Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Unicef 2012 Annual Report, Unicef

Global CWD Repository

2012 was a year of recognizing results for children. As the Millennium Development Goals deadline approaches, we have cause to celebrate declining poverty rates, the near eradication of polio, increased immunizations, more girls attending school, improved access to clean water and nutrition, and more children surviving and thriving beyond their fifth birthdays than ever before.

But results are no excuse for rest. Too many children continue to struggle, clinging to the lowest rungs of the development ladder: a boy missing out on a vaccination because he lives in a remote, hard-to-reach community; a girl denied her rightful place in the …

Programs For Vulnerable Populations Leahy War Victims Fund, Usaid-Leahy

Global CWD Repository

Established in 1989, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Leahy War Victims Fund (LWVF) works to increase the availability of and access to a wide variety of programs benefiting people with disabilities in conflict-affected countries.

Assessing Ghana's Contemporary Tourism Development Experience, Kwaku Adutwum Boakye, Ferdinand Otibo, Foster Frempong

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The re-emerging acceptance of tourism as a pathway to development has culminated in widespread adoption of the trade by many poor countries. Ghana is one such country and, over the past three decades, has sought to use tourism as means of diversifying its econ-omy. The substantial amounts invested in tourism by the government make it imperative to continually evaluate tourism performance and outcomes as a tool for socio-economic development. Yet, to date, very few studies have placed Ghana’s tourism experience un-der the spotlight. This paper focuses on how the trade has evolved into a major economic activity. It assesses the …

Epilogue: Democracy In Ghana As A Model For The African Continent, H. E. John Dramani Mahama

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Address by the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to mark the formal end of Kennesaw State University’s “Year of Ghana” celebrations and academic programs.

A Street Child's Revolt Against Her Mother And Society: Lessons From Amma Darko's Faceless, Philomena Yeboah Ama Okyeso

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The writings of Amma Darko rank among Africa’s great literature. In Faceless, Amma Darko uses conflicts that bedevil mother-daughter bonds to address larger issues such as streetism, patriarchy, government indifference, irresponsible parenting, and inefficiency in the police service. Faceless may appear to be primarily an investigation of the causes, effects, and solutions of streetism, yet it also has important things to say about both the destructive and regenerative potentials of mothers. The benefits of male–female collabo-ration in addressing developmental challenges are another topic that has acquired consid-erable space in this novel. It is these issues/topics that this study explores and …

"Now I Know The Law": Empowerment Of Mining Communities By An Environmental Non-Government Organisation (Engo), Yaw Asamoah, Kwabena Barima Antwi, Oheneba Akyeampong, Paul Baidoo, Daniel Owusu-Koranteng

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) became very prominent after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 as vibrant social movements. Since then, ENGOs operat-ing at the local, regional, or global levels have been instrumental in environmental man-agement in both developed and developing countries. This study sought to investigate the performance of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), a local ENGO, in some selected mining communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipali-ty, in the Western Region of Ghana. Situated in the intepretivist research philosophy, the study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to collect data from some staff of WACAM, …

A Comparative Analysis Of Ghana's First-Past-The-Post (Fptp) Electoral System And The Proportional Representation (Pr) System, Joseph Kingsley Adjei

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Electoral systems translate the votes cast in a general election into seats won by parties and candidates. The choice of an electoral system is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. In fact, the choice of a particular electoral system has a profound effect on the country concerned. Yet, once an electoral system has been used for some time, its impact on the political life of the country may be less recognized. Against this background, this paper provides an analysis of Ghana’s First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral system and juxtaposes it against the Proportional Representation (PR) system to see …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

The Civilian And The War On Terror: Do Norms Shape Strategy?, Sherri Replogle

Dissertations

Despite a growing research agenda centered on issues of civilian immunity, it remains unclear what effect norms protecting civilians have on state behavior, especially democracies. This study asks when and how the civilian immunity norm (CIN) matters, specifically examining how it alters short term strategic choices and even long term doctrines.

Employing a constructivist approach to examine shifting attitudes toward civilians within the military during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this study argues that democracies will choose strategic outcomes that strengthen compliance with the CIN when they see the constraining normative environment as a key part of the strategic environment. …

Suicide Terrorism: Understanding The Mindset And Motives, Joshua Daniel Goss

Online Theses and Dissertations

Suicide Terrorism plays major roles in devastating and destructing cities and their people while communities try to fight the Global War on Terrorism. The devastation and destruction can either be focused on individuals or a certain infrastructure. There are two tactics of executing the acts of suicide terrorism; strapping explosives to their bodies and or steering some sort of transportation into a place of gathering. The methodology of this study is an auto-ethnography. The auto-ethnography is designed to find understanding of personal experiences using a qualitative method of study. Understanding the motives and mindset of suicide terrorist can be very …

January Roundtable: Responding To The Syrian Crisis, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The World Next Genocide” by Simon Adams. New York Times, November 2012.

and

“Syria is Central to Holding Together the Mideast” by Condoleezza Rice. Washington Post, November 2012.

Syrians Crushed Between Humanitarianism And Realism, Philip Cunliffe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announcing early this year that the war in Syria may have claimed as many as 60,000 lives, two op-eds published late in 2012 usefully exemplify two contrasting frames that have thus far dominated international responses to the conflict—namely, the humanitarian frame and the geopolitical frame. Yet despite the apparent contrasts between these two frameworks, both reflect a similar contempt for the Syrian people and their right to self-determination. The humanitarian framing of the conflict emphasizes the scale of human suffering and the need to alleviate it, while the geopolitical frame accentuates political interests …

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.

Transitions From War To Peace, Caroline A. Hartzell

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Elgar Handbook of Civil War and Fragile States brings together contributions from a multidisciplinary group of internationally renowned scholars on such important issues as the causes of violent conflicts and state fragility, the challenges of conflict resolution and mediation, and the obstacles to post-conflict reconstruction and durable peace-building. This chapter examines the state of current knowledge regarding transitions from war to peace following civil wars.

The Impact Of Gold Mining On Local Farming Communities In Ghana, Emmanuel Yamoah Tenkorang, Patrick Osei-Kufuor

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The increase in leases for surface gold mining in Ghana between 1983 and 1998 has had drastic consequences for sustainable land use and management in the country. Most of these leases were for surface mining displacing the original owners from large arable land needed for their livelihoods. This situation makes the local people vulnerable to econom-ic uncertainties. The real benefits accruing to the ordinary Ghanaian in these mining communities is simply taken, for granted as monetary compensation is paid to affected community members. Such palliative payments to people displaced by mining activities do not address the existing vulnerabilities of these …

India-Pakistan Relations: International Implications, Alka Jauhari

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

India’s independence in 1947 from the British colonial rule and its subsequent division into two nations – India and Pakistan - has sowed the seeds of continuing conflict between the two countries since their independence. The partition of India was primarily based on the religious divide between the two communities – the Hindus and the Muslims. After India’s partition, the major issue of conflict between the two countries has been the Muslim dominated northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, currently a part of India. This bilateral conflict has had international implications over the years. Decades of conflict, which includes three …

Democratic Peace Theory As Applied To Europe And The Middle East, Patrick G. Rear

Global Tides

Peace has been the goal of many leaders throughout history, and recent democratic movements in the Middle East have made the first steps toward a democratic peace in the region. This paper compares the European experience of Germany and France in the transition to democracy with the recent developments in the Middle East through November 2012. The impact of democratic revolution in Egypt is compared with the government established in Iraq following the U.S. invasion. Already, notable changes can be seen in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Israel, and between Iraq and Iran, which this paper attempts to evaluate …

Hunting For Huntington’S Evidence: An Empirical Reassessment Of The Clash Of Civilizations Theory, John Daniel Shindelar

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I inquire into Samuel P. Huntington’s clash of civilizations theory as outlined in his landmark The Clash of Civilizations. I explore conflicts starting at the end of the Cold War to 2007 in order to examine whether Huntington’s theory has been materializing (there is a marked increase in conflicts between Civilizations, and they have become more intense) or if the face of conflicts has stayed relatively similar to Cold War era clashes. I use International Crisis Behavior data on conflicts since the fall of the U.S.S.R. which Huntington cites as the end of a bipolar world and the beginning of …

The Strategy Of The United Nations On Mine Action 2013-2018, Unmas

Global CWD Repository

Affected states, with the support of the international community, have achieved real progress in addressing the threat of mines and ERWs, including cluster munitions. This has been reflected most notably by the drastic reduction in casualties over the last two decades, as well as by increased national capacity, advances in the universalization of various treatises and conventions and enhanced cooperation amongst mine action actors.

Significant challenges remain but these achievements constitute major opportunities to accelerate the realization of a world free of these threats.

The Strategy of the United Nations on Mine Action 2013-2018 (“the strategy”) presents the common objectives …

Itf Enhancing Human Security Annual Report 2013, Itf-Enhancy Human Security

Global CWD Repository

ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF) is a humanitarian, non-profit organization devoted to the elimination of threat from post-conflict and disruptive challenges, including landmines, explosive remnants of war (ERW) and the illicit ownership and use of small arms and light weapons (SALW), in South-East Europe and other affected regions in the world.

Established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in March 1998, the initial purpose of ITF was to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the peace agreement and to provide assistance and support in relation to post-conflict rehabilitation.

Since its inception, ITF has augmented its activities …