Negotiated peace versus victor's peace: the geopolitics of peace and conflict in Sri Lanka

In examining the failure of the 2002 peace process between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), this essay argues for the need to go beyond the power dynamics of the local actors. The peace process was dismantled and military victory by the Sri Lankan government made possible not so much by the Sinhala nationalist discourse, which opposed administration of development aid by the LTTE, as by the global security discourse associated with geo-strategic interests. The EU-led development discourse, which was informed by the liberal internationalist ethos, could have facilitated resolution and transformation of the conflict. In its place a security-based, realist discourse was prioritized in South Asia by the UK and US governments, particularly after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This was the discourse which provided the material basis for the Sinhala nationalists to consolidate their power in pursuing a military victory. The post-war era is marked by geopoliticization of the human rights discourse, deepening the conflict. This essay explores the correlation between the liberal peace model, human rights, international relations and geopolitics.     

The relationship between peace building and development

This article considers the changing nature and needs of United Nations (UN) peace building in the post-Cold War era. The focus of the analysis is on the connection between peace building and development. Competing views exist regarding the links between these two areas. The exclusivist approach considers them two distinct stages of a phased process, undertaken separately and under different conditions. The inclusivist approach, meanwhile, argues that they are mutually reinforcing and capable of operating simultaneously. This paper demonstrates that the inclusivist approach is gaining ground in the literature, and it contends that it is a more appropriate way of addressing the problems of post-conflict societies. In support of this argument, the article looks initially at how development fits within the definitional ambit of peace building. Second, it provides a theoretical framework for the synthesis of peace building and development. Third, it considers the way in which the relationship between peace building and development has developed historically, and examines the three main manifestations of this relationship: disaster relief, macroeconomic reform and post-conflict reintegration.     

Sustainability and peace building: a key challenge

The overarching challenge facing the growing number of international peace-building interventions is to achieve sustainable peace. This paper illustrates this proposition through a brief investigation of the situation in Timor-Leste as the UN mission withdraws at the five-year state-building mark, and in Haiti as a ninth UN mission is established. Adopting the view that participatory democratic governance will best ensure long-term peace, the paper maintains that to build sustainable peace requires transformation on three interrelated fronts: (a) transformation of the society from one that resorts to violence to one that resorts to political means to resolve conflict, requiring that the elite negotiate and that there should be widespread social dialogue and reconciliation; (b) reform of the governance framework to seek to ensure both that a negotiated governance arrangement between parties prevents future conflict and the adoption of basic democratic governance; and (c) the creation of meaningful institutions that will be sustainable after the mission leaves. These institutions cannot be imposed from outside, but must be bodies that re able to perform their core function and are committed to doing so.     

The changing phases of the Niger Delta conflict: implications for conflict escalation and the return of peace

This paper discusses the nature and dynamics of the Niger Delta conflict and traces the structural origin of the conflict to a dysfunctional Nigerian ‘state-nation’ that is a product of colonisation. The paper argues that the conflict is best understood as a process viewed in terms of nests or phases. Building on previous findings on the aetiology of African conflicts and contemporary scholarship on African politics, the paper identifies how different phases of the Niger Delta conflict interact to impel the conflict toward escalation. Consequently, it is argued that both the ‘marginalisation-relative deprivation’ and the ‘political economy of war’ theses have been instrumental in furthering our understanding of the conflict along different lines. However, the tendency for both perspectives to claim superiority over the other has meant that each only offers a partial truth and is therefore unable to explain the increasing intensity and longevity of the Niger Delta conflict. Indeed, it is shown how these theses feed into the discursive struggle between militants, militant entrepreneurs and the Nigerian Government in ways that allow for the commodification of the Niger Delta people. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the emerging issues for the return of peace in the Niger Delta.     

Peace amidst development: 1 a conceptual agenda for conflict and peace research

In recent years, the focus of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Cybernetics Technology Office (DARPA/CTO) has become increasingly applied in nature. Concurrently, an explicit concern with coordinating and integrating research and analysis has pervaded the DARPA/CTO milieu. These emphases mirror trends in certain segments of political science; both policy‐relevance and cumulativeness have emerged as prominent themes in disciplinary communication and research evaluation processes.¹     

World views in peace building: a post-conflict reconstruction challenge in Cambodia

This article explores post-conflict reconstruction in Cambodia through an analysis of both the dangers of liberal peace building and the positive role that training in capacity building plays in war-torn societies. The central question addressed is how insider–outsider dynamics influence Cambodia's post-conflict reconstruction projects; and what assumptions do international workers and Cambodian NGO staff make about ‘the good life’ that will be constructed? The article offers an overview of Cambodia's history and cultural context to situate its analysis of liberal peace building and foreign donors, as well as the behavioural characteristics of international peace builders operating within Cambodia. It assesses the potency of elite capture of insider–outsider partnership, specific NGO management practices, and the role of gender to better illuminate the challenges for post-conflict reconstruction. The article concludes with recommendations for improving future partnerships between insiders and outsiders in Cambodian peace-building projects.     

Transnational peace building: bringing salt and light to Colombia and the USA

In 2003, Lutheran World Relief (LWR), an international relief and development NGO, began a peace-building initiative in Colombia. It facilitated the formation of a partnership between peace-sanctuary churches in Colombia and six communities of faith in the US Midwest, co-ordinated by LWR staff. This partnership, called ‘Sal y Luz’ (Salt and Light), has the goal of education and advocacy both in Colombia and in the USA. Sal y Luz represents a powerful example of transnational solidarity for peace. There are also implications and lessons of this case study for the broader field of NGO peace-building work. The Sal y Luz model of peace building brings benefits in terms of NGO accountability and effectiveness. The key innovation of the model is the means by which LWR effectively helped its US constituency to understand and become involved in peace-building work.     

Beyond identity lines: women building peace in Northern Ireland and the Korean peninsula

Asia Europe Journal - This article explores the challenges and contributions of women in building and sustaining peace in protracted conflicts by conducting a comparative case study on Northern...     

Inter-Korean cooperation in the fisheries industry: modeling trust and peace building on the ECSC

The predecessor of the European Union (EU), the European Coal and Steel Community, was successful in its dual goal of providing peace and prosperity to the European subcontinent in large part because its institutions fostered enduring relations between government officials. Mirroring the European focus on coal and steel, this paper suggests inter-Korean cooperation in the fisheries industry. The Yellow Sea border and the disputed Northern Limit Line has been the scene of deadly clashes between the two Koreas. Cooperation in the fisheries industry would provide economic benefits while it can build trusting relations between the two Koreas as a necessary condition for political cooperation. As coal and steel were only a start for the EU, and implemented clearly with greater political goals in mind, so can the integration of the fishery industries provide a similar starting point in the search for peace and security for the Korean peninsula.     

Windows of opportunity for conflict prevention: responding to regional conflict in West Africa1

This article charts the course of regional crisis in West Africa since 1999 and assesses the extent to which the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) succeeded in preventing an escalation of crisis in that sub‐region. It argues that although windows of opportunity existed for preventing the escalation of conflict and attention was sometimes paid to warning signs, the UN and ECOWAS had limited success largely because the regional dimensions of the conflicts were not recognized earlier. Additionally, while there has been increased collaboration between the UN and ECOWAS in response to regional crisis, these efforts are hampered by the absence of a systematized base of operations. This paper discusses the experience of the last five years and concludes that ECOWAS has not only become more responsive but has developed an evolving political framework for early action which could be greatly improved with coordinated and targeted support from the UN.     

The co-ordination of conflict prevention and development aid in southern Georgia

This article examines how various organisations co-ordinate conflict prevention and development aid in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of southern Georgia, and how this co-ordination might be improved. Several contradicting perspectives are pitted against one another to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the region’s troubles and the manner in which these multilateral, bilateral, local, regional and nongovernmental actors have dealt with them. The paper pays particular attention to the question of whether organisations working in Samtskhe-Javakheti should focus on development assistance or conflict prevention, and whether early warning about the region has been exaggerated and uncoordinated. It concludes that there has been a reasonable balance between development aid and conflict prevention, that early warning has mostly been cautious, and that there has been considerable information sharing and synchronisation between agencies. However, this co-ordination has depended on a number of non-governmental organisations performing co-ordinating roles on their own initiative.     

The 'sex war' and other wars: Towards a feminist approach to peace building

For more than a decade, resolutions from the UN and the European Commission havehighlighted women's suffering during wars, and the unfairness of their treatment upon thereturn to peace. Yet the injustices and the hypocrisy continue. Women are reified as thepeacemakers while they are excluded from peace processes. Women's suffering during war isheld up as evidence of inhumanity by the same organisations that accept, if not promote, themarginalisation of women's needs during peacetime. The author reviews the processes throughwhich these phenomena are perpetuated and outlines some ways forward which could help tobreak these cycles.     

Conflict and peace building in West Africa: the role of civil society and the African Union

The paper examines the problem of conflicts and the task of peace building in West Africa explicating the role of civil society and the African Union in that process. It argues that there is an inverse relationship between the causes of conflicts and the challenge of peace building in the sub‐region. The crisis of governance, which manifests in the problems of authoritarian rule, statism, identity and citizenship, minority agitation, economic and social injustice are key elements in the aetiology of conflicts, which have to be gradually deconstructed for meaningful peace building to take place in the sub‐region.     

The United States' approach to Algeria's civil conflict: Implications for democratization,internal peace and anti-American violence

The United States' approach to Algeria's civil conflict has been based on the stringent assumption that a choice must be made between a secular government that is prowestern (although corrupt and repressive) and an Islamist regime that is anti-western (although equally repressive if allowed to govern). The article shows that this approach not only works to sustain authoritarianism in Algeria and reinforce a vicious cycle of poverry and civil violence, but also ignores the causal links between the practice of dictatorship in the country and the rise of anti-American violence. In this sense, America's foreign policy towards Algeria is a contributory factor to transnational terrorism. An alternative approach that is based on economic development and democracy promotion is proposed here to achieve sustainable democracy and internal peace in Algeria and weaken the forces that give rise to antiAmerican violence.