Post-conflict army reconstruction is an important element of security sector reform (SSR), tracing its origins to at least 1980, before the SSR concept itself was formulated. Reconstruction of security forces is an important element in wider postconflict reconstruction, and for political reasons, an army has almost always deemed necessary. Since 1998, SSR itself has been increasingly conceptualized, with principles for SSR having been laid down by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since 2004. Yet SSR faces a host of philosophical and practical problems, perhaps the greatest being the gap between theory and practice (Chanaa's 'conceptual-contextual divide'). To make SSR efforts more successful, the underlying principles need to be revised and amended. Post-conflict army reconstruction experience since 1980, and associated academic study, military doctrine, and work by international organizations (particularly the OECD) can provide a basis for such revision. This thesis aims to survey post-conflict army reconstruction activities since 1980, draw overall lessons from that review and field study in Liberia, and propose amendments to the SSR principles on that basis.

Master of Science / Department of Entomology / Jeremy L. Marshall / Males providing females with gifts in order to mate is not a novel occurrence. Indeed, depending on the taxonomic system, males may provide gifts ranging from dead insects, to nutritious ejaculates to even subjecting themselves to cannibalistic feeding. Interestingly, while the burden of the costs of these gifts is primarily carried by the male, net fitness of providing or receiving such gifts must be positive for both sexes, if these gifts are to be maintained in a population. If this is not the case, and sexual conflict has exerted a cost-benefit imbalance between the sexes, then the expectation is that the system will evolve towards the reduction of nuptial gift giving. Here, utilizing the Allonemobius socius complex of crickets where females benefit greatly from cannibalizing male blood as a nuptial gift, we explore the possibility that sexual conflict is acting on gift size. To do this, we assess the gift-size distribution, and their associated fitness functions, for twelve populations that span the phylogeny and geographic distribution of this complex. We find that gift-size distributions are shifted towards small or no gifts in the majority of populations. Moreover, fitness data suggest that males providing a small or even no gift are equally successful to their large gift-giving counterparts. Taken together, the population profiles indicate that at least half of these populations are evolving towards the near or complete loss of these cannibalistic gifts – a predicted, but previously undocumented, outcome of sexual conflict. We also assess the speed at which sexual conflict is acting to alter gift size distributions in populations by comparing gift sizes between different time points in populations and across phylogenetic history. The implications of these results are discussed relative to antagonistic coevolution of behavioral traits and sexual conflict theory in general.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Security Studies / Emizet Kisangani / This dissertation analyzes the role that the international community has played in African states' post-conflict reconstruction. It thus intends to answer three questions: How does the presence or the absence of coordination among international and local actors contribute to the success or failure of post-conflict reconstruction? How does the international community’s coordination influence the architecture of post-conflict state reconstruction in Africa? How do actors, leadership, and power within a coordination network structure affect post-conflict reconstruction? The study argues that lack of coordination between the international and local actors is a critical factor explaining the failure of rebuilding states after civil wars. It develops a new theoretical framework (Hybridized model) that combines market, hierarchical, and network models of coordination. This coordination theory shows how actors, leadership, and power influence coordination network structure to enhance post-conflict reconstruction efforts. This theory postulates that a small number of actors, as well as the presence of a legitimate leadership and a powerful actor in a coordination network tends to enhance post-conflict coordination. The dissertation tests this theory using quantitative method which combines 26 African countries that have experienced repeated state building after civil war from 1970 to 2009 and qualitative method, especially structured focused comparison and process tracing, of four post-conflict countries that include Kenya, Sudan, Namibia, and Rwanda. The findings support the theoretical argument.

The work is dealing with the research of the socio-economic structures in the Bolivian society, which as a result of historical evolution embody distinct anomalies with an implication into the political sphere. The goal of the work is to offer a material on the basis of which it will be possible to detect and understand those inner tensions and to orientate ourselves in the present turbulent environment which the Bolivian society is currently undergoing. The fore theme is the approach of these processes in the light of the ongoing "indigenous revolution" conducted by the platform MAS led by Evo Morales. The author is using a synthetic method, when first he concentrates on the individual problematic fields and later summarizes, connects and synthetically implies concrete conclusions. The very results of the work can be used by those interested in the study of Bolivia for economical, sociological and political purposes or even by economic entities planning an entrance into the Bolivian environment. In the work the author has used his personal experience and pieces of knowledge gained during his three months staying in Bolivia as well as other information obtained from broad currently accessible scientific publications, documents ant further up-to-date resources.

This dissertation explores the how external threat from militarized interstate disputes and interstate rivalries affect the relationship between the state and the ethnic groups within its borders. Specifically, it finds that national identity, the preservation of ethnic regional autonomy, and the formation of ethnic-based militias are all influenced by states involvement in international conflicts. In Sub Saharan Africa, discriminated groups are less likely to identify with their national identity and when the state is involved in an interstate dispute, while the rest of the country increases their likelihood to identify with the nation, discriminated groups cling to their ethnic identity. During and interstate rivalry, ethnic groups face a heightened risk of the state taking away their autonomy over a region. If the rivalry becomes too intense or the ethnic group shares kin with the rival, the ethnic group has lower chance of losing their autonomy during rivalry. Finally, ethnic minority seeking to form a militia are able to form one faster if their ethnic group is well represented in the military's rank and file or if their co-ethnics in the rank and file had combat experience in an interstate dispute were military force was used. Ethnic groups that are well represented in officer corps are less likely to have organizations with militias especially if those officers have combat experience. Using a logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard models I find a strong link between interstate conflict and ethnic politics.

Magister Artium - MA / Rae and her sister, Alina, are young women who have travelled from Australia to visit their aunt, Trudy, in Ireland. Rae’s suspicions that something is amiss with the arrangement are confirmed when they discover that their parents have been arrested for settling in Australia without the appropriate visas. The two young women, who are half Irish, must remain in Ireland until their parents are able to join them. Rae enrols at a university to continue her studies, and Alina finds a job that requires her to move out. Rae is upset with Alina for leaving, and drops out of contact for a while, but then when she does reach out, her messages aren’t returned. Eventually she goes in search of her sister and finds that Alina has left Dublin without saying where she went. Months pass in fruitless searching. Rae settles down at Trinity College, makes friends, and also befriends Joe, a rough sleeper on the Dublin streets. When she discovers that her sister might be in Galway, Rae travels there, accompanied by two friends. Joe offers to aid them. While there, they encounter someone who claims to know Alina, but demands payment before revealing anything. Rae asks Joe – who is familiar with the backstreets – to deliver the cash. Joe is never seen again, and Rae, after some time, finally admits she has been betrayed. One of her two friends decides to explore the clubs and stumbles on Alina who is working there. When Rae approaches her sister, there is a confrontation with the possessive employer, Murphy, who strikes Alina, putting her in hospital. Alina returns to Dublin, and life resumes where it left off, but then Murphy attempts to take Alina back. Rae hurries home and finds Trudy blocking the door to the house with a shotgun which she fires at Murphy’s knee. The demonstration of protectiveness shows Rae how badly she misjudged her aunt. She then discovers that she misjudged Davin, whom she admired from the beginning but incorrectly assumed he was interested in her sister. The novella ends with a recognition of her flawed perceptions which stands in juxtaposition to her confident judgements of people in the opening chapter.

Då konflikter i princip är oundvikliga i projekt och på arbetsplatser, är det en central fråga för organisationer (Tonnquist, 2016). Redan 1995 beskrevs det att konflikter kommer bli allt mer förekommande inom organisationer, oavsett branschtillhörighet, på grund av lojalitetsbrist mellan arbetstagare och arbetsgivare (Wall & Callister, 1995). Idag är teamarbete mer regel än undantag (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003) och arbetsformen team beskrivs som ytterligare en bidragande orsak till uppkomsten av konflikter (Wall & Callister, 1995). Då det saknas forskning som belyser teammedlemmens perspektiv och dennes upplevelser av konflikthantering är det ett ämne som är intressant att studera. Syftet med studien är således att bidra till ökad förståelse för hur teammedlemmar upplever konflikthantering.  Teorier om konflikttyper, konflikthanteringsstilar samt temporalitet har i kombination med ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv använts för att uppfylla studiens syfte. För att bidra till ökad förståelse för fenomenet har en komparativ fallstudie om fyra fall genomförts. De fall som har studerats har varit teammedlemmar och empiri har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fenomenet har studerats i kontexten team och organisation och för att sammanställa och analysera det empiriska materialet användes tematisk analys respektive tvärfallsyntes som verktyg.  I studien framkommer bland annat att teammedlemmar upplever konflikter som någonting positivt, då konflikter kan bidra till utveckling av individers förmåga att förstå människor eller utveckling av teamets prestation. Det har argumenterats för att anammandet av vissa konflikthanteringsstilar leder till uppkomst av nya konflikter (DeChurch, Hamilton & Haas, 2007) men i denna studie framkommer att dessa stilar också kan användas för att motverka uppkomsten av dessa konflikter. / As conflicts more or less are inevitable in projects and workplaces, it is a central issue for organizations (Tonnquist, 2016). As early as in 1995, conflicts were described as becoming increasingly prevalent, due to lack of loyalty between employees and employers (Wall & Callister, 1995). Today, teamwork is the exception that proves the rule (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003) and teamwork as a way of working is described as another contributing factor to the emergence of conflicts (Wall & Callister, 1995). As there is no research that highlights the team member’s perspectives and their experiences of conflict management, this is an interesting subject to study. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of how team members experience conflict management.  Theories about types of conflict, conflict management styles and temporality, in combination with a phenomenological perspective, have been used to fulfill the aim of the study. In order to contribute to an increased understanding of the phenomenon, a comparative case study of four cases has been carried out. The cases that have been studied have been team members and empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews. The phenomenon has been studied in the context team and organization. To compile and analyze the empirical data, thematic analysis and cross case synthesis were used as tools.  The study reveals, among other things, that team members experience conflicts as something positive, since conflicts can contribute to the development of individuals' ability to understand people or a team's performance. It has been argued that the adoption of certain conflict management styles leads to the emergence of new conflicts (DeChurch, Hamilton & Haas, 2007) but this study shows that these styles can also be used to counteract the emergence of these conflicts. Furthermore, this study shows that managers as third parties have an important role in the management of conflict situations and by taking part of this study, managers can become aware of the consequences of their actions. Finally, the study reveals that when team members manage conflicts themselves, they use their precious experiences concerning conflicts. It has previously been discussed that temporality should be included in the theories used (Hernes, Simpson & Söderlund, 2013) and this study also acknowledges that the time perspective should be integrated into existing theories of conflict and conflict management.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in International Relations, 2017 / The international community's dynamics have undergone significant changes since 1990s. Famine, economic, security, and ethnic and religious animosities have greatly contributed to the emergence of conflicts globally. Preventive approaches, tools and structures in dealing with emerging conflicts rapidly became global trend. Early warning systems (EWS) were such preventive tools that bodies such as the African Union (AU) and the three regional economic communities (RECs) in Southern and West Africa and the Horn of Africa adopted to prevent conflicts on the African continent. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / XL2018

There is a rich body of literature examining multiple aspects of money in the social sciences yet the role of money in organising and shaping family interactions in the South African context appears limited. The aims of this research were to explore money and its link to conflict in the family and develop an understanding of how money is organised in and influenced by culture and gender in rural Black families in South Africa. Ten women undergraduate students were selected, using nonprobability snowball sampling, to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. Detailed biographical information was collected alongside responses to ten open ended money related questions. Interviews were transcribed and thematic content analysis was used to identify and analyse themes in the data both within and across the ten interviews. The research was dominated by five key findings the most significant being a relative lack of conflict between the interviewees’ family members in general and specifically with regard to money. This was influenced by the shared hierarchy of priorities within the family that informs and directs the allocation of resources. The authority of parents related to a particular set of social and cultural norms determined familial interaction influencing the limited expression of conflict. The presence and significance of reciprocity in the interviewees’ families was widely accepted within an extended family structure and exhibited no striking generational differences in adherence to the generalised norm of reciprocity. The interviewees’ families also displayed a marked lack of gendered difference in the allocation of resources among family members. The study while achieving its goal of providing some understanding of how money works in a particular group of rural Black families highlights the need for further exploration of money and conflict in the family in the South African context.

Thesis advisor: Franck Salameh / This work is a broad historical survey of Christianity's presence in the geographic region of modern day Israel and Palestine. It focuses on Christian communities' perceived identities, treatment by their neighbors, and current status. Particular focus is paid to perceived memory/identity of recent generations; Ottoman rule, British mandate, and modern Israeli-Palestinian geopolitics are examined most deeply. Qualitative interviews with Christians living in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and northern Israel complement the work. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: History.