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Transitions To Democratic Constitutions In Ethnic Conflicts, Tore Nyhamar

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

This article discusses the preconditions for settling ethnic conflict through a constitutional compromise: democracy. The focus is on the conditions for transition to democracy amidst intense ethnic strife. What factors facilitate transition to democracy and what factors are obstacles? It is assumed that the attitude of social groups to democracy is determined by their leaders' rational calculations of the prospects of social, economical and political benefits. In other words, social groups have the capacity to formulate collective interests and act strategically to further them, and their leaders choose the alternative path of action with the highest expected benefits among …

Conflict Resolution: Towards Problem Solving, John W. Burton

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

From earliest times human societies, like those which proceeded them, have been subject to rule by the relatively strong. In contemporary legal terms there have been "those who have a right to rule, and others who have an obligation to obey." Feudal societies, then industrial societies, had structures that reflected these we-they relationships based on relative power.

Securitised Ethnic Identities And Communal Conflicts, Tarja Väyrynen

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The paper is inspired by Ernesto Laclau's (1996, p. 46) observation of the terrain into which history has thrown us. The terrain is characterised by: [...] the multiplication of new--and not so new--identities as a result of the collapse of the places from which the universal subject spoke--explosion of ethnic and national identities in Eastern Europe and in the territories of the former USSR, struggles of immigrant groups in Western Europe, new forms of multicultural protest and self-assertion in the U.S., to which we have to add the gamut of forms of contestation associated with the new social movements.

Peacemaking Through Nonviolence, Michael N. Nagler

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

Somalia, Rwanda and what was once Yugoslavia reveal the shocking inadequacies of the 'security regime' of our post-cold-war world. One response to these disasters has been to field more UN Peacekeeping operations; more operations were mounted in the four years between 1988-1992 than the previous forty. Yet, as we all know, this development was far from adequate, and in the end has brought the whole idea of UN peacekeeping into question. NATO head John Shalikashvili said early in 1992, "the days of pristine peacekeeping as we have understood it for years are probably over" (Shalikashvili, 1993). His solution was …

Ethnic Boundaries And The Margins Of The Margin, Bent D. Jφrgenson

Peace and Conflict Studies

The theme of this paper is on one of the most elementary questions in the study of ethnicity and nationalism, namely how to approach and assess ethnic boundaries'. Should we perceive them as an advantageous or a pernicious tool in politics? To answer that question, we need a reference point; advantageous or pernicious in relation to whom? I will here use those people(-s) who are so marginalized that their voices are practically silenced, and the way in which the political reconstruction, conversion, or deconstruction of ethnic boundaries is favorable or not to them; the margins of the margin. Do ethnic …

Introduction, Elise Boulding

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The papers brought together here represent a part of the work of the IPRA (International Peace Research Association) Commission on Conflict Resolution and Peace Building that met during the 1994 Conference of the International Peace Research Association at Malta to address the issues of peace building in crisis areas. The focus here is particularly on new approaches to peace building, including United Nations reform and civil society innovation. After fifty years of UN peace building efforts, it is clear that the UN cannot function effectively without the involvement of civil society in each conflict region. How the UN, member …

Nonviolent Interposition In Armed Conflicts, Alberto L'Abate

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

In 1931 Gandhi spoke of the possibility of overcoming violent conflicts with "a living wall of men and women" who would interpose themselves between conflicting parties without any other weapons than themselves (Weber, 1988). Some students of nonviolent intervention have written histories of interpositionary experiences from Gandhi's first idea until recent years (Keyes, 1978; Weber, 1988; Walker, 1981; L'Abate, 1993a). Maybe it is time to try an evaluation of these types of interventions.1

The Two Faces Of Peace Building, Michael Harbottle, Eirwen Harbottle

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

Terminology, if not precisely defined, can lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. This has been the case in the way in which the United Nations has been using peacemaking, peacekeeping and, more recently, peacebuilding. Agenda for Peace, produced by the UN Secretary General in 1992 suffers from some ambiguity in this respect. For example, it refers to the military performing a peacemaking role. The military cannot make peace, that is the role of the diplomat or politician. All that the military can do is to allay, defuse and help to end the manifest violence so that the peacemaking process can …

Peace Building And Conflict Transformation, Kevin Clements

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

The world clearly needs some new ways of thinking about old problems and new ways of acting if we are going to survive into the 21st century. It is vital, therefore, that students of peace and conflict work out ways of harnessing the creative imagination of everyone so that all peoples can envisage a positive future and ways of realizing that future. This imagining cannot be narrow. It has to be broad, inclusive, interdisciplinary and systemic but it has to begin if we are to have a viable future.

Field Diplomacy: A New Conflict Prevention Paradigm?, Luc Reychler

Peace and Conflict Studies

Excerpt

One of the most important challenges facing the global community in the next decade, is the prevention of destructive conflicts. Listening to the discourse in the United Nations and other governmental and non governmental organizations this may sound like kicking in wide open doors (Bauwens and Reychler, 1994). But the failure of conflict prevention and the high number of conflict zones, indicates that we still have a long way to go. A global survey of contemporary conflicts counts 22 high-intensity and 39 lowerintensity conflicts, and 40 serious disputes (PIOOM, 1995). In 1995 five groups were victims of genocides or …