Peace Agreement Research Articles

From Conflict to Cooperation: Norwegian Labour Market Institutions in the Making

Moving a relationship of widespread conflicts and distrust into a virtuous circle of trust and cooperation is challenging, yet the case examined in this article shows that it is possible. A problematic start can indeed lead to a positive outcome. In the early twentieth century, Norway experienced the highest levels of labour conflict in Europe. Class conflicts were intense and often violent, with deep mistrust between the parties in the labour market. This situation changed markedly when the Norwegian Employers’ Confederation and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions signed the Basic Agreement in 1935. This agreement not only led to a lasting decline in labour conflicts, but it also marked a crucial early step towards a system of close collaboration between labour and capital in Norway. By focusing on the intimate relationship between beliefs, trust, and cooperation, this article explores how the labour market parties transitioned from widespread conflict and open struggle to a system of peaceful negotiations and compromises. Changes in beliefs enabled the parties to coordinate on a new cooperative equilibrium, an equilibrium that continues to characterise Norway’s labour market today.

Do apologies promote the reintegration of former combatants? Lessons from a video experiment in Colombia

Transitional justice practices frequently involve public apologies where former combatants confess their wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness, with the underlying assumption that such displays facilitate the reintegration of ex-combatants into society. However, little is known about the public response to ex-combatant apologies. In this article, we investigate the causal effect of an armed group apology on attitudes toward ex-combatant reintegration in Colombia. Our study builds on a novel experiment implemented in Meta, a conflict-ridden department of Colombia. The experiment entailed exposing a subset of participants to a video in which a former rebel group leader apologizes for violent acts committed by their armed group during the civil war. To examine the extent to which external actors influence the effectiveness of apologies, we incorporated third-party ‘encouragements to forgive’ (endorsements) in two additional treatment conditions. Our analysis demonstrates that, on average, participants do not exhibit higher reintegration attitudes when exposed to the apology, regardless of third-party endorsements. However, the absence of a treatment effect is not due to an indifference to the apology. In an exploratory heterogeneity analysis, we show that the apology induces negative effects on some indicators of reintegration attitudes among participants that did not support the peace agreement. This finding aligns with qualitative data gathered in a follow-up survey, which indicates that opponents of the peace agreement generally describe negative emotional responses to the FARC-EP apology. The results call for a reconsideration of unchallenged prescriptions of public apologies after conflict.

Դոհայի համաձայնագիրը ԱՄՆ–Աֆղանստան հարաբերություններում նոր շրջափուլի թևակոխման սկիզբ / The Doha Agreement as the Beginning of a New Period in US-Afghanistan Relations

On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement to establish peace in Afghanistan, which became widely known as the Doha Agreement. This agreement marked the end of one of the largest and bloodiest conflicts of the 21st century, the Afghan Civil War. The Doha Agreement is crucial to consider within the context of Afghan transitions, as well as the signing and content of the agreement itself, which became a turning point for the future of Afghanistan and its people, signaling the end of the long-standing presence of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. The Doha Agreement is based on four key points: the withdrawal of American and coalition forces, the Taliban's commitment to conduct counter-terrorism operations, the initiation of intra-Afghan negotiations, and the establishment of a comprehensive and long-lasting peace. The Doha Agreement became a turning point in U.S. foreign policy, though it did not lead to long-term peace in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, it marked the beginning of a reevaluation of U.S. foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region. On the other hand, the agreement is also significant because the U.S. engaged in peace negotiations and signed an agreement with the Sunni extremist group known as the Taliban, which, to this day, it does not recognize as the official ruling force in Afghanistan.

Amnesties as a means of encouraging transition and strengthening the application of IHL in Colombia: The case of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace

Abstract Bearing in mind that the peace process between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP) has been an important milestone for transitional justice, this article aims to share some of the good practices and achievements of this process, as well as the setbacks and challenges that could be avoided in future peace processes. The article will highlight relevant contributions from the Chamber for Amnesty or Pardon (CAP) such as impacting the resocialization of former FARC-EP members and developing international humanitarian law discussions in relation to war crimes and less serious crimes. Additionally, it will describe some of the main challenges faced by the CAP, such as the high number of applications for transitional benefits that it receives, the high number of proceedings that it supervises, and the security concerns arising from implementing a peace agreement in a country still in conflict.

La Construcción y consolidación de la paz: acciones en el marco de la responsabilidad social de las mipymes en colombia

This article is the result of one of the objectives formulated in the research project, developed between the Minuto de Dios University Corporation - UNIMINUTO, Bogotá headquarters, the ITM Higher Education Institution of Medellín and the National Institute of Professional Technical Training - INFOTEP of San Juan del César (La Guajira), which seeks to propose Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies for MSME that encourage the linkage of these organizations to peace-building actions from the territory. It starts from the question: What are the actions within the framework of social responsibility, carried out by MSME, that enable the construction and consolidation of Peace in their territories? The reference places, the Metropolitan Area of Medellín, the municipality of San Juan del César and the municipality of Aguazul (Casanare), were taken into account as analysis scenarios. The topic of Social Responsibility for MSME is framed, in an analytical and descriptive manner, in the components presented by the ISO 26000 standard (ISO, 2010), and the lines of action formulated in the 2016 Peace agreement between the government of President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos and the extinct FARC Guerrilla (today the Comunes party) in Colombia. Based on the findings obtained, the business actions that are formulated in a CSR Plan must seek to deepen their relationship with the environment, positively impacting a stable and lasting construction of peace.

Tinjauan Yuridis terhadap Penyelesaian Sengketa Tanah di Jakarta Barat

T Land dispute resolution is a complex issue in Indonesia, especially in urban areas such as West Jakarta. These disputes often involve the sale and purchase of the land in question, as in case Number 59/Pdt.G/2023/PN Jkt.Brt. This study aims to analyze juridically the settlement of land disputes and how they are implemented in the Indonesian legal system. The method used in this study is normative legal research that focuses on literature review. The results of the study show that the implementation of mediation as one of the dispute resolution methods provides equal justice for both parties, and can result in a peace agreement that has legal force. The conclusion of this study is that the mediation mechanism has great potential in resolving land disputes more effectively than the litigation route.

Belarusization in Russian Regions in the 1920s in Modern Russian Historiography

The article presents a historiographical review of publications on the policy of Belarusization carried out in the Russian regions in the 1920s. This work does not address the publications of Belarusian and foreign researchers on the practice of implementing the new Soviet national policy within the territorial borders of the Belarusian Republic. The main attention is paid to the three Russian provinces bordering Belarus – Pskov, Smolensk and Bryansk. At the same time, the eastern territories of the RSFSR – the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East, where Belarusians found themselves as a result of the resettlement policy, especially at the beginning of the 20th century during the Stolypin agrarian reform, were not ignored. Belarusization, as part of the general policy of Korenization, proclaimed in 1923 at the XII Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b), in modern research is closely linked to the need to show new principles and directions of Soviet national policy for the development of Belarusian statehood and culture in contrast to the all-out polonization carried out by the Pilsudski government in Western Ukrainian and Belarusian lands ceded to Poland by the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921. A significant role in this process was assigned to the expansion of the state borders of the BSSR at the expense of Russian territories, especially in 1924 and 1926. However, Belarusization did not find any real support from the local authorities, who considered Belarusians to be part of the Russian population until the end of the 1920s, as well as due to the significant self-Russification of the Belarusian population in the Russian regions that had already taken place by the middle of the decade. Formally, these tasks were constantly on the agenda of the party and Soviet authorities in the second half of the 1920s. But they have not received any significant practical implementation.

The Law of Nations in the Diplomacy of the American Revolution

Abstract Historians have long known that leaders of the American Revolution looked to the law of nations for insight into the rights and obligations of independent states. In so doing, Americans relied largely on the writings of European legal theorists, such as Hugo Grotius and Emerich de Vattel, whose treatises on the law of nations are regarded today as having laid the foundations of international law. As this article demonstrates, however, early modern statesmen did not base their conduct on such treatises, but on a customary law of nations that they derived from precedent and the text of earlier treaties. This article elucidates the distinction between the customary and theoretical branches of the law of nations. It then goes on to examine the law of nations’ impact on revolutionary-era diplomacy, drawing particular attention to a series of wartime negotiations over rights to the Mississippi River. As the article shows, most American emissaries lacked experience with the customary laws of diplomacy and struggled to use that law effectively in their negotiations. The most serious consequences were averted due in part to French legal advice, and because one American, John Jay, acquired enough competence in customary law to guide his colleagues toward an effective negotiation of peace.

Threats and forced displacement in Colombia: an analysis based on municipal data

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of threats in the forced displacement of populations from their municipalities of origin in Colombia that is among the nations with the highest number of internally displaced people in the world with 6.7 million victims. Design/methodology/approach The data cover the period 2011–2017 and were obtained from the Unit for Attention and Integral Reparation to Victims. Using general panel data models and a difference-in-differences identification strategy, this paper finds that threats within the context of the armed conflict show a positive and significant contribution to forced displacement in municipalities. Findings Direct intimidations by illegal armed groups to the population seem to have an influence on the decision of the threatened person to leave the territory in general, although it is not a proportional reaction due to the fact that some victims of intimidations decide not to move to keep their assets and maintain territorial ties. Research limitations/implications The study highlights that the implementation of the Peace Agreements signed in 2016 and the negotiation with illegal armed groups is an effort that the Colombian State must strengthen to prevent the occurrence of threats. Originality/value This paper’s contribution to the literature is twofold: the paper reveals that rising threats encourage forced displacement in Colombia, by embracing a municipality panel data perspective and a difference-in-differences design that were not applied in previous studies; and the results offer suggestive evidence of the importance of decreasing threats for positive peace outcomes, especially in the most affected territories.

#Stand with Ukraine: Analyzing the links between Germans' emotions and their readiness to protest in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

AbstractThe Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked protests around the globe. Most of Europe had – luckily – not seen violent conflict of this scale on their doorstep for more than 30 years. For Germany, the period was even longer. Being confronted with news about the war drove thousands of German citizens to the streets. In passionate protests, they made various demands of their government. Herein, we investigate the links between Germans' emotions and their readiness to engage in such protests. Drawing on collective action research, we predicted that anger and sympathy would correlate positively with Germans' protest readiness. Given the context and public debate, we predicted that fear should also correlate with protest readiness. Two surveys (total N = 905) conducted with residents of Germany – one day after the invasion and at its first anniversary – supported our hypotheses. We consistently found that the more sympathy and anger respondents experienced, the greater their readiness to protest. Fear explained variance beyond sympathy and anger in two cases and in an information‐seeking measure of protest readiness: Greater fear correlated with a higher interest in demonstrations advocating peace negotiations and a lower interest in demonstrations calling for solidarity with Ukraine. These findings underscore the links between sympathy, anger, fear, and the readiness to protest in response to the contemporary crisis that is the war in Ukraine.

From Charles V to Philip IV of Spain: the concepts of Monarchia Universalis and Catholic Monarchy

ABSTRACT This text discusses the European system in the modern age, describing the concept of ‘state’ as an object bounded by property rights and its owner’s jurisdiction. In order to maintain the state, it was necessary to keep the inhabitants in a state of submission, through either persuasion or force. State policy consisted in preserving the possessions of the state, improving and increasing it, combining statecraft with the subjects and concert with other state-holders. States were not autonomous units, but domains, and state affairs concerned ways of increasing or maintaining their ownership. When two princes married, they united their states and created a new political and institutional framework, with each spouse taking on the conflicts and alliances of his or her partner, creating entirely new situations. Each peace treaty or alliance was solidly sealed with a dynastic union, as can be seen in the example of the rise of the House of Habsburg, which became the first European power after integrating the inheritances of three great lineages: the Austrian Habsburgs, who contributed fiefdoms and states in Central and Eastern Europe, the House of Burgundy, who contributed states in France and the Low Countries, and the House of Trastámara, who contributed the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

The Safavid Buffer: Co-Sectarian Rivalry in Early Modern Ottoman Diplomacy with Sunni Asia

Abstract This paper offers a new perspective on Ottoman-Safavid-Mughal relations in the early modern period by exploring the broader historical context of Swedish envoy Claes Rålamb’s report of the advice offered by the Ottoman chief mufti (the highest-ranking legal authority) to the court in 1657. Rålamb reported that the chief mufti had advised that the Ottoman court reject a Mughal offer to form a Sunni alliance against Iran and instead urged the court to protect the Shiʿi Safavids. By examining early modern inter-imperial Sunni relations in general and diplomatic exchange among these Muslim states between 1648 and 1656 in particular, this article challenges the prevailing narrative of sectarian differences driving political conflicts. I show that in the period following the Ottoman-Safavid peace treaty of 1639, the Ottomans regarded the Safavid state as a buffer polity that helped to secure their legitimacy against potential Sunni rivals in Central Asia and India. The article explores how a shared religious identity fueled rather than discouraged competition for legitimacy and supremacy among Sunni rulers in an increasingly interconnected early modern world, leading the Ottomans to align with their sectarian rivals.

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.

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN ROMANIA AND TURKEY DURING WORLD WAR II

In the aftermath of the First World War, Romania and Turkey established a collaborative relationship, with Romania restoring its territorial integrity in 1918 and Turkey proclaiming the republic in 1923.Both states, along with Greece and Yugoslavia, pursued a policy of peaceful development and cooperation, which resulted in the formation of the Balkan Agreement. Despite the efforts of the parties involved to eschew revisionist discourse and adhere to the tenets of the Paris Peace Treaty (1919–1920), the actions of revisionist states created an atmosphere of instability and heightened tensions. This study examines the diplomatic relations between Romania and Turkey during World War II, with a particular focus on the Balkan Treaty and the foreign policy strategies of both states. The findings reveal that the Balkan Pact played a crucial role in the quest for regional security, but proved inadequate in the face of the considerable influence exerted by major powers such as Germany. This study further examines the impact of Romania's alignment with Britain and France, as well as Turkey's strategic approach in line with Atatürk’s vision, assessing their implications for regional stability.

Las comisiones de la verdad y los legados coloniales: lecciones desde Colombia (2018-2022)

With its signing of the Havana Peace Agreement in 2016, Colombia sought to end an armed conflict that had lasted more than sixty years and had left nearly nine million victims. The agreement led to the establishment of a transitional justice (TJ) framework, including the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition (CEV). This study identifies how the CEV incorporated the legacies of colonialism into its analytical framework. The research is based on in-depth interviews with twenty scholars specializing in colonialism and/or TJ, nineteen peacebuilders, informal conversations with CEV members, and a review of various volumes of the final report. The findings highlight that the commission adopted a long-term historical perspective, revisiting aspects of Spanish colonialism (including structural racism and the hacienda system as an institution of territorial, political, and economic order) as explanatory factors for the various forms of violence experienced during the armed conflict. Additionally, several volumes of the final report emphasize the ongoing impact of colonial legacies, viewing them more as continuities or “ruins,” using Stoler’s concept (2008). While the possibility of dismantling colonial legacies on a material level due to the CEV’s work is debated, its symbolic significance must be highlighted, especially in a context where the State had sought to erase the colonial past. This article contributes to the emerging literature that examines TJ from a decolonial perspective, providing an empirical analysis of the CEV in Colombia, which we believe can become a key reference for this field.

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGULATION OF THE TERRITORY OF STATES AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

This article analyzes the actions of international documents establishing the principles of territorial integrity and inviolability of states in modern conditions. Despite the fact that relations between the countries have international legal regulation, military conflicts in the world do not cease due to territorial claims. Most conflicts originate in the depths of centuries, in which it is difficult to recreate the true historical circumstances and assess the validity of the claim of one or another disputing party. The article analyzes conflicts arising from territorial disputes from the perspective of international law. Based on international legal norms, there are legitimate ways to change state borders. For example, the most common of them, in order to achieve a peace agreement that satisfies the disputing parties on the establishment of state borders, is a treaty. In addition, through purchase, lease, artificial increment, by secession from the country, or on the contrary, reunification, states can increase or decrease the borders of their territories. In the 90s, in connection with the collapse of the USSR, the so-called "parade of independent countries" began, which led to the formation of new states and related procedures for the delimitation and demarcation of borders. The establishment of borders took place in various conditions. If in some cases an agreement was reached without difficulty, in others, the arrival of a general consensus was delayed for decades, as in the example of the division of the Caspian Sea between five states. This procedure lasted 22 years and ended in 2018 with the adoption of the Convention on the Status of the Caspian Sea.

The General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022 – the Legal and Political Aspects

The article analyzes the results of the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which took place in October 2022, as well as their consequences for the political situation in this country. Key aspects of electoral law were also discussed, with particular emphasis on provisions limiting human and civil rights on the basis of ethnicity, which is the result of the solutions adopted in the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995.

Morality and Immorality in Politics in Aceh Post 2005 MoU Helsinki (A Case Study on the Relevance of Actions Compared with Peace Promises)

This research analysed the morality of actions taken to implement promises made in Aceh post-2005 MoU Helsinki Peace Agreement. Consideration has been given to the current political conditions in Aceh. Morality is a product of a culture and differs between cultures: Differences between the morality of the Acehnese and that of the Javanese were a major cause of conflict between the Acehnese and the Government of Indonesia. The immorality of the Indonesian Government's actions has been a major cause of rebellion in Aceh in the past. Field research was done by recording participant observations, after which data analysis used the Miles et al. methods. Results showed that after nearly 2 decades of peace, not all the goals in the MoU have been realized. Yes, there were major improvements—there were no more security operations, and some special institutions have been set up: However, many Acehnese haven't felt the full morality of all the peace promises, and morality could be better amongst the elite in both Aceh and Jakarta.

Rebel fragmentation in the time of peace negotiations: Sri Lanka’s LTTE and the Karuna Group

ABSTRACT Why do rebel groups fragment during peace negotiations? The defection of the Karuna Group from Sri Lanka’s LTTE during the 2002–2006 peace process served as the case study to investigate this research question. The disagreement between LTTE leader Prabhakaran and Karuna was the immediate cause of the split. The negotiation disagreement stemmed from the decision to explore federalism as a solution to the conflict. There were supporting factors that boosted the negotiation disagreement. Karuna’s pro-peace transformation, his insecurities, the differences between the Northern and Eastern Tamils, and the external influence enhanced and consolidated the negotiation disagreement.

Baltic and Polish Politicians in Exile and Their Vision of Post-War Peace Agreements in Eastern Europe, 1940–1945

The article examines two key topics: what vision the leading Baltic politicians in exile had of the post-war world order, and what vision Polish politicians in exile had of the post-war world order, specifically in terms of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and East Prussia. The main focus is on the Memel/Klaipėda question. The Vilnius question is also addressed to the extent that it is related to the Memel/Klaipėda question. This question is important for understanding the relations between Baltic and Polish émigré politicians during World War II. The article’s limited scope did not leave space for negotiations between the Soviet government and the Polish government-in-exile or between the Soviet government and the Lithuanian and Polish communists on the issue of East Prussia and Klaipėda. The article tries to avoid fundamental generalizations, and does not attempt to provide conclusive answers to many of the questions and problems that have arisen.