Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since Burundi gained independence in 1962, this country has experienced periods of mass communal violence. Extensive scholarly research has focused on exploring the factors behind, and the nature of, the conflicts in Burundi from a socio-ethnic perspective. There has, however, been a persistent lack of attention paid to the inextricable relationship between environmental factors; particularly the scarcity of resources, coupled with rapid population growth; and Burundi‘s recent history of internal conflict. Noteworthy explanatory factors, which are often ignored in literature on the environment and conflict, have thus motivated this study. Burundi is an example of this reality because of a highly dependent agricultural economy and a constant growing population. This study used a descriptive analysis, as methodological tool; in order to gain an understanding of Burundi‘s land question - that is, how limited access to land and the constantly increasing population have led to environmental degradation, that served as motivational trigger factors for the violent political conflicts that occurred at various periods between 1965 and 1993 in this country. This study addresses this epistemological gap. In order to explore the nexus between environmental factors, land access, population growth and the political conflicts in Burundi, this study draws and builds upon Jared Diamond‘s (2005) five point framework of potential trigger factors to environmental collapse. Moreover, Diamond‘s (2005) ecocide theory argues that there are eight specific indicators to demonstrate how societies undermine themselves by damaging their own environment; thus resulting in an ecocide. This theory was applied to the two main environmental variables examined in this study. More specifically, this theoretical perspective provided a base for exploring how land issues, population growth, environmental degradation and political change can be understood as important precursors to the violent conflicts in Burundi. What may be surmised by this study; is that there is indeed a positive correlation between these forces, where the values of the independent variables (land access and population growth) are associated with the values of the dependent variable (violent conflict). This correlation, therefore, calls for an acknowledgement of the complexity of the Burundian conflicts and that ethnicity which has dominated contemporary conflict analysis is but one of several social rifts. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert Burundi in 1962 onafhanklikheid verkry het, het hierdie land periodes van massa gewelddadige politieke konflik ervaar. Uitgebreide wetenskaplike navorsing het daarop gefokus om die faktore agter die gebeure, sowel as die aard van die konflik in Burundi vanuit ‘n sosio-etniese perspektief, te ondersoek. Tog word daar steeds gebrekkige aandag geskenk aan die onlosmaaklike verhouding tussen omgewingsfaktore, veral gebrek aan hulpbronne, gepaardgaande met die voortgesette bevolkingsaanwas; asook Burundi se onlangse geskiedenis van interne konflik. Noemenswaardige gapings, wat dikwels in die verklarende literatuur geïgnoreer word, het dus hierdie studie gemotiveer. Burundi is ‘n voorbeeld van hierdie werklikheid omdat die land baie afhanklik van landbou is; as gevolg van die kontstante bevolkingsaanwas in die land. Hierdie navorsing het beskrywende analise as ‘n metodologiese instrument gebruik om insig te kry oor Burundi se grondkwessie – met ander woorde hoe die beperkte toegang tot grond en ‘n toenemende bevolkingsaanwas gelei het tot die agteruitgang van die omgewing. Bostaande faktore het as motiverende sneller faktore gedien, wat aanleiding gegee het tot die gewelddadige politieke konflik, wat gedurende verskillende periodes tussen 1965 en 1993 in hierdie land ontstaan het. Hierdie studie poog dus om hierdie epistomologiese gaping aan te spreek. Ten einde die verband (nexus) tussen omgewingsfaktore, grondbesit, bevolkingsaanwas en die politieke konflikte in Burundi te ondersoek, steun en bou hierdie studie voort op Jared Diamond (2005) se vyfpunt raamwerk van potensiële sneller faktore, wat lei tot omgewings ineenstorting. Verder beweer Diamond (2005) se omgewings uitwissing (ecocide) teorie dat daar agt spesifieke aanduidings is om te demonstreer hoe gemeenskappe hulself ondermyn deur hul eie omgewing te beskadig/vernietig: wat uitloop op omgewings uitwissing (ecocide). Hierdie teorie is aangewend in die twee hoof omgewings veranderlikes, wat in die studie/ navorsing ondersoek is. Hierdie teoretiese perspektief het ook spesifiek ‘n basis voorsien om te ondersoek hoe grondkwessies, bevolkingsaanwas, omgewings agteruitgang en politieke verandering verstaan kan word as belangrike aanwysers van die geweldadige konflik in Burundi. Deur middel van hierdie studie kan ‘n duidelike opsomming gemaak word dat daar inderdaad ‘n positiewe korrelasie tussen hierdie magte voorkom, waar die waardes van die onafhanklike veranderlike (toegang tot grond en bevolkingsgroei) geassosieer word met die waardes van die afhanklike veranderlike (geweldadige konflik). Hierdie korrelasie verg dus ‘n beroep om erkenning te gee aan die kompleksiteit van konflik in Burundi. Hierdie etniese debat, wat tans die oorheersende konflik aanvuur, is maar net een van die verskeie interpretasies van sosiale breekpunte in Burundi is.

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No abstract available in dissertation / Politicisation of identities, negotiations and transition in a conflict society / Ethics of a genocide-free Burundi / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.A. (Philosophy)

No abstract available in dissertation / Politicisation of identities, negotiations and transition in a conflict society / Ethics of a genocide-free Burundi / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.A. (Philosophy)

To date, few scholars have addressed the internal dynamics of transnational advocacy networks (TANs) and their impact on the production of international norms. The lack of research on the topic seems rather surprising at a time when constructivists produce literature on the significance of global civil society and the role networks play in processes of recruitment and collective identity construction (Crugel 1999; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Boli and Thomas 1999; Anheier et al. 2001; Taylor and Rupp 2001; Keane 2003; Bob 2005). I cover this gap by looking at how power struggles between the international and the local members of a TAN shape the implementation of international norms in post-conflict settings. The purpose of the thesis is twofold: firstly to contribute to a broader literature on global civil society and secondly, to propose a new, more dynamic account on the life-cycle of international norms. The campaign for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security presents an ideal case study. First, it is one of the most successful stories of global norm creation and diffusion thanks to the advocacy efforts of non-state actors. Second, it also shows a case of policy gridlock, where the international efforts to bettering the situation of women in non-Western settings through an implicit liberal normative teleology have shown their limits by the socializee’s formal acceptance of the framework and informal resistance to the dominant norm. Based on extensive fieldwork, my approach combines feminist research methodology (Bar On 1993; Devault 1990; Pillow 2003; Taylor 2000), with the reflexive approach advocated by qualitative researchers in post-colonial and post-structuralist studies (Said 1978; Butler 1990; Escobar 1995). I conducted 60 semi-structured interviews with women activists during 4 field visits in Bujumbura (Burundi) and Monrovia (Liberia) between 2012 and 2013. Following discourse analysis theory (Shepherd 2008; Hansen 2006) and using NViVo8, the interviews were systematically analysed with regard to the reasons they put forward to explain their engagement in the women’s movement and the type of rights they sought to accomplish. The research is conducted through a relational approach in which the interactions of agents are affected by 1) a diversity of structural opportunities through three mechanisms: brokerage, gatekeeping and diffusion and, 2) a compound of ideas forming the master-frame. Those two, in turn, modify interests and identities, both understood as outputs and not as variables determining the interactions of agents. I show how a certain discourse on gender security became accepted as the master frame of the campaign, and how other discourses were left out. That is, I show how discourses created boundaries and identities amongst actors, and how these actors used their agency to stretch those boundaries and identities in order to steer other activists to move towards certain behaviour. Building upon my empirical findings, the thesis sets out a theoretical model of identity boundaries stretching and adaptation in order to analyse the discursive construction of identity and subjectivity as political action. It develops the concept of rebound effect, that is, the point where the ideational boundaries between the thrower of the boomerang (issue entrepreneur) and the receiver (issue follower) are so impervious that the boomerang bounces back and never reaches its destination. I found out that norms based on a liberal peacebuilding approach such as UNSCR1325 are created and maintained by a failure to engage with local and grassroots movements (Richmond 2013). This, in turn, contributes to a process of de-legitimization of NGOs and local associations who form the TAN vis-à-vis the affected population. My findings have important implications for international relation theories of global governance and global activism since they provided a critique of the mainstream norm’s cascade model by introducing new temporalities and geographies in the analysis of the life-cycle of international norms. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The thesis poses the question of how one can stabilize a state through external intervention without destabilizing sovereignty. The study critically examines the justifications for international and regional interventions in the cases of Liberia and Burundi through a social constructivist framework. The main objective of the thesis is to enhance the understanding of how sovereignty is interpreted during non-aggressive interventions, both from a theoretical perspective through analysis of official discourses and from a practical perspective through interviews with external and internal actors in the field. The thesis argues that it may be more fruitful for future studies to question the aim of these interventions, rather than ask how to improve them. The study finds that rather than reinforce the sovereignty, these interventions neutralize states subject to external intervention in the sense that they become dependent on external capacity to maintain their stability, thereby maintaining peace and order in the international arena. The conclusion is that these interventions remain both controversial and paradoxical and the stated aim of reinforcing the state's sovereignty is questionable at best. / Doctorat en sciences politiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished