scholarly journals How Peace Saves Lives? Evidence from Colombia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Perilla ◽  
Mounu Prem ◽  
Miguel E. Purroy ◽  
Juan F. Vargas
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Antipersonnel Landmines ◽  
Conflict Information

The victimization of civilians and combatants during internal conflicts causes large and persistent socioeconomic costs. Moreover, it is not clear whether peace negotiations can significantly reduce this burden, as some sources of harm persist well after conflicts end. This is the case of antipersonnel landmines, which are hidden underground and remain active for decades. Looking at the recent experience of Colombia, and using a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, we study the conditions under which peace agreements reduce landmine blasts and victimization. Our findings point to the importance of post-conflict information sharing and comprehensive humanitarian mine clearance campaigns.

Incredible Commitments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Negotiation Processes ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping

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.

scholarly journals Spoilers of peace: Pro-government militias as risk factors for conflict recurrence

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph V Steinert ◽  
Janina I Steinert ◽  
Sabine C Carey
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Simulation ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Material Benefits ◽  
The Government ◽  
Personal Interests

This study investigates how deployment of pro-government militias (PGMs) as counterinsurgents affects the risk of conflict recurrence. Militiamen derive material and non-material benefits from fighting in armed conflicts. Since these will likely have diminished after the conflict’s termination, militiamen develop a strong incentive to spoil post-conflict peace. Members of pro-government militias are particularly disadvantaged in post-conflict contexts compared to their role in the government’s counterinsurgency campaign. First, PGMs are usually not present in peace negotiations between rebels and governments. This reduces their commitment to peace agreements. Second, disarmament and reintegration programs tend to exclude PGMs, which lowers their expected and real benefits from peace. Third, PGMs might lose their advantage of pursuing personal interests while being protected by the government, as they become less essential during peacetimes. To empirically test whether conflicts with PGMs as counterinsurgents are more likely to break out again, we identify PGM counterinsurgent activities in conflict episodes between 1981 and 2007. We code whether the same PGM was active in a subsequent conflict between the same actors. Controlling for conflict types, which is associated with both the likelihood of deploying PGMs and the risk of conflict recurrence, we investigate our claims with propensity score matching, statistical simulation, and logistic regression models. The results support our expectation that conflicts in which pro-government militias were used as counterinsurgents are more likely to recur. Our study contributes to an improved understanding of the long-term consequences of employing PGMs as counterinsurgents and highlights the importance of considering non-state actors when crafting peace and evaluating the risk of renewed violence.

scholarly journals Mapping a Norm of Inclusion in the Jus Post Bellum

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Catherine Turner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Jus Post Bellum ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
International Human ◽  
United Nations Charter

This chapter maps the existence of provisions requiring the inclusion of traditionally excluded groups in peace negotiations. It argues that international law now require inclusion not only as an aspiration or an optional political gesture, but as a fundamental general principle of the jus post bellum. It shows that inclusion as a norm emerges from within existing shared principles embodied in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and existing international human rights treaty law. It proposes inclusion as an underpinning norm of jus post bellum, ensuring sustainable peace by engaging with those most affected by peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions.

WPS, Peace Negotiations, and Peace Agreements

2018 ◽  
pp. 814-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Aggestam
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Peace Negotiation ◽  
Gender Impacts

Peace negotiations and their outcomes have long-term repercussions for post-conflict politics and societies. Yet, one of the most striking patterns of contemporary peace diplomacy is the gross underrepresentation of women at the negotiation table, which reflects the gendered nature of diplomacy as an institution. The research question raised in this chapter concern how gender impacts peace negotiations, and how women’s participation is conceptualized in theory and framed in policy? The chapter first takes stock of contemporary policy discourses on women’s participation and the state-of-the art of scholarly work on gender and peace negotiations. It then moves on to depict where women are descriptively positioned in peace negotiation and analyzes the gendered dynamics of peace negotiations. It highlights some enabling and constraining factors, which influence women’s participation in peace negotiation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how a research agenda can be advanced on gender and peace negotiation.

scholarly journals GENDER-RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE POLICIES – A PATH TO SUSTAINABLE PEACE AND POST‑CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION

2021 ◽  
pp. 202-208
Author(s):  
E. V. Lukianchenko
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
The Government

The article is devoted to the legal basis and direction of the Government of Ukraine in the development of gender-responsive state policy of the transition period. The international principles and commitments of Ukraine in the framework of transitional justice, taking into account the gender aspect, are revealed, as well as the international and national commitments of Ukraine in the framework of involving women in peacebuilding and participation. The article presents international experience of taking into account international standards and norms in order to protect women’s rights and build peace. Global evidence indicates that women’s meaningful participation in peace negotiations increases the duration of peace. Peace agreements with female signatories are more durable and have a significantly higher number of provisions aimed at political reform and higher implementation rates. The recent study investigating 352 peace agreements in 64 countries between 1990 and 2019 also found that there was a significant increase in the share of peace agreements with gender provisions, from below 10% in the 1990s to 45% in 2013. Yet, this practice appears to have been halted. In 2019, the share of agreements with gender provisions was only at 29%. Despite an increasing evidence about the important role of women, their expertise and meaningful participation in preventing and addressing conflict and sustaining peace, women are still under- represented in the peace processes. Between 1992 and 2019, women constituted, on average, only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators, and 6% of signatories in major peace processes worldwide. Present peacebuilding experiences also indicate that peace is likely to be lasting only if the security needs of the population are addressed in parallel with the political and socioeconomic aspects of conflict resolution and post-conflict recovery. Women’s exposure to conflict may result in their new roles and responsibilities and may open new opportunities for their greater involvement in public life, including peace and security decision-making. Likewise, gender equality positively influences the cohesion and effectiveness of the security sector in increasingly multidimensional peace processes.

scholarly journals The effects of armed conflict on forest cover changes across temporal and spatial scales in the Colombian Amazon

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar V. Bautista-Cespedes ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Augusto Castro-Nunez ◽  
Thomas A. Groen
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Forest Cover Changes ◽  
The Government ◽  
Colombian Amazon

AbstractThe Amazon rainforest covers roughly 40% of Colombia’s territory and has important global ecological functions. For more than 50 years, an internal war in the country has shaped this region. Peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) initiated in 2012 resulted in a progressive de-escalation of violence and a complete ceasefire in 2016. This study explores the role of different deforestation drivers including armed conflict variables, in explaining deforestation for three periods between 2001 and 2015. Iterative regression analyses were carried out for two spatial extents: the entire Colombian Amazon and a subset area which was most affected by deforestation. The results show that conflict variables have positive relationships with deforestation; yet, they are not among the main variables explaining deforestation. Accessibility and biophysical variables explain more variation. Nevertheless, conflict variables show divergent influence on deforestation depending on the period and scale of analysis. Based on these results, we develop deforestation risk maps to inform the design of forest conservation efforts in the post-conflict period.

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.

scholarly journals Complexities and Context: Women's Peace-Building in Conflict and Post-Conflict Bougainville

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page
Keyword(s):  
Peace Process ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace And Conflict Studies ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Context Specific

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>

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