Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) have become a key component of the postconflict peacebuilding orthodoxy. Therefore, this study evaluates the efficacy of Amnesty, Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (ADDR) in conflict prevention and resolution using the 2009 Niger Delta ADDR programme as a case study. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the programme using the minimalist and maximalist framework advanced in the DDR literature. The key findings and conclusions of the Study were that a minimalist DDR would only achieve security stabilisation and return excombatants to the status quo- ante society with all the pre-conflict grievances unaddressed thereby bequeathing a high potential of relapse to violence. Furthermore, for DDR to be an effective conflict prevention and resolution mechanism and postconflict peacebuilding force, its conceptualisation, design and implementation must be maximalist in nature with a transformative agenda that aims to address the roots causes of violence.

Liberia emerged from 14 years of brutal civil conflict, demobilized and “reintegrated” large numbers of ex-combatants, but there are still concerns about ex-combatants’ re-engagement in violence. Yet, adequate knowledge and empirical evidence about this are still sketchy. Qualitative fieldwork among ex-combatants conducted in five locations in Monrovia from 2012-2013, suggests that ex-combatants are re-marginalized. This research presents excombatants’ current status, their re-marginalization, and factors indicative of their re-engagement in violence in post-conflict Liberia. The study contends that ex-combatants were apparently not satisfied with the outcome of the DDRR programme, as it failed to reintegrate them successfully. The study developed a four dimensional analytical framework that includes, (a) re-marginalization (b) re-criminalization (c) exploitation, and (d) economic insecurity, which are then applied to the outcome of the reintegration of ex-combatants in Liberia. On the basis of the data collected in fieldwork, the analytical framework reveals how these factors and dynamics interacted and facilitated the occurrence of violence. The study argues that an awareness of ex-combatants’ vulnerability and re-marginalization should put state actors in a position to better predict their violent inclinations. It further notes that ex-combatant re-engagement in violence is largely manifested at the political and economic levels and this has the potential to lead to a renewed conflict if not mitigated. This study by no means completes the tasks of research and analysis on violence and excombatants, but it outlines theoretical propositions and conclusions, which can hopefully spark further debate and collective efforts among researchers to push this field of study forward.

Many post-conflict societies, even those which have been free from active conflict for decades, continue to be heavily divided along the same lines on which the conflict was once fought. While active conflict might be a distant memory, the legacy of conflict ensures the group identities which either caused or were borne out of the conflict remain strong. Achieving a situation where a society truly lets go of the anger and resentment that fuels its divisions has proven to be an allusive prospect, however, it’s a goal many post-conflict states continue to reach for. The effort a state uses to try to deconstruct these potentially harmful social identities and to deal with the conflict-related grievances which strengthen them can be loosely understood as post-transitional justice. Part of the reason why effective reconciliation has proven so difficult is that post-transitional justice typically requires societies to reopen old wounds and publicly address challenging memories. Thus, in the context of divided post-conflict societies, post-transitional justice, if not properly implemented, can itself be a divisive procedure and one that risks heightening tensions rather than reducing them. Despite this clear risk, little research has been conducted to understand what factors are likely to make the difficult process of introducing post-transitional justice more or less successful. This thesis addresses this research gap. It uses a social identity approach to examine how socio-political context influences group identification and inter-group behaviour in divided societies and how these behaviours subsequently impact how those groups perceive post-transitional justice mechanisms. This thesis draws on the timely case of Northern Ireland, which is in the process of introducing a wide-reaching post-transitional justice mechanism at a time when the socio-political context has been markedly challenged by Brexit and other socio-political events. Through a mixed methods approach which used both questionnaires and key informant interviews, this thesis demonstrates how the recent socio-political context in Northern Ireland has significantly heightened nationalist and unionist identification with their groups and has concurrently heightened tensions between the two groups. This thesis shows how this environment has subsequently made these groups less likely to accept the terms of the post-transitional justice mechanism, thus limiting its ability to reach its goal of creating an enabling environment for reconciliation, trust, and peacebuilding.

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This thesis investigates media representations of female ex-combatants in ideologically polarized countries, looking to the case of Colombia. It employs a theoretical framework grounded in gender and framing theory, exploring how the dimensions time perspective, invisibilization, dehumanization, irrationality, victimization, and tone shape portrayals of female ex-combatants. A quantitative content analysis is performed on the three newspapers El Espectador, El Tiempo, and El Nuevo Siglo, to compare the relative frequency of these dimensions across newspapers of different ideological orientations. The results show that left-leaning media is more likely to portray female ex-combatants in an active manner through direct quotes, humanization, and rational portrayals, whereas right-leaning media are more likely to engage in invisibilization and passive portrayals. While these results confirm a tendency to invisibilize female combatants, the limited presence of dehumanization and irrationalization indicate a reduction of explicit negative bias. The findings suggest that in ideologically polarized countries, opposition to gender-sensitive peace processes can diminish gradually, which underscores the importance of sustained efforts for inclusivity.

No / Demilitarization of conflict and society is crucial to building sustainable peace in countries emerging from the scourge of civil war. As longstanding conflicts come to an end, processes which facilitate the potentially volatile transition from formal peace to social peace are critically important. At the heart of the exercise is the necessity of transforming the culture and the instruments of war - demilitarization - including disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating (DDR) former combatants into society. This volume represents the first in-depth and comprehensive discussion of reintegration of former combatants in war to peace transitions. In addition to a systematic reflection and review of existing literature on DDR, the authors devised and applied a field research methodology to studying the reintegration of former combatants in Angola with potentially significant implications on the design and implementation of DDR programmes. The volume is written for academics, students and practitioners focusing on war to peace transitions and post-conflict issues.

The current best practices of user-centered design (UCD) may not be optimal with respect to eliciting information from representative users from special populations. This research extended elicitation approaches traditional focus on user needs and context to include criteria describing obstacles users encounter. Military veterans were selected for this research effort as representative users for a use case in technology design that addresses the difficulties associated with community reintegration. This work provides several contributions to the UCD field. First, different elicitation methods were compared by the depth and breadth of design space criteria elicited. Guidelines were generated for designer use of phenomenology in practice. Obstacles were added as an important facet of design, with corresponding grammar rules for construction. Finally, an algorithm was applied as a method for generating personas. Additionally, this dissertation contributes to the field of veteran research. Some example contributions include a set of design space criteria for designers to consider when designing for veterans, and two veteran personas grounded in data procured from the analysis. This research effort was conducted in three phases: elicitation, first-cycle analysis, and second-cycle analysis. The elicitation process engaged 40 military veterans to complete an interview session and a design session. These sessions explored the lived experience of veterans as they reintegrate into communities, and gathered their ideas for technology to assist with veteran reintegration. The researchers who conducted first-cycle coding focused on categorizing the most important participant statements (meaning units) using a codebook. This analysis resulted in over 3,000 meaning units. Additionally, the meaning unit corpus was subjected to systematic second-cycle analyses, using standardized linguistic structures to generate design space criteria. In total, over 6,000 design space criteria were discovered, and these criteria were synthesized to create personas using a situated data mining (SDM) algorithm. Results suggest that the interview session was crucial to elicit higher quantity and broader coverage of design space criteria. It is recommended that designers conduct and analyze interviews that focus on understanding the lived experience of users (not on their technology ideas) as part of a UCD approach. / Ph. D. / User-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy that emphasizes the needs and other considerations of the end user of a technology when creating that technology. Current UCD practices may not be optimal with respect to obtaining information from representative users from special populations. This research extended elicitation approaches traditional focus on user needs and context to include criteria describing obstacles users encounter. Military veterans were selected for this research effort as representative users for a use case in technology design that addresses the difficulties associated with adjusting to civilian life after service and reintegrating into the civilian community. This work provides several contributions to the UCD field. First, different elicitation methods were compared by the depth and breadth of design space criteria elicited. Guidelines were generated for designer use of phenomenology (study of the lived experience of a population with a phenomenon) in practice. Obstacles were added as an important facet of design, with corresponding grammar rules for construction. Finally, an algorithm was applied as a method for generating personas, which are user profiles created to help designers understand their users. Additionally, this dissertation contributes to the field of veteran research. Some example contributions include a set of design space criteria for designers to consider when designing for veterans, and two veteran personas grounded in data procured from the analysis. This research effort was conducted in three phases: elicitation, first-cycle analysis, and second-cycle analysis. The elicitation process engaged 40 military veterans to complete an interview session and a design session. These sessions explored the lived experience of veterans as they reintegrate into communities, and gathered their ideas for technology to assist with veteran reintegration. The researchers who conducted first-cycle coding focused on categorizing the most important participant statements (meaning units) using a codebook. This analysis resulted in over 3,000 meaning units. Additionally, each meaning unit was examined in second-cycle coding. Standardized linguistic structures and syntax were applied to generate design space criteria. In total, over 6,000 design space criteria were discovered, and these criteria were synthesized to create personas using a situated data mining (SDM) algorithm. Results suggest that the interview session was crucial to elicit higher quantity and broader coverage of design space criteria. It is recommended that designers conduct and analyze interviews that focus on understanding the lived experience of users (not on their technology ideas) as part of a UCD approach.

A mobile user may voluntarily disconnect itself from the web server to save battery life and also to avoid the high communication price. To allow web pages to be updated while the mobile user is disconnected from the web server, updates can be staged in the mobile unit and propagated back to the web server upon reconnection. In this thesis, we investigate methods for supporting disconnected write operations and develop a performance model which helps identify the optimal length of the disconnection period under which the cost of update propagation is minimized. We validate the analytic model with simulation in the thesis. We also show how the result can be applied to real-time web applications with a deadline requirement to propagate updates of web pages. The analysis result is particularly applicable to web applications which allow wireless mobile users to modify web contents while on the go. The algorithms that we have developed can be generally applied to other data items such as files and databases. / Master of Science

The long-term process of providing ex-combatants with social, psychological, economic, and political assistance, known as reintegration, can be argued to be the most crucial part of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR). Through providing resources, reintegration policies, have the potential to reshape the landscape of political and socioeconomic opportunities in society, thereby assisting ex-combatants in reintegrating into civilian life. This thesis analyzes Colombia's reintegration policy for the 2023-2026 plan. By focusing on the beginning of the causal chain, this research identifies the resources in the policy which can reveal their potential effects on the longer causal chain. The aim is to analyze Colombia’s current reintegration policy in relation to DDR research, utilizing the policy feedback framework to assess which resources are identified as important. This analysis employs a qualitative systematic study with a focus on policy analysis using the policy feedback framework. The identified resources are categorized into three groups: social, economic, and non-material. The analysis results indicate that all resource types were found, with social resources being the most emphasized, followed by non-material and economic resources. This suggests that social resources are considered the most important in the current reintegration policy.

Community service has become an integral component of post-conflict reintegration efforts, aiming to foster reconciliation between former combatants and civilian communities. Since 2010, Colombia has implemented a unique and comprehensive reintegration process requiring former combatants to participate in non-remunerated community service. Despite its widespread implementation by practitioners and its recognition by policymakers as a valuable component of ex-combatant reintegration, community service remains surprisingly under-researched. Drawing from existing literature on social reintegration, intergroup reconciliation, and desistance, this study investigates the conditions under which such programs contribute to former combatants’ willingness to reconcile with civilians. Twelve in-depth interviews conducted with young Colombian former combatants served as data for a qualitative process-oriented analysis. Higher levels of willingness to reconcile are encountered when former combatants work with civilians, when the program enables them to engage in a dialogue with civilians or to be in direct contact with the beneficiaries of their work. Certain community services thus seem to positively affect former combatants’ attitude towards reconciliation, both accelerating the attitude change and broadening its effects to a wider array of individuals. These findings inform practices of social reintegration in Colombia and Central America, offering further insights for worldwide applications.