The changing nature of today’s wars, shows that civilians have been involved in these wars as both victims and perpetrators. Since these are internal wars, many civilians are often displaced, and they end up becoming refugees. In the midst of all this, women and children suffer most in this transition, with women suffering from sexual violence. In this context of armed conflict, it is observed that women, men, girls and boys experience conflict differently and they also respond differently in times of peacekeeping, peacebuilding and also in post-conflict reconstruction. Women are not only the victims of war; they are also denied full participation in decision-making in areas of peace and security. Furthermore, their vital roles in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding are rarely acknowledged. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 in October 2000, with the theme “Women, Peace and Security”. Although there are other forums that have addressed women in peace and security, there is none that has been more vocal, unanimous and holistic than Resolution 1325. The Resolution recognizes the need for women to be involved in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. It also calls for the participation of women in decision making and peace processes. It further calls for the integration of gender perspectives in peacekeeping operations and the protection of women and girls from gender based violence in conflict zones. Resolution 1325 refers to other various previously adopted resolutions and other policies and gives mandates to the different role players like the United Nations, member countries and all parties involved in conflicts. In its efforts to implement the Resolution, the United Nations developed a System-Wide Action Plan for 2005- 2006 which was later reviewed and updated for 2008-2009 with performance indicators, monitoring and accountability procedures. The member states are under the obligation to ensure that the policy on peace and security is incorporated in their national policies. This study has cited Liberia being a country that has emerged from civil war and how the Resolution has been applicable in the reconstruction of that country. Though progress has been recorded in the implementation of the Resolution, there are still gaps and great challenges in the use of the action plans. However, the United Nations entities are working on the revised action plans and their report will only be given in 2010. This study has compared Resolution 1325 with the landmines campaign which has been referred to as the most successful humanitarian advocacy ever in history. There are various lessons learnt from the landmines campaign which could be used for the successful implementation of Resolution 1325. This study has assessed the impact of Resolution 1325 since its adoption to date and found out that there has been little progress. The gender perspective in preventing armed conflict has not made it any easier for women to participate in decision making and peace processes. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

This study explores how traditional conflict resolution mechanisms were used to transform the conflict between the Dinka and Nuer communities in Wunlit, south Sudan in 1999. Various people perceived, experienced and played different roles in the process. Through story telling and the sacrifice of a white bull, the two communities entered a covenant which still holds four years later. The merger of previously antagonistic liberation movements with strong Dinka and Nuer constituencies, respectively, two years after Wunlit is seen by some as a dividend of Wunlit. People-centred peacemaking processes can be credited for contributing to enduring peace. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

For centuries, women's opinion on matters of peace building were largely ignored. The importance of women's participation in peacebuilding cannot be better expressed than in the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1325 of 2000. This resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the council, calls for the broad participation of women in peace buildlng and post conflict reconstruction. The primary data aspect of this study was conducted with a diverse group of women based in Durban . Ten women where interviewed with the aim of gathering data about their experiences of peace buildlng and their vision of peace. They viewed their approaches as often distinct from men and believed that the significance of their peace buildlng work is not adequately recognized. What these ten women have in common is courage, tenacity and a long term vision of a world in peace. They view the attainment of peace and a return to normality as everyone's ' responsibility and everyone's concern. Women, men, politicians and religious and civic organizations should be seen as working toqether in buildlng peace. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

This study aims to undertake a thematic investigation of core issues and concerns around peace, conflict and security for residents of three municipal wards of Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I provide a contextual analysis of the socio-economic and political circumstances prevailing in 3 municipal wards of Richmond, suggest core contextual issues to consider when designing a sustainable peace education programme for Richmond and finally, reflect on my application of Freirean methodologies in the study. While collecting the data I was project manager of a UKZN peace education programme in Richmond and my research participants were either directly involved in the programme, or peripherally, as NGO workers in complementary peace projects in the area. Data was gathered from minutes of project meetings, structured interviews, and collegial reflections on the project work, but predominantly from informal face-to-face, telephonic and email dialogues with participants during the course of regular project work. Both the theoretical and methodological approaches I adopt for this action research study are centrally framed by a Freirean pedagogy which emphasizes authentic dialogue, praxis, problem-solving education, the importance of social and personal transformation, collaborative inquiry and the production of knowledge that is collectively owned and shared. My findings, which I present in the form of discussions around the generative themes which emerged from the data, largely corroborate my documentary analysis of the context. Historical violence issues such as “unfinished business”, police and military complicity in the political violence, and the proliferation of weapons emerge as powerful generative themes, while displacement of people and families, trauma and fractured families (which also stem from the history of violence), emerge as serious current social challenges to peace and stability. Substance abuse and prostitution, poverty and unemployment, and lack of development also feature strongly as generative themes. One of the key findings of this study is the extent to which political partisanship, power struggles and patronage hamper the implementation of peace and development initiatives. While I suggest some specific contextual issues which need to be considered when designing an holistic peace education programme for Richmond, I recommend that significant stakeholders (including affected communities and their leaders, the university, various NGOs, religious groupings, organs of state, and traditional healers) unify and direct their respective capacities towards a common goal of peace and reconciliation in order to address these issues: creating a culture of healing through jointly organizing cultural events and peace rallies, helping to establish and support Peace Committees, training people in non-violent conflict resolution skills, providing counseling for survivors of political and domestic violence, supporting fractured and vulnerable families, providing better recreational spaces and job opportunities for the youth. Each of these initiatives would furthermore provide a useful opportunity for non-formal peace education. In addition, I suggest the university could partner with the provincial Department of Education to explore ways of integrating peace education throughout existing school curricula, and the establishment of learner peace clubs where learners could form peace committees to provide in-school peer mediation services. I conclude by reflecting on my application of Freirean methodologies. While I lament my failure to apprehend the extent to which my privileged background and my position as a member of the elite class prevented me from experiencing authentic dialogue with my primary participants, and how I consistently missed opportunities to dialogue and employ core Freirean pedagogical techniques such as problem-posing, and how I failed to get to the point of “re-presenting” to participants the generative themes as problems, and coinvestigating solutions to these problems, I manage to end on an optimistic note by recognizing the significance of the personal transformative learning I gained from the experience. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

From the mid-1990s, the amalgamation of security, development, and humanitarian imperatives under the single umbrella of ‘state-building’ has provided a compelling justification for increasingly intrusive interventions into the political, economic, and social affairs of subject countries. Guided by the assumptions of liberal peace theory, state-building initiatives engage directly with states, seeking to achieve a reformulation of structures of government as a first step towards the implementation of wider socio-economic reforms. The state-building project is geared towards the construction of a particular form of statehood in subject states; state institutions are to be reconstructed in accordance with a liberal template, and tasked with establishing the necessary institutional environment for market-led development and the liberal peace. Contemporary discourses of state-building and development are fundamentally interlinked, representing a unified process of neo-liberal replication in subject states, whereby fundamental transformations of social, political, and economic structures are to be implemented and sustained through the construction of liberal state institutions. Pressure to court international approval due to conditions of aid dependence curtails the potential for meaningful democracy in subject countries. Key questions of social and economic policy are subsumed as technical matters of good governance and removed from domestic democratic contestation, facilitating a transfer of formerly domestic considerations into the international sphere. These interlocking processes of state-building and neo-liberal discipline have contributed to an inversion of sovereign statehood, whereby the state serves to channel inward an externally driven agenda, rather than acting as a sovereign expression of domestic interests. This reality raises important questions regarding the nature of democracy in post-conflict environments, and in particular the impact of state-building activities on the prospects for broadly inclusive democracy in subject states. This study will examine the evolution of state-building as a critical components of peace-building missions, its central assumptions and goals, and its implementation in practice in Timor-Leste. The state-building process in Timor-Leste has contributed to the formation of an insulated state with little basis in Timorese society. The democratic experience in Timor-Leste has been profoundly disempowering; conditions of aid dependence have constrained elected governments in key areas of social and economic policy, resulting in a loss of popular legitimacy and mounting public disenchantment. Closer examination of food and agricultural policy and management of Timorese oil reserves reveals the extent to which government policy remains constrained by international preferences. In these areas, the government’s inability to act in the interests of the Timorese public has compounded social hardships and popular discontent, contributing to the build-up of anti-government sentiment that manifested itself in the 2006 crisis.

This single case study in Peace Education (PE) was conducted in Central Mexico where violence is manifest in different ways and consequently, PE may be an important intervention. The aim of this study was to acquire an understanding of the impact of PE in Mexico and to understand how students conceptualize peace and violence and how these phenomena impact their aspirations. Participants in this study were a school principal, teachers as well as 9th grade students from a telesecundaria. This research produced a number of key findings: Mexico does not have one concrete conception of PE; the student participants’ definition of peace and violence reflect their reality; and their aspirations can be commensurate with the principles of PE. One of the main conclusions drawn from this study is that although there are a several practices of PE in Mexico, the country needs one concrete proposal of PE tailored to its specific reality.

Lasting peace in Sudan would reverberate throughout Africa, the Arab world, and globally. But signing a historic peace agreement will not guarantee successful post-conflict reconstruction in Sudan. Several critical openings must follow-with expanded roles for the Sudanese people and their international partners. Sudanese fighters from both sides will need to integrate into joint military units that defend Sudan's borders and gain capacity to deal with rogue elements. Sudanese politicians must expand the opportunities for fresh and excluded voices to participate in Sudan's governing structures (north and south, national, regional, and local) and its political processes. Benchmarks against which international assistance is measured could help guarantee this need, as would an inclusive constitutional drafting process. Sustained economic assistance and forward-learning decisions on reducing Sudan's debt burden will help move Sudan on the path to economic growth. At the same time, international pressure must be brought to bear on the Sudanese to ensure that revenue streams, particularly oil and are handled transparently and for the benefit of Sudan's people, not its leaders. Uncertainty, hatred and mistrust run deep within Sudan. Donors must focus on building connections among the Sudanese and bringing communities together around common goals. The past focus on north-south issues should give way to more inclusive programs that begin to address the political and economical marginalization that is fuelling discontent and conflict in Sudan's peripheral regions. Lasting peace will require not just changing attitudes within Sudan, but shifting outside practices to better confront the enormous challenges that will complicate reconstruction efforts. Sudan's coming peace presents an opportunity to move beyond almost forty years of intrastate war. The United State, the United Nations, African Union, and other friends of Sudan should now consolidate and capitalize on this opportunity. / Thesis (M.A. (Peace Studies and International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

This single case study in Peace Education (PE) was conducted in Central Mexico where violence is manifest in different ways and consequently, PE may be an important intervention. The aim of this study was to acquire an understanding of the impact of PE in Mexico and to understand how students conceptualize peace and violence and how these phenomena impact their aspirations. Participants in this study were a school principal, teachers as well as 9th grade students from a telesecundaria. This research produced a number of key findings: Mexico does not have one concrete conception of PE; the student participants’ definition of peace and violence reflect their reality; and their aspirations can be commensurate with the principles of PE. One of the main conclusions drawn from this study is that although there are a several practices of PE in Mexico, the country needs one concrete proposal of PE tailored to its specific reality.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85). / 85 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, 1996. / Shipping list no.: 98-0921-M. "November 1997." Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet from the Air University Press web site. Address as of 10/10/03: http://aupress.au.af.mil/SAAS%5FTheses/Clark/clark.pdf; current access is available via PURL.