Peace Activists Research Articles

Bringing Animal Ethics Into Many Disciplines

We are often asked by students how to make the greatest impact for animals with their careers. They are frequently considering paths such as becoming animal lawyers or activists. This is in part due to the recent large growth in animal law as an academic discipline (Townsend, 2013) and the gaining popularity of activism, such as Extinction Rebellion.While peaceful activism may have its place, and animal law is the right path for those who love the study and practice of law, academically there are a myriad of options for those wishing to incorporate animal ethics into their discipline. Our work begins from the premise that to change the world for animals, you need to change people's ideas about animals. To that end, we suggest that students continue in the academic field they are passionate about but also bring animal ethics into their research.Admittedly, this can be easier said than done, as in order to do so, students often need to find an accommodating university and an academic supervisor. But the number of academics willing to supervise animal-related projects is on the rise, opening up a great deal of possibilities. Take for example, some of the excellent presentations we see at our Oxford University Animal Ethics Society meetings. They are varied and engaging. They range from topics such as “Nonhumans and Meat-Eating in Horror Films”; “Cripple Crow, Mad Dog: Animal Ethics in Conversation with Disability Studies”; “Shakespeare and Animal Ethics”; “Animal Ethics in J. M. Coetzee's Work”; “Killing Animals in a Man's World: Is There a Link Between Hunting and Toxic Masculinity?”; “Free School Milk: Natural, Normal, and Necessary?”; and “John Cowper Powys and Vivisection” as well as more traditional explorations of the philosophy of eating animals and animals and climate change.It is in the areas where animals are not normally considered that sometimes there is the greatest scope for intellectual exploration. For example, in anthropology, a discipline explicitly focused on human beings, historical human-animal relationships can be explored. One such recent anthropological study argued that it is women, rather than men, who were responsible for domesticating dogs and bringing them into the home (Chambers et al., 2020).As one of us has written elsewhere, there are often fundamental assumptions inside traditional disciplines, such as theology, that normally privilege human perspectives (Linzey, 2009). It is for a new generation of scholars to unpick the anthropocentric tendencies within their disciplines and liberate us from old ways of thinking. This work has already begun with pioneering volumes’ such as Animals and Sociology (Peggs, 2012), Animals and Public Health (Akhtar, 2012), Animals and the Economy (McMullen, 2016), Animals and Social Work (Ryan, 2011), An Introduction to Animals and the Law (Schaffner, 2011), Animals in the Classical World (Harden, 2013), An Introduction to Animals and Visual Culture (Malamud, 2012), and Animal Rights Education (Horsthemke, 2018) to name a few. But there is still a long way to go.So here is the challenge and invitation to the rising scholars in universities and colleges: Pioneer new ways of including animal-related material into your theses and dissertations, query the all-too-common anthropocentrism of many of your teachers, be bold in arguing the case for animal-inclusive disciplines, and show how it can be done in your own area of study.

Building Peace from the Bottom Up: The Case of Liberia

Over the last two decades, national and international peacebuilding initiatives have increasingly emphasised the need to include a wider range of actors in post-conflict and peace processes. The importance of developing women’s skills and full participation in the peacebuilding sphere has been recognised and promoted by legal norms such as the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), adopted in 2000. Even though the progress made on women’s participation in peacebuilding processes cannot be ignored, the effective implementation of policy frameworks remains limited, especially in conflict and post-conflict countries. In this context, this paper analyses the role of community-based initiatives in empowering local women in peace-making and peacebuilding processes, using the case study of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) and the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET). This article emphasizes the importance of inclusive peacemaking through a review of Liberian women’s peace activism throughout the official talks.

#peacemaker: Cultivating Pluralist Dispositions among Bandung’s Peace Communities Online and Offline

Abstract In Indonesia, the national motto of ‘unity in diversity’ is challenged, not least by a hardening of religious identities, coupled with rising levels of religious intolerance. In addition to established proponents of religious pluralism, groups of activists strive to sow the seeds of peace among the tech-savvy generation of young urbanites. By adopting the concept of ‘technology of the community’, I analyze the online and offline practices of peace activists in Bandung in 2018 to educate young #peacemakers and create spaces of empathy and solidarity. To address the emotional deprivation as well as aspirations of young people, peace groups rely on various offline and online technologies that straddle notions of comfort and discomfort, of tolerance and engagement. In creating and maintaining spaces of affective interpersonal exchange, these groups become exponents of local arrangements that are conducive to the cultivation of pluralist dispositions beyond national ideology.

“The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions”: New Cosmopolitanism and Pacifist Warriors

Since the end of the Cold War “New Cosmopolitans” have justified the renaissance of “righteous war” by providing cosmopolitan, humanitarian, human rights and even pacifist justifications for military intervention. This article is a critique of “New Cosmopolitanism” and the transition some on the Left have made from pacifism and peace activism in the 1980s to advocacy of military intervention to prevent “genocide” in the post-Cold War period. The “pacifist warrior” is a contradiction in terms but encapsulates the problems faced by cosmopolitans in judging between moral absolutes: to oppose war and to oppose genocide. The emphasis on “good intentions” allows cosmopolitans to distance themselves from the non-cosmopolitan military means and the consequences of pursuing the end that they have willed. Such “good intentions” allow cosmopolitans to advocate endless altruistic wars.

Connecting Friendship, Peace and Social Justice

Friendship is often left out of the discussions about peace. Likewise social justice is not always included in debates around peace and conflict. Friendship can be considered as vital for justice or to be unfair and unjust. This Special Issue on Friendship, Peace and Social Justice contributes to making the connections between three overlapping concepts that are vital for living in a functioning and sustainable society/world. Topics considered include civic friendship, virtue friendship, social friendship, friendship treaties, cultures of peace, peace activism and resistance, peace and justice movements, environmental campaigns, community building, art collectives, dialogue, facilitative listening, Ubuntu, reconciliation and healing, relationship building, the role of social media and friendship, friendship, peace and psycho-social development. It is clear that there are cyclical connections where friendship is considered to be helpful/essential for social justice/peace; social justice movements create friendships; peaceful societies need friendship relations and also allow friendship relationships to blossom. Friendship can be instrumental, altruistic, practical, idealistic, ethical and a source of peace. It can also be seen as immoral and a source of conflict. Friendships can survive or be built in conflict or might dissolve and disintegrate. Of course it is complicated. Relationships for creating peace and social justice are. Friendship though needs to be explored as a means and an end of peaceful just living.

Towards an archival study of screenplay versions: the role of screenwriting research for adaptation studies

Archival holdings help us to better understand the collaborative process involved in screenplay development. This article mobilizes archival findings around the screenwriting process in order to contribute to recent debates within adaptation studies (Hutcheon, Bryant, Elliott, Elleström, Bruhn/Gjelsvik/Frisvold Hanssen, Stam, Rossholm). Setting out to bridge the gap between screenwriting studies and adaptation studies, this article argues that the study of screenplay versions, drafts and letters foregrounds the often overlooked artistic process involved in developing film adaptations. This article presents the case of the film adaption of Åsa-Hanna, based on the novel of the Swedish writer, journalist, suffragette, eco-critic and peace activist Elin Wägner (1882-1949) and the screenplay versions by Barbro Alving (1909-1987). It studies different script versions and ephemera at the manuscript collection at the Swedish Film Institute (Stockholm) as well as Wägner’s notebooks, drafts and letters at KvinnSam (Göteborg). The aim of this article is twofold: first, to contribute to adaptation studies by highlighting the role of the screenplay and the process of screenwriting in the process of transmediation. Second, to stress the importance of the industrial context of film production and distribution for adaptation studies.

Peace movement responses to Russia's invasion: For limited war and restraints on militarism

AbstractThe “pragmatic pacifist” tradition, exemplified by the transition of many peace activists in the 1930s to critical support for the Allied war effort during World War II, can provide a nuanced path for Western peace activists in responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This essay examines how several voices of the American peace movement have addressed this situation, offering a variety of levels of critical support to Ukraine's fight for self‐defense and the US involvement in the conflict.

The war in Ukraine: Perspectives from peace history—A preliminary roundtable

The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine raises vital questions for peace activists and for those who study efforts to provide peaceful alternatives to international conflict. Five frequent contributors to Peace & Change present brief analyses of the current tragic circumstances in Ukraine, and international reactions to these circumstances, based on perspectives gleaned from peace activism and from studies of peace history.

Women and Peace in Iraq Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects for A Better Future

We talked to 91 women (and some men) activists, civil society representatives, journalists, legal experts and academics in Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, Kirkuk, Najaf and Nineveh. We listened to what they had to say about peace and justice, existing challenges to achieving these, and how the challenges can and should be overcome. We adopted a lens that focuses on women and gender and through this lens we looked at the processes of formal and informal peacebuilding and transitional justice. As expected, the research showed that Iraqi activists have valuable insights to offer when it comes to issues of peace and justice in Iraq. It also showed that Iraqi peace activists work hard, indeed harder than the government, and make real change and impact on the ground. However, despite the impressiveness and value of this work, it remains small-scale and unnoticed as it is surrounded by a large web of ‘continuum of violence’,[i] legal and institutional obstacles, long-term gendered structural context, social gender norms and a political establishment that adheres to a conservative and patriarchal interpretation of religious and tribal norms. The obstacles and limitations to women’s participation in peacebuilding are immense and manifold, but these have not stopped Iraqi women in the past and will not stop them today or in the future either. Several important insights and lessons emerged from our conversations. It is impossible to do justice to all that rich and incredible knowledge, experience, and wisdom. However, here is an attempt to summarise the most important messages to emerge out of these: First, this research showed that there is a rich plethora of definitions of peace in Iraq. Peace activities are defined in a comprehensive way by women and men in Iraq, which goes well beyond the narrow, formal conceptions of peace and justice.. Second, Iraqi activists define and understand peace and its relationship to justice in different ways and these depend on the line of work they pursue, the circumstances of the province, and the specific community, group or people and issue under discussion. Women peace activists and feminists call for a proper implementation of CEDAW and other international human rights principles that affect women and girls. However, this does not mean that they endorse the political agendas pursued by foreign states. Women peace and rights activities are stuck in a complicated place defined by the intersection of foreign funding and international/regional politics and this creates significant potential risks for them. Third, so much existing peace work is going unnoticed in Iraq in which women and men of all ages, but especially the young, are working relentlessly. Despite difficult circumstances, these individuals and groups carry out impressive voluntary work often in collaboration with local civil society organisations. Fourth, formal peacebuilding mechanisms, on the other hand, such as the Committee for Coexistence and Community Peace, had less positive attributes compared to their informal counterparts. Some of the local peace committees have carried out important work and have been more inclusive than the other formal mechanisms such as the Martyrs Foundation. Still, formal mechanisms are less inclusive and informal mechanisms, and only a small number of women take part in them. Fifth, opinion is divided about the Iraqi National Plan regarding resolution 1325, which was seen by respondents as another form of formal peacebuilding. The Plan is considered to be a huge achievement in bringing the issue of women’s participation in peace processes to the political agenda. However, the Plan has not made a real impact and has not changed the status of women’s participation in formal peacebuilding and negotiations in Iraq. Some of the respondents, including women civil society representatives, had not even heard of the Plan while others had heard of it in name only but not witnessed any of its work. Most of the work and discussion in relation to INAP takes place in Baghdad and Erbil. However, the Plan mostly remains unimplemented due to a lack of political will and a limited budget to fund its activities. Sixth, there is huge discrepancy between existing transitional justice mechanisms used by the Iraqi government and what respondents called ‘real justice’, as well as legal discrimination against women, a lack of legal protection for women, and the lack of punishment for perpetrators of violence against women. Respondents provided a much wider scope of issues and activities in relation to peace and transitional justice, issues that go beyond the formal justice procedures offered by the government. Seventh, customary rules have a significant impact on women’s participation in peacebuilding by limiting women’s participation in public life [i]Cockburn, Cynthia, 2004. ‘The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace’. In Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones, eds. W. Giles and J. Hyndman. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 24-44.

BOOK REVIEW The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education and Children’s Rights

Erica Moretti, a professor of Italian at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, authored a recent intellectual biography of Maria Montessori, The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education, and Children’s Rights. In this book, Moretti writes in conversation with fellow European researchers and builds on their work to present this English-language examination of Montessori’s pacifism that places her as a central figure in 20th-century global humanitarianism, disaster relief, peace activism, and social reform.

Conflict and Social Media: Online Peace Activism in South Asia

Conflict and Social Media: Online Peace Activism in South Asia

Beyond instrumentalisation: gender and agency in the prevention of extreme violence in Kenya

ABSTRACT Since the adoption of UNSCR 2242, which calls for the integration of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) agendas, feminist scholars and activists have cautioned that such a move instrumentalises and securitises the WPS agenda and its objectives of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Based on over 80 interviews with civil society actors involved in P/CVE in Kenya – specifically, Mombasa, Isiolo and Nairobi – this article argues that both the calls for empowerment and the critiques of instrumentalization similarly draw on racialised constructions of women’s agency, or lack thereof, in the global south. Further, the instrumentalised/empowered binary is premised on a liberal feminist conceptualisation of agency only as resistance, which does not accurately capture the complex ways in which WPS actors and feminist peace activists negotiate with and work to transform security agendas. While recognising the harms caused by state and donor-led P/CVE approaches, this article centres the perspectives and experiences of men and women who work in daily violence prevention within and beyond the frame of P/CVE to theorise the agentive capacities that emerge from securitised spaces.

In the Habit of Resistance: Radical Peace Activism and the Maryland Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1968–Present

This article examines the radical peace activism of members of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDN) during and after the Vietnam War. These women drew upon the spirit of their religious community to deploy a distinct philosophy of peace grounded in their identity as Catholic sisters. Understanding peace as intimately intertwined with their identities as Catholic women religious, these sisters used the all-woman spaces and networks of their religious order to sustain and support their individual work for peace, defending their activism against those who viewed their actions as outside the traditional roles of Catholic sisters. The Maryland Province of SNDN provides a fascinating entry point for understanding the peace activism of religious sisters within the broader context of Catholic peace organizing. After the end of the Vietnam War, many male Catholic activists shifted their focus to other forms of activism. However, the actions of many members of the Maryland Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur pushed the community to embrace peace activism as a central part of their mission, and thus committed the order to lifelong peace activism.

Social Reconciliation Domains in Poomani's Agnaadi

His family is a full-time farmer. If only he was good enough and everyone wants to be good. That is why he became accustomed to social harmony with everyone, regardless of caste, religion or race. Agnaadi novelist Boomani has pointed out with various evidences of the harmony he has manifested in various evolutions, such as helping others in times of distress, speaking comfortingly and being with them. Andy's concern for his surviving friend Vannan Gudi, Marie, and his family, as well as his assistance to the Nadar people, speaks volumes that he is a social peace activist. The harmony he has with the Parakudi Sanas is as great as the harmony he has over the Nadar and Nayakar castes. Man, not only symbolizes how to love man but also sets an example for future generations the upper castes will speak proudly of Andy's seed. They say he inquires about crop yields just as they inquire about spots. This article describes Andy's professional harmony with this aristocrat.

Rooting, shifting and mobilizing: Women's peacebuilding across differences in Georgia and Myanmar

This article explores how female peace activist's experiences of armed conflict drive their activism. By analyzing women's peace activism as a manifestation of transversal politics, I capture how women's experiences and social positioning in relation to the armed conflict influence how they shape their identities and create alliances across conflict divides. Building on the narratives of activists and members of women's organizations in Georgia and Myanmar, I argue that when experiences such as displacement and loss are articulated with the awareness of the gendered dynamics of the conflict, women expand the categories in which their identities are defined, and challenge political stances which were hitherto only guided by the ethno-political context. This process allows women to approach other parties (which were previously either neglected or considered as opponents) and to build common ground for peace activism despite the existence of multiple differences within and across groups.

Lockdown on Peace? COVID-19’s Impact on Women Peacebuilders

Abstract COVID-19 threatens to slow progress on the implementation of peace agreements, and reverse hard-won gains of women peacebuilders’ work towards holistic, gender-equal peace, rooted in human security. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews from a purposive sample of women peacebuilders in Colombia, South Sudan, the Philippines, and Ukraine, this article contributes to a greater understanding of the pandemic’s impact on women’s peace activism, as these peacebuilders adapted to emerging realities and became first responders. We argue that the pandemic has deepened the marginalization of women peacebuilders from formal peace processes, possibly to detriment of both immediate recovery and long-term peacebuilding.

Palestine’s National Strategy to Put an End for Israeli Occupation (2005-2017)

The present study discusses the national strategies having been adopted by Palestinians to put an end to Israeli occupation. The study aims to show how Palestinians plan to establish their state and get rid of the occupation by using different strategies and policies. The study adopts historical research method to support authentic historical data about Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such a method has helped researcher provide proper data that may help Palestinian political leaders understand the nature of conflict and this know how to deal with the issues of this conflict in the future. The study also adopts descriptive analytical research method to describe and analyze the data. The study finds that it is very vital for Palestinians to unite and to have one ‘unified’ national strategy in order for ‘popular resistance’ to work out. Besides, the study finds that Palestinian leaders and peace activists ought to create ties with Israeli and western activists in order to strongly activate ‘popular resistance’ against Israeli occupation. Furthermore, the study recommends that Palestinian leadership, factions, peace organizations and national institutes ought all adopt one ‘integrated strategy’ to confront Jewish influence.

Citizens� everyday media practices and peace activism in ethnically polarised societies

In many regions of the world, increasing use of media technologies for activism is shifting dynamics of peace and conflicts, particularly in fragile societies. However, there has been an extensive focus on the practical use of these media platforms, ignoring the social processes by which the latter becomes significant for different people. This article examines how citizens� everyday media practices are helping shape the dynamics of peace and conflict in fragile societies. The study used mixed methods, administering 241 cross-sectional survey questionnaires to members of the public and 18 structured interviews to peacebuilding organisations in the counties of Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya. This study finds that citizen media practices are influencing (peace) activism because they help shape patterns of information use and engagement in actions furthering or undermining peace. Therefore, the article argues that while the increasing use of media technologies for activism may expand opportunities for accessing information and engagement, there are specific ways in which they can undermine peace, that is, help shape the dynamics of salient social processes.

Ignorant of Ukraine

For a long time, many Germans sympathized with authoritarian Russia and shied away from Ukraine, which has been moulded by civil society. Representatives of this position were the Social Democrats security expert Egon Bahr and peace activist Erhard Eppler, as well as the former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder. For decades, they advocated the maxim that peace was only possible in concert with, not against the Soviet Union or Russia. This became a guiding principle of the Federal Republic of Germany’s foreign policy. Fixated on Russia as a superpower, these politicians ignored Ukraine, subordinated its right to freedom and self-determination to the alleged security and stability interests of Moscow and Berlin, and clung to thinking in terms of spheres of influence. These positions have outlived their usefulness, as has the recipe for “change through trade”.

Mitten im Krieg – Gegen den Krieg. Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Selbsthistorisierung am Beispiel der Friedensaktivistinnen Leopoldine Kulka und Olga Misař

Between the 28th of April and the 1st of May 1915, the «International Congress of Women» took place in Den Haag, NL. Women activists from twelve neutral and belligerent states protested war, founded a women’s peace league, produced 20 peace resolutions and presented them to their nation’s leaders. Among those actively engaged were also two Austrians: Leopoldine Kulka and Olga Misař. This article examines the ways in which these female peace activists were able to access different levels of the public sphere and spread their message as well as providing an analysis of their self-historicisation in the face of societal disapproval.