Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

South Africa's Paradox: A Case Study Of Latent State Fragility, Edward Louis Mienie

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Do existing measures of state fragility measure fragility accurately? Based on commonly used fragility measures, South Africa (SA) is classified as a relatively stable state, yet rising violent crime, high unemployment, endemic poverty, eroding public trust, identity group based preferential treatment policies, and the rapid rise of the private security sector are all indications that SA may be suffering from latent state fragility. Based on a comprehensive view of security, this study examines the extent to which measures of political legitimacy and good governance, effectiveness in the security system – especially with respect to the police system – and …

Fearless: Class Of 2014, Center For Public Service

SURGE

We recognize all of the Gettysburg College graduates who will use what they learned and experienced over the past four years to fearlessly promote change, seek justice, and challenge inequality after leaving Gettysburg College. The following list contains the names of all of the members of the class of 2014 who have been recognized by other members of the campus community as leaders for change, and we are proud to claim these fearless and inspirational students as our own. We know, however, that we do not have everyone who deserves to be recognized listed below, so feel free to continue …

Ddasaccident818, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Two Cambodian demining experts were killed in Battambang province’s Samlot district on Saturday after detonating an anti-tank mine while carrying out clearance work in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold.

The primary cause of this accident is listed as ‘Inadequate training’ because the Victims were apparently cutting undergrowth (grass) in a manner that detonated an anti-tank mine (which is designed to require the weight of a heavy vehicle to detonate). It is uncertain what vegetation cutting tools they were using. It is possible that an anti-personnel mine was placed on top of the anti-tank mine and one victim stepped on the …

The Determining Factors Of U.S. Humanitarian Interventions: A Case Study Of Kosovo And Syria, Elijah J. Anderson

Honors College Theses

In 1999, the U.S. and NATO went to war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the guise of a humanitarian intervention. American citizens outraged by images Kosovar refugees fleeing their homeland helped prompt this military action that eventually freed Kosovo from the grips of Yugoslavia. In 2011 Americans began to be exposed to images of Syrian war victims and refugees fleeing violence and persecution in Syria. The U.S., however, has remained militarily uninvolved in this conflict despite the mass scale of atrocities being committed by the Syrian government. Through this thesis I attempt to explain why the U.S. response …

Ddasaccident823, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The Board of Investigation report records that this was a BAC accident involving an “uncontrolled detonation” of a submunition. It was investigated at Ayta el Jabel on 7th May 2014 by the Chief of QA from the Regional Mine Action Centre (N).

On the 7th of May 2014 at [International demining NGO] task CBU-764, an uncontrolled detonation of a BLU-63 sub-munition occurred while [International demining NGO] searcher [the Victim] was removing stones in his lane and led to his death. [The Victim] sustained severe injuries from fragmentations of the detonated BLU-63 in the whole face, amputation of the five fingers …

Ddasaccident811, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The accident occurred outside of cleared and marked area, in the bank of Panj River, just 3m away from water line. TL left his helmet and map case in the cleared area (found later in systematic technical survey lane), stepped over the marking and proceeded passing through the uncleared dangerous area towards to river. The foot prints on the ground are clearly visible where TL stepped over the marking. The distance (straight line) between this place and place of explosion is 77m.

Improv To Improve Interprofessional Communication, Team Building, Patient Safety, And Patient Satisfaction, Candace A. Campbell

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The purpose of this process improvement project was to implement a test of change within a healthcare team utilizing applied improvisational exercises (AIEs), and to lay the groundwork for more effective inter- and intra-professional communication.

Literature review: AIEs have been shown to facilitate individual participant communication strengths through a process of un-learning certain common behavioral habits, and learning new habits that assist in creating and expanding closed-loop communication. Such un-learning and learning enriches the participant’s awareness of the environment and encourages participant adaptability through positive group interactions.

Method: An all-day AIE seminar/workshop was conducted with members of two healthcare teams …

The Effects Of American Involvement In Northern Uganda's Conflict With The Lord's Resistance Army, Karen J. Norris

Celebration

This project explores the impact of American governmental and non-governmental actors in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, particularly the U.S. military, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It also examines the efficacy of these various forms of intervention, specifically the deployment of U.S. Special Forces tracking the LRA, and the initiation of various soldier reintegration, governance, and sustainability programs organized by USAID and NGOs such as Invisible Children. Additionally, this project seeks to uncover underlying geopolitical objectives, such as gaining alliances in the 'Global War on Terror' …

Desert Fog: The Disappearing Memory Of The Herero Genocide, Elizabeth S. Topolosky

Celebration

This paper examines why certain human-created traumas, especially genocides, are forgotten while others become established topics of public and intellectual discourse. The Herero Genocide in German West-Africa of 1904 to 1907 serves as the main example of these "forgotten traumas." In particular this paper focuses on the time period of the genocide, the progress of technology at this time, and the identity of the victims as possible reasons for the "weakness" of the memory of this event.

Spark Across The Ages': Freya Von Moltke In The Memory Of The German Resistance To National Socialism, Sarah E. Hayes

Celebration

Freya von Moltke was a member of the Kreisau Circle, a German resistance group to Nazism that was active from 1940-1944. Although the group's existence was uncovered in the wake of the July Plot in 1944, von Moltke became highly influential in preserving the history of the Circle until her death in 2010. This paper will examine the role of von Moltke in the German collective memory today due to her exemplification of the values of the Berlin Republic.

After A Century Of Injustice: Moving Toward Turkish Recognition Of The Armenian Genocide, Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Peace and Conflict Studies

Nearly one hundred years have passed since the Armenian genocide, which prefaced and in some ways encouraged the Holocaust – yet the Turkish government continues to deny the genocide and uses political manipulation to prevent its recognition by others. The denial’s history has been one of collaborative repression, but in recent years Turkish voices have joined with Armenians’ in the struggle for recognition; collaborative struggle, particularly in recognition of shared history, may represent the best chance to pressure Turkey to federally recognize the genocide. This paper explores the machinations of the denial and its significance in the twenty-first century, as …

Democratic Vs. Capitalist Peace: A Test In The Developing World, Faruk Ekmekci

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper aims to test the capitalist and democratic peace arguments within the developing world. Notwithstanding the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence which indicate two different dynamics of interstate conflict in the developing and the developed worlds, the proponents of both “democratic peace” and “capitalist peace” arguments did not take into account the distinction between developing and developed countries and tested their hypotheses within samples that included “all dyads” in different time periods. This study aims to fill this gap by testing capitalist and democratic peace arguments within the developing world. It tests the capitalist and democratic peace arguments through …

Fictional Reality Or Real Fictionality? The Relationship Between Fictional Texts And Psychological Perceptions Of Societies In Conflict, Yuval Benziman

Peace and Conflict Studies

The study of groups’ behaviors in conflicts has shown that societies favor the in-group, delegitimize the out-group, and provide explanations for members of society as to why the conflict erupted and how to cope with it. It has been claimed that societies share a psychological in-group repertoire, an ethos of conflict, and that they develop a culture of conflict. As part of societies’ mechanisms, culture and fictional products – films, books and plays – have an important role in shaping the way people perceive, think and act in conflicts. Yet fictional texts, by their mere characteristics, provide a discourse which …

Moving ‘Beyond Neutrality’ And Cross-Cultural Training: Using World Café Dialogue To Address End-Of-Life Care Inequalities, Jacqueline N. Font-Guzman

Peace and Conflict Studies

In this article I discuss how World Café Dialogues can be used to unveil structural and cultural violence that drive the behaviors that maintain end-of-life care inequalities, especially among minorities, in acute healthcare hospitals. Conflict practitioners are rarely included in conversations of end-of-life care inequalities and when included it is to “solve a problem” through bioethics mediation or provide training in cross-cultural competence. I argue that conflict practitioners need to broaden their approach to conflict and use their skills to surface unequal power structures and implicit beliefs that maintain the unjust status quo in end-of-life care disparities.

Volume 21, Number 1 (Spring 2014), Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 39-Nn, No. 5, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Our Thanks to Hurricane: Prisons Are All The Same

Inequality Getting Worse

What Does CCA Stand For?

Seeking Testimony

Crime of the Month

Comite Internacional por la Libertad de los 5 Cubanos

Voices From Inside

This Change Is Only Cosmetic

This Change Goes Backwards

Against Self-Defense, Stephen Blake Hereth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Absolute Pacifism (or AP) is the thesis that no act of assault is morally permissible. This entails that all acts of self-defensive assault are impermissible. This essay defends AP against non-eliminativist theories of justified self-defensive assault - that is, theories of self-defensive assault which, contrary to AP, claim that at least some instances of self-defensive assault are morally permissible. Chapter 1 begins by defining assault and AP and subsequently exploring a species of AP wedded to the Doctrine of Double Effect (or DDE). Chapter 2 defends AP against the thesis that self-defensive assault is morally permissible but not morally obligatory. …

The Role Of Youth In Post Accord Transformation In Northern Ireland, Christine Smith Ellison

Peace and Conflict Studies

Despite increased international interest in the contribution of education to peacebuilding, there has been a neglect of the role that non-formal youth programming can play in this process. This article examines three such youth programmes in post-accord Northern Ireland through the theoretical lens of their contribution to social, economic and political transformations. Given the sustained context of segregation and limitations of the formal education sector as a mechanism for transformation, the paper argues that the non-formal sector has played an important role in ensuring inclusion of multiple youth perspectives in a divided society. It also raises a number of critical …

Human Torches: The Genesis Of Self-Immolation In The Sociopolitical Context, Ryan Michael Nixon

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

In 2012 there was a record number of self-immolations globally. This phenomenon has been associated with the civil unrest and the collapse of regimes. Most recently, self-immolations in Tunisia sparked a revolution that led to the collapse of the Tunisian government. In the study of politics, self-immolations frequently appear merely as footnotes in the discussion of other phenomena. Where research has been previously conducted, focus has rested mainly on how it initially became a tool of contention and how it spreads. This paper seeks to understand the conditions that lead individuals to choose this method of protest. To do so, …

Post-Conflict Reconstruction Lessons In Technology, Kevin Wheeler

Senior Honors Theses

The United States of America has accomplished some advanced technological and developmental achievements recently. However, in order to better its abilities to reconstruct and stabilize nations in the future it must utilize the lessons it has learned from the past as well as these technological advancements. From both Africa and the Middle East, the United States has learned some valuable lessons in helping nations rebuild in the face of danger. Currently, the United States can use internet technologies to better educate those who would want to reconstruct their own nations as a united people group with as little foreign interference …

Bridges Between Worlds Conference, Apmbc

Global CWD Repository

Bridges between Worlds was an initiative to address some fundamental questions about the place of victim assistance in other domains, such as the worlds of disability, heath care, education, employment, development, poverty reduction and human rights.

Bridges between Worlds highlighted that those who care deeply about the ful lment of the Convention’s promise to landmine victims and survivors have much in common with those concerned with the well- being and the rights of women, girls, boys and men injured and living with disabilities regardless of the cause. There is strength in pursuing this unity of purpose and working together towards …

Combat Paper Project, William Joiner Institute For The Study Of War And Social Consequences, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Coming home from war is enormously difficult. A new language is required to express the magnitude of war’s effects and consequences. Combat Paper transforms the uniforms of battle to paper and from this transformation comes art. Developed by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in San Francisco, the project has now traveled broadly across the United States and the world.

Promoting Justice, Peace, And Understanding Through Partnerships And Dialogue, Center For Peace, Democracy, And Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Peace, Democracy and Development (CPDD) promotes conflict resolution, democracy, economic development, education building, media development, and legal and judicial reform through partnerships and training programs across the globe. We offer academic and practical expertise across the spectrum of conflict management and democratic governance. Moreover, we mentor the next generation of peace and democracy builders from the UMass Boston student body who actively participate in many of our initiatives. The Restorative Justice Mediation Project (RJUMP) is a university-based program that aims to provide restorative justice services, education and training to the Suffolk County law enforcement community, department of …

Ultimate Peace, Eben Weitzman, Kylie Millbern

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Ultimate Peace (UP) builds bridges of understanding and friendship between Middle East youth divided by conflict, using the character building sport of Ultimate Frisbee. UP consists of three main components:

• Summer Camp
• Year-Round Community Program
• With inter-community games and practices
• Coach-In-Training (CIT) Leadership Program

Outcome Monitoring In Humanitarian Mine Action, Mikkel Nedergaard

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Humanitarian mine action programs are attempting to develop better ways to monitor and document the socioeconomic results of their programs. Lessons learned from the journal and use of Danish Demining Group’s Impact Monitoring System provide examples of how to build or improve current outcome- and impact-monitoring systems.

Amendments To The Imas Land Release Series, Helen Gray

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) review board formally endorsed amendments to the Land Release IMAS in April 2013 that clarify and standardize the language and practices in the series.

Scalable Technical Survey For Improved Land-Release Rates, Håvard Bach

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) tailors technical survey (TS) to allow for more efficient use of mine action assets and improved land-release rates. Many organizations consider TS an isolated activity and fail to streamline and effectively implement TS as a tool to reduce unnecessary, time-consuming and costly deployment of mine action resources.

Effects Of Mixed Teams On Land Release, Arianna Calza Bini, Nyske Janssen, Abigail Jones

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Gender and Mine Action Programme (GMAP) investigated the impact of mixed gender teams on land release. Based on the opinion of the respondents, as well as gender baseline assessments conducted by GMAP, the organization found that in most cases mixed teams in the land release process are primarily associated with the employment of women and its effect on the teams. Some mine action managers indicated that mixed teams actually enable better access to information while only a few respondents indicated that more accurate and inclusive information will allow mine action organizations to prioritize tasks where the impact is highest. …

The Journal Of Erw And Mine Action Issue 18.1 (2014), Cisr Journal

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Focus on land release issues

Feature: Best Practices of Residual Clearance

Special Report: Declining Donor Funding and Strategies to Attract New Donors