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This thesis examines the politics of identity construction in contemporary Jos, Nigeria, over a 30-year period (1991-2021). It focuses on the narratives surrounding the Jos City conflict, which primarily revolve around identity issues. While previous literature mainly explores the conflict along ethnic, religious, and ethnoreligious lines, recent discussions have shifted towards the indigene-settler divide. In navigating resource distribution, groups strategically adopt identities to access influence, resulting in the construction and reconstruction of identities. The macro-level conflict involves the Hausa-Fulani against the Berom, Anaguta, and Afizere, while micro-level dynamics emerge among indigenous groups, centring on territory, government participation, and leadership. Identity choices often exploit minority sentiments and target the scope of support and acceptability, drawing attention to discrimination in exclusionary indigeneity politics. Histories of internal migration significantly contribute to the Jos City conflict, with spillover effects in other parts of Nigeria, impacting democracy and democratization processes. To address the conflict's root causes, the government has established panels and commissions. Through qualitative methods and case studies involving 63 participants, this study highlights historical narratives of migration, inheritance, place claims, and place naming. These claims fuel the prominence of identity politics in daily discourse. The thesis provides empirical contributions to our understanding of Jos' politics, filling a significant knowledge gap.

By studying zones of conflict in the Caspian Sea Basin and examining past and current policies in the region, we can incorporate the successes and failures into other conflicts around the world. This research will add to the discipline of International Relations a new synthesis of different types of conflict for similarly finite resources. It is vital to the study of international politics to study this region and these unique arenas of conflict. Most of the conflicts have ties to ethnic strife. By focusing on both conflict settlement and conflict resolution, an attainable solution may be found to the problems of Central Asia and applied elsewhere in the world.

Conflict in deeply divided societies often has a profound impact both on the societies in which the conflict is located, and on the surrounding states and societies. Constitutional engineers working in such societies are inevitably attracted to power-sharing as a means of stabilising inter-group relations. Consociational democracy is a form of power-sharing democracy which is particularly attractive for a divided society, because its demands on the society are relatively few. It aims to separate the communities in the conflict as much as possible, while emphasising elite co-operation in the formal institutions of government. A difficulty with consociational democracy, however, is that the elite co-operation it requires to function is also required for the system to be adopted, yet will not necessarily be present. Cyprus is an excellent example of the difficulty of gaining agreement on a consociational regime for a divided society. In 1963, the consociational Republic of Cyprus collapsed as a result of mistrust between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. In 2004, a consociational system of government was designed for Cyprus by a team of UN experts under the direction of then-Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. The system of government was rejected in April 2004 at a referendum, and, consequently, was not adopted. This thesis examines why Cyprus has thus far been unable to adopt a political settlement. Failure is as hard to explain as success. Success may have many fathers and failure none, but there are as many possible causes of a failure as of a success. There is also the difficulty of the counter-factual: what facts would need to be different to produce success where experience is only of failure. The thesis systematically examines possible causes of failure, including the idea of consociational democracy itself, the particular consociational designs proposed for Cyprus, and the influence of historical aspirations and experiences. Particular attention is paid to the idea that there may be key factors which must be present before a consociational solution can be adopted. The factors, selected for this case study for their apparent relevance to Cyprus, are elite co-operation, segmental isolation, a balance of power between the disputant groups, and the ability of the international community to offer incentives for compromise. It is argued that these factors, especially elite relations and the complex web of causes which determine these, are central to an explanation of the Cyprus experience.

During post-conflict reconstruction, various roles are bestowed on teachers to manage the effects of violence such as peace educator, conflict resolution expert, counsellor and so on. However, there are no empirical studies that examine what teachers actually do when faced with the challenges of post-conflict schooling. More importantly, most policies often neglect the fact that teachers are not necessarily neutral in conflict. Whilst being professionals, many are also political and social beings that come from the community they serve. Surely the tension between their personal beliefs and professional practice has some impact on how teachers deal with the effects of conflict. This research investigates how teachers, who maintain a reflexive relationship with their community, feel about transforming their role to manage the effects of ethnic conflict. The case of Kenya offers a suitable context in which to research this particular phenomenon because of its continuous association with conflict, consequent corrosion in ethnic relations, and increasing ethnic segregation in education systems. Employing a case study strategy, data was collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The sample size consisted of twenty head teachers and seventy teachers and counsellors from government secondary schools in Nakuru and Kericho. Analysis of the data suggests that ethnic tensions have seeped into schools affecting not only peer relationships but also teacher-student interactions. These tensions and fears continue to impair teachers from actively participating in schools and assuming the role of managing the effects of the conflict. Aside from this, various other factors in their classroots realities shape the manner in which they deal with the effects of the conflict. Some of these factors include external support, professional capacity, their purpose and motivation as well as the school culture. This research concludes that teachers require adequate support and guidance from their head teacher in order to conceptualise their role in relation to managing the effects of violence. While the focus of external institutions is on relaying concepts of ‘peace’ and ‘conflict resolution’ to the students, there is merit in taking a more gradual approach and equipping teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach these concepts. Moreover, teachers too require space to confront their own biases and prejudices towards other groups in order to assume these new roles. Finally, the creation of support networks is essential during post-conflict reconstruction as it ensures that teachers and students are provided with the necessary guidance, knowledge, and assistance in the absence of support from the state.

A guerra que desmembrou a ex-Federação das Repúblicas da Iugoslávia ainda apresenta conseqüências tanto na vida dos iugoslavos quanto no sistema internacional. Este estudo busca repensar algumas das teses básicas apontadas pela mídia e por alguns analistas como sendo as causas da guerra. Partindo do questionamento da principal destas teses – de que o conflito tem uma origem estritamente étnica – fazemos breves anotações sobre as teorias de etnicidade/nacionalismo, passamos para um estudo histórico do conflito, buscando agregar um maior número de dimensões, e finalmente concluímos analisando a participação dos atores do sistema internacional no desenvolvimento do conflito. / The war that dismembered the former-Federation of the Republics of Yugoslavia still, through its consequences, presents in the life of the Yugoslavians as in the international system. This study directed to the rethinking of some of the pointed basic theses that may have caused the war; the most important ones are those pointed by the media and by some analysts. Starting from what may be the most important of these theses – that the conflict has an strictly ethnic origin – we make brief annotations on etnicity and nationalism theories', then we passed for a historical study of the conflict, in an effort to join a larger number of dimensions, and finally we concluded analyzing the participation of some actors of the international system in the development of the conflict.

This diploma thesis deals with the post-conflict development in Rwanda and its main aim is to evaluate the tools adopted after the genocide in 1994 for the purpose of preventing recurrence of any similar conflict in the future. The thesis mostly concentrates on the process of justice (on the international, national and local level) and on the process of reconciliation of the polarized society in Rwanda as two key components of the post-conflict reconstruction. On the basis of the results derived from the detailed analysis of the tools from security, social, economic and political area, the thesis answers the asked question if the future conflict in Rwanda is nowadays hardly probable (thanks to effective and successful activity of the adopted measures) or if there is, on the contrary, some ethnic tension in Rwanda which could become the reason for repeating of any wave of violence in short- or medium-term.

Explorations of womens roles in armed conflict have traditionally focused on women as victims, which has led to a limited understanding of the active roles women have played during and after conflicts. For example, analyses of the roles of women in the 1994 Rwanda genocide have largely focused on the victimization of women through rapes and mutilations, which leaves many dimensions unexplored. Exposing the roles of women in perpetrating violence or reconciliation efforts can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the roles of women in wartime and challenge the traditional gender stereotypes that have denied womens agency dealing with the aftermath of conflict. This study aims to contribute to the literature on women and conflict, specifically ethnic conflict, by providing a broader and thus more accurate picture of the roles of women during and after the Rwanda genocide. This study explores the following question: What roles did Rwandan women play in the genocide and are women revealing their agency and abilities in the aftermath? This thesis explores the gendered nature of the Rwanda genocide as revealed in the violence committed against women and by women during the Rwanda genocide (women as victims and perpetrators), as well as the position of women in post-genocide Rwanda (their agency in reconciliation and reconstruction). This research represents a qualitative study based on information provided by news sources, ethnic conflict and genocide literature, feminist literature, reports by non-governmental organizations, and international organizations including the United Nations (specifically the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) and the World Bank. The roles of women during and after conflict have been traditionally understood from a biased perspective; however, the genocide in Rwanda has revealed the great extent to which women are affected by conflict, participate in conflict, and contribute to reconstruction and reconciliation efforts.

Why do some individuals choose to participate in rebellion, and what recruitment tactics can rebel groups use to affect this decision? These questions are central to the study of civil war because rebel groups must raise troops in order to challenge the government and to survive as an organization. Indeed, much of the civil war literature builds on participation as a key causal mechanism, yet it is rarely specified in theoretical or empirical models. The dissertation attempts to open this black box by tackling three sets of gaps in the existing literature; these relate to the assumptions made in most studies, the theoretical bases for understanding participation and recruitment, and the record of empirical testing. Essay I examines whether a particular type of recruitment practice, ethnic mobilization, is associated with higher levels of violence. The results show that when rebel groups mobilize along ethnic lines, there is a higher risk for intensified violence. Essay II employs new data on rebel troop size to study what factors affect participation in rebellion. The findings indicate that concerns over personal security rather than economic and social incentives best explain participation. Essay III addresses coerced recruitment, positing that conflict dynamics affect whether rebel groups shift from voluntary to coerced recruitment. Using micro-level data on the conflict in Nepal, the results show that the more losses rebels suffer on the battlefield, the greater the number of individuals they subsequently abduct. Finally, the Nepal case study presented in Essay IV suggests that indoctrination as a recruitment strategy was more important to rebel leaders than other facets of the insurgency. Taken together, this dissertation indicates that there is analytical leverage to be had by examining not only the individual’s decision to participate, but also the rebel group’s recruitment strategy, and that these rebel strategies are flexible and contingent on conflict dynamics.