Mobilities and peace

This article considers how an increasingly visible set of mobilities has implications for how peace and conflict are imagined and responded to. We are particularly interested in how these mobilities take form in everyday actions and shape new forms of peace and challenge existing ones. The article considers fixed categories associated with orthodox peace such as the international, borders and the state that are predicated on territorialism, centralized governance, and static citizenship. The article can be read as a critique of liberal peacebuilding and a contribution to current debates on migration, space and the everyday. Through conceptual scoping we develop the notion of mobile peace to characterize the fluid ways in which is being constructed through the mobilitiy of people and ideas.     

Analogue crisis,digital renewal? Current dilemmas of peacebuilding

ABSTRACT

The international architecture of peacebuilding and statebuilding, with the United Nations’ efforts central among them, is currently responding to a shift from ‘analogue’ to ‘digital’ approaches in international relations. This is affecting intervention, peacebuilding and development. This article analyses the potential that these new digital forms of international relations offer for the reform of peacebuilding – namely, the enhancement of critical agency across networks and scales, the expansion of claims for rights and the mitigation of obstacles posed by sovereignty, locality and territoriality. The article also addresses the parallel limitations of digital technologies, as well as the risk of co-optation by historical and analogue power structures, existing modi operandi and agendas of the United Nations, and other international actors. We conclude that though aspects of emerging digital approaches to peacebuilding are promising, they cannot yet bypass or resolve older, analogue conflict dynamics revolving around the state, territorialism, and state formation.     

Peace in the Twenty-First Century: States,Capital, and Multilateral Institutions versus Positionality Arbitrage,Everyday Mobility,Networks, and Multi-verticality

The ‘long peace’ of the last 25 years has been marked by various debates on liberal-democratic peace, human rights, and cosmopolitanism. They are all linked with various forms of intervention—from development to peacebuilding and humanitarian intervention. This ‘interventionary system/order’ model has come under pressure from a range of different fronts. This article examines how peace and development may be rethought in a global framework if the previous version of a progressive framework (i.e. the liberal peace) is now being revised and intervention has shifted towards neo-liberal forms.     

Coexistence not Reconciliation: From Communal Violence to Non-Violence in North Maluku,Eastern Indonesia

Cultural approaches to reconciliation, those based on ‘traditional’ practices for peacemaking, have attracted the attention of scholars looking at post-conflict regions in Indonesia. Numerous observers have pointed to the revitalisation of the Tobelo adat notion of hibualamo in the province of North Maluku as a successful example of this approach. This paper disputes those conclusions and explores local strategies for peacebuilding and reactions to these strategies in post-conflict North Halmahera. I compare grassroots understandings of ‘reconciliation’ with those of the local elite behind this revitalisation effort. I also debate the concept of reconciliation as it has been applied to the region. Applying the concept of reconciliation, with its connotations of a positive peace, to the post-conflict situation in North Maluku is more of an idealistic view of the potentialities for peace than an actual reflection of reality. I suggest it is more appropriate to describe the situation as one of coexistence or negative peace.     

Forced Migration and Professionalism1

The complexity of forced migration calls for significant expertise with regard to prevention, responses and solutions. This article describes efforts since the early 1980s to professionalize the field. Professional development requires, at a minimum, that three things be in place: training; standards to govern professional competence; and a process for evaluation and improvement. Professional development must take into account the increasing complexity of humanitarian crises; changing notions of sovereinty that permit new solutions; changing mandates and responsibilities of organizations concerned with forced migration; and technological and communications innovations that enable new approaches to forced migration and professional training.     

“Ellen Is Our Man”

This article examines the nature of shifting gender roles in Liberia's postconflict reconstruction process. Specifically, it investigates the ways in which political authority is gendered and the agency that women in politics employ to justify their participation as they attempt to reduce gender inequalities at the institutional level. I argue that the intervention of the international community has been instrumental in providing space and resources for gender mainstreaming, however in the absence of more in-depth intersectional analyses of gender dynamics, the unintended consequences of peacebuilding policies could hinder the sustainability of long-term peace. This article is based on a qualitative research country study conducted by the author in rural and urban Liberia following the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. A discussion of key findings is exemplified with excerpts from key informant interviews and focus group discussions that seek to give voice to a cross-section of Liberians, so that they can contribute to the ongoing debate on gender mainstreaming in postconflict societies and bridge the gap between local and international discourses.     

From the private to the public sphere: new research on women's participation in peace-building

Despite the United Nation's landmark Security Council Resolution on women, peace and security in 2000 which highlighted the importance of women's participation in peace-building, only one in 40 peace treaty signatories over the last 25 years has been a woman. Yet evidence from non-government organisations and women's rights organisations shows that women are active agents of peace, resolving conflicts at all levels of society with little or no recognition. This article discusses new research which tracks women's roles in building peace at local levels in five conflict-affected contexts: Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. The article highlights the significance of violence against women as a barrier to peace-building, and explores how and why women's exclusion and marginalisation from peace processes tends to increase the more formal the processes become. The article uses two case studies of women's rights organisations in Afghanistan and Nepal to illustrate the research findings and demonstrate how communities can mobilise to promote gender equality and fulfil women's rights.     

Matching AIDS Service Organizations' Philosophy of Service Provision with a Compatible Style of Program Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the unique features of AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) that should be considered when developing an evaluation strategy. It describes current evaluation approaches used by ASOs which are incongruent with the service philosophy of these organizations and the drawbacks these current evaluation efforts present. It then describes an alternative evaluation approach that better matches ASOs' philosophy of service delivery with the evaluation process. An illustrative case example is used to show how a more participatory approach can be used in an ASO and why such an approach is more likely to produce meaningful data that will be utilized for program development and refinement.     

Connecting Tenure Security with Durable Solutions to Internal Displacement: From Restitution of Property Rights to the Right to Adequate Housing

The end of displacement is a main goal of international peacebuilding strategies, with increasing financial and human resources committed to it. Nevertheless, protracted internal displacement remains unabated, necessitating a review of the responses provided thus far. Durable solutions to internal displacement require a safe, permanent and secure place to settle, which puts security of tenure at the centre of any sustainable option. This article emphasizes the limited understanding of the factors that contribute to secure tenure as one of the main flaws in a predominantly legal approach to the right to restitution and the right to adequate housing in responses to internal displacement. It calls for the design of contextualized and inclusive strategies to align the de jure, de facto and perception dimensions of tenure security to support the sustainable settlement of internally displaced persons as well as the construction of peace.     

The impact of ideology on regulation: The case of board and care homes

Debates about regulatory efforts to monitor the delivery of health and long-term care have become commonplace in health policy. Efforts to examine the key assumptions underlying the current regulatory strategies have been limited, however. Using the board and care industry as an example, this article examines how ideology influences the regulatory strategy developed. Three ideological perspectives-a free-market approach, a market correction strategy, and a critical policy framework-are reviewed in the context of efforts to regulate board and care homes in the United States. Differences in approaches to regulating board and care are presented for each of the major perspectives.     

The interaction between landmine clearance and land rights in Angola: A volatile outcome of non-integrated peacebuilding

The current approach to peacebuilding by the international community is to focus on the priorities thought to be important to recovery, but this occurs in a largely non-integrated way. With these different endeavors largely isolated from each other in planning, analysis, implementation, and measures for success, little is known about how they interact and whether or not the aggregate effect contributes to, or detracts from durable peace. This is especially important for priorities which in some way interact with each other on the ground among a recipient population. Two of these priorities for recovery, landmine clearance and land rights, while taking place on the same lands at the same time, and for the same people, are regarded separately as crucial to postwar recovery, and their interaction has not yet been examined. This article looks at these two priorities for Angola, and finds in their interaction a number of ways in which they detract from durable peace. This is a result of, 1) the role of areas adjacent to mine contaminated locations, 2) land grabbing, 3) the actions and role of the State, 4) the problematic interaction between different sectors involved in recovery, 5) the ongoing return of refugees and internal dislocatees and their (re)settlement, and 6) the lack of awareness of land tenure issues on the part of ‘mine action’ organizations. Subsequent to an examination of these forms of interaction this article looks at possible ways forward, focusing on, 1) the derivation of a form of ‘forced transparency’ as a deterrent to land grabbing, 2) enhancing the utility of ‘land release’ within the mine action community, 3) linkage of the different sectors concerned with mine action and land rights, and 4) the role that donors of mine action can play.     

What's to come is more complicated: feminist visions of peace in Colombia

The years following the Colombian Congress’ 2016 approval of peace accords with the country’s oldest and largest guerrilla army have brought into stark relief Cynthia Enloe’s assertion that “wars don’t simply end, and wars don’t end simply.” As Colombia and the international community grapple with the complexity of constructing a society at peace, it is essential to listen to Colombian feminists’ visions of what a true and lasting peace would look like. While the feminist gains evinced by the accords represent a significant step forward, my research with feminist peace networks during the negotiations points to a still broader vision of peace that has not yet been embodied by the accords or their implementation. I argue that the antimilitarist, antineoliberal and antipatriarchal peace envisioned by feminist activists is more comprehensive, more transformative and more stable than that contained in the accords, and offer predictions of how feminists might pursue their vision in the post-accords reality.     

Reconceptualising professional knowledge: the changing role of knowledge and evidence in social work practice

New socio-economic conditions have necessitated different approaches to professional learning and decision-making and alternative perspectives are required to properly understand and engage with the complexity of the world of work, learning and doing. This paper considers the international literature in relation to professional learning in the context of evidence-based practice and knowledge exchange, and considers how we might overcome existing barriers to implement a more knowledge-based approach to social work practice. By adopting actor network theory and socio-material theories, this paper begins to consider alternative perspectives on professional learning and knowledge exchange as implementation in social work. The paper argues that the production of knowledge itself is not enough to guarantee that even the best knowledge will have any utility in practice and that we now need to search for more effective ways of generating and implementing new knowledge. Furthermore, more attention needs to be given to how current approaches to research design, dissemination and implantation could become more meaningful for practice.     

Gender,conflict, and peace-building: how conflict can catalyse positive change for women

Although modern-day armed conflict is horrific for women, recent conflict and post-conflict periods have provided women with new platforms and opportunities to bring about change. The roles of women alter and expand during conflict as they participate in the struggles and take on more economic responsibilities and duties as heads of households. The trauma of the conflict experience also provides an opportunity for women to come together with a common agenda. In some contexts, these changes have led women to become activists, advocating for peace and long-term transformation in their societies. This article explores how women have seized on the opportunities available to them to drive this advocacy forward: including the establishment of an international framework on women, peace, and security that includes United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and other international agreements and commitments to involving women in post-conflict peace-building. The article is based on on-the-ground research and capacity-building activities carried out in the Great Lakes Region of Africa on the integration of international standards on gender equality and women's rights into post-conflict legal systems.     

Quaker mission in the Nigerian civil war and Ephraim Isaac’s mediation in the Ethiopian civil war: lessons in religious peacebuilding

ABSTRACT

Traditional peacekeeping discourse has ignored the role of religious bodies (or individuals) in conflict resolution, preferring to focus on the activities of skilled diplomats and negotiators. History suggests, however, that not only have religious bodies been engaged in peacebuilding efforts, they have produced some of the most rewarding successes. It is in this connection that the paper examines two notable case studies: the Quaker Mission during the Nigerian Civil War and Ephraim Isaac’s mediation effort during the Eritrea/Ethiopia conflict. Using both primary and secondary sources, a historical and comparative methodology is adopted. It argues that while the case studies differ in many respects, there is a convergence in methods which yielded positive results. The essay concludes that whether acting as a foreign mediator (as in the case of the Nigerian Civil War) or an indigenous one (as in the case of Ethiopia), the religious “tag” they carry gave them an added advantage in the mediatory role they performed. This is more so the case since these bodies demonstrated the spirit of nonpartisanship, empathy, integrity and credibility; all of which are necessities for achieving success in religious peacebuilding.     

Agent-based modeling as a tool for program design and evaluation

Recently, systems thinking and systems science approaches have gained popularity in the field of evaluation; however, there has been relatively little exploration of how evaluators could use quantitative tools to assist in the implementation of systems approaches therein. The purpose of this paper is to explore potential uses of one such quantitative tool, agent-based modeling, in evaluation practice. To this end, we define agent-based modeling and offer potential uses for it in typical evaluation activities, including: engaging stakeholders, selecting an intervention, modeling program theory, setting performance targets, and interpreting evaluation results. We provide demonstrative examples from published agent-based modeling efforts both inside and outside the field of evaluation for each of the evaluative activities discussed. We further describe potential pitfalls of this tool and offer cautions for evaluators who may chose to implement it in their practice. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the future of agent-based modeling in evaluation practice and a call for more formal exploration of this tool as well as other approaches to simulation modeling in the field.     

Sustainable lifestyles for all? Disability equality,sustainability and the limitations of current UK policy

In recent years, various environmental threats have been highlighted in relation to disability. Growing knowledge of the effects of climate change and particular impacts on disabled people have been highlighted by a number of authors, including a recent critique of disabled people’s ‘vulnerability’ with respect to environmental hazard. This article focuses on the issue of citizen involvement with climate change mitigation – and more broadly individual and household-level efforts to reduce our impact on the environment. These more mundane aspects of climate change mitigation, for example through transitions to more sustainable lifestyles, also have significant implications for disabled people. The article argues that disability equality is a key component of sustainability. Limitations are demonstrated in policy designed to address these issues using the example of current UK policy, and it is suggested that policy approaches to sustainability should also be a concern of disability studies.     

The human,humanism and the human condition

Guidelines for peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and peacemaking interventions in conflict situations are drawn from the experience of the United Nations forces over the past 30 years. The basic role is that of a third party who combines the attributes of patience, restraint, advocacy, approachable and tactful personality, ability to persuade and influence, perspective, impartiality, flexibility and speed, and humour. Since ‘peace is everybody's business’ it is possible for civilian groups, such as the Cyprus Resettlement Project, to supplement or replace the United Nations forces in some or all of their initiatives, depending upon the military, political, and social situation.