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<p dir="ltr">Colombia has endured the longest armed conflict in Latin America. In 2016, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) signed a historic peace agreement. The reintegration of ex-combatants into society is one of the most challenging aspects of any peace process, particularly for women fighters who break traditional gender norms, often have lower socioeconomic status, and some belong to indigenous communities. This study examines their challenges, focusing on the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and class systemic oppressions. Using in-depth interviews with 30 former FARC-EP combatants, this research explores how gender norms influence reintegration, how intersectional stigma is navigated, and how resilience is enacted. The findings reveal that while some former women fighters defy traditional gender norms, others accept them, potentially contributing to higher unemployment rates. The study also uncovers the complex layers of intersectional stigma these women face, including gender-based discrimination, assumptions about their sexual behavior, and rejection from indigenous communities. To navigate this stigma, ex-combatants employ various strategies, such as choosing silence, hiding their identity, avoiding outsiders, ignoring stigma, or challenging stigma. The study illustrates how former women FARC-EP combatants demonstrate resilience through collective action by developing projects that benefit both ex-combatants and surrounding communities. Rooted in FARC-EP's revolutionary principles, this approach showcases their dedication to building a more equitable society and serves as a powerful response to intersectional oppression. The study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, it significantly advances feminist organizational communication by highlighting the connection between feminist resilience, collective action, and the pursuit of the common good. Second, it further develops the Stigma Management Communication (SMC) theory by showing how intersectional stigma is managed. Third, it integrates the concept of intersectional stigma experienced by ex-combatants into organizational communication literature, particularly within the context of peacebuilding efforts in Colombia. The findings can inform the design of more effective reintegration programs and policies for former women FARC-EP combatants in Colombia, addressing their unique challenges.</p>

This study aimed to highlight factors used by the Belgian authorities to divide Rwandans during the Colonial Reform Process between 1926 and 1931. More specially, it is aimed at identifying how they mobilised Hutu, Tutsi and Twa social classes and transformed the ethnic identities. To achieve this goal, unstructured interviews and a questionnaire were used. In addition, several data analyses were also used to measure and decipher the attitudes of both the interview and survey's respondents. The results indicated the conflict started when the Belgian colonisers implemented indirect rules that highlighted a selected elite from the Tutsi Tribe. This group benefited from social and economic advantages which totally excluded the Hutu and Twa tribes. With the reform, the previous traditional structure was destroyed, and with the new administration only Tutsi chiefs remained whereas Hutu and Twa chiefs were rendered obsolete. Tutsi were seen as born chiefs. On the contrary, they judged the Hutu good for manual work and exploited them as a labour force. For a deep acceptance of this new order, colonisers reinforced ethnic policies with ideological assumptions which defined Tutsi as the superior race. In this regard, several ethnologists and anthropologists attempted to prove the Hamitic origin of the Tutsi, allowing Belgians to use the "Hamitic Myth", which assumed that the Tutsi was the only group able to understand development and to command at the request of the colonial state. In addition, Belgians decided to issue identity cards which clearly stated the bearer's tribal origin. This undoubtedly influenced people to develop ethnic feelings and disposed the most fiercely rival groups (Hutu and Tutsi) to ethnic competition that led to outbreaks of violence in 1959 when Belgians shifted their allegiance from Tutsi to Hutu as the fomer was asking for independence. The scarcity of environmental resources increased the desire to monopolise control of the country as this was continually perceived as only means of access to resources. This led Rwandan politicians to use ethnicity as a way to secure power. Consequently, a culture of ethnic violence became entrenched. This culminated in genocide from April to July 1994. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Despite its presentation as a pragmatic and universally applicable path to peace, the author argues that liberal peacebuilding offers no clear break from past colonial and imperial relations. Liberal peacebuilding is, in fact, colonial in its attempt to penetrate the markets and political systems of post-conflict countries and restructure economies and political life through the hegemonic imposition of liberal norms, facilitating their integration into global capitalism and a liberal community of states. The “liberal peace” created by this political and economic order often involves violent conditions of assimilation and exclusion. Moreover, the confluence of security and development concerns in the 1990s has set the strategic foundation for the incorporation of locally-driven “civil society” approaches to peacebuilding within statebuilding operations. In this thesis, the author identifies existing criticisms of peacebuilding, and, drawing on theorists such as Michel Foucault, Partha Chatterjee, David Scott, and Jenny Edkins, initiates a deeper critique that considers the historical context of colonialism, legitimations of violence, the construction of the non-west in categories of development, and the relations of power and knowledge associated with liberal approaches to making peace. The author provides a historical and political overview of wars in Angola, proposing that discourses and practices of international peacebuilding have concealed the continuation of war by other means.

In the wake of the Cold War, regional organizations have proliferated and are now a dominant theme in global politics. This study tests whether explanations for the Nordic peace can help to understand or construct other zones of peace in these increasingly important regional settings. With that in mind, this study compares the Nordic area of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden with the Southern Cone region–here defined as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay–and both are treated as regional, subsystemic zones of peace. Its significance lies in analysis of two developmentally disparate regions not yet compared in zones of peace literature. Using structured, focused comparison, this study is guided by fundamental questions about each region that assess the relationship between explanations for regional peace and their respective historical records. Understanding the conditions that permit the endurance of peace in today’s global context has far-reaching empirical and theoretical implications.

In the limited qualitative research about families who have placed a family member in a nursing home, conflict is identified as a significant problem (Lashewicz & Keating, 2009; Lashewicz et al., 2007). Whether it is related to absence of filial responsibility on the part of adult children, (Ganong & Coleman, 2005; Piercy, 1998), adult child ambivalence (Bengtson et al., 2002; Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998), female and male gender caregiving roles (Spitze & Trent, 2006; Dayton-Ingersoll, 2003; Aronson, 1992), differences in levels of commitment on the part of adult children to assist older parents (Silverstein et al., 2008), adult children being overly assertive - exercising undue influence - when caring for an older parent (Lashewicz & Keating, 2009; Hall, 2005; Soden, 2005), family history (Brody, 1998; Merrill, 1997; Leder, 1993; Bedford, 1992; Matthews & Tarler-Rossner, 1988), family size and/or sibling composition (Davey & Szinovacz, 2008; Matthews, 2002; Wolf et al., 1997) or the geographical proximity of adult children to an aging parent (Dillman et al., 2012; Pillemer & Suitor, 2006; Roff et al., 2007; Stern, 1995) situational caregiving factors leading up to, during, and after nursing home placement can be the source of considerable family conflict. Utilizing modified transcendental phenomenology (Cooper, 2010; Lindseth & Norberg, 2004; Pollio et al., 1997), this research is based on fifteen-structured interviews (Rubin & Rubin, 2012; van den Hoonard, 2012; Bernard & Ryan, 2010; Berg, 2009; Esterberg, 2002) with adult women who live in central and northwestern New Brunswick, Canada who have experienced interpersonal conflict in their family prior to, during, and after placing a family member in a nursing home. The three questions that guide this study are: How does conflict occur within families who have placed a family member in a nursing home? Utilizing modified transcendental phenomenology, how can we better understand conflict in families who have placed a family member in a nursing home? What kind of conflict resolution practices and social policies can be put into place to assist families should they experience conflict as a result of nursing home placement? The findings of this study can be explained through the application of developmental theory where sociological factors are said to be significant in connection with family development (Rodgers & White, 1993; Hill, 1964; Duvall, 1957), life span theory where life-span psychology, biology, and sociology facilitates changes in the family unit (Heckhausen, 2010; Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Aldous, 1990), social psychological equity theory where conflict occurs, typically, but not exclusively, in families where there is more than one adult child, because of a perceived existing inequity in caring for an older parent both prior to, during, and after nursing home placement (Dayton-Ingersoll, 2002; Walster et al., 1978; Adams, 1965), intersectionality theory where various dimensions of many categories define the social reality of caregivers (McCall, 2005), and multi-level family conflict theory (Canary & Canary, 2013) where four interconnected levels, ranging from the micro level to the macro level describe family conflict. Interpersonal family conflict can damage relationships when interpersonal communication breaks down (Katz et al. 2011; Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2006). Interpersonal communication is significant as it is "...the process by which people interactively create, sustain, and manage meaning..." (Dainton & Zelley,1994, p. 2). Interpersonal conflict theory argues "... that interpersonal conflict is related to lower levels of relational functioning ..." (Roloff & Chiles, 2011, p. 429). With the application of these six theories, we must then determine what kind of conflict resolution practices and social policies can be put into place to best assist families should they experience conflict in connection with nursing home placement.

Since 1979, Saudi-Iranian relations have been tense due to their position as superior powers in the Middle East. Both countries have different values and perspectives in regards to diplomatic relations with the West. As a consequence of the new developments in Iran's foreign policy and the newfound openness to the West adopted by President Rouhani, the topic has proven to be of research interest. The primary concern of this research was to explore the effect of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East, and whether or not there is a possibility to overcome this conflict using the new political developments. For this purpose, a content analysis methodology was employed. Through an analysis of data presented in the literature review, which consisted of scholarly articles, policy briefs, and books, this dissertation examines the complex political relations through which the pattern of the bilateral relations explain the conflicting narratives. This complexity is present in the political actions taken by Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as the domestic and foreign policies they are embracing. The findings of this study demonstrate the effect of this conflict in the Middle East. The research also proposes a number of possible recommendations on how to resolve this conflict through political openness and reciprocal agreements that target the citizens of Iran and Saudi Arabia.