The Neo-Colonial State of Exception in Occupied Iraq

2016 ◽  
pp. 298-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The Government ◽  
Coalition Provisional Authority ◽  
Conflict Period

This paper explores the immediate post-conflict period following the 2003 Coalition invasion of Iraq, analysing the political strategy of economic exceptionalism violently and illegally imposed by the Coalition partners. The government of occupation, Coalition Provisional Authority, (CPA) ensured the disbursal of revenue and the accumulation of profits at an accelerated rate with few administrative controls or mechanisms of accountability. In the case of the post-invasion transformation of Iraq, routine corporate criminality, facilitated by the government of occupation, is revealed as an important means of producing and reproducing (neo) colonial power relations. The systematic corruption of the reconstruction economy unfolded in a liminal space opened up by the suspension of law. This neo-colonial ‘state of exception' became the mode of domination that sough political and social transformation as part of the ‘reconstruction' process in post-Saddam Iraq.

scholarly journals ‘Confession’ and ‘Forgiveness’ as a strategy for development in post-genocide Rwanda

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kubai
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
State Level ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Interpretative Analysis ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

The government of Rwanda has pursued reconciliation with great determination in the belief that it is the only moral alternative to post-genocide social challenges. In Rwanda, communities must be mobilised and reshaped for social, political and economic reconstruction. This creates a rather delicate situation. Among other strategies, the state has turned to the concepts of confession and forgiveness which have deep religious roots, and systematised them both at the individual and community or state level in order to bring about reconciliation, justice, social cohesion and ultimately economic development. In view of these strategies and challenges, some of the important questions are: Does forgiveness restore victims and empower them to heal their communities? What empirical evidence exists that religiously inspired justice and reconciliation processes after mass political violence make a difference? In what areas might the understanding of religious thought and activity towards transitional justice be deepened? These questions provide the backdrop against which I examine the case of post-genocide Rwanda in this article. A hermeneutic interpretative analysis is used to situate the phenomena of forgiveness, confession and social transformation within the specific context of post-conflict societies.

scholarly journals The Reform of Public Administration in Kosovo

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-102
Author(s):  
Milot KRASNIQI ◽  
Laura TAHIRI ◽  
Azem KOLLONI
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
State Building ◽  
Administrative Reform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
New Public ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The Government ◽  
Development Structure ◽  
Conflict Period

The reform of Public Administration in Kosovo is an essential part of the State-Building process. By the administrative reform, the Government aims to modernize the Public Administration, to strengthen its capacities and to make it more efficient and accountable. The post-conflict period in Kosovo from 1999 when the building of the new Public Administration in Kosovo began until the beginning of the administrative reform is a relatively difficult period for Kosovo. The reform of the Public Administration in Kosovo is manifested in two ways: first, in relation to its own development structure and, secondly, in relation to the functions it performs, the effects which are realized and the services provided to Institutions and citizens. The implementation of E-Government in Public Administration in Kosovo enables all efficient categories of Government services, at any time and from any distance, in order to meet daily needs of citizens. E-Government modernizes the administration and enables the creation of an efficient and accountable management at all levels of administration. Through the provision of electronic services to citizens, Kosova will be part of Europe.

Post-Conflict Syria: From Destruction to Reconstruction – Who's Involved and to Which Extent

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
Nura Ibold
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Syrian Conflict

The wave of popular unrest in the Arab world reached Syria in March 2011, and what started as peaceful demonstrations with simple demands of justice and freedom turned into a brutal armed conflict and a full-scale civil war. Over seven years of conflict resulted in the deaths of over half a million Syrians, the forced displacement of millions more, and a huge loss of the country's social and physical structures. What began as another Arab Spring movement against a dictatorial regime has turned into a proxy war that has attracted the interests of the world and regional powers. The paper discusses Syria's political history and investigates the motives for the Syrian uprising and argues that it is related to socio-economic deprivations rather than sectarianism. The work underlines the interests of the countries involved in the Syrian conflict focusing on Russia, USA, Iran, and Turkey, as well as their contribution to the future reconstruction of the country. Over the past few years, the Syrian regime and its allies targeted many cities and destroyed opposition-held neighborhoods. The work considers if this destruction was part of an overall strategy adopted by the al-Assad regime to terrorize those who opposed it and change Syria demographically, examining the new laws issued by the government to transfer public properties into the hands of its loyal businessmen factions, as in the case of the reconstruction project in the city of Homs. Seven years of war exhausted Syria's financial stocks, and the country (and in turn the regime) is suffering the consequences of military spending. But like any other war, destruction is also a great opportunity to generate money through reconstruction and growth. It is a “win-win situation”; the regime will use the fund designated for reviving the country to its own benefit, gaining future profits. Already invested in the conflict, involved countries will be part of the reconstruction process to secure their presence and control in Syria. United Nations agencies like UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are working closely with the Syrian regime and its governmental representatives. This research examines their involvement and how their ‘humanitarian mission' is being exploited to prop up the al-Assad regime.

scholarly journals Aid Targeting in Post Conflict Nepal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Binetti ◽  
Martin C. Steinwand
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government ◽  
Economic Need ◽  
Conflict Period

International aid plays an important role in the reconstruction of war-torn societies after the end of civil war, but its effectiveness depends on whether aid reaches the neediest recipients. We study how power sharing in Nepal's post-conflict transition affected the political capture of aid. We argue that despite the explicit inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement from 2006 and the Interim Constitution, regions that neither aligned with the Maoist rebels nor the government during the civil war remained politically disadvantaged. A possible causal mechanism is the low threat potential of non-combatant groups, which results in under-representation during peace negotiations and in post-conflict institutions. We present statistical evidence that districts in which neither the government nor the Maoist rebels (CPN(M)) had political support during the conflict receive systematically less aid during the post-conflict period, regardless of economic need or damage caused by fighting. At the same time, support for the CPN(M) during the conflict is a significant predictor for higher post-conflict aid flows, but only in times when the CPN(M) holds government office.

scholarly journals THE FUTURE OF PEACE BETWEEN ACEH AND JAKARTA UNDER HELSINKI AGREEMENT 2005

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-664
Author(s):  
Takdir Ali Mukti ◽  
Tulus Warsito ◽  
Sidiq Ahmadi ◽  
Bambang Cipto ◽  
Husni Amriyanto Putra
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Waves ◽  
Conflict Period

Purpose of the study: The paper examines the waves of criticism on the Indonesian government's violations in the implementation of the Helsinki agreement 2005 between Indonesia and the Aceh National Liberation Front (GAM). The question is, why the Aceh government which is controlled by GAM is retaining and loyal to the peace treaty when the Government of Indonesia has less attention. The objective of this research is to identify the latent interest in the post-conflict period. Methodology: By the qualitative method, data from the Aceh region were collected by interviewing selected informants from stakeholders in parliament, bureaucrats, academicians, local parties' leaders, and ex-combatants. Main Findings: The findings show that the existence of the idea of self-government in Aceh societies is still maintained, and peace agreement becomes a new document of struggle in a democratic system. Applications of this study: This research is useful for those who involved in the peace agreement including the Conflict Management Initiative and the European Union who initiated the peace to find common ground on the issue of the implementation of all points in the agreement which has not been realized until now. Novelty/Originality of this study: The research argues that Aceh government that dominated by GAM exponents, has efforts to defend the treaty as a legal-political instrument to reach the self-government’s status with its main elements namely local parties, the Aceh Guardian institutions, and recognition of Aceh society with flag and hymn as continuity of ideological movement. It implicates the dynamic of relations between the center and the regional government.

Ghost Dancing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kélina Gotman
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Ghost Dance ◽  
The Government ◽  
Wasted Energy ◽  
The U.S

Native American dancers in the 1890s rebelling against the U.S. government’s failure to uphold treaties protecting land rights and rations were accused of fomenting a dancing ‘craze’. Their dancing—which hoped for a renewal of Native life—was subject to intense government scrutiny and panic. The government anthropologist James Mooney, in participant observation and fieldwork, described it as a religious ecstasy like St. Vitus’s dance. The Ghost Dance movement escalated with the proliferation of reports, telegraphs, and letters circulating via Washington, DC. Although romantically described as ‘geognosic’—nearly mineral—ancestors of the whites, Native rebels in the Plains were told to stop dancing so they could work and thus modernize; their dancing was deemed excessive, wasteful, and unproductive. The government’s belligerently declared state of exception—effectively cultural war—was countered by one that they performed ecstatically. ‘Wasted’ energy, dancers maintained, trumped dollarization—the hollow ‘use value’ of capitalist biopower.

Policing and the Legacies of Wartime State Predation: Evidence from a Survey and Field Experiment in Liberia

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200272110130
Author(s):  
Robert A. Blair ◽  
Benjamin S. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
State Security ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Period

How does violence during civil war shape citizens’ willingness to trust and rely on state security providers in the post-conflict period? Can post-conflict security sector reform restore perceptions of state security forces among victims of wartime state predation? Using a survey and field experiment in Liberia, we show that rebel-perpetrated violence is strongly positively correlated with trust and reliance on the police after conflict is over, while state-perpetrated violence is not. Victims of wartime state predation are, however, more likely to update their priors about the police in response to positive interactions with newly reformed police officers. We also show that abuses committed by police officers in the post-conflict period are negatively correlated with citizens’ perceptions of the police, potentially counteracting the positive effects of security sector reform. We corroborate our quantitative findings with detailed qualitative observations of interactions between civilians and police officers in the field.

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 Sri Lanka: Physical Reconstruction and Economic Development as Conflict Prevention Factors

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (69) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Boženko Đevoić
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Postconflict Reconstruction ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACT This article gives an overview of the 26 year long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and examines physical reconstruction and economic development as measures of conflict prevention and postconflict reconstruction. During the years of conflict, the Sri Lankan government performed some conflict prevention measures, but most of them caused counter effects, such as the attempt to provide “demilitarization”, which actually increased militarization on both sides, and “political power sharing” that was never honestly executed. Efforts in post-conflict physical reconstruction and economic development, especially after 2009, demonstrate their positive capacity as well as their conflict sensitivity. Although the Sri Lankan government initially had to be forced by international donors to include conflict sensitivity in its projects, more recently this has changed. The government now practices more conflict sensitivity in its planning and execution of physical reconstruction and economic development projects without external pressure.

scholarly journals Persistent Conflict and Perceived Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Southern Kaduna Region of Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Tunde Abioro ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
People’S Perception ◽  
Origin Identity ◽  
The Government

The cycle of individual and communal lives from birth to death is supposedly preserved by the government through institutions. However, political, social, and economic activities are engaged to make ends meet wherein the government is to serve as an unbiased regulator. The activities that play out in Southern Kaduna reflected politics of being on one side with interplay on origin, identity, religion, and locality. On the other hand, it reflects politics of belonging that play on kin, reciprocity, and stranger status. It has thus resulted in violence, suspicion, and persistent conflict. The study examines citizen’s inclusiveness in peacebuilding initiatives and the people’s perception of the sincerity of the government. The research relies on secondary sources where governmental and non-governmental publications and documents from relevant and reliable sources enriched the socio-historical approach, particularly those relating to contestation in the region. The study found out that just like situations in the other northwest states of the country, the crisis exacerbates by the government’s inability to mediate fairly between warring parties to ensure fairness and justice as well as failure to apprehend and punish the culprits, even as recommendations from the various interventions were unimplemented. Thus, the spate of violence continues.

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