中国应关注非洲的冲突——塞拉利昂驻华大使阿尔胡辛·迪恩9月20日在“中国与非洲:挑战21世纪”国际研讨会上的发言摘要

感谢中国社会科学院西亚非洲研究所举办这次研讨会,并给我发言的机会.首先,我不得不遗憾地说,非洲大陆上的冲突和争斗尚无永恒有效的解决办法.诸位恐怕都明白,这些冲突恰恰是……     

Issues and Actors in African Nonstate Conflicts: A New Data Set

Armed nonstate conflict without the direct involvement of the state government is a common phenomenon. Violence between armed gangs, rebel groups, or communal militias is an important source of instability and has gained increasing scholarly attention. In this article, we introduce a data collection on conflict issues and key actor characteristics in armed nonstate conflicts that provides new opportunities for investigating the causes, dynamics, and consequences of this form of organized violence. The data builds on and extends the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Non-State Conflict data set by introducing additional information on what the actors in the conflict are fighting over, alongside actor characteristics. It covers Africa during the time period 1989–2011. The data set distinguishes between two main categories of issues, territory and authority, in addition to a residual category of other issues. Furthermore, we specify sub-issues within these categories, such as agricultural land/water as sub-issue for territory and religious issues for other issues. As actor characteristics, the data set notes whether warring parties received military support by external actors and whether religion and the mode of livelihood were salient in the mobilization of the armed group. The article presents coding processes, key features of the data set, and point to avenues for new research based on these data.     

The Long‐Term Effectiveness of Mediating Workplace Conflicts

In this study, we explore the long‐term effectiveness of the mediation of hierarchical workplace conflicts by comparing and analyzing participants’ perceptions of short‐term and long‐term mediation effectiveness. Specifically, we surveyed supervisors and subordinates to determine the extent to which they perceive mediation to be effective one year after the conclusion of the process. In this study, we distinguish between mediations that result in a continuing employment relationship versus exit mediations, which occur when employees end their employment. We collected data from real workplace mediation cases in the Netherlands. Our results show a general positive relationship between short‐term and long‐term mediation outcomes. Supervisors and subordinates, however, perceive the long‐term outcomes somewhat differently, with supervisors perceiving greater compliance with the agreement than did subordinates after one year. We found no significant difference in perceptions of long‐term effectiveness between exit and nonexit mediations. In the article, we discuss the implications of our findings for mediation theory and practice.     

The Security Council: Adapting to Address Contemporary Conflicts

Throughout the 1990s, with the post-Cold War era as backdrop, there have been numerous changes in the approach of the United Nations Security Council to conflict between and within nations. The author, using historical incidents for illustration, highlights such topics as the changing nature of conflicts addressed by the Council; consideration during Council decision making; developments within the United Nations itself (institutional); the cumulative impact of Security Council decision making; and key challenges facing the Council today and in the future.     

Conflict "Ripeness" Revisited: The South African and Israeli/Palestinian Cases

Negotiation Journal -     

克什米尔冲突中的宗教因素

克什米尔冲突是南亚最激烈、最持久的冲突。本文从宗教角度出发,分析了印度教徒与穆斯林的矛盾同克什米尔冲突的关系,讨论了宗教因素对解决克什米尔冲突的制约和影响。     

非洲联盟：希望之路

非洲的希望从非统组织到非洲联盟的转变向世界传递了一个象征性的信息 :非洲的历史在续写 ,非洲在前进。这可能是非洲领导人作为一个集体所做出的最重要的和历史性的行动。继续推动泛非事业向前发展的当今领导人可喜可贺 ,他们正在实践恩克鲁玛为整个非洲提出的口号 :永远前进、永不后退。现在 ,非洲领导人应该做的就是继续努力 ,实现非洲真正的联盟 ,即 :通过形成单一的非洲民族来创建一个包括所有非洲人民、所有非洲国家和所有地区在内的联盟。因此 ,一些重要的事情亟待去做 ,其中包括制定将国家领导人转变为国家管理者的战略。这种转变是…     

The Role of Intra-Religious Conflicts in Intrastate Wars

Many civil wars are fought between members of different religious communities. It seems plausible to focus on these communities’ interrelations to identify the causal factors responsible for the escalating effects that religion can have in such conflicts. A closer look, however, reveals that processes within religious communities can be crucial in influencing the role religions play in intrastate wars. Within single communities, factions of religious elites compete for material and dogmatic supremacy. Such intra-religious conflicts can motivate religious elites to search for support from political allies to prevail over their religious rivals. In return, they legitimize their political patrons’ claims for political power and their violent campaigns against members of other religious communities. Thus, intra-religious conflicts can effectively contribute to the religious escalation of intrastate wars between different religious communities. This argument is exemplified with reference to conflicts in Thailand, The Philippines, and Iraq.     

非洲联盟

今年7月8—10日,第38届非洲统一组织暨首届非洲联盟首脑会议在南非德班举行,52个非洲国家的元首、政府首脑和代表与会。会议宣布非统组织结束历史使命,非洲联盟正式投入运作。非盟的启动是非洲大陆一个划时代的历史事件,它标志着非洲各国的团结与合作进入了更高层次,对于加速非洲政治、经济一体化,使非洲在国际舞台上用一个声音说话,更好地应对经济全球化的挑战具有重要的意义。 一、非洲联盟的成立背景 非洲联盟的前身非统组织成立于1963年5月25日。当时31个刚刚获得独立的非洲国家领导人聚会埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴,一致通过了《非洲统一组织宪章》,成立了第一个全非性政治组织——非洲统一组织,实现了近百年来非洲人民不懈     

非洲联盟:以联合应对挑战

非洲联盟的正式启动是非洲国家从政治合作走向全面联合的重大战略步骤,是非洲国家应对经济全球化的一种理性选择,体现了非洲大陆从求生存到求发展的历史演进的必然.     

The African Information Society: rhetoric and practice

ABSTRACT

In the last few years Africa has seen an enormous activity in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) related conferences and initiatives on behalf of international and donor institutions. These initiatives became increasingly coloured by the rhetoric of an emerging global information society and the need for an African answer to these developments. With regard to this information society two documents hold particular relevance: the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's, (ECA's) Africa's Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Action Framework to Build Africa's Information and Communication Infrastructure and the ITUs African Green Paper. This article sets out to question these policies and implementation initiatives, and their rhetoric and practice.     

Parenting Coordination: The Risks of a Hybrid Conflict Resolution Process

Parenting coordination is a conflict resolution process that blends the roles of mediator, decision maker, monitor, assessor, educator, counselor, and enforcer for families involved in high‐conflict divorces. This article explores the potential benefits and risks of blending roles in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, trust, posturing, dual roles, self‐determination, and allegations of bias.     

A Multi-Option System Helps Get to the Bottom of "Big Dig" Conflicts

Negotiation Journal -     

The Great Powers and Regional Conflicts: Eastern Europe and the Balkans from the Post–Napoleonic Era to the Post–Cold War Era

The objective of this article is to provide an analytical framework for addressing the sources of great power regional involvement and its effects on regional conflicts. The thesis of the article is that variations in the degree of intensity of conflicts and the likelihood of successful conflict resolution in different regions are affected by the character of great power involvement in these regions. Our argument is that although great power involvement or noninvolvement cannot cause or terminate regional conflicts, it can either intensify existing local conflicts or mitigate them. We will propose causal linkages between balances of great power capabilities and interests, types of great power involvement in regional conflicts, and patterns of regional conflicts. The study will distinguish among four types of great power involvement in regional conflicts: competition, cooperation, dominance, and disengagement. The empirical section will examine the application of these propositions in seven historical illustrations, representing the four patterns of great power involvement in regional conflicts. All the illustrations will deal with one conflict-ridden region-Eastern Europe and the Balkans, in successive historical periods from the post-Napoleonic era to the post-Cold War era. Because of the variety of patterns of great power involvement in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, this region is uniquely suited to examine the propositions derived from the theoretical framework. Drawing on both the theoretical deductions and the historical illustrations should make it possible in the last section to discuss briefly the implications of the proposed framework for regional conflict management or mitigation in the Balkans in the post-Cold War era.     

Identity and culture in theorising African perspectives of communication: The case of an African cinematic model

Abstract

Since communication refers to the sharing of information by any effective means, there is no doubt it entails the ability to make meaning of realities. In this sense, communication is cultural as much as it is human. Since that is the case, its theories cannot be fabricated in the abstract, but must be anchored in people's everyday lifestyles and cultures. Hence, like every other discipline, Africanising communication science is as much a possibility as theorising its perspectives from African contexts and experiences. Focusing on the negative challenges confronting the continent might make scholars see only the difficulties that problematise the application of theories to Africa's reality, which only betrays the Anglo-American stereotypical views of the continent. The argument is made here that the starting point of any theory of communication has to lie with the identity and culture of those involved in the communication process. Specifically by using selected films from Africa, this author considers the exploration of African identity and culture (from a bottom-up paradigm) as the primary starting point to tease out relevant theories of communication for and from an African cultural context.     

Identity-Based Conflicts: A Systemic Approach Evaluation Project

Some of the most difficult conflicts of all are those grounded in identity, which can be analyzed in both personal and societal contexts. The author's goal is to conceptualize identity-based conflict from a systems perspective. He uses ideas from psychology, social psychology, and organization theory, connecting them to concepts of cybernetic control. As is the case with Social Identity Theory, a major challenge for the negotiation field is to provide a better understanding of destructive forms of intergroup behavior and how belief systems allow group members to justify bad treatment of outgroup members.