Civil society inclusion in peace processes has been recognised to be crucial in achieving sustainable peace. The author first reviews the existing academic literature on this, before looking at how civil society, and especially civil society in non-western contexts and armed conflicts can be conceptualised. The variety of approaches and the limitations of Western actor-based concepts in non-Western contexts explains the choice of a function-based model of civil society being chosen to analyse it in the context of international peacebuilding efforts. Its involvement in formal peace processes and negotiations meanwhile is analysed using nine models of inclusion.  The case that is chosen for this exploration is Afghanistan. As a multi-facetted country with a long history of armed conflict and foreign involvement, the developments in the past two decades provide an interesting case study. The inductive desk research, using secondary data, is guided by the questions; which concept of civil society has informed the peace building process in Afghanistan in the past twenty years, how civil society in Afghanistan can be conceptualized and how this has affected the peace building process.  The findings paint a distinct picture of a country that has been shaped by armed conflict, tracing its roots back to the early days of modern Afghanistan and contrasting existing societal and political structures with Western concepts of civil society and state building. Civil society involvement is being analysed using exemplary stages of peace processes and external peace building efforts.  The research concludes that civil society inclusion has been limited by Western concepts of civil society being unfittingly applied to far more complex local realities, thereby excluding relevant actors and limiting the legitimacy and ownership of the peace process, with the prospect of peace being a long way off.

The economic or political economy of conflicts and civil wars in Africa is an expanding field with an increase in research and literature especially in the last few decades. However, less attention has been devoted to the role of political economy in peacebuilding operations/interventions. This dissertation examines the extent to which political economy, specifically its elements in terms of interests, incentives, and institutions shapes the conceptualization, design and implementation of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) and the prospects for sustainable peace. The Niger Delta Amnesty (NDA) is used as an empirical case study.:CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction 1.1 State of the art 1.1.1 The political economy of peacebuilding 1.1.2 Institutions in rentier states 1.1.3 Resource curse discourse and interests 1.1.4 Wealth distribution and incentives 1.2 Research question 1.3 Problem statement 1.4 Overview of research methodology 1.4.1 Structural framework of the political economy approach 1.4.1.1 Neoliberalism Approach 1.4.1.2 Neopatrimonialism approach 1.4.2 Comment on sources 1.4.2.1 Research design 1.4.2.2 Research method 1.4.2.3 Data generation method 1.4.2.4 Method of data analysis 1.5 Challenges in the field 1.6 The structure of the dissertation CHAPTER TWO HISTORICIZING OIL CONFLICT IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION 2 Introduction 2.1 Analyzing the Origins and dynamics of the Niger Delta Conflict 2.1.1 The Geography and People of the Niger Delta 2.1.2 Pre-colonial Niger Delta and the Emergence of European Trade in Nigeria (1444 – 1850) 2.1.3 Colonial Considerations: Increasing Agitations, Palm oil Production and the Discovery of Oil (1851 – 1960) 2.1.4 Independent and Post Independent Nigeria and the Foundations of the Oil Conflict (1960 – Present) 2.1.5 Militant Movements in the Niger Delta in the Recent Past (1990s – Present) 2.2 Nigerian Political Economy, State Policy Response and the Nature of the Nigerian State 2.2.1 A Survey of the Nigerian Political Economy 2.2.2 State-centric Responses to the Niger Delta Oil Conflict (1960 – 2009) 2.2.2.1 Positive “Carrot” Approach 2.2.2.2 Coercive “Stick” Approach 2.2.3 An Explanation of the Nature and character of the Nigerian State 2.3 Conclusion CHAPTER THREE THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STATE AND NON-STATE INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA 3 Introduction 3.1 Furthering Institutional Scholarship and Debates 3.1.1 The Mainstream Debate 3.1.2 The Critical School 3.2 State-to-State Institutional Interaction 3.2.1 Institutions as “Rules of the Game” 3.2.2 Differential Power Distribution 3.2.3 Formal Institutional Bargaining 3.3 Non-state Driven Institutional Interlinkage 3.3.1 Institutions as socially shared rules/traditional systems 3.4 State and Non-state Institutional Exchange 3.4.1 Institutional Bricolage 3.4.2 Institutional Credibility 3.5 State, Non-state and International Collaboration 3.5.1 Complexities of NDA and DDR Institutions 3.5.2 Complementarity of NDA and DDR Institutions 3.5.3 Limited Access Order in NDA and DDR Institutions 3.6 Implications of Statutory, Non-Statutory and International Institutions to NDA and DDR 3.6.1 Lack of Coordination 3.6.2 Exacerbation of Conflict 3.6.3 Weak Hybridized Institutions 3.7 Conclusion CHAPTER FOUR CONCEPTUALISING INTERESTS AND INCENTIVES IN THE FRAMING OF THE NIGER DELTA AMNESTY AND DDR PROGRAM 4 Introduction 4.1 Mapping Actor Network Analysis in the Niger Delta Conflict 4.1.1 The Nigerian Government 4.1.2 Oil Communities 4.1.3 Multinational Oil Companies (MNOCs) 4.2 Contested Interests: Actors, Encounters and Entanglements in the Niger Delta 4.2.1 Powerful Versus Powerless Encounters 4.2.2 Elitists Entanglements 4.2.3 Intra and Inter Community Contestations 4.2.4 MNOCs and Niger Delta Communities’ Confrontations 4.3 Conclusion CHAPTER FIVE A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NIGER DELTA AMNESTY, DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAM 5 Introduction 5.1 Amnesty: A Peacebuilding Practice 5.2 The NDA and DDR Program and the Politics of conceptualization 5.3 NDA and DDR Program and the Art of Negotiation 5.4 NDA and DDR: The Practice of Planning 5.5 The Implementation Process of the Niger Delta Amnesty and DDR Program 5.5.1 The Disarmament Phase 5.5.2 The Demobilisation Phase 5.5.3 The Reintegration Phase 5.6 Niger Delta Amnesty and DDR Process: A Shift from a Neoliberal Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS) Principles to a Neopatrimonial DDR Practice 5.6.1 From a people centered approach to a patron-client driven approach 5.6.2 From a flexible, transparent and accountable doctrine to a non-transparent and unaccountable DDR process 5.6.3 Nationally Owned 5.6.4 From an Integrated IDDRS Norm to a non-integrated approach 5.6.5 From a well-planned IDDRS to a haphazard DDR 5.7 Conclusion CHAPTER SIX GENERAL CONCLUSION 6 Introduction 6.1 Main Research Questions and Empirical Findings 6.2 Theoretical and Empirical Contribution 6.3 Potential Concerns for Future Research BIBLIOGRAPHY

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This Master's thesis is devoted to the study of Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs for children formerly associated with armed groups. Its main task is to critically assess the implementation of child Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs, to identify the main challenges of these programs, and to provide recommendations for their future improvement. The theoretical part of the work focuses on the concept of child soldiers and the concept of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The work examines the case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo closely. It explores the history of the conflict, the history of using child soldiers, and the history of Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Furthermore, this work analyzes the phenomenon of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the challenges the current Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs are facing and provides recommendations for the Congolese government and for the international actors which are providing the Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs for children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The work concludes that through the implementation of new policies on the national...

This thesis examines the role of ENGOs in inter-Korean environmental cooperation and how together with experts, they rely on scientific knowledge to influence South Korea’s policies towards North Korea. More specifically, the empirical focus is on how ENGOs contribute to the reconciliation and peacebuilding process in the Korean Peninsula. In contrast to previous scholarship, this thesis approaches the topic through a constructivist lens. Thus, to explore What is the role of environmental non-governmental organisations in the peacebuilding process and reconciliation of inter-Korean relations?, this study applies Quantitative Content Analysis to selected NGO publications and on the whitepapers of the South Korean Ministry of Unification, and finds evidence of the complementary effects of environmental cooperation to humanitarian cooperation and a deepened cooperation of the South Korean government with NGOs on humanitarian and environmental issues. Moreover, the study demonstrates the significance of activities supporting reconciliation and international integration and cooperation in environmental cooperation that enable the spill-over effects to other areas and thus nullify the possible side effects, such as costs for the economy in the long run.

This thesis aims to explore why, and in what ways football is, and can be used within humanitarian action. I will discuss the reasons why football is particularly suitable, and how to build an effective program. I will take a closer look at peacebuilding and psychosocial support, how it connects to football and what attributes of the game that promotes a project’s success. The research is based on a literature study, and I have taken examples from both academic articles and other books. I have found a range of attributes that makes football particularly good to work with, including the physical aspect of the game, the joy it brings to the participants, and that it is a safe framed space where to explore new perspectives. That football is a team sport is essential when working with both peacebuilding and psychosocial support. The social platform football consists of is the foundation to cooperation and changing the view of ‘the other’. Moreover, it can build a sense of belongingness, not only to the players themselves but also to the team and the club which might be crucial in a volatile context such as forced migration. I partly challenge the idea that sport does not have any inherent positive factors for people’s well-being. I found the physical aspect and that it is teams that are winning, not individuals as reasons for this. But I also found, that creating an environment where the actors are autonomously motivated is the most important factor, not only to give optimal opportunity for the actors to perform in the best way but for their well-being as well.

Criticism of the role of religious actors in conflict management rests primarily on the premise that evidence produced is largely anecdotal due to the lack of a theoretical underpinning that permits thorough analysis. As such, the added value of religious actors as practitioners is difficult to recognise officially and quantify. This research aims to explore the possibility of developing a theoretical framework that would eventually bestow appreciation of their role, as well as allow comparison across similar interventions, and facilitate resource distribution to those projects likely to have a bigger positive impact. A preliminary theoretical framework is proposed by reviewing the existing literature and contrasting with feedback from semi-structured interviews undertaken with professional practitioners working on an on-going peace project in Ethiopia. Further research, experimentation and expert discussion, systematically testing each of the components, will be needed in order to hone the framework to a functional and effective tool.

Classical approaches to conflict resolution assume that inducing conflict parties to analyse conflict constellations precipitates that the disputants recognise mutually shared needs or interests. Partially in critical reaction towards this assumption, a more recently emerging approach envisages setting up a communicative framework within which the conflict parties are supposed to harmonise their conceptualisations of the conflict. This dissertation, in contrast, argues that work within the frameworks of these classes of approaches is impolitic as long as war-related hostilities stay intact, since conflict parties which see the existence of the adversary as the core of the problem are unlikely to engage in a process of open communication or open analysis, so that trustbuilding is a sine qua non. Practice experiences of local NGOs in the former Yugoslavia suggest that the following activities can be conducive to trustbuilding: 1) supporting exchanges on personalising information, so that the internal heterogeneity of the opponent¿s group is rendered visible; 2) bringing intergroup iii commonalities to the foreground, either through cooperation on shared aspirations, or by unearthing interpersonal overlaps e.g. common feelings, values, and war-related experiences; 3) undermining the imagination of the own side¿s moral superiority by fostering the recognition of crimes and suffering inflicted by the own side. For those cultural and religious differences which persist after basic trustbuilding, a contingency approach is proposed: 1) Fostering the exploration of commonalities and differences; 2) If disagreements remain despite a better basic understanding, tolerance of these difference can be based on a better understanding of the values¿ background, and on an acceptance of differing beliefs as equal in valence; 3) Supporting the discovery of joint values to raise awareness for options of cohabitation with differences; disagreements which cannot be solved might be continued within an accepted communicative framework based on these shared values.

A handful of studies have shown that National Inter-religious Councils (NIRCs) contribute to electoral violence prevention. However, no quantitative study has evaluated the impact of their interventions and the conditions under which they lower electoral violence. Using data on African national elections from 1992-2019, I examine whether NIRCs' electoral-related peacebuilding interventions lower the severity of electoral violence and if their ability to do so depends on NIRCs' social power. The results in this thesis indicate that the presence of NIRCs' interventions during electoral rounds lowers the likelihood of severe electoral violence. The findings also reveal a significant disordinal interaction between NIRCs' interventions and their power, where the predicted probability of severe electoral violence reduces by 42% when powerful NIRCs implement peacebuilding interventions and, on the other hand, increases by 20% when less powerful NIRCs intervene. While this thesis fails to explain the disordinal interaction effect, it details this study's methodological tools and limitations and contributes an original dataset of NIRCs' interventions and power for future research.

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