Hybrid Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Participatory Arts and Youth Activism as Vehicles of Social Change

This article provides an analytical case study of a participatory youth-led filmmaking project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using the conceptual framework of hybridity, it critically considers whether and to what extent youth centred, participatory arts projects can facilitate the emergence of a positive hybrid peace. It reflects on three themes—solidarity; creativity as politics; and participation as norm—that speak to the opportunities and challenges encountered during the project. The analysis demonstrates that while participatory arts have the potential to induce a more emancipatory vision of peace, that, and mirroring the warnings from development studies, their effects are not a given and challenges and blockages persist.

Landmine Clearance and Peacebuilding: Evidence from Somaliland

The mine action sector has struggled to demonstrate the socioeconomic benefits of mine clearance. Previous academic studies have made important contributions but have been limited in offering in-depth discussions of causal pathways. This paper seeks to fill that gap. It proposes a new framework, the Mine Clearance and Peacebuilding Synergies (MPS) framework that combines the Humanitarian Mine Action Peacebuilding Palette, the Mine Action- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework and theoretical considerations from the Infrastructure as Peacebuilding framework to interrogate this interaction. Using Somaliland's post-conflict reconstruction as a case study, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data to map both the direct and indirect benefits of mine clearance in relation to infrastructure development. We find that mine clearance can influence both economic and physical reconstruction through its impact on dominant economic sectors as well as critical strategic infrastructure, including ports and roads, and demonstrate the synergies therein with an array of SDGs.

Displacement, Gender-Based Development, and Grave Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict: The Case of Iraq

Development policies advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda enjoy an established trajectory across international organizations. This is evident within United Nations programs that engage displaced populations where children are particularly vulnerable to conflict dynamics. This article argues that existing gender-based development policies mitigate the impact of conflict on children through empowering displaced women as peacebuilding agents. Using United Nations data, fieldwork, and elite interviews, this article employs a case study of Iraq to show that the implementation of gender-based development policies correlates with reduced rates of grave violations against children in conflict settings. These findings point to the peacebuilding potential of displaced women through their ability to mitigate the economic and social impacts of conflict dynamics on children. Policy programs within the United Nations Women, Peace and Security framework should engage this connection between displaced women and the protection of children to strengthen and improve peacebuilding outcomes in conflict environments.

COVID-19 and Adapting to the New Normal: Lessons Learned for Peacebuilding

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2; Covid-19) a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Unlike preceding highly contagious diseases that brought the threat of global instability this century, such as SARS-CoV, Zika virus (ZIKV), Swine flu (H1N1), and Avian flu (H5N1), Covid-19, governments across the world introduced strict measures and interruptions to daily life incomparable in living memory. Overnight, countries closed schools, higher education institutions, workplaces and shut down borders – this left people scrambling to adapt, including those implementing peacebuilding interventions. In this unprecedented situation, peacebuilding organisations have worked, responded, and adapted to the new normal. These new dynamics have created both challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding. This article documents the experiences of peacebuilders during the pandemic, making sense of changing conditions, challenges and opportunities they faced. It explores two key questions. How have peacebuilding organisations adapted during COVID-19? Has COVID-19 contributed to the move to local ownership of peacebuilding or localisation? It addresses these questions by engaging with peacebuilding organisations across different geographical regions through an online survey and key informant interviews. The main results focus on localisation, digital adaptation and funding strategy and administration challenges.

Exploring Kurdish Islamist Civil Society and Conflict in Turkey (2015–2018)

This article addresses the role and impact of religious civil society in situations of armed conflict through a case study of Kurdish Islamist civil society organisations and activists in Turkey. The focus is on the period following the collapse of the peace process and resurgence of violence in mid-2015 between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkêrên Kurdistanê). Based on 40 in-depth interviews conducted in the city of Diyarbakir, I identify three main challenges to the effectiveness of religious civil society in peacebuilding processes: (1) relations with the state, (2) legacy and relationship with institutional violence, and (3) advocacy and representation of community needs. This article shows how ethnicity and Islam are shifting, contingent interactions in the construction of Kurdish identity, especially in response to violence. Although the public expression of pro-Kurdish rights claims altered under a securitisation rubric during this period, the demand for a peaceful settlement to the conflict transcends ideological and social differences across many Kurds.

Effects of Low-Intensity Conflicts on Farming Communities in Mindanao, Philippines

Low-intensity conflicts have often been afforded lesser importance than high-intensity conflicts. Yet, low-intensity conflicts can have impacts on the ability to farm, productivity, and income. We studied the effects of low-intensity conflicts on the farming communities in two conflict vulnerable areas in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. Following a review of the economic effects of conflict with a focus on Mindanao, we surveyed farmers in low-conflict areas to assess its impact on livelihood. In 2018, farmers in “peaceful” situation differed in income from those who are in “low-conflict” situations. The mean total household income for the “low conflict” (PHP8,360 or $US155) group was significantly lower by PHP13,060 ($US242) from the “peaceful” group (PHP24,433 or $US453). This findings suggest the need for further research regarding how villages resolve conflicts informally as a way of improve government-sponsored conflict resolution efforts.

Critical Evolutions in the Peacebuilding-Development Praxis Nexus: Crisis and Complexity, Synergy and Transformation

Over the last 2 decades, the peacebuilding and development nexus has grown as a critical area of scholarship and practise. At the same time, the conflict landscape has evolved in complexity, incorporating fragility, violence, and humanitarian crisis, presenting ever greater challenges for analysis, framing, and effective policy and practise responses. This article reflects on the paradigmatic shifts in this nexus as introduced by scholar Peter Uvin in 2002. It explores the ways in which they are still in play, adaptations in response to contextual developments, and new paradigms that are rising as they more meaningfully diagnose and offer responses to our complex, inter-related crises. The article argues that the complexity facing our fields demands inter-paradigm learning, pluralism, and synergy, and the political will to adapt and act in accordance with the transformative measures required to tackle the structural and systemic nature of these crises.

Drawing Out Experiential Conflict Knowledge in Myanmar: Arts-Based Methods in Qualitative Research With Conflict-Affected Communities

This article argues that arts-based methods such as drawing are particularly useful as means to explore experiential insights into how violent conflict impacts individuals and communities in specific sociocultural contexts and shapes their views of development and peace. It illustrates this through the discussion of a drawing workshop with members of violence-affected communities in Kachin state, Myanmar. Reflecting on the workshop findings and dynamics and on the positive impacts the methods’ adoption had on practices of an international civilian protection NGO in Myanmar, the article concludes that, when implemented with care, arts-based methods do not only help accessing deep context-specific insights to complement outsider-expert analyses, by creating a safe space to share experiences, but they also enable new engagements among local actors and with outside organisations, which can strengthen the primacy of local actors in peacebuilding and development initiatives.