Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Hannah Arendt And Natives As Extras: Towards An Ontology Of Palestinian Presence?, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The essay grew out of Hannah Arendt’s reflection on the roles and uses of the mask, a meditation on the ontology of the transient public figure or persona vs. one that restitutes the person to the unadulterated Selbstdenken dimension of the Epicurean philosopher-in-hiding. The author individuates in the resulting caesura between the donning and the taking off of the mask the primal source of that paradox in Hanna Arendt’s political behavior that alternately compelled her to confront the ontological presence of the Palestinian people, and made her withdraw into philosophical hiding without ever really coming to terms with it. In …

Teaching Secondary Mathematics And Science Contents Embedded In Historical And Cultural Contexts: Challenges And Possibilities, Roland Pourdavood

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Many preservice teachers come to understand that they must cross the boundaries of their own familiar cultural and historical contexts in order to meet the needs of diverse students. This qualitative and descriptive study examines the evolution of secondary preservice teachers’ views on teaching and learning mathematics and science in historical and cultural contexts. Data were collected throughout participants’ enrollment in a semester-long course entitled Perspectives on Science and Mathematics, which is taken in conjunction with student teaching. Data sources included university classroom observations, preservice teachers’ verbal and written responses to class discussions, reading assignments, and course activities. Common themes …

On Confucius’S Ideology Of Aesthetic Order, Li Wang

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Advocating order, order for all things, and taking order as beauty is the core element of Confucius’s aesthetic ideology. Confucius’s thought of aesthetic order is different from others of the “hundred schools of thoughts” in the pre-Qin period, and is also diverse from the Western value of aesthetic order. Confucius’s thought of aesthetic order has its own unique value system, which has become the mainstream value of aesthetic order in the Chinese society for 2000 years until today, after being integrated with the Chinese feudal imperial system in early Han Dynasty. This paper illustrates Confucius’s ideology of aesthetic order from …

15th Meeting Of The States Parties To The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty (2016), Apmbc

Global CWD Repository

The 15th Meeting of States Parties to the AP Mine Ban Convention is a formal, diplomatic meeting of the 162 States which have accepted the Convention. They include most of the States that at one time used, stockpiled, produced or transferred AP mines and the vast majority of States that are or have been affected by AP mines. Several States that are not party to the Convention are expected to attend as Observers.

The 15MSP is a springboard to further action and an opportunity to reemphasize the commitment made by States Parties in the Maputo Declaration to implement the Convention …

Teachers’ Nascent Praxes Of Care: Potentially Decolonizing Approaches To School Violence In Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Zero tolerance, punitive and more negative peace-oriented approaches dominate school violence interventions, despite research indicating that comprehensive approaches are more sustainable. In this article, I use data from a longitudinal case study at a Trinidadian secondary school to focus on the role of teachers and their impact on school violence; I show that institutional constraints are not fully deterministic, as teachers sometimes deploy their agency to efficacious ends. In combining Noddings’ postulations on care and Freire’s notions of praxis as a symbiosis of reflection and action, I explicate the nascent praxes of care of six teachers at this school, as …

Language And The Promised Land: Passage And Migration To A Spanish-Language ‘Third Place’, Kenya C. Dworkin Y Mendez

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The Spanish-language anthology Caminos para la paz: Literatura israelí y árabe en castellano (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 2007) [Paths towards/for Peace: Israeli and Arab literature in Castilian], compiled by Ignacio López-Calvo and Cristián Ricci, offers us a collection of over thirty reflections—some Jewish, others Muslim—about the millennial but also contemporary situation of two literally related and historic peoples in a language—Spanish—that seemingly allows them to inhabit the same, this time uncontested, space. Despite the potentially questionable title of the work, which couches the conflict as that of a nation-state versus a nation and/or two peoples contesting rights to one same land, …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 41-Xx, No. 12, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

The Birth of Mass Incarceration

Imprisoned with Disabilities

Reentry Guide

Ningún Niño Debe Estar en la Carcel

Tough on Kids

Enhancing Mine Action Operations With High-Resolution Uas Imagery, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

Following a two-year feasibility study, The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) last year moved its unmanned aircraft system (UAS) program into its operational testing phase, working with The HALO Trust and MAG in Angola to analyse the real-world benefits that unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can bring to demining activities.

Sidestepping Interdisciplinary Irrelevance—Current Approaches To Peace & Conflict Graduate Programs, Joseph G. Bock, Amanda Guidero

Faculty Articles

What do you tell a prospective graduate student who asks about job opportunities for interdisciplinary degree holders, such as in International Conflict Management (or other degrees oriented toward peace and justice studies)? First, you make the point that the degree is both academic and practice-oriented. In fact, it can be viewed as a design or applied science—design in the sense of architecture, though the artifact is a peace agreement, a policy, a program, or a diplomatic initiative; applied in that it seeks to prepare people to solve real-world problems

Ddasaccident825, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On the 29th of November 2016 at [International demining organization] task NDO-235 S, an uncontrolled detonation of a GYATA 64 AP mine occurred while [International demining organization] MTT 1 deminer [the Victim] was working in his lane (11 minutes into his second shift) and led to an injury.

The injuries sustained by [the Victim] resulted in the amputation of his left pinky finger, and severe wound in his left index finger, burns in his left wrist, severe wound in his right forearm and some minor wounds and scratches in the front area of his legs.

Based on all available evidences, …

The Economic Efficacy Of Reintegration Assistance For Former Child Soldiers, Jonathan B. Kaufmann

Undergraduate Economic Review

There is no consensus among scholars on the efficacy of reintegration assistance programs, including how their services affect reintegration outcomes. This research is the first statistical analysis of the economic impacts of reintegration assistance for former child soldiers. Several regression analyses were performed to determine the effect of reintegration assistance on earnings and social capital. The results indicate that no statistically significant relationship exists between reintegration assistance and earnings or social capital. Conversely, societal interventions such as increasing access to education and promoting traditional cleansing ceremonies were effective.

Women And Peace Building In Iraq, Yasmin Khodary

Political Science

Peace-building is comprehensively defined by the UN Secretary- General’s Policy Committee as a “range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development.” Peace transformation and reconstruction processes were perceived to provide windows of opportunity to reshape existing political settlements, especially through addressing underlying power dynamics. One very prominent actor and stakeholder that should be actively engaged in peace transformations, political settlements, and state reconstructions is, by all means, women. In line with the Security Council …

The Politics Of Electoral Systems In The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia, Dardan Berisha

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (“FYROM”) experienced four major changes to its electoral system in the eight parliamentary elections held between 1990 and 2014. The Macedonian 1990 and 1994 parliamentary elections were held under a majority system, in which 120 members of the Parliament were elected from 120 constituencies, one member per constituency. A mixed-majority/proportional representation (“PR”) system was adopted for the 1998 elections, in which eighty-five seats were elected under the majority system from the constituencies, and thirty-five seats were elected proportionally from a nation-wide electoral district. Yet another system was adopted for the 2002 elections, in which …

Gendered Vulnerabilities To Small Arms In South Central Somalia, Abigail Jones, Nicola Sandhu, Lucas Musetti

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Somalia is a very young nation demographically; estimates place half the population under the age of 14 and less than five percent over the age of 60. A large portion of the population grew up during incredible civil instability and violence, making exposure to armed violence an ever-present prospect. Further, the presence of more than one million displaced persons and refugees exacerbates the difficulties of protecting vulnerable groups from violence.

The Journal Of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 20.3 (2016), Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Feature: SA/LW and CWD | Spotlight: Libya | Special Report: Solomon Islands’ Explosive Legacy | Plus: Editorial, Field Notes, Research and Development

Special Report: Solomon Islands’ Explosive Legacy, Mette Eliseussen, John Rodsted

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Solomon Islands encompass over 900 islands scattered across the ocean north of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea. Many of the 500,000 inhabitants still live with unknown quantities of explosive remnants of war (ERW) left behind from combat between Japan and the United States during World War II. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) of both U.S. and Japanese origin remains on some of the nation’s atolls. Since the end of the war, sporadic clearance was undertaken, including through Operation Render Safe, a joint clearance program between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There have also …

Working From A Distance In War-Affected Libya, Nikolaj Søndergaard

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

A unique partnership between DanChurchAid (DCA) and Lebanese authorities facilitates explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training for Libyan authorities, who can now start their own national EOD teams and begin the clearance process.

Effectiveness And Impact Of Undp Mine Action Support: Lessons Learned, Charles Downs, Alan Fox

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has supported mine action in more than 40 countries since its first involvement in Cambodia in 1992. UNDP support generally focuses on the development of national mine action management capacities. In early 2016, the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of UNDP concluded the first global evaluation of the results of UNDP support in mine action, with particular attention to its effectiveness and impact. The evaluation reviewed documentation relating to all national, UNDP-supported mine action programs, in-depth desk reviews of support to 14 countries, and background for field case studies of three national programs (Laos, Mozambique, …

Emerging Patterns Of Erw Injuries In Laos, Stacey Pizzino, Colette Mcinerney, Jo Durham

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The year 2016 marks the beginning of a new era for international development, with the adoption of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that will drive global development efforts until 2030. In post-conflict countries, humanitarian mine action will be an important enabler in achieving a number of SDGs, including goal 3: “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” Of particular relevance is target 3.9 of the SDGs, which specifies the need to reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from soil pollution and contamination. At present this relates primarily to indoor and outdoor air pollution. However, since …

Maxml: Coordinating Mine Action With Xml Technologies, Dionysia Kontotasiou, Olivier Cottray

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Mine Action XML (maXML) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema developed by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). It aims to standardize data management and data exchange among actors in the mine action community, which includes individuals and groups involved in any aspect of addressing the landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination. In this field, data exchange is mostly manual and often has to deal with chaotic environments. The goal of maXML is to contribute to the automatization of many of these processes, saving valuable time for staff in the field and improving the …

Endnotes Issue 20.3, Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Endnotes Issue 20.3

From The Director, Ken Rutherford

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Here at CISR, our team is busy planning the 13th Senior Managers’ Course (SMC), which will take place in Biograd na Moru, Croatia, from 20 March to 7 April 2017. With the help of our local partner, the Croatian Mine Action Centre, CISR will implement a course designed specifically to address the needs of senior managers working in greater Southeast Europe as the region’s mine action programs undergo planned transitions. The course in Croatia will be our third regional SMC (Tajikistan in 2014 and Vietnam in 2015) since we began implementing the regional format in 2014; we hope to facilitate …

Explosive Remnants Of War Contamination Response In Libya, Damir Djakovic, Katarina Cvikl Balić

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Abu Grain is a town located 106 km (66 mi) east of Misrata and 138 km (86 mi) west of Sirte with an estimated population of 2,000 inhabitants. The town is known for its strategic road intersection connecting the Mediterranean cities of Misrata and Sirte with the desert district of Jufra. Between February and March 2016, Abu Grain’s population fled as Islamic State (IS) group forces advanced into town in an attempt to expand control toward the west of its stronghold in Sirte. According to the Libyan Red Crescent, Abu Grain’s inhabitants mostly fled to Bani Walid, Misrata, and Tripoli.

Rbm And Theories Of Change, Russell Gasser

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

“Give me your money; I’m busy doing things” is not the most convincing fundraising appeal. Instead, “Look at the difference our program has made to the lives of the people that were helped” is far more likely to get a positive response. The overall purpose of mine action is to improve people’s lives and livelihoods, to reduce casualties, and increase compliance with political commitments like the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC). Although this is widely known, standard reporting excessively includes information on how many people received risk education, how many square meters of land were cleared, or how many people …

The Role Of Research In Mine Action: A Response To Gasser, Ian Mclean, Rebecca Sargisson

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Some years ago, a businessman came to me and said that he would like to start commercially farming lobsters, something that had not been attempted at the time. His key question was, “How long will the development research take?”

“I would think two to four years before a scaling-up exercise to make it commercially viable,” I answered.

Looking genuinely surprised he replied, “Really! I was thinking it should take about two weeks.”

This anecdote portrays a problem that emerges in almost every area of human enterprise. Those-who-do want and need to do right now. Those-who-create need time to design, build, …

Adapting The Erw Community To Combat Ied Threats, Brad Alford, Michael Kennedy

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In Iraq and other regions soon to be liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), recovery and stability efforts are hindered by improvised explosive devices (IED), which threaten civilians returning home and/or assisting with reconstruction. According to Relief Web, the Anbar Provincial Council “discourage[d] the premature return of internally displaced persons (IDP) to Fallujah due to the remaining IEDs left behind by the Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants.”This threat, coupled with the consequences of an asymmetrical conflict, has changed the operating environments encountered by organizations that respond to explosive remnants of war (ERW). …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 41-Xx, No. 11, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Some More of How It Already Is Now

Tras la Victoria de Trump Aumenta el Valor de las Acciones de Compañías Carcelarias Lucrativas y de Contratistas Militares

Incarcerated Lives Matter

The 153rd Death Row Exoneree

Young African Leaders Forum (Yalf) Developmental Projects, Terea Abila

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The Young African Leaders Forum is actively engaged in developmental projects that would see a sustainable Africa in the near future. The young leaders have committed themselves to undertaking specific projects in their countries. These projects keenly focus on playing a major role in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. YALF passionately undertakes these developmental projects because we believe that Africa has the enormous potential to empower her people and ensure her challenges are solved in an amicable manner. The youth leaders have dedicated themselves to serving voluntarily in their communities and this has …

The State Of African Economy And A Way Forward, Florian Cyril Mshanga

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The current emerging market downturn in economic powerhouses like China, has already negatively affected African economic growth. For resource-rich countries, it is a chance to improve their public investment management (PIM) system, which could help boost growth; although from experience drawn, Sub-Saharan oil resourced countries on average score lower in PIM, reflecting weak administrative capacity and low transparency in the use of public resources, especially at the project appraisal and evaluation stages of the PIM process. Countries that have successfully diversified their economies will suffer less than those that have not and they will enjoy less stress than countries depending …

The Impact Of Oil Price On Ghana's Inflation, Albert Mcbell Ninepence

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

World oil price is a momentous determinant of global economic performance. In most cases, when oil prices skyrockets, it leads to a transfer of income from importing countries to exporting countries through trade shifts. The link between oil and inflation is mostly seen as being correlational. The direct relationship between oil and inflation was evident in the 1970’s nevertheless this relationship started to deteriorate after the 1980’s. Quite a cornucopia of researchers have made relentless inquiry on the macroeconomics impact of world oil price shocks and hikes on economic growth and consumer price inflation on importing countries. Also, an infinitesimal …