement than conflicts over territory or both government and territory. In contrast to existing qualitative research, this study finds little evidence that pre-negotiation increases the likelihood that conflict dyads sign peace agreements. Future quantitative research on this topic requires more nuanced measures of the conditions under which conflict parties shift from unilateral to joint decisionmaking.


Author(s):  
Ayokunu Adedokun

With the heavy involvement of the United Nations (UN) and the international community, the Rome General Peace Agreement of 1992 ended more than 16 years of civil war in Mozambique. The peace agreement and post-conflict initiatives by the international community was successful in transforming the Mozambique National Resistance
(Renamo) from a rebel group into a viable political party. Key components of the United Nations and the broader international community success in negotiating peace and creating conditions for political stability and democracy in Mozambique were (a) the provision of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) before democratisation, (b) decentralization of humanitarian and relief efforts to provincial and district levels, (c) provision of financial support directly for the development of political parties, and (d) budget support to sectors relevant to peacebuilding. Though imperfect, Mozambique remains an important case study in how the UN and international community can help in post-conflict environments. Thus, the paper argues that success in peacebuilding operations depends on credible and impartial international support through the UN, as opposed to peacebuilding operations through the United States of America or Russia.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 271
Author(s):  
Sukendar Sukendar

<p class="IIABSBARU1">The conflict is as natural of law (sunnatullah) that always there in the course of human life. So that conflicts do not lead to violence and social disaster, the conflicts need to be managed properly. Managing conflicts is not solely aimed at the cessation of conflict, or the signing of a peace agreement between the parties to the dispute. Over, conflict manage­ment must be followed by the management of post-conflict conditions. Among the efforts the condition of post-conflict is recovery of the affected populations, especially children who are the most vulnerable groups in a conflict. One remedy is to educate children affected by conflict through peace education. This needs to be done so that they are free from the trauma, did not carry a grudge in life, and capable of being a man who loves peace. This study will explore the efforts of peace education for children affected by conflict in the Latansa Islamic Boarding School, Cangkring, Karang­anyar, Demak.</p><p class="IKa-ABSTRAK">***</p>Konflik merupakan sesuatu yang alami yang selalu ada dalam kehidupan manusia. Oleh karena itu agar konflik tidak mengakibatkan kekerasan dan petaka sosial maka konflik perlu dikelola dengan tepat. Mengelola konflik tidak semata-mata ditujukan bagi penghentian konflik atau penandatanganan kesepakatan antara kelompok-kelompok yang bertikai. Lebih dari itu, manajemen konflik harus diikuti dengan manajemen post-konflik. Di antara berbagai upaya manajemen post-konflik adalah pemulihan terhadap orang-orang yang menjadi korban konflik, khususnya anak-anak yang memang rentan terhadap efek konflik. Salah satu penanganannya adalah melalui pendidikan agar mereka terbebas dari perasaan traumatik, tidak membawa kedukaan mereka, serta mampu menjadi orang yang mencintai perdamaian. Kajian ini akan melihat bagaimana upaya pendidikan damai yang dilakukan oleh Pondok Pesantren Latansa Cangkring Karanganyar Demak.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Andrii Razmietaiev

The article discusses the experience of creation of peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eastern Slavonia, Kosovo and East Timor with the use of comparative method. It also raises the role of international and regional actors in post-conflict peacebuilding. The author presents some practical solutions for the implementation of the effective peace process in eastern Ukraine, aimed at the reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.


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