Intercommunal Conflict Research Articles

Psychological vulnerability of teams working with displaced Syrians in Lebanon

In the context of the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a team of young Lebanese social workers attempted to identify the most economically vulnerable people. These professionals have themselves sometimes been exposed to social and economic difficulties, having in their own past experienced war and deprivation. They were confronted with experiences of war, poverty, inter-community conflicts, the recollection of their own family trauma or guilt. Support in the form of psychological care was provided to them.

The British–Irish Relationship in the Twenty-first Century

The twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement offers a useful vantage point from which to review the agreement’s progress, particularly because the anniversary coincides with Brexit, a process likely to place it under particular strain. Using both evidence offered elsewhere in this collection and new material, this article reviews the two decades since the agreement in 1998 using as a framework the three relationships that the agreement sought to address. First, it argues that a combination of structural reform, social change, demographic transformation and political reconfiguration has substantially removed the incentives for inter-communal conflict in Northern Ireland, though without completely eliminating overt political violence, as worrying indicators of dissent survive. Second, it contends that the provisions of the agreement for the promotion of institutionalised cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic have had limited impact, but that they have been supplemented by new forms of all-Ireland integration driven by change at EU level. Third, the article suggests that the once-hostile relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom has mellowed, a change that both facilitated the settlement of 1998 and was itself reinforced by this. The article concludes that the institutions established by the Good Friday agreement have had a mixed impact, and that they face a particular challenge in the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Communal violence and ethnic polarization before and after the 2015 elections in Turkey: attacks against the HDP and the Kurdish population

Given its duration and intensity, the decades-old civil war in Turkey between the Turkish state and the PKK has resulted in relatively low levels of lethal inter-communal conflict between Kurdish and Turkish populations. However, around the June 2015 elections an unprecedented wave of systematic anti-Kurdish violence swept across western Turkey. The paper will assess these events in relation to literature on communal riots and electoral violence. It will consider the impact of state led anti-Kurdish discourse and the growth of the HDP, as potential factors that aggravated the dormant tensions and laid the groundwork for widespread inter-communal violence.

Turkey’s imperial legacy and the conflict potential in the Balkans

ABSTRACTTurkey is the only Eurasian state surrounded in almost a full circle by acute hot or “frozen conflicts,” ranging from low-intensity violence, terrorism to fully fledged wars. The prevailing pattern of intercommunal and interethnic conflicts in the continental Balkans and on Cyprus has long been different from those in the rest of Europe and in the Near East. This difference is closely related to the fact that these lands had experienced in the past centuries-long rule by the Ottoman Empire, whose legal successor is the Republic of Turkey. The intercommunal conflict potential in the rest of Europe used to differ substantially, but the difference has been greatly reduced as Western Europe has, in one respect, become “balkanized.”

When “Mixed” Marriages Fall Apart: A Socio-Legal Perspective

ABSTRACTThis article sheds light on the socio-legal implications of the dissolution of “mixed” marriages. By analyzing two legal cases decided by Israeli shari‘a and civil courts, the article shows how such dissolution transforms the map of social conflicts and coalitions that was formed when the marital union was established. It illustrates how the ex-spouses’ families and communities are drawn into the custody struggles following the divorce, and how communal/religious courts may side with the spouse of the same community/religion. It argues that ex-spouses who converted to their partners’ religion – more often women than men – might be disadvantaged by this situation, and demonstrates how courts and parties to the postmarital intercommunal conflict infuse the concept of the “child’s best interests” with diverse cultural meanings.

Managing contested spaces: Public managers, obscured mechanisms and the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland

Societies emerging from ethno-political and inter-communal conflict face a range of complex problems that stem directly from the recent lived experience of bloodshed and injury, militarisation, securitisation and segregation. As institutional agents in such an environment, public managers perform the dual role of both interpreting public policy and implementing it within a politically contested space and place. In this article, we address how managers cope with the outworking of ethno-nationalist conflict and peace building within government processes and policy implementation and contend this is a subject of emerging concern within the wider public administration, urban studies and conflict literature. Using data from a witness seminar initiative on the Northern Ireland conflict transformation experience, we explain how public sector managers make sense of their role in post-agreement public management and highlight the importance of three identified mechanisms; ‘bricolage’, ‘diffusion’ and ‘translation’ in the management of public sector organisations and urban spaces in a context of entrenched conflict and an uncertain path to peace.

To Save Our Species But How Do We Make Collective Decisions

Throughout human history, havoc has been wrought by just a handful of very powerful leaders. The ultimate catastrophe could also be caused by just a few individuals, by unleashing a nuclear war or by ignoring international agreements on climate change. Donald Trump, for example, may renege on the Paris Agreement and commit other ecological blunders, which could spell the end for everyone. In a nutshell, the current democratic process gives him far too much power. The rights of any one citizen or country must be tempered by the rights of all. Alas, current forms of decision-making often fail to involve everyone in the final decision, the most obvious instances relating to decisions taken by a (simple or weighted) majority vote. If instead decision-making were based on the local, national or international consensus, such exclusive decisions could not be taken so easily. It should also be pointed out that majoritarianism – majority rule based on majority voting – has been and still is problematic in numerous inter-communal conflicts. This paper therefore outlines the flaws involved in binary voting; next, as a better methodology, it proposes a more inclusive voting mechanism; and finally, it advocates a structure to ensure that agreements are implemented, with possible penalties for those individuals, organisations or countries that flaunt the international consensus.

Gender and the (In)divisibility of Contested Sacred Places: The Case of Women for the Temple

Abstract Contested sacred sites, over which different religious groups assert claims to exclusivity, have drawn scholarly attention to the spatial interaction between religion and politics. However, the gendered dimensions of inter-communal religious-political disputes over sacred space, and women's roles in these site-specific conflicts, have been largely neglected. Using a case study of Orthodox Jewish women's activism for access to Temple Mount al-Haram al-Sharif, this article demonstrates how attention to gender and to women's engagement in inter-communal conflict over sacred places can illuminate unique intra-communal processes that aim to make a contested sacred site increasingly indivisible for parties to the conflict.

Memory, Forgiveness and Unfinished Justice in the Former Yugoslavia

Drawing its examples from the case of the former Yugoslavia, the paper explores the difficult intersections of justice, memory and forgiveness where the present bears the traces of a violent past of inter-communal conflict and mass crimes. It specifically delves into the limits of institutional attempts to respond in a redemptory and permanent manner to the claims for justice in a political community scarred by such a tormenting past. It examines three judicial or semi-judicial manifestations of memory based on how they relate to the past(s) of the former Yugoslavia: (a) the punishment of the perpetrators, (b) the recognition of the crimes committed, and (c) forgetfulness in the name of peace and progress. Promoting reconciliation, governments often qualify a plea for forgiving as the last recourse to the impasse of institutional justice. At this fragile moment, forgiveness presents itself as a remedy for the impossibilities of institutional justice, without however fully evading the dangers of political expedience or the Western metaphysics of a ‘universal’ (Christian) ethos. Discussing memory as a dimension of justice, the paper concludes that if this intricate bond remains unexamined, the possibility of forgiveness in the former Yugoslavia could hardly attain any political meaning or vigour.

Gendering ethnic conflicts: minority women in divided societies – the case of Muslim women in India

ABSTRACTThis article explores the practical and theoretical significance and long-term consequences of the failure to incorporate women’s interests in post-conflict negotiations by examining the case of Muslim women in India. Analyses of deeply divided societies must recognize that political competition and political violence do not affect all citizens equally. Also, the “larger picture” depicted by inter-community conflicts should not overshadow the effects of intra-community conflicts, which are no less important. Evident within each community conflict are the winners and the losers of the political accommodation process, in which the marginalized and weaker sections of each “side” of the conflict may be the real “losers”. Gendered analysis of ethnic conflicts and ethnic conflict resolution demands a reorientation of the concepts of conflict and security – Whose conflict is being solved and who is being secured?

Rethinking National Identities in Divided Societies of Post-Ottoman Lands: Lessons from Lebanon and Cyprus

The communal identities rooted in the millet system are still salient in post-Ottoman lands. Cyprus and Lebanon offer two cases where ethnic and sectarian identities are more prominent than national identities. In this respect both countries represent highly divided societies in post-Ottoman territories. This article discusses the failure of power-sharing systems in Cyprus and Lebanon, arguing that the lack of cultivation of a common national identity at the founding of these republics remains even today a central obstacle to implementing stable multinational/sectarian democratic systems. As a part of Greater Syria, today’s Lebanon is a homeland to many ethnic and sectarian communities. Lebanese politics historically has been governed by a system of consociationalism, which prevents any one group from dominating the political system. This system of power sharing dates back to the 1943 National Pact, and as a result of the sectarian nature of this arrangement, religious communal identities have a stronger pull than a Lebanese national identity. These communal identities crystallized over the course of a 14-year civil war, and were exacerbated by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005. In the case of Cyprus, the possibility of cultivating a shared national identity between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots has historically been suppressed by kin-state relations and colonial policies which have, in turn, resulted in inter-communal conflict. An understanding of this conflict and the nature of the nationalisms of each community helps explain how the 1960 Constitution of a bi-communal and consociational Republic of Cyprus hindered inter-communal relations – a precondition for the cultivation of a common national identity – and ultimately failed. From enosis to taksimto the April 2004 referendum on the UN’sAnnan Plan, the contentious interaction between external constraints and collective self-identification processes subsequently reinforced ethno-religious identifications. Through an examination of such processes, this article aims to identify and illuminate the shifting forces that shape deeply divided societies in general, and that have shaped Cyprus and Lebanon in particular. Understanding such forces may help break down barriers to the development of common national narratives.

Turkey’s imperial legacy and the conflict potential in the Balkans

ABSTRACTTurkey is the only Eurasian state surrounded in almost a full circle by acute hot or “frozen conflicts,” ranging from low-intensity violence, terrorism to fully fledged wars. The prevailing pattern of intercommunal and interethnic conflicts in the continental Balkans and on Cyprus has long been different from those in the rest of Europe and in the Near East. This difference is closely related to the fact that these lands had experienced in the past centuries-long rule by the Ottoman Empire, whose legal successor is the Republic of Turkey. The intercommunal conflict potential in the rest of Europe used to differ substantially, but the difference has been greatly reduced as Western Europe has, in one respect, become “balkanized.”

The Domestic Democratic Peace in the Middle East

The democratic peace theory has two complementary variants regarding intrastate conflicts: the “democratic civil peace” thesis sees democratic regimes as pacifying internal tensions; the “anocratic war” thesis submits that due to nationalism, democratizing regimes breed internal violence. This paper statistically tests the two propositions in the context of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We show that a MENA democracy makes a country more prone to both the onset and incidence of civil war, even if democracy is controlled for, and that the more democratic a MENA state is, the more likely it is to experience violent intrastate strife. Interestingly, anocracies do not seem to be predisposed to civil war, either worldwide or in MENA. Looking for causality beyond correlation, we suggest that “democratizing nationalism” might be a long-term prerequisite for peace and democracy, not just an immediate hindrance. We also advise complementing current research on intrastate and interstate clashes with the study of intercommunal conflicts and the democratic features of non-state polities. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HE

Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society: Multidisciplinary Approaches ed. by Marie-Paule Hille, Bianca Horlemann, and Paul K. Nietupski

Reviewed by: Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society: Multidisciplinary Approaches ed. by Marie-Paule Hille, Bianca Horlemann, and Paul K. Nietupski Jérôme Doyon (bio) Marie-Paule Hille, Bianca Horlemann, and Paul K. Nietupski, editors. Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015. xii, 306 pp., Hardback $110.00, ISBN 978-0-7391-7529-3. This edited volume emerged from a panel organized for the 12th seminar of the International association for Tibetan studies, in 2010 in Vancouver. It is hence the result of the work of an international team of researchers, spanning several continents, and who master a variety of languages relevant to this study. Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society provides a rich and meticulous analysis of intercommunity relations in the Amdo Tibetan region, which [End Page 369] includes the Tibetan parts of Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan province. It relies on a large variety of sources, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of this book, spanning from oral history to local archives and even to privately-held documents. The rich material studied is well detailed and presented throughout the chapters through quotes, pictures, and maps. A carefully drafted introduction sets up the ambition of the edited volume. While no overall argument is put forward, the study is driven by shared questions regarding the multifaceted interactions between Muslim and Tibetan communities in Amdo and the fluidity of identities in this region favorable to cultural and linguistic exchanges. Through snapshots focusing on different periods and groups in the recent history of the region, this book highlights the diversity of Muslim communities in Amdo. It enriches the existing literature on the topic not only with new material but also by challenging narrow approaches to Tibetan-Muslim relations in the region often presented as purely conflictual or commercial. Reflecting this ambition to go beyond the stereotypical views of Tibetan-Muslim relations in the region, several chapters highlight the complex interactions between these communities in recent Amdo history. In their chapter titled "A Study of Qing Dynasty 'Xiejia Rest Houses in Xunhua Subprefecture, Gansu" Yang Hongwei and Max Oidtmann show how the rest houses held by Muslim groups were used as para-governmental structures by the Qing frontier administration to govern the Tibetans and Mongols in the area. The rest houses were used to keep tabs on local commerce, take a census, tax the Tibetan population, as well as mediate in case of conflicts. Their role as brokers grew over time and was fundamentally tied to the relationships they managed to maintain with local elites on one side and the Qing administration on the other. Marie-Paule Hille's very rich chapter on Xidaotang merchants and their relationships with Tibetans also sheds new light on the complex intercommunal interactions in Amdo. Focusing on the late Qing and Republican era, she shows how this small Sufi community was able to develop trade relations with various Tibetan communities and maintain strong ties across the region. From their position as middlemen, they established contacts with local religious and political elites which went beyond pure business. They could, for example, rely on the support of monasteries in certain cases of conflict mediation. According to Hille, the ties of mutual-protection developed were based on shared interest but also the vision of a closed and collectivist community that the Xidaotang merchants shared with the Tibetan monks. Other chapters delve into the conflictual relations between Tibetan and Muslim communities, highlighting the complex reasons behind conflicts which cannot only be understood through the lens of ethnic or cultural differences. In her chapter titled "Victims of Modernization? Struggles Between the Goloks and the Muslim Ma Warlords in Qinghai, 1917-1942," Bianca Horlemann shows [End Page 370] how the conflict between the Qinghai Muslim administrators and Tibetan Goloks was not triggered by religious differences but rather by structural economic evolutions. The modernization of the local economy and of the Muslim Warlords armies, together with the increasing intra-Golok conflicts, created new strategic opportunities and led to conflict. In his work on the economic restructuring of Qinghai province on the contemporary period, Andrew Martin Fischer also highlights how economic changes can lead to intercommunal conflict. The labor market reforms and economic modernization...

The nexus of oil, conflict, and climate change vulnerability of pastoral communities in northwest Kenya

Abstract. Turkana, in northwest Kenya, is the country's poorest and least developed county. Pastoralism in Turkana is well adapted to the harsh climatic conditions, but an increase in drought frequency associated with global climate change and intensifying violent conflicts between pastoral groups poses significant challenges for local communities. The conflicts are especially violent in the border region between the Turkana and the Pokot communities. In this very region significant oil reserves have recently been found. The first aim of this paper is to analyse how the oil exploration affects the communities' vulnerability to climate change. Secondly, the paper explores the risk of the oil explorations creating new conflicts or aggravating existing ones. The primary method of the study is qualitative field research supplemented with a geo-spatial analysis of conflict data. The field research was conducted in October 2013 and April 2014 in three villages with different levels of engagement with the oil exploration. At the time of the research, oil exploration was expected close to Lokwamosing, while it had recently started in the vicinity of Lopii and had been ongoing for a longer time close to Nakukulas. The findings suggest that the oil exploration increases the community's vulnerability to climate change. Further, unmet community expectations for water, employment and development pose a significant risk for violent conflict between local communities and the operating oil company. Intercommunal conflict over water and land could increase as well.

Piracy in the Horn of Africa Waters: Definitions, History, and Modern Causes

ABSTRACTThroughout history, ocean piracy was common in different parts of the world, but it was rare in the Horn of Africa waters. Although international law clearly defines piracy, the term is often carelessly used interchangeably with different crimes (armed robbery, atrocities against the victims of shipwrecks, maritime terrorism, insurgent attacks, on sea intercommunal conflicts, and at times illegal fishing). In the first section, this article critically examines the link between the multiple definitions of the concept of piracy and how these can explain the various incidents that occurred historically on the coast of Somalia. In the second part, we explain different types of maritime attacks and criminalities that took place in the Horn of Africa waters prior to the upsurge of piracy in late the 1990s. We argue that all attacks and criminal incidents at sea cannot be classified as piracy. We explain why incidents of piracy were rare before the Somali state was established. Finally, utilizing Collier and Hoeffler’s greed and grievance theory, we seek to explain the factors that led to the emergence and spread of piracy. We contend that crime of opportunity explains in large part the motives of the pirates and their ringleaders while statelessness, poverty, illegal fishing, and toxic-waste dumping explain the initial emergence of piracy and tolerance for it among the coastal communities.

Changes and Challenges of the Kenya Police Reserve: The Case of Turkana County

Abstract:In rural Kenya, the main visible security force is the Kenya Police Reserve, an unpaid force guarding localities and armed by the state. Turkana County faces challenges of low state penetration, small arms flows, and armed intercommunal conflict. The state has a weak hold on Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) and their arms, and this situation is weakening further as many move into paid private security roles, including guarding oil exploration and drilling sites. Security is critical in view of the recent oil discovery and ensuing land disputes which could trigger widespread conflict, and the recent devolution of development and administrative functions to counties in Kenya.

Kenya Inter-agency Rapid Assessment Mechanism (KIRA): A Bottom-up Humanitarian Innovation from Africa

In a typical year, relief agencies respond to over 338 emergencies throughout the world. Twenty four per cent of those humanitarian crises are centred in Africaand few will rise to international attention unless they are rated as large scale emergencies.When a disaster occurs, irrespective of the scale and scope of the crisis, the humanitarian needs of the right-holders or affected communities are of equal importance, and relief agencies must be prepared to respond when needed. In Kenya, the Real Time Evaluation of the 2011 Horn of Africa drought identified that the lack of a rapid assessment mechanism was a major obstacle for the humanitarian community to provide high quality responses to people affected by disasters. UNICEF Kenya with UNOCHA East Africa, Assessment Capacities Project, RedRUK,Kenya Red Cross and the Kenyan Governmentput in place the partnership-based collaborative Kenya Inter Agency Rapid Assessment (KIRA) and established a mechanism capable of conducting a multi-agency,multi-sectoral assessment of humanitarian needs. As part of the Government-led rapid response mechanism in Kenya, over 700 humanitarian partners have been trained. This light-weight needs assessment mechanism, including easy-to-usetechnology for real-time data collection, has been used in 17 emergencies, including theSouth Sudan refugee crisis. The local authorities also used KIRA during inter-communal conflicts in areas bordering Somalia, which are still regarded as “no travel zones” forthe United Nations in Kenya.Funded by DG-ECHO, KIRA has been a widely-acclaimed successful model for coordination, disaster preparedness, and enhanced assessment capacity for identifying the immediate humanitarian needs of right-holders. KIRA is currently in the process of scaling up in the region as part of South–South Cooperation. It is expected that the findings and recommendations of three years of KIRA practices in Kenya will have global significance on process-based and humanitarian technology-driven humanitarian action.

Cooperation, Culture, and Conflict

In this article I develop a big picture of the evolution of human cooperation, and contrast it to an alternative based on group selection. The crucial claim is that hominin history has seen two major transitions in cooperation, and hence poses two deep puzzles about the origins and stability of cooperation. The first is the transition from great ape social lives to the lives of Pleistocene cooperative foragers; the second is the stability of the social contract through the early Holocene transition to complex hierarchical societies. The first of these transitions is driven, at least initially, by individual advantage: cooperation paid off for individual foragers, initially through mutualist interaction, then through reciprocation. This argument leads to a reanalysis of the role of violence and the nature of the freeriding threat to cooperation. But the conditions that select for cooperative individuals in the Pleistocene were eroded in the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. So we need an alternative account of the survival, and indeed the expansion, of cooperation in the Holocene. Group selection driven by intercommunal conflict really may well be central to this second transition. 1 Introduction2 Two Social Revolutions3 War and Peace in the Pleistocene4 Foraging, Mutualism, and the Folk Theorem5 Punishment, Shirkers, and Bullies6 The Holocene: Farms, Wars, Priests, Chiefs

Burial patterns during times of armed conflict in Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s.

The island of Cyprus experienced two periods of intercommunal conflict during which c. 2000 individuals went missing. The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus began a program of exhumations in 2005, through which more than 185 burial sites pertaining to the two periods of conflict have been identified and excavated. The aim of this study was twofold: (i) to present a classification of the main types of clandestine burial and (ii) to test the hypothesis that the nature of conflict influences the mode of interment. Burials can be divided into "public burials" and "concealed burials," based on the possible motives of those involved in the interment and then subdivided into smaller categories based on similarities in archeological context. A comparison of results from the two periods of conflict reveals that there are statistical differences (p<0.005), which indicate that the mode of interment may reflect the nature, character, and atmosphere of conflict.