Impacts of Culture and Cultural Differences on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in Multicultural Societies

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Victor Ikechukwu Ogharanduku ◽  
Adekunle Theophilus Tinuoye
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Different Cultures

Multicultural societies have become sites of violent conflicts following predictions at the end of the Cold War that culture would be a causative of future conflict. However, conflicts have not necessarily been caused by the presence of the different cultures that inhabit these communities, but cultural differences in these societies is observed to become embedded in conflict dynamics inducing escalation, aiding the easy mobilisation and motivation of conflict parties to utilise violence, eventually inducing intractability. Cultural differences impact conflict prevention and peacebuilding in multicultural settings by constituting a barrier and a times instigating failures of these processes. At the same time, it is a culture resource that can be harnessed for conflict prevention and peacebuilding if it is well understood, but its impacts seems less well understood. Successful conflict prevention and peacebuilding in multicultural societies is tied to in-depth understanding of cultural differences.

Die harte Schule der neuen Gewalt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Rinke
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
East West

This study examines the fundamental new direction in German theological peace ethics since the end of the East–West conflict. It guides the reader through the thought processes and discoveries of leading Catholic and Protestant peace ethicists and, in doing so, through the significant developments in theological peace ethics in Germany amid the tough new realities that have emerged since the end of the Cold War. In addition, the book discusses the normative premises for conduct conducive to peace which German theological peace ethics has devised in order to fulfil its responsibility to the world in the face of today’s new, violent conflicts.

Through a Glass Darkly: Looking at Conflict Prevention, Management, and Termination. By Stephen J. Cimbala. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001. 224p. $65.00.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 680-681
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Underhill-Cady
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World Order ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
American Empire ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
Arms Races ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
The Cold War

One test of a book is how well it weathers major developments in world events, and, as with the end of the Cold War, the beginning of the new war on terrorism presents recent publications in international or military affairs with the danger of untimely relegation to the trash bin of history. After September 11, as we scramble to adjust and make sense of the “hunt for Osama,” Stephen Cimbala's work, however, remains a useful compendium of lessons from several recent wars, crises, and ongoing military challenges. Although the book is not as suddenly relevant as Samuel Huntington's (1998) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order or Chalmers Johnson's (2001) Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, the wisdom distilled within it is sound enough to apply equally well to the pre- and post-September 11 worlds. It is largely rooted in frameworks developed for studying the Cold War and superpower arms races, but Cimbala's examination of the new realities of military strategy and technology still has much to say about the war being waged in Afghanistan and the campaigns that are likely to follow.

scholarly journals Field Diplomacy: A New Conflict Prevention Paradigm?

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Reychler
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
The North ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
North And South ◽  
Very High

One of the most important challenges facing the global community in the next decade, is the prevention of destructive conflicts. Listening to the discourse in the United Nations and other governmental and non governmental organizations this may sound like kicking in wide open doors (Bauwens and Reychler, 1994). But the failure of conflict prevention and the high number of conflict zones, indicates that we still have a long way to go. A global survey of contemporary conflicts counts 22 high-intensity and 39 lowerintensity conflicts, and 40 serious disputes (PIOOM, 1995). In 1995 five groups were victims of genocides or politicides. The risks of future victimization of 47 communities in different parts of the world is assessed as high of very high (PIOOM, 1995). The growth of nationalist feelings at the end of the Cold War is only the beginning of more suffering. More conflicts are expected, with old and new causes, such as the unequal or unfair trade balances between North and South, unemployment in the North, the environmental pollution, religious extremism, mass immigration and the growing number of failed states. These problems could hurt people so much that they would be prepared to fight for them.

Connecting Central America to the Southern Cone: The Chilean and Argentine Response to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-579
Author(s):  
Molly Avery
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Central America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Southern Cone ◽  
Regional Context ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Nicaraguan Revolution ◽  
Violent Conflicts

AbstractThe history of the Cold War in Latin America in the 1970s is commonly split into two episodes: the establishment of anticommunist dictatorships and the ensuing repression across the Southern Cone in the early and middle decade, and the Nicaraguan Revolution and the eruption of violent conflicts across Central America at its close. By exploring the Chilean and Argentine response to the Nicaraguan Revolution, this article brings these two episodes together, demonstrating how they were understood to belong to one and the same ideological conflict. In doing so, it highlights the importance of the revolution in the Chilean and Argentine perception of the Cold War and explores how the Sandinista triumph directly shaped Southern Cone ideas about US power and the communist threat, also prompting reflection on their own ‘models’ for anticommunist governance. Both regimes responded by increasing their support for anticommunist forces in Guatemala and El Salvador, often conducting this aid through a wider transnational and clandestine network. This article contributes to new understandings of the nature of Latin American anticommunism in this period, challenges traditional understandings of external involvement in Central America, and demonstrates the need to understand events in Latin America in this period in their full regional context.

Charting the Ups and Downs of osce Mediation

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 243-255
Author(s):  
David Lanz
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Over Time

This article traces the development of osce mediation and provides elements to explain the ups and downs over time. The origins of osce mediation date back to the inception of the organisation during the Cold War period. However, it only became a mediator in the 1990s, playing different roles. This work suffered in the 2000s as the osce’s relevance was increasingly questioned. In recent years, the osce has seen renewed growth, owing to a political commitment by participating States to strengthen its mediation capacities and because of the leading role it took on in mediating the crisis in and around Ukraine. While this is a significant development, this article argues that the osce’s mediation role is likely to be limited, focusing on the niche of managing established formats and local conflict prevention.

scholarly journals MANAGEMENT OF ETHNO-LINGUISTIC CONFLICT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BELGIAN AND NIGERIAN MODELS

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
T. OLAIFA ◽  
B. SOTILOYE ◽  
I. I. DARE
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Ethnic Pluralism ◽  
The World ◽  
Linguistic Challenges ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts

The spate of violent conflict all over the world since the end of the cold war has been chiefly engineered by ethno-linguistic supremacy based on prevalent ethnic pluralism. Ethno-linguistic pluralism is a conflict issue in Nigeria and it has antecedents of major conflicts trailing its existence. Ethno-linguistic conflicts have been on the rise since the commencement of the Fourth Republic basically due to the liberalisation of the political space and this has resulted in violent conflicts claiming lives and wantonly destroying property. Most of the strategies deployed to resolve ethno-linguistic conflicts in Nigeria are often unable to diagnose accurately the nature of the conflicts and the resolve the main issues causing them. Therefore most of the conflicts become intractable. However, Nigeria is not an isolated case as some other nations around the world are either battling with ideas to resolve the numerous conflicts it has generated or have evolved home-grown mechanisms to manage the ethno-linguistic challenges it has posed. This paper seeks to highlight ethno-linguistic conflict issues in Belgium and the strategies deployed in resolving it and at the same time reflect on the Nigerian experience drawing out unique experiences, similarities and lessons to be learnt from both countries

From 'Sovereignty as Responsibility' to the 'Responsibility to Protect'

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Deng
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Modern Nation State

AbstractThis essay examines the origins and evolution of the concepts of 'sovereignty as responsibility' and the 'responsibility to protect'. In particular, it considers the role and duty of states and how ideas of sovereignty have evolved since the modern nation-state was conceived by the European Treaty of Westphalia of 1648. It then examines the responsibility of states towards their own citizens and traces the development of the R2P norm in Africa as it has related to conflict prevention, management, and resolution since the end of the Cold War. The essay further considers the responsibilities of national democratic governments in Africa and beyond. Recent developments that have widened the scope and helped the acceptance and application of the concept of 'sovereignty as responsibility' are discussed, and the essay concludes with an examination of the accountability and enforcement challenges faced by R2P.

scholarly journals An Ever More Violent World?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Preventive Action ◽  
Ethnic Exclusion ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts

A recent report by the United Nations and the World Bank argues that the world has seen “a surge in violent conflicts in recent years,” with a sharp increase in reported battle-related and terrorist attacks, and calls for preventive action to ensure that increasing conflict does not undermine the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I will argue that this is a far too pessimistic assessment of conflict trends and not borne out of the available evidence, which indicates a decline in violent conflict since the end of the Cold War. Alarmist warnings may seem helpful to call for action, but they detract attention from what we can learn about the causes for why conflict has declined. For example, resort to violence has become less frequent where factors that can motivate resort to violence such as political and ethnic exclusion have decreased. Moreover, conflict of interest does not imply violence, and the space for nonviolent alternatives has increased. The future of conflict and peace depends on our confidence in whether positive changes will continue and our understanding of the possible challenges.

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