No description available.

yes / This commentary adopts a critical political economy perspective and therefore contests the liberal order that divorces the political from the economic. Orthodox `economy building¿ operations adopt unreflective assumptions about economic laws and treat economic reform as a technical, a-political, value-free issue. Nor does the critical perspective offered here endorse the liberal project¿s assumption that physical and structural violence can be artificially divorced. This piece contends that distributive injustice and structural violence continue when physical violence stops.

To seek a greater understanding of peacebuilding there is a need for a multifaceted approach. This in part entails exploring the contextual economic conditions of conflicts, and the possibilities of removing these conditions and utilizing economic gains to act as incentives to create stakeholders in peace processes. In Northern Ireland there was a perceived link between the weak economic situation and violent conflict. Economic inequality was stoking animosity and unemployment was generating disillusionment. As peace was reached in 1998 and successfully sustained, there is an intrinsic value in exploring the peacebuilding processes. Through a mixed-method approach incorporating a content analysis of The Irish Times articles from 1994-1998 and a sequential analysis of descriptive statistics from 1998-2019 the concept of peace dividends has been explored. The results show how a coherent and consistent construction of peace dividends was made by political and economic elites and disseminated to the public, building expectations from peace. A peace dividend was constructed based on increased trade and improved economic co-operation with Ireland, inclusive/equitable distribution of prosperity and opportunities, job creation, and increased FDI and jobs generated through FDI. Following an analysis of the development of these aspects of peace dividends, the results indicate improvements regarding increased trade and economic co-operation with Ireland, increased ability to attract FDI projects, and a consistent yearly improvement of disposable household income. Where the most significant development can be observed and, hence, the part of the peace dividend that has been most successful, is within the labour market. Unemployment has decreased and a convergence in opportunities to participate between Protestant and Catholic communities has been facilitated. Generating a more inclusive labour market and diminishing the disillusionment of unemployment from the past.

Yes / The study of micro-dynamics has grown over the last two decades, emerging now as a mainstay in research on peace and conflict. The focus on micro-dynamics, and other micro-level approaches, challenges the primacy of state-centric research. Yet despite the growing literature around the micro-dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding, the term remains opaque. Its use has evolved beyond a sweeping indicator for ‘subnational’, yet the field of study has seen limited development of the definitional parameters of the term and why the term retains utility. In this article we explore the deployment of the concept in distinct literatures, provide a working definition, and assess its application to the study of peace and conflict. We argue that micro-dynamics are simultaneously a unit of analysis, a social phenomenon and a sense-making tool for understanding human relations in the broader societal ecosystem. We contend that a micro-dynamics approach contributes to peace and conflict studies, offering insight into how individuals get on with their lives in conflict-affected areas. By providing multilayered insights of complex scenarios based upon thick, empirically led inductive analysis, the micro-dynamics lens generates a granular understanding of (i) how individuals and groups live and perceive boundaries and (ii) the shifting and malleable nature of inter- and intragroup relations in conflict-affected societies. A micro-dynamics lens, moreover, evidences (iii) the interconnected nature of the micro- and other scalar levels of analysis, elucidating understanding of what we characterize as the peace and conflict ecosystem. / This research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Grant (UKRI), ES/V013432/1, Getting on with it: Understanding the micro-dynamics of Post-Accord Intergroup Social Relations.

Post-war countries are among the most difficult policy arenas for international and domestic actors. The challenge is not only to stop violence and prevent violence from rekindling, but moreover to help countries reset their internal relations on a peaceful path. The indirect, long-term effects of wars further exaggerate this challenge. Many of these relate to political and social aspects of post-war countries. Lasting impressions of human rights abuses committed during wars continue to shape the relations among members of societies for decades to come. Both, socio-economic impacts and political impacts challenge the stability of post-war countries for many years. The challenges to public health have been found to be especially severe and affect disproportionately the civilian population of post-war countries. Environmental and climate change exposes post-war populations further to new risks, exaggerating the human costs of war long after active combat has ceased. These challenges are not new. The problem, however, is that in practice all these elements are simultaneously happening in today’s peacebuilding interventions. Yet, practitioners as well as researchers remain settled in a silo mentality, focusing only on one aspect at a time. As such they are unaware of the unintended consequences that their focus has on other important processes. The four essays that lie at the heart of this dissertation provide new insight into the linkages between the social, political and ecological processes in post-war societies and how the interactions of different groups of actors are shaping the prospects for peace. The argument drawn out in this dissertation is that to build peace we need to acknowledge and understand this long-term interplay of social, political, and ecological processes in post-war countries. It will be crucial to understand the potential and dynamics of natural resources and environmental issues in this context. As the essays in this dissertation show, the interactions of these processes divisively shape the post-war landscape. It is therefore essential to build a peace that is ecologically sensitive, while equally socially and politically relevant and desirable. I call this sustainable peace.

Usually bubbling under the surface of the ordinary everyday routines of life, women’s volunteering in their communities, helping out and just doing what needs to be done, represent a significant phenomenon in sustaining and developing human life and civilization. Embedded within their everyday community action is a dialectical learning and cognitive praxis which informs their situated public care practice. Grassroots peacebuilding is dependent on the efforts of volunteers. As well, volunteering itself is a means for building social cohesion, solidarity and trust—factors fundamental to sustainable development and peace. Rural women’s community involvement is situated within the everyday of their diverse communities. There is diversity both within and between rural communities; as well rural women represent a diverse group in regards to age, race, class, ethnicity, language, marital and family status, ability, and religion. Blending participant observation and in-depth interviewing, this ethnographic study explored rural women’s community involvement practice and learning in South-Central Manitoba. This study invited women from across the region; representing a mix of age, race, education, ability, ethnicity, religion and areas of involvement, to share their stories of being involved in their communities. Their narratives revealed a rich story of women’s peacebuilding for individual and community wellbeing fitting into a tradition of rural women’s community development. As well, their learning narratives revealed a situated community involvement learning within the action and reflection of being community involved. / October 2016

Traditionally, war and peace have been approached as incompatible entities; where war and violence are present, peace has been assumed to be absent. Recent studies of peace in conflict have started to undermine this assumption, since expressions of peace and attempts at building peace have been found among individuals and communities entangled in violent conflicts.   This thesis explores peace in war via democratic confederalism, an ideology that is being implemented in northern Syria. An ideational analysis is used to approach the ideology, which is later compared with an analytical framework developed from liberal and critical peacebuilding to explore democratic confederalism’s similarities and deviations in regard to the two theories. Afterwards, the findings are analysed in the context of northern Syria.  The study shows that there are several intersections between aspects of critical peacebuilding and democratic confederalism. Discussed through the war in northern Syria and it is argued that the self-defence part of democratic confederalism has taken a prominent and necessary role, but one that might obscure the aspects of democratic confederalism that are peace-conducive. The research paper concludes that while this might make democratic confederalism as a whole appear less peaceful, it should be understood through the context of war and aspects that contribute to peace should be interpreted as expressions of peace in violent conflict.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como principal objetivo analisar o engajamento do Brasil nos debates normativos sobre segurança internacional, em especial os que envolvem a temática da reconstrução estatal e a construção da paz, enquanto um agente contestador através da construção e da prática do Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding. Para realizar tal análise partiu-se do debate sobre normas nas Relações Internacionais para entender como uma norma surge, se consolida e pode ser contestada. Assim, para analisar essa atuação normativa do Brasil buscou-se analisar dois processos de reconstrução estatal e consolidação da paz nos quais a presença brasileira é e foi bastante significativa tanto em termos militares quanto em termos políticos: Guiné-Bissau e Haiti. A partir desses casos foi buscado entender como que o Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding contesta e, no limite, legitima uma visão tradicional de construção da paz. Por fim, são apresentadas as consequências dessas práticas para as normas de segurança internacional. / [en] The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze Brazil s engagement in the normative debates on international security, especially those that involve the theme of Statebuilding and peacebuilding, as a contestation agent through the construction and practice of the Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding. In order to carry out this analysis, we started with the debate on norms in International Relations to understand how a norm emerges, is consolidated and can be contested. Thus, in order to analyze this normative action in Brazil, we sought to analyze two processes of statebuilding and peacebuilding in which the Brazilian presence is and was quite significant both in military and in political terms: Guinea-Bissau and Haiti. From these cases it was sought to understand how the Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding contests and, in the limit, legitimizes a traditional vision of peacebuilding. Finally, the consequences of these practices for international security norms are presented.

Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on local ownership in UN peacebuilding. Advocates of local ownership assert that it boosts the legitimacy and sustainability of UN peacebuilding by helping to preserve the principles of self- determination and non-imposition of externally-conceived solutions onto post-conflict countries in an activity that can contravene them. However, while the UN perceives local ownership as enabling it to act in accordance with these principles, it also perceives local ownership to imperil the achievement of its operational goals, thus bringing its normative and operational objectives into conflict. This thesis evaluates the UN’s discourse, understandings, and operationalizations of local ownership in peacebuilding. Drawing on examples from the UN peace operation in DR Congo, it shows that despite the UN’s regular invocation of local ownership discourse, it operationalizes ownership in restrictive and selective ways that are intended to protect the achievement of operational goals but that consequently limit self-determination and increase external imposition on the host country. This gap between the rhetoric and reality of ownership suggests that the UN uses local ownership primarily as a discursive tool for legitimation, one intended to reconcile the organization’s normative and operational imperatives. However, because its actions do not match its rhetoric, the UN’s attempts to generate legitimacy through discourse appear to fall flat, particularly in the eyes of local actors. Moreover, because of contradictions in the ways that the UN operationalizes local ownership, it not only deepens the curtailment of self-determination and the degree of external imposition, it also undercuts its ability to realize the very operational goals it is trying to protect. Ultimately, because it is a contradictory and contested concept, local ownership fails to eliminate or ‘fix’ the trade-offs the UN faces in peacebuilding, suggesting that the UN must instead accept them and incorporate them into its goals and expectations.

A growing literature on hybrid peace governance has showed the importance of taking into account the interactive nature of peacebuilding. However, this literature largely remains imprecise about how local-international interactions affect outcomes, and the hybrid turn has not produced much comparative empirical evidence. This study attempts to contribute to filling this research gap by developing a causal explanation for why micro-level local-international interactions produce within-country variations in post-war democratization. Based on scholarship on strategic bargaining, local ownership and legitimacy, it is hypothesized that a higher prevalence of legitimate local-international partnerships leads to higher adherence to good governance principles. The study uses key informant interviews and survey data to conduct a qualitative most-similar case study at the sub-national level. From the analysis of three municipalities in Kosovo, some support for the hypothesis is generated. The results show that with increased capacity from international support and legitimacy derived from closeness to citizens, local non-political actors can put pressure on political actors to reform. However, more studies are needed to refine the theory and test its applicability in other contexts.