War Peace Research Articles

Mapping disability in war-to-peace transitions: global patterns and the Lebanese experience

The inclusion of people with disabilities can facilitate sustainable peace after civil war. To shed a novel light on the relationship between war-to-peace transitions and disability, we map approaches to impairments in 286 worldwide intra-state political agreements, before considering the experience of Lebanon. Through a rigorous mixed methods research design, we show that war-to-peace transitions entrench the marginalisation of people with disabilities. Political agreements reproduce oversimplified understandings of disability; emphasise war-related physical impairments over non-physical and congenital ones; and prioritise support for former combatants. In Lebanon, disability-related legislation suffers from similar blind spots and remains unimplemented because of lack of financial resources, of weak capacity and cooperation among responsible local and international agencies, and of the features of the local political settlement. We discuss some significant implications for the lives of people with disabilities and their families, before providing recommendations to promote inclusive war-to-peace transitions. POINTS OF INTEREST Peace processes provide a crucial window of opportunity to build more inclusive societies. At a global level, civil war peace agreements overlook people with disabilities. Even when they mention impairments, peace accords adopt over­simplified understandings of disability, prioritise war-related physical impairments over non-physical and congenital ones, and emphasise interventions in support of former combatants. In Lebanon, lack of financial resources, weak capacity and cooperation among responsible local and international agencies, and local political dynamics further constrain the implementation of disability-focused policies. Globally, discourses on transition between civil war and a peaceful and just future, remain ableist and disempowering.

Government ideology and the implementation of civil war peace agreements

ABSTRACT How does government ideology, measured by the ideology of the chief executive and the ideology of the largest government party, influence the implementation of civil war peace agreements? In this study, I address this research question by analysing the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) dataset that covers 34 comprehensive peace agreements of 31 countries from 1989 to 2015. The results of feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) regressions demonstrate that the likelihood of implementing peace agreements increases when chief executives and the largest government parties of the left-wing are in office. In contrast, the likelihood of implementing peace agreements decreases when chief executives and the largest government parties of the right-wing stay in power. Consistent with the party-policy literature and the hawkish-dovish assumptions, I find that left-wing governments positively impact the implementation of peace agreements more than right-wing governments, indicating the statistically significant relationship between the government ideology and the implementation of peace agreements.

Keeping communal peace in the shadow of civil war: A natural experiment from Côte d’Ivoire

Violent communal conflicts between identity-based groups are a severe threat to human security and development. While most communal conflicts take place in civil war-affected countries, communal conflict is not an inevitable byproduct of civil war. What explains communal peace in civil war? Existing research tends to overlook interlinkages between communal conflict and civil war, meaning that knowledge on how armed groups exacerbate or mitigate communal conflicts is limited. Combining insights from research on communal conflict and non-state armed groups, this study proposes that communal conflicts are less severe in areas controlled by legitimacy-seeking armed groups that seek acceptance for its political authority and right to rule from domestic and international audiences. Legitimacy-seeking armed groups have greater incentives to develop institutions and practices that prevent both communal conflict onset and escalation, which helps keep communal peace. The study examines the argument through a natural experiment in western Côte d’Ivoire, where more legitimacy-seeking and more legitimacy-indifferent armed groups came to control proximate and highly comparable communities because of an arbitrary ceasefire line. Using process-tracing to analyze unique interview and archival sources, the study demonstrates that communal conflicts were far deadlier in areas controlled by the more legitimacy-indifferent militias than in areas controlled by the more legitimacy-seeking Forces Nouvelles rebel group. These findings highlight that armed groups can be both agents of wartime disorder and order, and contribute new insights on communal peace in the shadow of civil war.

Are Non-Inclusive Peace Agreements Effective Counter-Insurgency Strategies?

ABSTRACT Civil wars are complex in ways that challenge effective resolution. Civil war actors tend to be dynamic in nature and often splinter then coalesce over time potentially evolving into multiple dyads pitted against their government. Previous work has demonstrated that when multiple rebel factions emerge, civil wars tend to be longer in duration as satisfying multiple factions tends to be more challenging. However, governments may choose to pursue dyadic agreements hoping to end the conflict either through subsequent dyadic negotiations or through more targeted military tactics focusing intently on the remaining faction(s). This study suggests that which dyads will be excluded from the peace is predictable, but also seeks to better understand what happens to those excluded factions that hedge their bets to continue the fight. Propositions are tested on all civil war peace agreements between 1945-2013. Key findings indicate the importance of political power-sharing provision and third-party assistance in bringing excluded groups into the fold.

Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves: How Female Combatants Help Generate Gender-Inclusive Peace Agreements in Civil Wars

This article examines the effect rebel women have on the shape of civil war peace agreements, paying particular attention to the specific gender-inclusive provisions female rebels advocate for. I argue that, through conflict experiences and socialization, rebel women develop group identities that foster collective demands. Their identities as fighters and women from marginalized groups encourage rebel women to lobby for provisions that address the grievances of women from these societal groups. Using data on women’s participation in conflict and the terms written into contemporary peace agreements, I find support for this contention. Greater participation of female combatants is associated with an increased likelihood of observing gender-inclusive agreement provisions calling for the inclusion of women from marginalized groups and addressing the specific post-conflict needs of female ex-combatants. This study is one of the first to show that women’s participation in rebellion matters for the shape of post-conflict peace.

Brides in Rags! Conflict, Political Organization, Political Settlements and Uganda’s Transition to Multi-Party Politics Since 1986

Following a long-drawn-out five-year insurgency (1981‒1986), Uganda moved from a crisis to stability where political organizations were progressively transformed, albeit with institutionalized roadblocks. The former insurgent army – the National Resistance Army (NRA) and its political wing the National Resistance Movement (NRM) pursued a post-conflict transformation process, which was essentially driven by neo-liberal reforms, but metamorphosed into a dominant political party, undermining the hither to traditional political parties. Through historical interrogation, this paper seeks to bring to the fore reflections to the questions; “Why did the post war-NRA/NRM undertake a rapid shift in political ordering after the guerrilla war in 1986? Why did the new government pursue a pseudo neo-liberal agenda that sought free-market style policies and nested democratization after the guerrilla war?” These preliminary questions are asked for two fundamental reasons. One; it is common knowledge that in the early 1970s Museveni –The NRA warlord was a Marxist–Leninist and therefore in hot pursuit for socialism as a mode of statecraft. However, he became less of a socialist particularly at the end of his rebellion. Why? Secondly, post-war state-building theory, presupposes that after rebels have captured power following a civil war, their propensity to pursue liberal free-market type of politics is habitually low. Why then did NRA/NRM with extremely negative views for free-market style of politics undertake to institute multi-party politics? What political settlements did NRM pursue and how have they been institutionalized and instrumentalized overtime? What have been the attendant effects of these settlements in Uganda and how can these impacts be profiled in light of other war-to peace states in Africa?

The Syrian Civil War and Credible Commitment Problems

This article discusses a key challenge in bringing about peace in civil war: credible commitment problems. Utilizing the ‘perfect’ example of the Syrian Civil War, it illuminates upon why they are challenging and therefore require solutions. The Syrian Civil War will inevitably end in military victory for the Assad regime, though it nevertheless supplies evidence that credible commitment problems are significant hindrances to conflict termination.

Dealing with Divergence: Intra-party Dynamics and Spoiler Management in Civil Wars

AbstractCivil war peace processes are frequently accompanied by spoiler behavior relating to intra-party divergence, such as leadership struggles or breakaway groups, which risk undermining the implementation of a peace accord. However, previous literature has not sufficiently explored how third-party actors can address spoiler behavior linked to such intra-party aspects. This study addresses this gap by providing an empirical analysis of a few illustrative cases of spoiler behavior by armed actors in two peace processes in West Africa—Sierra Leone after the 1999 Lomé peace accords and Liberia after the 2003 Accra peace agreement. We find that in contexts where there is a vertical divergence between the leader and the rest of the group, divisive strategies—aimed to divide and rule or marginalize—are effective. In contrast, in situations of horizontal divergence between different factions that are more equal in power, integrative strategies—aimed at unifying the ranks or reconciling a divided leadership—are more appropriate. This study enhances our understanding of how third-party strategies can be devised to manage intra-party divisions that otherwise may threaten a transition from war to peace.

Civic engagement and the possibility of the political

AbstractDuring the last half a century, civil rights movements have been led by people of faith even as they have marched in different directions. Some spoke out for the status quo while others demanded a different vision of justice, some for peace and others for war, for a violence‐free life for women and against it. The issues and partisans shift, particularly as the relationship between state and church, faith and politics, has varied from one country to the next. Participation is dangerous, but even more so are inaction, withdrawal, obedience. This issue of Dialog takes another look at the history, philosophy, and practice of Christians.

War in Peace: Race, Organized Violence and the Unbearable Whiteness of Being

War in Peace: Race, Organized Violence and the Unbearable Whiteness of Being

Leadership Changes and Civil War Peace Agreements: Does Who Comes to Power Influence the Implementation?

ABSTRACT Why is the implementation of civil war peace agreements comparatively higher in some countries than in other countries? In this study, I address this puzzle by investigating the effects of insider-outsider leader turnover on the execution of peace agreements. The idea is that leaders should be the fundamental units of analysis to explain the implementation of peace agreements due to more frequent leadership changes than state-level variables, such as the level of democracy, political system, military capability, and GDP per capita. Besides, leader turnover poses a commitment problem in peace processes if outsider leaders differ in their resolve and revise inherited agreements. I test this hypothesis quantitatively using feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regressions to analyze the panel dataset of this research that covers 34 comprehensive peace agreements of 31 countries from 1989 to 2015. The findings of this study demonstrate the positive impacts of insider leader turnover and the adverse effects of outsider leader turnover on the execution of peace agreements. Hence, whether the implementation of peace agreements will continue depends on who comes to power.

Language and peace on WhatsApp and Facebook messages on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon

This study set out to explore the promotion of peace by some social media messages related to the ongoing crisis in Southern Cameroons. Focus is on the lexical choice and style that show ways out of the warped communication out of language crisis, and the possible impacts of the messages on the readers’ minds of Cameroonians and other world citizens. The theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Fairclough (1989, 1992, 1995a, 1995b) guided the analysis of the data (150 messages) collected from 75 participants (45 males and 30 females) both from WhatsApp (100) and Facebook (50) posted by Cameroonians from the English-speaking part. The researcher and the field assistants used the Android phone to collect these data. Results reveal that there is an intensive war of words and words of war almost every line of the e-messages from either of the platforms. The numerous messages of peace are overshadowed and outnumbered by verbal bullying and the tense mood in the discourses. Some messages advocate national unity and push readers to think of peaceful co-existence. Therefore, readers are served with messages that feed them with bitterness about the current affairs in the country and accept war for peace to reign; in other words, the messages of peace are likely to recruit less militants than the words call for uprising. Key words: Peace, WhatsApp and Facebook messages, CDA, Anglophone crisis, ideology

The Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 and the Rwandan Civil War/Genocide of 1994: A Comparative Appraisal of Post-Civil War Peace Building in Nigeria and Rwanda

The Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 and the Rwandan Civil War/Genocide of 1994: A Comparative Appraisal of Post-Civil War Peace Building in Nigeria and Rwanda

Civil War Peace Agreements and Gender Inclusion

ABSTRACT In 2000, The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 actively promoted the inclusion of women and their perspectives in peace processes, as well as promoted a gender perspective in post-conflict recovery and institution building. The number of gender provisions in civil war peace agreements has increased since 2001 as a result, but not all such provisions serve the same purpose. In this study, we present a provision typology that divides gender provisions into those that seek to empower women and compare them to those that address conflict victimization. We suggest that the context under which the peace agreement takes place, and conditions of the conflict itself, should influence where empowerment and victimization provisions are employed if they are to have the type of impact sought by the UNSC and improve post-conflict outcomes. We test our propositions on all civil war peace agreements occurring between 1990-2018. Findings indicate that gender provisions designed to empower women are unlikely to emerge in societies where they are perhaps most needed. Comparatively, it appears there is less resistance to gender provisions aimed at addressing conflict-related victimization.

Peace movements and the war in Ukraine: The opportunity

AbstractThe February 2022 Russian invasion into Ukraine is the largest land attack in Europe since World War II. Threats of the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russian President Putin has raised the eyebrows of nations throughout the world. The possibility of another world war and prospects for nuclear annihilation has provided an opportunity for non‐governmental international peace organizations to work together collectively to educate citizens about the importance of peace movements as agencies of humanitarian relief. More than opposing war peace movements are reform instruments, which highlight the importance of peace by providing aid and assistance to the innocent victims of armed aggression. Presently, peace organizations are doing their part by providing food, shelter, clothing, first aid, and other forms of non‐lethal aid to the Ukrainian people caught in the crosshairs of this violent conflict. This is how peace movements can demonstrate the real meaning of peace in the current situation and serve the larger task of nonviolence beyond political dialogue and nationalistic rhetoric.

Transformation of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy After 2014 Regarding Ukraine Crisis

This research aims at analysing the nature and transformation of the European Union Common Security and Defence Policy since 2014. Having been founded in the post-Cold War peace environment, the Common Security and Defence Policy had an expeditionary characteristic compatible with the European Union’s soft/normative power. However, this peaceful security environment changed after the Ukraine Crisis in 2014. With new security parameters, the transformation of the Common Security and Defence Policy needs to be analysed in an academic context. In this regard, the research question of the article has been conceptualized as “To what extend has post-Ukraine Crisis security perception affected Common Security and Defence Policy transformation?”. There are two main findings of this research. First, the characteristics of the Common Security and Defence Policy have evolved from being expeditionary to being territorial/collective defence in nature. Second, the fragmentation in the European Union is deepening in terms of defence and security policies. This research suggests that the likely outcome is that the European Union will choose to conform to the United States’ NATO policies in order to deter the Russian Federation

Citizens in Peace Processes

Citizen engagement in and support for peace processes have been deemed important for sustainable peace after civil wars. Yet much of what we know about peace processes in civil wars centers on the interests of elite actors. This special feature aims to advance a research agenda focusing on citizens in peace processes to address this mismatch. In the introduction to the special feature, we first present empirical evidence situating citizens in relation to civil war peace processes. We then trace the current state of the literature on the roles of citizens in peace processes. Following that, we introduce a conceptual framework designed to improve scholarly analysis of the political behavior of citizens in peace processes. We also locate the individual contributions to the special feature within the framework in order to demonstrate its utility and as a means of helping to identify directions for future research.

A Faulty Prescription? Critiquing Joint Security Units after Peace Agreements in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic

ABSTRACT This article critiques the prescription of joint security units called for by civil war peace agreements as a means to integrate armed forces previously in conflict. Drawing on cases from Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, this article offers a comparative assessment of the joint security units attempted in each country. As negotiators and mediators often employ templates from other contexts, the deficits exemplified by these cases call for rethinking the practice of establishing joint units in the doctrine of military integration, as well as in the wider practice of negotiating security arrangements in peace processes.

Postconflict cities: remnants of war in peace

Gusic I. Contesting Peace in the Postwar City: Belfast, Mitrovica and Mostar. – New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 311 p.

Identifying Pathways to Peace: How International Support Can Help Prevent Conflict Recurrence

AbstractThis article provides new evidence on how the international community can effectively foster peace after civil war. It expands the current literature's narrow focus on either peacekeeping or aggregated aid flows, adopting a comprehensive, yet disaggregated, view on international peacebuilding efforts. We distinguish five areas of peacebuilding support (peacekeeping, nonmilitary security support, support for politics and governance, for socioeconomic development, and for societal conflict transformation) and analyze which types or combinations are particularly effective and in which context. Applying configurational analysis (qualitative comparative analysis) to all thirty-six post-civil war peace episodes between 1990 and 2014, we find that (1) peacekeeping is only one important component of effective post-conflict support, (2) the largest share of peaceful cases can be explained by support for politics and governance, (3) only combined international efforts across all types of support can address difficult contexts, and (4) countries neglected by the international community are highly prone to experiencing conflict recurrence. Three case studies shed light on underlying causal mechanisms.