Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Toward Locostra: Blast-Resistant Wheels Test, Emanuela Cepolina, Matteo Zoppi, Vittoria Belotti

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Technical Survey, often an efficient method of achieving land release, can also be prohibitively expensive for certain communities due to the utilization of the same hulking, heavily-armored machines used in clearance operations. If Technical Survey could be achieved through the use of less expensive agricultural equipment that is already present in communities near suspected areas, land release could be achieved at a much lower price. The following study explores this possibility by examining the explosion resilience of four different designs of blast-resistant tractor wheels, each made of commercial off-the-shelf components and designed for easy reproduction in mine-affected communities.

Conflict In Libya And The Future Risk To The Demining Community, Adrian King

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The evolving face of modern warfare in Libya and elsewhere will leave behind an explosives legacy that the humanitarian-demining community must manage. This article examines the innovation of the anti-government forces in employing modified weaponry and assesses some of the challenges this might bring to humanitarian demining and explosive-ordnance-disposal teams in the future.

Kabul City Clearance Project, Mohammad Akbar Oriakhil

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

After decades of conflict in Afghanistan, the Kabul City Clearance Project is addressing the dangers of mine and unexploded ordnance that pose a threat to the safety and livelihood of Kabul’s expanding urban population. KCCP is an 18-month collaborative project that utilizes the resources of Afghan Technical Consultants, a local clearance nongovernmental organization, to implement a mine-clearance plan in 36 impacted communities.

Syria Plants Landmines On Lebanese Border, News Brief

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

According to BBC and CBS news reports, Syrian troops planted landmines along its border with Lebanon, further perpetuating the uprising that began in March 2011 against President Bashar Assad and his regime.

Mine-Action Challenges And Responses In Georgia, Emil M. Hasanov, Petri Nevalainen

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Following an international conflict in 2008, Georgia faces a greater threat from landmines and explosive remnants of war than that posed by previous violence. In response to this threat, Georgia, with assistance provided by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/WRA) and the Government of Canada, created national bodies to coordinate and implement landmine and ERW clearance. This article documents Georgia’s past ERW, landmine and cluster-munitions contamination, as well as efforts to remove these threats.

Peacebuilding And Rule Of Law In Africa: Just Peace?, Book Review

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In Peacebuilding and Rule of Law in Africa: Just Peace?, terms such as peacebuilding and rule of law, which initially seem broad and sometimes ambiguous, are broken down by a variety of scholars from different fields to cite specific examples of trial and error in both processes within the African context.

Survey And Clearance Of Unexploded Submunitions Versus Landmines And Other Erw, Åsa Gilbert, Michael Creighton

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The authors argue that survey and clearance methods in areas contaminated solely by unexploded submunitions (from cluster munitions) should be different than those in areas contaminated by mines and other explosive remnants of war to achieve the most efficient outcome. This article seeks to explain how and why procedures are different, and proposes a land-release methodology for dealing with unexploded submunitions.

How To Sever The Legs Of An Octopus: Tunisia’S Ongoing Revolution, Matthew Hammel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Kasbah square is large and covered in barbwire. Military men stand on the inside of the fence cradling automatic rifles, joking, chatting, texting on their cell phones. Coming out from the bustle of the souks the square feels tranquil. It is September, seven months since the square became a temporary home to thousands of protestors who demanded the end of oppressive government in Tunisia. It was here that the Tunisian people solidified their revolution, refusing to be appeased by the flight of a figurehead while the tentacles of his regime remained.

Ben Ali ruled Tunisia for twenty-three years. During …

Assessing Mental Health Care For Iraqi Refugees In Jordan Looking To New Solutions For The Future, Hannah B. Egan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Across the globe citizens flee their native countries in search of newfound safety and stability. These people are known as refugees. Since 2003 refugees from Iraq have entered Jordan in search of a better life. Unfortunately, the terrors that Iraqi refugees escape do not disappear after crossing country lines. These memories cause serious mental health conditions for Iraqi refugees. Such conditions are intensified by the living environment in Jordan where Iraqis are not granted legal status. While some refugees are wealthy and others are resettled to the United States or Europe, the majority remain “stuck” in Jordan.

This study seeks …

Coming Home: Considering Sustainable Human Development In Jordan’S Palestinian Refugee Camps After The Conflict, Jordan Young

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The study explores the views of Palestinian refugee camp residents in Jordan on the long-term provision of health and education services in the camps and their status as residents of the Hashemite Kingdom, contrasting these views with the policies and future plans of the Jordanian government. Special attention is given to the Right of Return discussed in UNGA Resolution 194 and the possibility that many refugees would willingly choose to remain in Jordan if given the option of returning. The study asks how Jordan and the refugees it hosts would be affected by a possible solution to the broader Israeli- …

¡Edúcame! Violencia, Autoridad E Identidad En El Movimiento Studiantil Actual, Aila Ferguson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Controversy has surrounded the current student movement since it began six months ago. One of the main causes for concern is the violence that seems to be a constant at every protest and demonstration. There are various contradicting opinions on the subject of violence and what is appropriate behavior for the student protesters and for the carabineros, or police officers, who are ordered to “maintain control” of the marches. Through interviews with various participants and political actors this research aims to contribute to a better understanding of government violence as a form of social control and to the understanding of …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 36-I, No. 10, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples Movement

Crime of the Month

Soliciting Holiday Card Designs

Voluntarios: Heroes de la Frontera

Summary of the Platform of the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples Movement

Acholi Clan, Ethnic, And National Identities In Post-Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case Study In Koch Goma Sub-County, Nwoya District, David L. Davenport

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

the following essay, the researcher will explore the clan, ethnic, and national identities of the Acholi people in the context of post-conflict northern Uganda. The researcher will first describe and interpret the meaning of these identities to Acholi people he interviewed during his research, and then he will analyze them in the post-conflict, socio-cultural context of northern Uganda.

During a research period of four weeks, the researcher spent a total of twelve days in Koch Goma Sub-Country, Nwoya District conducting one-on-one interviews. During this time, the researcher was able to interview eighteen people. Data was collected and analyzed qualitatively as …

Déjà Vu: Famine And Crisis In Somalia, Mary H. Schwoebel

Conflict Resolution Studies Faculty Articles

Somalia is currently experiencing the worst drought and famine in over half a century. Half of the population (close to four million people) is dependent on food aid, while tens of thousands are estimated to have died since the drought began this past summer. In early September, the United Nations warned that as many as 750,000 people could die in the coming months if aid efforts are not ramped up. At least 150,000 have fled their homes seeking assistance in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps located in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and in refugee camps located in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia. …

The Un Security Council On Syria: Radical Change Or Continuity?, Thomas Pegram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Presidential Statement issued by the UN Security Council on August 3 condemning the widespread violation of human rights by Syrian authorities was hailed by some as signaling the collapse of the pro-Syrian "defiance coalition."

This "defiance coalition," comprised of the so-called "BRICs" (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) along with Lebanon, did indeed relent, begrudgingly, to growing international pressure for action on Syria. However, whether a statement containing little actionable content signals the crumbling of defiance rather than a diplomatic maneuver as calculations are recalibrated in light of developments is another matter.

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 36-H, No. 9, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Attica is All Of Us

Crime of the Month

¡No Retrocedamos!: Licencias para Todos en NM

Soliciting Holiday Card Design

CCA and MTC, For-Profit Prisons, Expand

The Second Meeting Of States Parties To The Convention On Cluster Munitions (2011), Ccm

Global CWD Repository

The Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP) took place in Beirut, Lebanon, from 13 to 16 September 2011 and gathered more than 1,000 delegates from 52 States Parties, 38 signatories States, 41 observers and 15 international organizations (see list below).

The 2MSP was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, President of the 1MSP to the CCM, Mr. Thongloun Sisoulith. During the first plenary meeting, the meeting elected by acclamation Dr. Adnan Mansour, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of the Republic of Lebanon, as President of the 2MSP to …

The Arab Spring: Endgames As Framing Battle, Colm Campbell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The narrative of the Arab Spring (including the Syrian uprising) in the mainstream media appears clear and linear: a cruel dictator is challenged in a series of street demonstrations that rapidly coalesce to become a popular uprising. The dictator resorts to increasingly brutal repression, but this fails to end the challenge. Within a relatively short time the dictator is overthrown. Elections within a reasonable period are announced, promising the creation of a democracy that is representative not only of the protest movement, but of society as a whole. Raghida Dergham's Huffington Post article largely reflects this perspective, drawing attention to …

White Noise, White Heat, Therese O'Donnell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

If, as former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously uttered, "A week is a long time in politics," then the Six weeks since Raghida Dergham's article could be a lifetime and the last six months of the "Arab Spring" an aeon.

The Moral International Sphere As A New "Civic Virtue", Claudia Heiss

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Liberal political theory, the predominant paradigm at least since the 1970s, rules out as oppressive the imposition of any substantive notion of a "good way of life" and proposes instead a neutral conception where each individual should have the right to pursue his or her own preferred project of life. This opposition of an ancient "virtue" and a modern "freedom" seems challenged by current debates about morality and the responsibility to protect innocent civilians from massive crimes. The moral outrage of the international community may be interpreted as a signal of a perhaps minimal notion of civic virtue, which translates …