Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / Around the globe, oppressive regimes continue to pose a threat to the human dignity of those whom Ignacio Ellacuria identified as "the continually crucified masses." This oppression often yields political conflict as ordinary people seek to liberate themselves from extraordinary suffering. The South African struggle against apartheid presents a potent historical example of how a subjugated group brought enormous pressure to bear on an oppressive regime, leading to a transition to democracy and a greater respect for human rights. Given the persistence of oppression in our world this dissertation thus asks the question: What are the most effective and ethical means for resolving political conflict and establishing a just peace in situations of grave injustice; and how does South Africa's successful, relatively peaceful struggle against apartheid assist us in discovering those means? To answer this question, this dissertation proposes the following thesis: South Africans employed a twofold approach to conflict resolution which consisted both of what are now commonly called "just peacemaking" practices and practices based on revised just war principles, including nonviolent direct action and limited armed resistance toward the end of a relatively peaceful transition of power and the promotion of a just peace, marked by national reconciliation. To support this thesis this dissertation explores the practical strategies of the African National Congress (ANC) as they unfolded during South Africa's struggle against apartheid. These strategies can be viewed through the lenses of the emerging just peacemaking theory, and those of the just war tradition. Through my investigation of the relationship between the practices of just peacemaking theory and those of the just war tradition in the context of South Africa, this dissertation uncovers principles for a "just revolution." A just revolution maintains a presumption against the use of force and seeks to limit violence and inflict the least possible harm while establishing a just peace and promoting social reconciliation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This dissertation examines the involvement of Liberia's religious and diaspora groups in the peace process that ended the 14-year Liberian Civil War (1989-2003). Its aims include determining the extent of, the rationale for, as well as the effects of the involvement of Liberia's religious and diaspora groups in the peacemaking efforts that were undertaken in the course of the Liberian conflict. While findings show that a multiplicity of factors were responsible for the eventual resolution of the protracted conflict, they also reveal that the action of both religious and diaspora actors influenced the trajectory of the conflict and the outcome of the peace process. The religious actors, being the initiators of the Liberian peace process, played such roles as mediators, dialogue facilitators, watchdogs and trustees of the entire process. Although their efforts were mainly influenced by the desire to fulfil the divine mandate to 'tend to the flock', achievable only in a peaceful and stable environment, religious actors' peacemaking roles also presented an opportunity to regain some of the societal influence that organized religion, especially Christianity, enjoyed during the 158 years of minority 'Americo-Liberian' rule. For diaspora actors, whose roles ranged from being founders and sponsors of warring factions, to providing succour to Liberians back home through remittances, and subsequently engaging the peace process, attaining political power through the barrel of the gun or through peaceful means served the same purpose. In achieving the dissertation's aims, a historical analysis of Liberia's socio-political environment is undertaken. Also examined are the roles played by various international, regional and national actors, either as peacemakers or as sponsors of various warring factions engaged in hostilities, as well as relevant theories or paradigms such as Conflict Transformation, Social Capital and Liberal Peace. This empirical study employed the means of qualitative research methods, obtaining primary data through interviews conducted in Liberia, Ghana, the USA and Nigeria.

This dissertation is a study about Stanley Hauerwas' Christian social ethics on violence, and its relevance and contribution to the Korean Protestant church in overcoming its social ethical problems, its compromised and distorted teaching on violence, and misunderstanding of Christian pacifism; as well as rediscovering its own identity and distinctiveness. The primary reason for adopting and applying Hauerwas' social ethics in the Korean church is that his account of violence is not simply a portrayal of an ethic of war, but rather an attempt to create a new paradigm of Christian ethics, a rediscovery of the church's identity and social ethical task, of Christians' primary loyalty, and a community's practices and discipleship for peacemaking. The weakness in the Korean church's distinctive theological teaching on social ethics and war involves secular ethics, and has resulted in its becoming compromised and distorted with secularism, humanism, anticommunist ideology and survivalist nuclear pacifism. The Korean church's perspective on violence is based on a sociopolitical and geopolitical situation rather than Christian convictions and practices. As a result the church has failed to build up a distinctive moral community to witness to the peaceable kingdom. Hauerwas' account of Christian pacifism can help the Korean church 'to be the church' for peacemaking in a violent world. The thesis consists of nine chapters divided into three parts. Part One is to examine and analyse critically the social ethical problems of the Korean church in the theological, historical, socio-political and military context. Part Two discusses Hauerwas' understanding of ethics, of character, Christian social ethics, the Christian community's practices and life of nonviolence, and Christian pacifism. Also considered are his theological politics, the church as a social ethic, a Christian challenge to conventional decision-making ethics, the social responsibility of the church, and the controversial argument regarding just war and pacifism. Part Three deals with how Hauerwas' social ethics could be relevant to the Korean Christian context. In spite of the limitation of his overemphasis on the distinctiveness of the Christian community, and probable difficulty with such a concept within this Third World culture, his account of nonviolence could constructively contribute in overcoming the social ethical dilemmas as to evangelism or social responsibility, and just war or nuclear pacifism, as well as leading the Korean church to rediscover the focus of the Christian community's task for peacemaking in our violent world.

This thesis provides an explanation of why Israel in the years between 1988 and 1994 decided on what might be termed a path to peace with both the Palestinians and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It argues that, in Israel, peacemaking that entails any form of territorial concession is largely an issue that can be best understood in terms of domestic politics. Accordingly, at the heart of this thesis lies the assumption that the key to explaining Israel's road to peace lies in an appreciation of the dynamics of Israel's domestic politics. Part at least of this story is an understanding of certain key moments in the formation of Israeli thinking about movement towards a peace with the Palestinians. The thesis therefore examines the impact of the Intifada on Israeli thinking as well as detailing crucial turning points in domestic politics, not least Labour's electoral victory in 1992 and the subsequent formation of the most dovish government in Israel's history. The thesis also pays attention to the politics of personality and the role of key figures, such as Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, in the politics that permitted Israel's move to peace. To facilitate such an understanding, the study employs some analytical concepts from what might be described as the 'middle-range' theories, for example the so-called Bureaucratic Politics Model but its judgements are also fundamentally informed by both interview and primary source material. Hence, overall the thesis looks at the internal dynamics of Israeli peacemaking and demonstrates that, although external factors are certainly, as the last chapter argues an important part of the story, the decision to make peace was also rooted in the dynamic complex domestic politics of Israel.

Magister Theologiae - MTh / This study will assess Stanley Hauerwas's claim that peacemaking is a virtue of the church in which peace exists as a necessary characteristic of the church. Christians are formed by practices of the church and so gain the skills required to live faithfully in the world. Such formation teaches us to be truthful and to be at peace. Peace is not only part of this formation; it is this formation. Such formation is based on the present existence of peace in the church through Christ. Not only is peace a part of the local and catholic church but war has been abolished through Christ. Hauerwas claims theology as a legitimate discourse in relation to social and physical sciences. Theology has its primary locus in the church rather than in ahistorical accounts or the university. This claiming of the language of the church creates space for particularity which is often subsumed under the universalizing assertions of the nation-state. With peace as a characteristic of the church, Hauerwas asserts that peacemaking is a virtue of the church and not merely an optional aspect of its life.

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This thesis seeks to explore the potential role of cooperation over water resources between Israel, Jordan and Palestine in facilitating the peacemaking process in the region. This was done by conducting an analysis of the Good Water Neighbors (GWN) project, an initiative launched by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) in 2001 to raise awareness of the shared water problems that exist between the three conflicting parties. The primary data for this research was obtained through interviews with three FoEME’s employees, who are involved in the GWN initiative in Israel, Jordan and Palestine. It was concluded that while water cooperation at the NGO level can serve as a starting point for dialogue, it does not generate enough spillover into a wider political peace process in the Middle East at the moment. However, water cooperation at the NGO level has a bigger chance to contribute to peacemaking in the long term by gradually replacing politically defined and historically distrustful identities with a concept of a common environmental community, provided that development of shared perceptions and experiences through the means of the GWN project continues to be fostered. By significantly reducing the animosity and hostility, which have been mutually reinforced by the conflicting parties, the formation of the common identity through water cooperation would give stable ground to the traditional diplomacy, engaged in the region, to be able to continue the peacemaking efforts through conventional means of dialogue, mediation and negotiations in a more efficient and effective way. The success of the transition of the joint water management from simple cooperation at the NGO level to the peacemaking tool largely depends on whether the people in the region choose to harness the positive effects from water cooperation for the peace process in the Middle East.

M.A. / Since the end of the Cold War era, peace and security have been the first priority of the African states. Africa has been afflicted by armed conflicts, wars and genocide since the African states gained their independence in 1960s. Presently, there are still some countries that are involved in conflicts including Sudan and Somalia. Armed conflicts undermine Africa's social and economic developments. Furthermore, this situation threatens African political stability in particular, peace and security. The international community is actively engaged in promoting peace, security and stability in Africa. So far, the United Nations (UN) has conducted eighteen peacekeeping operations and it still leads eight peacekeeping operations in Africa. It was found that peacekeeping operations are crucial to sustain peace and stability on the continent. The focus and aim of this study is to investigate cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) with regard to peacemaking and peacekeeping in Africa. It was found that cooperation between the EU and AU has increased since the first EU-Africa Summit in Cairo in 2000. Both the EU and the AU have recently strengthened their relationship in a wide range of activities including human rights and governance, economic growth as well as peace and security. Importantly, the second EU-Africa Summit was held in Lisbon, in December 2007. At this, the EU highlighted the importance of a comprehensive, robust and long-term framework for its relations with the AU. The EU and Africa are connected by strong historical, trade and colonial links and the EU has a deep interest in a prosperous and stabilised Africa. Meanwhile, armed conflicts not only paralyse the African continent's, but also the European states' interests. Thus, the EU has reinforced its relationship with the AU in the fields of peace and security.

The African Union (AU) has pledged to create a continent of peace and solidarity. However, dozens of socio-ethnic conflicts occur across the continent despite the AU's best efforts to prevent them. In this thesis, case studies of Darfur and Western Sahara were used to assess the efficacy of the AU in the realm of peacemaking and peacekeeping. Within each of these studies, AU impediments to peacemaking and peacekeeping on financial, political, and socio-cultural fronts were analyzed. The findings suggest that while socio-cultural conflict continues to proliferate, the AU has neither the financial resources nor the political clout to meet peacemaking and peacekeeping milestones. Furthermore, findings from this research suggest that conflict founded upon socio-cultural diversity undermines the very foundation of regionalism solidarity and therefore compromises the overall application of regionalism as a mechanism for peacekeeping. This in turn stymies the AU from becoming internationally respected for making and keeping the peace.

In exploring Tiv and Inuit conflict resolution processes, this study found astute principles in operation. The case study groups afforded expanded understandings of human conflict and conflict resolution based upon time tested cultural approaches. These approaches recommend people oriented models to problem solving, which reach beyond problems to transform the parties involved in the process. These are purported to be durable means to deal with issues; for if people change positively, their issues are easily transformed as well. Indigenous ideologies of conflict also challenge conventional processes of legal adjudication and offer traditional wisdoms with potential to assist in mediating seemingly intractable and deadly conflicts. Although separated by thousands of miles, Tiv of the Benue Valley in present day Nigeria and Inuit of Northern Canada provide fascinating case examples in their converging cultural ideologies. They have key conditions in common; the use of creative conflict resolution tools and methods within quasi egalitarian social arrangements. Also, while faced with rapidly changing social dynamics, both groups have tenaciously held unto their original cultural tenets for conflict resolution and peacemaking. Their differences are just as compelling; of immediate significance is population size. Inuit are much fewer in number, less than a hundred thousand people and live in smaller settlements. The Tiv group is larger, almost three million people who live in larger urban or rural settings. Inuit brave extremely cold weather conditions for much of the year while Tiv find ways to survive extremely hot weather conditions. Each has shared worthy wisdom for resolving conflicts facing their peoples at various levels; interpersonal conflicts, intergroup violence, youth violence and aggression, as well as cultural principles to prevent social vices such as suicides, murder and generally deteriorating social competencies. This qualitative inquiry integrates narrative, ethnographic and indigenous methodologies to investigate Tiv and Inuit use of original conflict resolution and peacemaking processes usually accomplished through creative means such as storytelling, dance, songs, games, ritual, proverbs, sayings and community processes. Specific attention is paid to the strengths and challenges faced in the practice and application of indigenous theories of conflict and peace. Findings are then incorporated into the contemporary discourse on conflict, peace, justice, conflict resolution and peacemaking. The study is informed by theories of decolonization, indigenous legal theory, post colonialism and conflict transformation.