Post Conflict Issues

The dislocated, deterritorialized discourse produced by repatriates from formerly European colonies has remained overlooked in academic scholarship. One such group is the Eurasian “Indo” community that has its roots in the former Dutch East Indies, today’s Indonesia. This article focuses on Tjalie Robinson, the intellectual leader of this community from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. The son of a Dutch father and a British-Javanese mother, Robinson became the leading voice of the diasporic Indo community in the Netherlands and later also in the United States. His engagement resulted in the foundation of the Indo magazine Tong Tong and the annual Pasar Malam Besar, what was to become the world’s biggest Eurasian festival. Robinson played an essential role in the cultural awareness and self-pride of the eventually global Indo community through his elaboration of a hybrid and transnational identity concept. By placing his focus “tussen twee werelden” (in-between two worlds) and identifying “mixties-schap” (mestizaje) as the essential characteristic of Indo identity, Robinson anticipated debates on hybridity, transnationalism, and creolism that only much later would draw attention from scholars in the field of postcolonial studies. This article highlights Robinson’s pioneering role in framing a deterritorialized hybrid alternative to nationalist essentialism in the postcolonial era.

This article examines the emergence of counterinsurgency doctrine in Coalition interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. While counterinsurgency is complimentary to the tenets forwarded by its classical military predecessors in several respects, the article shows that it is also more than a refashioning of conventional military practice. Counterinsurgency is intimately tied to institutional practices that shape global liberal governance. It can be traced to dominant trends in international humanitarian, development and peace interventionism since the end of the Cold War and it deepens the links between the social development of war-affected populations and the politics of international security. Rather than simply a shift in military practice, counterinsurgency is distinguished by its investment in civilian modes of warfare. Counterinsurgency retells the narrative of intervention as part of the evolution of political and economic liberalisation, marking a passage from interventionary force to post-interventionary governance. Modern counterinsurgency, it is concluded, exposes the widening indistinction between contemporary modes of peace and those of war in international relations.

This study analyzes controversies and public attitudes concerning the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
and Stepan Bandera in Ukraine. The research question is: Which factors affect attitudes toward the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera in contemporary Ukraine? This article employs comparative and regression analyses of surveys commissioned by the author and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in 2009 and 2013 to determine the effects of regional and other factors on attitudes toward these organizations and the OUN-B leader. The study shows that regional factors and perceptions of these organizations' involvement in mass murder were the strongest predictors of the views concerning the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera. Their public support is strongest in Galicia and weakest in the East and the South, in particular, in Donbas and Crimea, two major conflict areas since the “Euromaidan.”

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

The European Union (EU) has closely correlated different aspects of the peace process in Bosnia with progress towards European accession. The ‘power of attraction’ of EU membership would presumably induce the Bosnian authorities to accept the adaptation costs of political and economic transformation. However, the Europeanisation approach has not produced the expected results. The track record of the EU’s policies towards Bosnia represents a paradigmatic case of what would happen if almost nothing works as efficiently as in the case of the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. The article investigates the causes of EU policy failure in Bosnia and claims that the EU has not effectively responded to three challenges: 1) adjust the process to the needs of an ethnically divided post-war state; 2) preserve the credibility of accession conditionality, and 3) convey the proper messages on how to comply with EU rules. Therefore, the article argues for a more cohesive and consistent EU approach towards Bosnia.

In this paper, my aim is to elaborate disability movement praxis so that transnational struggles for justice over the production of impairment emerging from the Global South can be represented within the transnational frame of disability politics. The paper seeks to explore the potential of deepening socio-political understandings of impairment as a means to radically democratize disability movement politics at the transnational scale to encompass pluralist, yet subaltern, collective claims for justice. I am guided by the question: if impairment is the place that makes visible invisible debts, can the global disability rights movement begin a process of re-identification to open the boundaries of disability justice claims and develop a strategic orientation which recognizes those collective justice claims for geopolitically produced impairments?

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

Even though scholars have made substantial contributions in connecting the fields of transitional justice and memory studies, important questions remain unanswered. The question of sequencing is one of them. How does a certain TJ mechanism condition the implementation of subsequent mechanisms and how together they shape memory narratives in a given society? This article builds on the case of Mozambique. Soon after the signing of the General Peace Agreement in 1992, the Frelimo-led government approved Amnesty Law 15/92 and with it, the past was to be left in the past. Such a choice was different from the one taken by Samora Machel-Mozambique's first president-between 1975 and 1982. By promoting a quasi-truth commission, Machel revisited Mozambique's colonial past and brought comprometidos' actions into the open. This article finds that whether the government opened up about the past or sought to leave it behind, the result has been the same: the celebratory reproduction of the liberation war narrative. Resorting to path dependence and critical junctures, this study explains the ways in which such a narrative has become hegemonic throughout the last four decades.

The United Nations is a crucial arena in which to set universal standards on women’s rights. But in recent meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women an increasingly coordinated misogynist backlash has been building unconventional alliances that transcend familiar geopolitical divisions and draw on the resources of religious organizations. States that have in the past been seen as defenders of women’s rights are losing ground in negotiations. There is a growing reluctance to expend political capital in defense of what has been constructed and maligned as a western social preoccupation. Transnational feminist networks have been deprived of opportunities to revive their networks and effectiveness in the absence of the expected fifth world conference on women this year. Feminist movements in emerging economies now have a crucial role to play in demonstrating that feminism is not limited to the West, and in influencing their national foreign policy establishments to defend women’s rights in multilateral agreements.

This article examines the positionality of local stakeholders in the production of knowledge through fieldwork in qualitative research in Northern Uganda. While scholarly literature has evolved on the positionality and experiences of researchers from the Global North in (post)conflict environments, little is known about the positionality and experiences of local stakeholders in the production of knowledge. This article is based on interviews and focus groups with research assistants and respondents in Northern Uganda. Using a phenomenological approach, this article analyzes the positionality and experiences of these research associates and respondents during fieldwork. Three themes emerged from these interviews and are explored in this article: power, fatigue, and safety. This article emphasizes that researchers need to be reflexive in their practices and highlights the need to reexamine how researchers are trained in qualitative methods before going into the field. This article is further critical of the behavior of researchers and how research agendas impact local stakeholders during and after fieldwork.

The article discusses the efforts to undertake economic reconstruction in Bosnia following the end of the war. It argues that, despite certain successes such as the rehabilitation of
infrastructure and the privatization of the banking sector, overall progress has been below expectations. The study, accordingly, attempts to analyse the reasons behind the reconstruction
failure by grouping Bosnia’s problems into four different challenges for analytical purposes: the post-Dayton institutional deficiency; overcoming political fragmentation; creating appropriate conditions for economic revival; and graduating from dependency on foreign economic aid. In this respect, it is concluded that the intersection between the economic and political dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction has generated a paradox: while huge amounts of economic assistance have intended to facilitate political reconciliation, the nature of the administrative (political) structure that was established in the post-war period has in turn hindered economic
recovery and the creation of a unified economic space. Moreover, political fragmentation and slow progress in economic reconstruction have been in a mutually constitutive relationship in which the existence of the one has contributed to the sustenance of the other.

Preface
The problem of ethnic conflict is high throughout the Great Lakes region but policy and conflict scholars seem by and large to behave as if they no longer believe they can do much about it. The fact that the general public feels this to be so, raises a disturbing question: is it really true that policy makers and conflict experts can no longer propose policies capable of reducing ethnic conflicts? Let us admit from the start that as conflict scholars we are much less self-confident than we were several years ago. Developments since then have shown the deficiencies of policies, techniques and tools of peace building we used to advocate. We have realized that under certain circumstances, the problem of ethnic conflicts has turned out to be much more stubborn than we thought. We know that the problem of ethnic conflict is mainly a social and psychological phenomenon, since it results from the functioning of the social system. Moreover, we know that mass conflict deeply affects the whole fabric of society and is, for that reason a major social problem. Even if we do not say so we also know that this problem directly concerns us and that one of our most important functions is to clarify the necessary conditions for its resolution. We have amassed significant insights into belief and illusion, love and hate, conformity and independence. Much about human behaviour  that prompt people to engage into violent conflicts remains a mystery, yet peace building can now offer partial answers to many intriguing questions: Will people who engage in violent ethnic conflicts act differently if we can first persuade them to adopt new attitudes? If so, how can we best persuade them? What leads people sometimes to hurt and sometimes to help one another? What kindles social conflict, and how can we transform closed fists into helping hands? Answering such questions expands our self-understanding and sensitizes us to the social force. This book chapter has tried to provide answers to some of these questions.

The ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland stemmed from division and oppression on multiple levels: religious, economic, ethno-racial, cultural, and politico-legal. The conflict dealt with the effects of policies of separation, based on the creation of subject classes and political tools to maintain division. In Northern Ireland, the separation was political and historic, stemming from the creation of the province of Northern Ireland and the subsequent divisions based on religio-cultural difference. The conflict also saw the development of paramilitary organisations on all sides of the conflict, along with attendant state intervention and response.

Abstract: What accounts for low-intensity intergroup violence? In this paper, we explore the micro-level determinants of low-intensity sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, which has marked the post-1998 peace agreement period. We use original cross-sectional time series violence data for the 2005-2012 period at a disaggregated sub-national level, the ward, and a wide variety of social and political indicators. In particular, we assess the impact of within-ward ethnic composition, on the one hand, and the ethnic composition of neighboring wards, on the other. We find that the number of intergroup violent events peak in wards where there is parity between groups, and in predominantly Catholic (Protestant) wards that border predominantly Protestant (Catholic) wards. The rationale is that violence takes place where groups have both opportunities to perpetrate sectarian violence and strategic incentives to do it. The paper makes several contributions: it demonstrates that violence is ...

Reconciliation is one of the contested concepts in post-conflict societies. The underlying reason is that the concept does not have a clear-cut definition. Nor does it reflect a single way of implementation in conflict zones. This paper attempts to address the question of whether reconciliation is the suitable approach for post-conflict societies in the first place. The core argument is that the predispositions within different reconciliation approaches make the concept less problem-solving .

In this article, Kurt Bassuener assesses the Biden administration's recent strong advocacy for the "Open Balkan" initiative, championed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, in the context of the current security crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Not only has the Biden administration effectively adopted a variant of the Trump administration's transactional policy in the Western Balkans, the policy represents an embrace of the EU's functionalist approach in the region - a failure. What this means is a de facto embrace of a Serbian/Albanian/Croatian co-prosperity sphere in the region.

Do social cohesion activities change the attitudes of the participants? This paper uses intergroup contact theory to explore attitude change resulting from contact with out-group(s) in social cohesion activities. Results from a pre-test/post-test design with fifty-five participants in two bicommunal camps in Cyprus show how attitudes change at the immediate end of these activities; an analysis of fourteen participants’ comments after one, thirteen, and twenty-five months provides a medium- to long-term assessment of attitude change. Not all participants were completely positive towards the other community before they took part, as assumed by some. There is clearly space for impact in terms of attitude change. Social cohesion activities represent indispensable tools for reducing prejudice and improving relationships between former enemies in post-conflict countries.

The Conflict Sensitivity Wheel is a new tool, designed to help development actors to be aware and intentional about how they work and interact with the target community, when planning, implementing and evaluating interventions. This book offers a comprehensive and systematic guide on how to use the Wheel, as well as a general overview of the importance of understanding the potential causes of conflicts, and the capacities for peacemaking, in an intervention area. Thanks to the mix of theory, practical working models and concrete examples from the field, it can be used by people from various backgrounds, and it is our hope that it will become a source of inspiration and knowledge to which the reader can return many times.

During an armed conflict and in its aftermath, measures must be undertaken in order to ascertain the fate of the missing and to address the emotional distress of families from the lack of news on their relatives. In the same contextual settings, cases of missing persons may involve criminal accountability, thereby triggering actions directed to answer questions like ‘who is responsible?’ and ‘what are the circumstances of the crime?’. These courses of action respond to two different needs, i.e., the need of families to know the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives, and the societal and individual need for accountability. The book examines how the international legal framework meets these two distinct, but intertwined, needs. It captures the diversity of international rules concerning the issue of persons reported missing in armed conflict, as well as the complexity of their implementation in the transition from an armed conflict to peace. The book shows that the duty to account for missing persons has a temporal cross-cutting nature, since its implementation requires measures before, during, and after an armed conflict. Dealing with the issue of the missing across phases − i.e., durante bello and post bellum −  entails a complex interplay of international norms. Affirming the relevance of the dialectic between International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) in the transition from conflict to peace, the book analyzes the simultaneous application of IHL and IHRL rules on missing persons in post-conflict and proposes a set of criteria that should govern their interplay. Measures that respond to the right of families to know the fate of their relatives cannot substitute those that are required to establish responsibility for IHL/IHRL violations and international crimes, and vice-versa. Examining specific examples, the book unveils the role that international law plays in the attempts of the international community to articulate humanitarian and accountability-driven efforts vis-à-vis post-conflict claims for information on the missing. In light of this analysis, the book explores the legal and policy aspects of how to build linkages between such efforts.

This paper analyzes the process through which Colombia has structured its international cooperation scheme until now, considering the variations that have arisen in its legal and
administrative framework through history to understand how today the country is a pioneer in South-South cooperation. On one hand, it is wanted to find the initial motivations that led the country to create its policy of international cooperation. On the other hand, it is wanted to consider how the country is forced to consolidate its policy of international cooperation and thus to assess a third time impact on the internationalization of its agenda becoming a leader in the region, due to this exogenous reasons. Thanks to this analysis, it is expected to show that before uncertainty of the negotiations and the implementation of the road map drawn up by the Juan Manuel Santos government in matters of cooperation, it is imperative for the country rethinking itself in those terms.

Keywords: International Cooperation, Post-Conflict, Colombian Foreign Policy.

There has been a recurrent rate of prevalent and pervasive violent conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria. Issues emanating from environmental degradation, and socio-political disorder have shifted pastoralist migratory patterns and increased tensions between farmers and herders. This, however, has influenced conflicts and hostility between farmers and herders, leading to violent clashes, killings, forced displacement, attrition of inter-communal interactions, as well as the annihilation of agricultural and livestock outputs. The Nigerian press, however, has successfully created a shared meaning of the Fulani-herdsmen activities in the country within a particular rhetoric community. These include agents with different characteristics in a similar/different setting, taking several actions, thereby formulating a particular rhetorical vision. The major rhetorical vision established in this paper is conflict and the underlying symbolic reality of peace. This paper examined articles in the Nigerian press as related to Fulani-herdsmen's activities and the fantasy themes embedded in it.

This article explores how civic mobilizations that emerge in deeply
divided societies navigate their ethnopolitical frameworks and assesses
their capacity to effect civic political change within such
contexts. The article examines these questions through the case of a
citizens’ protest and direct democracy movement that emerged in
the postwar state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014. It concludes
that the movement adapted to its ethnicized political environment
by adopting an approach of limited political engagement and that,
rather than trying to effect short-term political change, it chose to
pursue a long-term shift in civic consciousness.

The growing interest in 'During Conflict Justice' (DCJ) in areas experiencing ongoing, sustained violent 'conflict' has further demonstrated the confluence between transitional justice and liberal peacebuilding approaches. None more so is this evident than in the case of Palestine-Israel where an ongoing process of Israeli settler-colonialism in historic Palestine continues, with the further spotlighting of 'justice' issues that are longstanding and unresolved. This article critiques the application of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel and calls for a radicalisation of its application so as to ensure a platforming of conversation around decolonisation. It does so by critiquing the impact of discourse, specifically the framing of the 'conflict' and focuses on the nefarious role of a liberal peace building agenda in Palestine-Israel, a process that has embedded a deeply unjust and inequitable status quo. An insight into several 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' strategies of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel is provided, with the conclusion reached that; any TJ/DCJ praxis that does not platform meaningful conversation around decolonisation in the region, will ultimately amount to the individualisation of 'justice' whilst failing to address root causes.

"Comment vit-on des armes dans un pays marqué par la récurrence des rébellions et des répressions ? Que font les combattants quand ils ne sont pas mobilisés par la guerre ? A partir d’une enquête menée auprès d’hommes en armes au Tchad, ce livre interroge le recours aux armes, quand celui-ci devient non seulement une forme ordinaire de la lutte politique mais aussi un métier. En suivant les trajectoires des combattants qui passent d’une faction à une autre, de la rébellion à l’armée, et empruntent parfois des chemins qui mènent en Libye, au Soudan ou en Centrafrique, l’auteure révèle la fluidité de leurs loyautés mais aussi les hiérarchies qui marquent le métier des armes. L’ouvrage éclaire ainsi les règles d’un monde trop souvent associé au chaos ou à l’anomie. Il montre que la formation de ce métier est indissociable de la trajectoire historique de l’Etat et d’un mode de gouvernement qui procède par la violence et l’arbitraire et maintient le pays dans un entre-guerres permanent.
Au-delà du cas tchadien, l’ouvrage constitue une réflexion sur les frontières de la guerre et de la paix. Par un aller-retour entre réflexions théoriques et observations ethnographiques, il ouvre de nouvelles pistes d’analyse sur les processus de routinisation et de professionnalisation de la violence et offre un regard critique sur les politiques du « post-conflit » et du « state-building »."

Living by the Gun in Chad. The Interwar Government

"How do people live by the gun in a country characterized by recurring rebellions and repression? What do combatants do when they are not mobilized for war? What does it mean to be a combatant or former combatant? Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chad, this book ponders the recourse to arms when such action becomes both an ordinary form of the political struggle and a practical occupation.
In following the trajectories of combatants who go from one faction to another, from rebel to government soldier, to and from Chad and sometimes to Libya, Sudan, or even the Central African Republic, the author reveals the fluidity of their loyalties. Contrary to common perceptions of violence associated with chaos or anomy, she shows that people who bear arms have to deal with rules, frontiers, and hierarchies. The book demonstrates that, far from clashing with the state, the formation of this practical occupation is inseparable from the state’s historical trajectory and from a violent mode of governing. Ending the war is not enough. The issue is to exit the interwar maintained and reproduced by state violence.
Beyond the Chadian case, the book is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the intersections of war and peace. By shifting subtly back and forth between theoretical reflections and ethnographic observations, it opens up new avenues of analysis on the routinization and the professionalization of violence while offering a critical look at “post-conflict” and “statebuilding” policies."