Den Krieg um Afghanistan hat der Westen verloren – wieder einmal. Die Frage des Abzugs bestimmt die außen- und sicherheitspolitische Agenda, nicht nur in Washington D.C. und Berlin. Ziel ist, das "Fiasko Afghanistan" möglichst glimpflich enden zu lassen – aber wie? Die Frage hat auch 2011 nicht an Aktualität eingebüßt. Kenner der Region und außenpolitische Experten diskutieren im vorliegenden WeltTrends Papier die Ausgangslage des Afghanistan-Komplexes und analysieren Abzugsstrategien – klar, kontrovers, pointiert.

Den Krieg um Afghanistan hat der Westen verloren - wieder einmal. Die Frage des Abzugs aus dem Land am Hindukusch bestimmt die außen- und sicherheitspolitische Agenda, nicht nur in Washington D.C. und Berlin. Ziel ist, die gescheiterte Intervention möglichst glimpflich enden zu lassen: "Exit Afghanistan" - aber wie?

The focus of this study is the assumption that the return of refugees is a necessary condition for the establishment of sustainable peace after armed conflict. This assumption is often made in the peacebuilding literature as well as by policy makers, but it has rarely been the object of systematic analysis. The purpose of the study, therefore, is to test this assumption, which I label the “peace-by-repatriation thesis.” I adopt a two-step approach to analyzing the peace-by-repatriation thesis. The first step is to formulate an analytical framework. The second step is to use the framework to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis on a medium number of cases. The formulation of the analytical framework starts with an examination of previous research. I trace the theoretical foundations of the peace-by-repatriation thesis in research on peacebuilding, forced migration, and partition. The analytical framework is further informed by case studies of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Nagorno-Karabakh, two cases that represent opposing perceptions of repatriation as a condition for peace. I adopt a set-theoretic approach to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis. I describe in some detail how the key concepts of the analytical framework are operationalized. I select and code forty-three cases—terminated conflicts that caused large-scale displacement—and use fuzzy-set analysis to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis. The analysis shows that repatriation is not a necessary condition for sustainable peace. Instead, ending displacement—irrespective of how this is done—turns out to be an important condition for peace. This result is consistent across tests of different combinations of cases and tests using alternative operationalizations of key concepts. Taken together, the fuzzy-set analysis and the case studies suggest that the relationship between repatriation and peace will vary from case to case and that pre-war interethnic relations is one of the circumstances that affect that relationship.

<p>Abstract</p><p>This study examines the conclusions made by Roland Paris in his case study of fourteen major post-war reconstruction efforts following the end of the Cold War, and applies them to the current reconstruction process in post-war Iraq. Paris found a common denominator of the fourteen cases – a belief that a rapid liberalization process, turning war-torn states into liberal market democracies, would foster sustainable peace. Paris calls this belief “Wilsonianism” after Woodrow Wilson, who was one of the first advocates of it. However, as it turned out this immediate liberalization generated a number of destabilizing side-effects, which endangered the very peace such policies were designed to strengthen.</p><p>Thus, the aim of this study is: to try whether the developments in Iraq after 1 May 2003 correspond with Paris’ conclusion from his study of peacebuilding operations during the 1990:s, that a rapid liberalization process endangers the very peace it is expected to bring about.</p><p>Even though I had some difficulties separating the involvement of the American-led coalition as an invading power as opposed to the power behind the liberalization process, I found Paris’ conclusion to be well in accordance with how the post-war reconstruction effort of Iraq has developed.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-124).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract . Description based on microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138, 143-148).

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 23, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-166).

In the last fifteen years, conflict resolution, a collaborative, problem-solving approach to social conflicts, was introduced to new democracies in an attempt to develop civil society's capacity for conflict management (Mayer, 2000). Conflict resolution provides people with an opportunity to advocate effectively for their own interests in a non-violent, constructive manner through systematic educational efforts, skills trainings, dialogue initiatives, and mediation practices (Mayer, 2000). It empowers people to address, manage, and transform difficulties and antagonism into a source of positive social change and, thus, change people's negative psychological responses to conflicts (Bush & Folger, 1994). In this view, conflict resolution in new democracies' civil society provides citizens as well NGO practitioners with the skills and opportunities to practice how to express and resolve differences in a safe and constructive environment (Shonholtz, 1997). In an effort to provide additional information about civil society's conflict resolution practices and their affect in new democracies, this dissertation examines the existing efforts of South Korean civil society organisations to promote conflict resolution methodologies. Specifically, three organisations are examined to understand better South Korean civil society's response to PCR issues. Furthermore, by closely examining these three civil society organisations, this dissertation aims to explore what affect increased awareness and engagement in conflict resolution methodologies have on the democratic quality of civil society.

Peace and conflict studies arose as a response to the human experience of violence, with an intention towards finding possibilities for nonviolent ways of relating. These possibilities, however, tend to be preoccupied with social conflict, reconciliation, and recovery as taking place solely within the realm of human beings, thereby creating an ontology that renders nature silent. This thesis asks why it is so difficult to attend to natural contexts and the more-than-human world in peace and conflict studies. This research suggests that the shift in experience that comes through connection with nature opens possibilities for peacebuilding and recovery from conflict. Thus, while it explores responses to experiences of violence, this thesis also works to articulate an understanding of how conflict and peacebuilding take place within a shared, interconnected and interdependent global ecosystem. The core of this inquiry is experience-centred narrative research within the phenomenological interpretive framework provided by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This research explores the personal experience stories of veterans suffering from stress and post-traumatic distress from their military training and combat exposure. All of the veterans regard their personal recovery from stress and traumatic experiences as intimately tied to their nature experiences. These experiences are further illuminated by supporting interviews, personal narrative interludes, other stories from the edges of violence, and theories and praxis in ecology, ecopsychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Through exploring themes of sensory experience, safety, sense of purpose, relationships, basic needs, and regained humanity, this research culminates in the remembrance that as human beings, we are nature, and the insight that it is our (human) nature that impels and enables us to reach out and relate with others and with the more-than-human world. This central insight holds profound implications for peace and conflict studies, which focuses on peacebuilding through recognition of common humanity and conflict transformation through changed relationships. The thesis concludes by exploring possibilities and implications for bringing nature to consciousness in peace and conflict studies and for revising theoretical and practical frameworks to re-embed peace and conflict studies in the everyday world—the world beyond the boardroom or negotiating table, and the world that sustains all life on earth.

Why are some issues seen as threats? This dissertation attempts to explain the dynamics of threat construction by national decision-makers. The theoretical ambition is twofold: first, the dissertation aims at improving the research on threat construction by suggesting a broad approach that analyzes this process in a structured manner. Second, the dissertation also contributes to the more mainstream International Relations security research agenda, which often under-problematizes this issue. The point of departure is that the link between a condition (e.g. structure) and threat framing (e.g. agency) is not to be taken for granted, and that threat construction is subjective and varies among actors.  This assertion is supported by the findings of the dissertation’s component parts. Essay I finds that US security doctrines such as the Truman and Bush doctrines are not routine responses to external threats but rather the natural continuation of a political and societal discourse in which certain norms and identities interact. Essay II finds that a condition that could lay the foundation for a threat construction does not necessarily evoke such a reaction, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia. Essay III demonstrates the opposite situation; that a securitization can take place although the contextual conditions do not necessarily point toward such a move, such as US President Clinton’s declaration that AIDS is a threat to the national security of the United States. Essay IV proposes a framework that incorporates explanatory factors from the international, the domestic, and the individual levels of analysis. Such a framework allows for a more refined analysis which better captures the contingent relationships between factors. Taken together, the findings of this dissertation indicate that the correlations between conditions and threat constructions are intricate, and that the explanation of a securitization lies in the interaction of certain social and cognitive processes.