This research seeks to study the peacebuilding strategies used in South Sudan. It is interested in the interaction between the liberal peacebuilding framework and the “local turn” as manifested in the strategy adopted by peacebuilding organisations in Africa. The local turn and local ownership only enjoy rhetorical acceptance and prove to be challenging to operationalise. This research critically analyses the ideological policies and implementation impact of strategies used, especially relating to the inclusion as well as the exclusion of “the local”. As local ownership in peace processes is essential in ensuring sustainability, the research is interested in the position that the “local” voices and “local” peace actors occupy in post-independence peace strategies and policies employed mainly through the liberal framework in South Sudan. It is in the light of the top-down liberal peacebuilding framework that this research provides an analysis of the bottom-up strategies that can be identified in the case of South Sudan. The research will thus identify types of discourses, beliefs, practices and ideologies that have been adopted in South Sudan’s peacebuilding interventions by both the local and external actors and their implications. Using the different strategies employed by the external and internal peace actors as a unit of analysis, the research will aim to find out how the peace strategies employed in South Sudan include “the local” approach, how local and external actors interact and the implications of this relationship for peace in South Sudan. This research employs a critical theory approach to analyse the inclusion of “the local” in peacebuilding and the existing relationship between the liberal peacebuilding framework and the local turn. This will be done using a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Since the current strategies do not exist in a vacuum, historical process tracing will be conducted to understand and evaluate the effect and the change of strategies employed by external and internal actors in the past and possible current implications. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Political Sciences / PhD / Unrestricted

This thesis aims to contribute to the knowledge gap on religious peacebuilding. Previous research on the role of religion has, to a large extent, focused on its destructive potential as a cause of conflict and religious strife. At the same time, there are examples of when religious actors have drawn from religious values to promote peace and reconciliation between conflicting parties. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to explore in what ways religious peacebuilding promotes conflict transformation between different religious groups during intra-state conflict. By further examining the methods and initiatives used by local religious actors at the grassroots in the Moluccas in Indonesia, the thesis aims to analyze the effects on the peace process. The research method for the study is an instrumental case study analysis, and the thesis applies a combination of two theoretical frameworks focusing on conflict transformation and success factors linked to religious peacebuilding to analyze the empirical material. The results suggest that religious actors used a wide range of methods and initiatives for peacebuilding in the Moluccas, and they made significant contributions to the de-escalation of conflict and opportunities for building sustainable peace. Through the lens of the theoretical framework, it is possible to acknowledge that the methods and initiatives clearly relate to explanations linked to conflict transformation, as well as success factors in religious peacebuilding. The thesis concludes that religious peacebuilding was essential for the peace process in the Moluccas, and that local religious actors showed great capacity in constructively using religion to build peace.

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

Abstract The international UN-led peacebuilding mission MINUSMA has been deployed in Mali since 2013 and was initially rather successful. The mission managed to support the government with stabilization and a peace agreement that ended the conflict between the north and the south. However, since 2017 the situation has deteriorated in the presence of MINUSMA. Violence has escalated and several new communal conflicts have emerged primarily in the central regions where Islamist groups have gained ground, and there have been two more coup d’états and the government have been carrying out human rights violations against civilians. By 2023 the people of Mali and the current military government has demanded the mission to withdraw and leave the country. This study set out to understand why civilians oppose international peacebuilding and made a comparative case study of three regions in Mali, Koulikoro in the south, Mopti in the central and Gao in northeastern Mali looking at how opposition against MINUSMA has changed between 2017-2020. The study found that reasons for opposition are multilayered and stem from both historical and contemporary events and experiences. Moreover, the study found that despite substantial research on the importance of including civil society in peacebuilding processes, most civilians, groups and communities have been left out of the peace process and instead the approach has been mainly top-down with MINUSMA supporting the Malian government. The problematic aspect of this is that the government did not support its own people. The study suggest that international peacebuilding must be more context-sensitive and understand the history and root causes of the conflicts to successfully support a country with peacebuilding in order to avoid a situation where the civilian population oppose the mission instead of being included, engaged and committed to the peace process.

Even if the messiness of peacebuilding has been recognized for some time, peacebuilding has still been viewed as quite linear, meaning there’s a transition from war to peace and that peacebuilding is a phase. Recently, other voices have been raised claiming we need a paradigm shift and to stop seeing peacebuilding as linear and instead see it as a never-ending constantly adapting practice. The question then arises, if it is possible to distinguish that peacebuilding connected to a specific conflict ends at some point and if society adapts to conduct peacebuilding for new tensions within society. That is what this thesis aims to find out, and it does so by mapping the activities of the civil society in a post-conflict country, as civil society constitutes an excellent indicator of what kind of peacebuilding is being done. The case studied is El Salvador, which ended a 12-year-long civil war with a peace agreement in 1992. The activities are mapped with the help of a framework for analyzing civil society peacebuilding. The study concludes that much of the peacebuilding activities connected to the civil war seem to have ended, except for when it comes to the rights of people who became disabled by the civil war, as well as trauma treatment activities addressing trauma from the civil war. Civil society also shows certain adaptation to the gang violence, by addressing it with trauma treatment activities and activities aiming at building a culture of peace.

This thesis aims to study Colombia’s post-conflict processes and peacemaking politics. Over the years, the numerous attempts at peace lacked solutions prioritizing a sustainable process for peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. Yet since 2003, the government has implemented and prioritized a three-pronged policy known as Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) in an attempt to bundle the disparate elements that appear to be necessary components for long-term peace. Chapter one evaluates the turbulent history of peacemaking, focusing on the factors rendering peace elusive, examining the failed peace attempts, and chronologically arriving at DDR. Chapter two provides an in-depth analysis of the “R” in DDR through a theoretical framework of cooperation, its dimensions and logistics, and a compilation of narratives. It insists that Reintegration be more than a word or a theoretical concept. Chapter three analyzes the current peace negotiations and the winding road to a failed deadline through current events and political scandals. Taking into account the sociopolitical atmosphere into which DDR policies need to be implemented, the final chapter analyzes future scenarios and concludes: DDR processes are key to transition to peace; Reintegration is the most difficult and important aspect, as it
involves the cooperation from all segments of society and leads to a long-lasting peace; DDR must consider the nation’s politics to be successfully implemented; and finally, whether the peace attempt with the FARC is yet another elusive peace attempt or 
whether it initiates a road to peace, Colombia will be able to achieve peace through community archipelagos of peace.

This study is based on the perspectives of Syrian youth, on how they can contribute to and participate in future peace initiatives for Syria. The purpose of the study is to investigate opportunities and barriers to youth’s participation for peace, as well as the instrumental role of education in learning about nonviolent pathways for change. Thus, the research is conducted through the collection of narratives with a digital survey-interview method, followed by a thematic analysis with primarily inductive approach, putting the views and ideas of the youth at the centre of the study. The results from the narratives show that the youth have agency and hope to act for positive change in their societies, although they simultaneously feel restrained by suffering, due to imposed restrictions, increasing deprivation, and the on-going violent conflict. Following the analysis, the final themes are discussed against existing research on the topics of peace, participation, and education. The importance of education as a tool for peace and nonviolence was confirmed by the research participants’ strong emphasis on the benefits of education. Additionally, the youth propose that education for peace should include practical elements, and that practical skills are also part of building peace. The barriers in the narratives are discussed as something that can restrict people’s opportunities to return at all, however, the worries are accompanied by strong beliefs in cooperation, dialogue, and intergroup networks of care and respect. The final conclusions include emphasis on the need to support existing local and grassroots initiatives for peace, ideally through multi-sectoral approaches, incorporating support both from the humanitarian and the peacebuilding sectors. Furthermore, the youth participants show a great will to partake in creating positive change and building sustainable peace, nonetheless, they also need support to manage current barriers, including to put an end to the violent conflict.

The South African policy for peace missions is found in the 1999 “White Paper on South African Participation in International Peace Missions” of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation1. The White Paper adopts a comprehensive approach for the creation of peace in conflict and post conflict societies. The comprehensive approach includes the employment of military and civilian actors. Activities of these actors are determined by the nature of the peace mission which includes preventative diplomacy, peace making, peace building, peace enforcement, humanitarian assistance and humanitarian intervention. The policy further promotes the strategy of South African actors addressing the underlying causes of conflict instead of symptoms. The research seeks to investigate whether or not South African institutions implement the civilian peacebuilding aspect of the policy and adopts the use of the Burundi peace mission (2000-2008) as a case study. Qualitative research, which includes the use of document research and personal interviews, is the adopted research methodology. Through application of the variables of the 5-C protocol (coalitions and clients, commitment, capacity, context and content) the research established several implementation challenges. The research also utilised the 5-C protocol variables for recommendations on possible reforms.

Since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 it has become a frequently repeated argument that the participation of women makes peacebuilding processes more sustainable. Women’s involvement in peacebuilding is often connected to a long-term perspective, despite this little research have been carried out to examine how long-term peacebuilding is exercised in practise, leaving the understanding of the concept incomplete. This study aims to address this research gap by posing the following research question: “What type of peacebuilding activities are women’s organisations in Liberia carrying out?”. The main material consists of semi-structured interviews with representatives from Liberian women’s organisations. The study concluded that the women’s organisations were conducting both reconstructive and transformative peacebuilding and thus indicated that women’s organisations have the potential to play a significant role even in long-term peacebuilding endeavours. They exercised peacebuilding through activities such as rebuilding relationships, promoting establishment of democratic institutions, promoting popular support for democracy and peace, advocating for fulfilment of core state functions, promoting economic development, promoting respect for human rights, providing local capacities for conflict resolution and resolving underlying causes of conflict. This study also found that women’s organisations were engaging in the prevention of electoral violence as a form of peacebuilding activity, which has not been identified by previous research.

Thesis advisor: Philip G. Altbach / "Education and conflict" has emerged as a new field of study during the last two decades. However, higher education is still relatively absent from this debate as most of the research has focused on primary and non-formal education. This dissertation is an exploratory qualitative study on the potential role of higher education in peacebuilding processes. The conceptual framework for the study is a taxonomy of the functions of higher education designed by the author. The questions guiding the dissertation are: 1) What can we learn about the role of higher education in conflict and postconflict from the experience of countries that have suffered internal conflicts in the last century? 2) How are universities in Colombia affected by the ongoing armed conflict in the country? 3) How can Colombian higher education contribute to build sustainable peace in the country? First, based on secondary sources, the dissertation explores seven armed conflicts that took place during the twentieth century. Then, the focus turns to the Colombian case. The research incorporates the analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews, published and unpublished documents, institutional websites, and government statistics, among others. In most of the conflicts included in the international overview, higher education institutions (HEIs) played instrumental roles during the conflict and the postconflict. Yet, those roles were not always conducive for peacebuilding. Universities, professors and students have been affected by the conflict, have participated in it, and sometimes, have been used by the combating parties for logistical purposes or to promote an ideology. In contrast, delegating a peacebuilding role to higher education is a relatively new phenomenon. Armed conflict in Colombia tends to affect public HEIs more than private ones. Public and private HEIs in Colombia have participated in peacebuilding activities. Sometimes they collaborated with government agencies and NGOs; other times, they worked independently. The contribution of higher education to peacebuilding goes beyond its traditional teaching function and includes many other functions that are hardly mentioned in peacebuilding literature. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.