scholarly journals ABKHAZ-GEORGIAN ETHNOPOLITICAL CONFLICT AS A COMPLEX CONFLICT AND PROSPECTS FOR ITS SETTLEMENT

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
I.M. Nokhrin
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Complex Case ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Ethnopolitical Conflict ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Status

The paper addresses the issue of Abkhaz-Georgian ethnopolitical conflict treating it as not a single process but as the complex case that consists of several consecutive self-sufficient conflicts or sub-conflicts during which different parties had various goals and escalated the situation trying to achieve miscellaneous aims. Although each of these sub-conflicts are looking like historical phases of one conflict, each of them has its own logic and, therefore, requires to be analyzed separately. The first sub-conflict of 1991-1994 can be quite accurately explained from the structuralist perspective as an attempt of the Abkhaz to reconsider their status and break the discriminative social structures developed during imperial and Soviet rule. The second phase 1994-2008 was the period of nationalist mobilization and the new clashes and atrocities were the result of the Georgian and Abkhaz elites’ intention to strengthen their legitimacy and power. Russia's role in this case fits well with the concept of "humanitarian intervention" and does not correspond to the Roger Brubaker’s famous “triadic nexus” (1996). Finally, the last phase of conflict since 2008 can be hardly called an ethnopolitical conflict itself since peace and the military status quo were established after the war of 2008 which neither side can challenge. Therefore, after 2008, it is more appropriate to speak about the need of post-conflict reconciliation instead of Abkhaz-Georgian ethnopolitical conflict. However, none of the parties has taken steps towards this reconciliation yet because the settlement of the conflict is impossible while it continues to be used for nationalist mobilization.

Engaging Diaspora in Reconciliation Efforts in Sri Lanka: Lessons Learnt

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Amjad Mohamed-Saleem
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Trust Building ◽  
Social And Cultural Capital ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Lessons Learnt ◽  
The World ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation ◽  
National Framework

With nearly three million Sri Lankans living overseas, across the world, there is a significant role that can be played by this constituency in post-conflict reconciliation.  This paper will highlight the lessons learnt from a process facilitated by International Alert (IA) and led by the author, working to engage proactively with the diaspora on post-conflict reconciliation in Sri Lanka.  The paper shows that for any sustainable impact, it is also critical that opportunities are provided to diaspora members representing the different communities of the country to interact and develop horizontal relations, whilst also ensuring positive vertical relations with the state. The foundation of such effective engagement strategies is trust-building. Instilling trust and gaining confidence involves the integration of the diaspora into the national framework for development and reconciliation. This will allow them to share their human, social and cultural capital, as well as to foster economic growth by bridging their countries of residence and origin.

Transitional Justice, Truth and Reconciliation: An Under-Explored Relationship

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation

AbstractMuch of the literature on transitional justice suffers from a critical impact gap, which scholars are only now beginning to address. One particular manifestation of this aforementioned gap, and one which forms the particular focus of this article, is the frequently-cited yet empirically under-researched claim that "truth" fosters post-conflict reconciliation. Theoretically and empirically critiquing this argument, this article both questions the comprehensiveness of truth established through criminal trials and truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) and underscores the often overlooked problem of denial, thus raising fundamental questions about the reputed healing properties of truth in such contexts. Advocating the case for evidence-based transitional justice, it reflects upon empirical research on South Africa's TRC and the author's own work on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

scholarly journals Responses of a Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service During Military Conflict Versus COVID-19: A Retrospective Comparative Cohort Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Jaffe ◽  
Roman Sonkin ◽  
Evan Avraham Alpert ◽  
Erik Zerath
Keyword(s):  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Motor Vehicle Collisions ◽  
Vehicle Collisions ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Comparative Cohort Study ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Military ◽  
Conflict Period

ABSTRACT Background Decreases in routine healthcare practices have been shown to occur during disasters. However, research regarding the impacts of natural disasters, pandemics, or military conflicts on emergency medical services (EMS) is scarce. Objectives This study assessed the impact of a military conflict versus the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on a national EMS organization in terms of responses to overall daily emergencies, medical illnesses, motor vehicle collisions, and other injuries. Methods This retrospective comparative cohort study assessed daily routine emergency ambulance calls to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national EMS organization. This included overall emergency calls as well as those related to medical illnesses, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), and other injuries. All data were obtained from the MDA command and control database. During the military conflict Operation Protective Edge (2014), the civilian population was subjected to intensive rocket attacks for 24 days, followed by 26 days of a progressive withdrawal of operations and then to a post-conflict period. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-April 2020), the population was subjected to 32 days of total lockdown, followed by 27 days of progressive relief of confinement, and then to a post-lockdown period. Results The total number of emergency calls in this study was 330,430. During the conflict, the mean number of daily calls decreased, followed by an increase during Relief and Post-Conflict with higher values in Post-Conflict than in Pre-Conflict. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decrease in the mean daily number of calls during Lockdown. It remained low during Relief and increased during Post-Lockdown. However, it remained lower in Post-Lockdown than during Pre-Lockdown. Calls related to medical illnesses decreased during the conflict and during the lockdown. The post-conflict period was characterized by a similar baseline call magnitude but not during the post-lockdown period. Decreases in calls for MVC and other injuries were significant during the lockdown but not during the military conflict. Post-lockdown was accompanied by return to baseline call volumes for MVC, whereas calls for other injuries increased above baseline both after the lockdown and military conflict. Conclusion This study shows decreasing trends in routine daily calls for EMS during both Operation Protective Edge and COVID-19. However, different patterns of needs for EMS were evidenced for medical illnesses, MVC, or calls concerning other injuries. These results are instrumental for managing the operational demands of EMS during military conflicts and pandemics.

The Hoplite Debate

Men of Bronze ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Kagan ◽  
Gregory F. Viggiano
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Grand Narrative ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
The Military

This chapter takes a more detailed look into the hoplite debate. It shows how modern historians of ancient Greece have come to develop a grand narrative. This “orthodoxy” explains the rise of the early polis in terms of a dramatic change or “revolution” in arms, armor, and tactics; the military revolution became a driving force behind the emergence of the characteristic political and social structures of the Greek state. A central part of the thesis is that the change in fighting style was directly related to recent innovations in arms and armor. Second, the phalanx depended on the weight and the cohesion of heavily armed men who employed “shock” tactics in brief but decisive battles. Third, it has been critical to identify the greatest number of hoplites with a middling group within the polis, which had the wealth to provide its own arms. Fourth, this middling group transformed Greek values.

A Different Form of Intervention? Revisiting the Role of Researchers in Post-war Contexts

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Daniela Lai
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Intervention Research ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Military

This chapter deals with Daniela Lai's argument on the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which explains how some forms of distance between researcher and researched are created by academic research and seen as a form of intervention. It focuses on the consequences of research-as-intervention and intervention by academia that shape the very field it sets out to research. It also discusses how the over-research of certain areas of Bosnian society are experienced due to academic biases that lead to distancing. The chapter looks into another form of distancing that concerns communities, groups, and topics that are sidelined by intervention research for not being the focus of the military and political interventions. It also addresses why there are people, places, and problems that are absent and distant from fieldwork-based research in most over-researched post-conflict societies.

Gazed and subdued? Spectacle, spatial order and identity in the contested city

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bree T Hocking
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Tourist Gaze ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Successful Model ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation ◽  
The Right

From 2012–2013, Northern Ireland was rocked by loyalist protests over limits placed on flying the British flag at Belfast City Hall. The sometimes-violent manifestations were roundly condemned by officials and business leaders as an assault on ‘Brand Northern Ireland’, a threat to the province’s reputation as a successful model of post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. Accordingly, this article revises and updates Goffman’s concept of ‘a veneer of consensus’ to show how new regimes of political repression are inaugurated in the name of ‘tourism’. With the tourist gaze invoked by local officials as both neutral arbiter and economic imperative, the protests are subsequently assessed as a form of power negotiation, whereby symbolic contestation over the right to define the image of place in both physical and virtual spaces assumed an intensely political role.

Lucius Crassus and Cicero: The Formation of a Statesman

1971 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 75-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Rawson
Keyword(s):  
Family Background ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The People ◽  
Family Tradition ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
Practical Level

If we remember anything about Cicero's political ideas, it is that he believed in the right and duty of the senate to exercise supremacy in Rome, but that he also advocated aconcordia ordinmi, an alliance between and recognition of the common interests of senators andequites, to whom property and thestatus quowere sacred. Closely connected with this is the idea of aconsensus omnium bonorum, a wider alliance to include most of theplebs, and Italy. In the service of this ideal of unity he believed that the conservative statesman should beconcordiae causa sapienter popularis, though he should consult the true interests of the people even more than their wishes; and that all government should be mild and conciliatory. These are the views by which we distinguish him from his more obstinate optimate contemporaries, above all Cato, who are less flexible, more rigidly reactionary. Although, since Strasburger's famous study ofConcordia Ordinum, students of Cicero ought to have been prepared to pursue some of these beliefs of his back into the Roman past, too many historians and biographers still give the impression that they were Cicero's own invention (and an unhappy and unrealistic one too, it is often implied). But this is rash. Cicero,pacesome of his detractors, was an intelligent man; but he was not a man of deeply original mind, as would be generally admitted. His greatness lay not in originality, but in the life and form that he could give to the Roman tradition, enriching or illuminating it, sometimes even criticising it, from his knowledge of Greek history and thought.We should be chary therefore of supposing that Cicero's political programme was wholly his own; and, where a programme on a practical level is concerned, we should probably look more closely for Roman than for Greek sources. The first place to search is of course in a man's immediate family background, its position, traditions and contacts. This is true of all ages and places; but it is especially true of Rome. In the recent and justified reaction against the idea of fixed family parties, allied to or warring with certain other families from generation to generation, we are in danger of forgetting that family tradition in a broad sense was often very important. Cicero explains in thede officiishow one should imitate not only themaioresin general, but one's ownmaioresin particular – thus successive Scaevolae have become legal experts, and Scipio Aemilianus emulated the military glory of the first Africanus.

Conflict Management and Resolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon D. Lundy ◽  
Edwin Njonguo
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation ◽  
The Individual

Conflict management and resolution are processes for dealing with discord or facilitating peaceful and satisfactory cessations to conflict, and even potentially its transformation. Ideas and actions about how disputes are handled within various historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural contexts and structures come from a range of positions, people, and institutions, with some approaches having empirical, experiential, precedential, authoritative, or intuitive support. The aggregation, analysis, and dissemination of these processes have led to the development of related fields within peace and conflict studies. Identified approaches to conflict management and resolution include, but are not limited to, alternative dispute resolution (negotiation, facilitation, mediation, case analysis, early neutral evaluation, conciliation, and arbitration), peacebuilding, and diplomacy. As an interdisciplinary field, scholarship is drawn from a broad range of academic disciplines, including social psychology, law, economics, and political science. These theories and processes are often systematically designed toward specific ends (e.g., management, analysis, resolution, transformation) and get applied at the individual, community, institutional, regional, state, and/or international levels. Through an analysis of the extant African studies resources focusing on conflict management and resolution, emergent themes fall into two broad categories: applied mechanisms of conflict management and resolution, and conflict issues affecting the continent. The African continent has seen its fair share of violent and intractable conflicts, both intra- and interstate. From the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya beginning in 2010 to the Niger Delta conflict and Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, Kenyan presidential election violence, or South African water shortages, conflict and the need for its management, analysis, and resolution are abundant. Engagement (not isolation) and active dialogue, collaboration, and conflict sensitivity (i.e., do no harm) are essential keys to studying, managing, resolving, and transforming the diverse range of conflict situations found throughout Africa. External, internal (i.e., indigenous or localized), and hybrid models can open and sustain pathways to peace. Many scholars now argue that conflict management, analysis, and resolution must address root causes, take an interdisciplinary approach, not conflate conflict and violence, use multiscalar perspectives (i.e., individual, group, state, interstate), and employ multicultural sensitivities attuned to cultural contexts and global sources of conflict. Scholars and practitioners must investigate and better understand the origins, causes, resolution, and consequences of conflicts in contemporary Africa in relation to their postcolonial contexts. Concerns include ethnic, religious, political, and environmental conflict factors, as well as demographic pressures. The stakeholder roles in post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction should also be determined and continually evaluated to ensure effectiveness in African conflicts.

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