Over the last two decades the frequency of humanitarian interventions in Africa, delivered by a wide range of actors, has increased. The British military intervention in the Sierra Leonean civil war in the early 2000s is often cited as an example of successful intervention and solidified Security Sector Reform (SSR) as a key component of state-building and development. Yet in-depth analysis of the long-term legacies of this ‘successful’ intervention are sparse and there remains a notable dearth in research exploring the British involvement from the perspectives of those directly involved or affected. This qualitative research provides a novel outlook by exploring micro-level experiences, thus addressing this lacuna through examining the legacies within Sierra Leone and in British foreign policy from an experiential perspective. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is used as a framework in order to draw out implications for global intervention practice, as arguably R2P must also be accompanied by a responsibility to fully understand the legacy of this social phenomenon. A themed analysis of original data explores the link between official narratives and the perspectives of those on the ground, often exposing a disconnect and identifying important nuances within the interpretation of the success of the British intervention. Through a critical analysis of these experiences significant questions are raised regarding the dynamics between intervening forces and the affected population; perceptions of legitimacy; accountability; and the implications for R2P more broadly.

Liberal peacebuilding, the means by which transition societies can be reconfigured and reconstructed to bring about lasting peace, focussed on chieftaincy reform and decentralization as part of the peacebuilding package in Sierra Leone. The main focus of this research is to explore the efficacy of these structures as durable peacebuilding mechanisms in a transition society like Sierra Leone. The core argument is that liberal peacebuilding based on the reform of chieftaincy and decentralisation has failed to deliver effective peacebuilding mechanisms in Sierra Leone. Chieftaincy reform should have taken into consideration the specific context of the nature of chieftaincy in the country which in most cases transcends issues of leadership to one of collective identity. The decentralisation process is also fraught with a host of problems ranging from tension between the councils and the chiefs on the one hand, to the unwillingness on the part of central government to cede some of its powers to the local government. The control of central government over the councils and the decentralisation process is still very visible. The relevance of this research is that it enhances our understanding of key debates and policy intervention practices on post-war peacebuilding and state reconstruction in transition societies. It also contributes to the existing literature on post-conflict peacebuilding by positing that there is a huge challenge to the Liberal Peace paradigm in bringing about peace in war-torn societies. / Commonwealth Commission

This essay attempts to discuss the decolonial memorialscape in Germany and Sierra Leone, bringing into focus the few existing examples. Coming from the visual arts, my wish is to bring art-practice into the communication for development feld. This means allowing associations, emotions and subjective observations to be part of the research on memorial-cultures, understanding images and layout as integral parts of a political-aesthetic thesis. The examples from Germany and Sierra Leone are not only understood in their national frameworks, but rather in their un/common coloniality. The essay explores at frst the material world of colonial-critical memorials, an undertaking that I deemed to be achievable in view of the limited number of memorials both countries have. The research feld is still very complex and therefore the essay itself is a condensed and fragmented frst step along peripheral paths. Listening to voices from Freetown as well as observing activities around a memorial in the German city of Bremen helped me gain an enlarged understanding of memorials. Communication aspects and performative approaches surrounding a sculptural form are able to give memorials living and discursive dimensions. The hypothesis that memorials could be helpful for the decolonialization of colonizing – as well as colonized - societies could not be fully answered as the examples described all have their weaknesses. If immaterial, sometimes ephemeral forms like writings, theatre, activism and spiritual ceremonies are included in the memorialscape, the answer is clearly positive, even though the majority in Germany would not be reached by these actions. In contrast to Germany, in Sierra Leone I found a millieux de mémoire (Pierre Nora) which might not be that active in the defnition of Aleida Assmann, but which, with the empowering impacts of the West African concept of Sankofa, is able to create creole realms of memory. Besides the image of the path along the fragmented, multilingual Dékolonεlízashɔn process, different bodies of water became powerful imaginations for decolonial memorials, connecting different times and places. The element of water itself is a palimpsest and at the same time an unchanging Mahnmal. A Mahnmal which is absent from the collective memory (Maurice Halbwachs) in Germany and can therefore be perceived as a void – unlike in the collective memory-culture of The Black Atlantic (Paul Gilroy). With reference to the examples described and analyzed, proposals are included and put forward for discussion.

The current scale and scope of peacekeeping missions is unprecedented and with this increasing reliance on peacekeeping as a tool to manage threats to peace and security come questions about who should keep the peace. Is it, as many assume, the United Nations? Is it a regional organization, such as the African Union? Or is it an individual state? Each of these different types of peacekeeping operations have different strengths and weaknesses associated with them in terms of legitimacy, institutional capacity, local and regional awareness, resources, and military effectiveness. This dissertation analyzes types of peacekeeping operations to determine which is the most effective in restoring peace and stability and why. I use a structured, focused comparative case study methodology to examine eight cases of peacekeeping, across two countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, each of which has been subject to all three types of peacekeeping operations. This approach allows me to hold a number of control variables constant, providing a clear test of the impact of the type of intervention. I found that the type of PKO makes a difference to the success or failure of that mission. PKOs run by lead states are more likely to be successful because they are more willing to use force and they are more likely to have the resources and capabilities necessary to implement that force. Further, I found that two types of PKOs working together can use their strengths to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. I also present a quantitative study with a larger sample size that both substantiates my findings and allows me to generalize them to a wider universe of cases. / Political Science

No / The arrest and prosecution in March 2006 of the former Liberian warlord-President Charles Taylor by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, for war crimes including the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and the arrest and prosecution of the Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, by the International Criminal Court, accused of enlisting child soldiers in the DRC war, have raised expectations that finally international conventions and customary international laws protecting children in conflict zones will now have enforcement powers. But why has it taken so long to protect children in conflict situations despite the volume of international treaties and conventions? What do we know about the phenomenon of child soldiering, and why are children still routinely recruited and used in Africa's bloody wars? This article argues that against the background of unfolding events relating to prosecution for enlistment of child soldiers, the international community is beginning to wake up to the challenge of enforcing its numerous 'paper protection' instruments for the protection of children. However, a range of challenges still pose serious threats to the implementation and enforcement of the international conventions protecting children. Extensive research fieldwork in Liberia and Sierra Leone over three years reveals that the application of the restrictive and Western-centric definition and construction of a 'child' and 'childhood' raises inherent difficulties in the African context. In addition, most war-torn and post-conflict African societies are faced with the challenge of incorporating international customary laws into their domestic laws. The failure of the international community to enforce its standards on child soldiers also has to do with the politics of ratification of international treaties, in particular the fear by African governments of setting dangerous precedents, since they are also culpable of recruitment and use of child soldiers.

No / The title asks, but inside, these historians and political scientists from Africa and Europe assert that all across Africa the problems, challenges, and implications posed by civil militias¿Sudan's Janjaweed currently most in the news¿have elevated them into the continent's intractable security menace. Between discussions of a theoretical construction of the militias as a social phenomenon, and of international experiences and implications, they cite examples. Among these the Kamajor in Sierra Leone, a comparison of Nigeria and Indonesia, threats to national and human security in West Africa, Darfur of course, anti-gang militias in Cameroon, and Uganda since 1986. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

yes / How economies of countries at war (war economies) transform in `peace¿ is a critical new area of research in political economy and war and peace studies. The dynamics that affect the way war economies perpetuate or mutate after a peace agreement is signed is the context for this examination of non-state actor roles ¿ normally attention is on state and international organisations ¿ in the problems of peacebuilding. Here the focus is on diaspora networks, what might be described as national or transnational civil society groupings whose role is autonomous but carried considerable potential to assist reconstruction of the war-torn homeland.

Yes / This paper is a preliminary consideration of the question of how Diaspora from Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sierra Leone could contribute to peace building in their home states. Often Diasporas are regarded as obstacles to peace building, so it is not the assumption of this scoping paper that the relationship between Diasporas and peace building will always be positive. That being said, neither does the paper make the assumption that the Diaspora are homogenous groups that behave in consistent and coordinated ways. The aim is to consider what scope there is for tapping into more positive elements of Diaspora relations with their homelands as they emerge from conflict.

The use of child soldiers violates human rights and international norms, yet children continue to be abused as soldiers, human shields, and they are forced to participate in armed conflicts worldwide. This is shown to impact the children in many ways and therefore they need extra help when leaving the armed groups. The reintegration process is often part of countries' Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programs and is crucial for both the children's and the country's future. This study aims to examine the reintegration of former childsoldiers in Sierra Leone and northern Uganda. By comparing and analyzing the processes and outcomes in these two countries using existing materials, this study highlights key aspects of reintegration. By using the social integration theory and focusing on the factors of family, school, and religion, this study compares and analyzes the two cases. The results indicate that while both Sierra Leone and northern Uganda have engaged in the reintegration of childsoldiers, their approaches differ. Sierra Leone has demonstrated a more effective process concerning school and family reintegration, whereas northern Uganda has placed greater emphasis on the role of religion, despite efforts to provide both educational opportunities and familial connections for the children.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / To describe the structural strains and cultural conflicts that take place when two social systems confront each other, the concept of Transitional Role was used to analyze the sociological adaptation in the social system, and the concept of Perceptual Distortion of Transitional Roles by different groups was usee to analyze the strain and conflict that continued. In order to locate, describe and analyze Transitional Roles in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the social science reserach in five categories of Husbands and Wives, Buyers and Sellers, Priests and Pastors, Administrators and Agitators and Servants and Masters was examined. In order to evaluate the Perceptual Distortion of the Transitional Roles described, the available social science reserach was compared with two samples of novels (those by West Africans and those by Europeans) about West Africa. The following were the findings: (1) Social strain and culture conflict affect both groups, West African and European. (2) Social strains exist in all the above aspects of colonial life. (3) Despite severe dual systemic strain, the colonial social system operated as one viable social system. (4) Not all social strains are resolved immediately by the creation of Transitional Roles and therefore, the historical development of Transitional Roles indicates that they continue to change. (5) Social circles formed around transitional roles and as these social circles proliferated, the basis of a new society was established. Thus a positive resolution of social strain has been located and described in the development of Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the application of Levels of Transition to culture conflict indicate that: (1) the European novelists see culture conflict as maladjustment existing with the individual African either in the form of reversion to an earlier evolutionary stage or in the form of poor imitation of British culture; and they do not see their own involvement in culture conflict; (2) the African novelists, in contrast, locate culture conflict between the various Levels of Transition or within social relationships between the numerous West African social circles, and secondarily between British and West African Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the evaluation of Perceptual Distortion suggest that (1) Transitional Role incumbents are more accurate observers than are stabilized role incumbents. (2) Perceivers observe members of their own social system of origin more accurately than they perceive a foreign social system. (3) Segregation, "Time Lag" and ideology distort perception. This analysis substantiates the proposition that novels are of limited value as sources of sociological insights unless they are compared with social science research and unless the orientation in terms of social membership of the novelist is known. The reading public in the est, to the extent that it has depended upon European novels as its source of information about West Africa, is inadequately informed. Americans who rely on this fictional material have looked at West Africa primarily through European eyes. / 2999-01-01