The myth of liberal peace-building

‘Liberal peace-building’ is a subject of intense debate within contemporary IR. This article contends, however, that for all the merits of much of the work on the subject, the overall terms of the debate are rooted in a series of questionable assumptions. Proponents and critics alike hold that peace-building is an essentially liberal project, over which there is a global (or Western) consensus, and which is pursued by a decentralised plurality of institutions irrespective of the particularly of war-endings. This article shows that this is misleading. Focusing on the relations between peace agreements and peace-building, it shows that peace agreements are contextually specific political arrangements, driven above all by strategic considerations of power and legitimacy, in relation to which liberal peace-building doctrines and practices are unevenly applied, instrumentalised or plain ignored—including by international actors. It argues in turn that liberal peace-building discourse overstates both the liberalism of contemporary peace interventions, and the degree of global consensus thereover, and fails to capture the enduring centrality of states, strategy and geopolitics in the making of peace. These arguments are developed with reference to a wide range of cases of post-Cold War peace interventions, though with especial focus on UN peace-building in Cambodia in the early 1990s.     

The remythologisation of white collective identities in post-apartheid South African film by myth and counter myth

Abstract

Since 1994 a collection of films, referred to here as post-apartheid South African history film, has thematically represented South Africa's apartheid history, and in so doing has engaged with the representation of the white figure in ways which suggest a reformulation of collective South African white identity construction. Part of this process is the phenomenon of the remythologisation, or the counter myth construction, of whiteness as an identity on film. Such mythic representations frequently describe the white figure as connected to aspects of guilt (whether individual or collective), remorse and forgiveness. Often the mythic construction of whiteness on film is delivered in a seemingly oversimplified binary fashion, reducing the representation of white identity in the post-apartheid South African situation to one that is robbed of complexities and nuances.     

The myth of my widow: A dramatistic analysis of news portrayals of a terrorist victim

Mythic aspects of news portrayals of a terrorist victim are the focus of this study. Using the dramatistic approach of Kenneth Burke, the study reviews New York Times coverage of Leon Klinghoffer, who was killed by terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship in October 1985.

Myth is defined not as a false or incredible tale, but as a symbolic narrative that attempts to explain and give meaning to practice and belief. The study shows that news reports used dramatic details of the suffering and grief of the widow to develop around her husband a compelling myth—the sacrifice of the innocent, heroic victim.

In dramatic and psychological terms, the victim is a symbol of the self. Through this myth, then, the news reports appear to invite intense identification of the reader with the terrorist victim.

Although the study is exploratory, implications can be considered. Mythic portrayals suggest that the power of terrorism may stem from its ability to forge symbolic links between victims and individual members of an audience. Mythic images in the news may help terrorists communicate with their audience. Too, public policy makers may attempt to arouse support for measures of prevention and reprisal by drawing from the mythic power of the victim.     

Back to prehistory: the quest for an alternative IR founding myth

Abstract

Searching for an alternative founding myth for international relations (IR) entails going back long before the 1648 Westphalian milestone. Drawing from a world historical approach, this article makes the case for investigating the origins of the subject matter of IR in the pre-state era: its founding moment may be traced back to a first encounter between two distinct bands of nomadic Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers in the Palaeolithic period. As the outcome of this interaction was not predetermined, four scenarios are considered: absence of relations by retreat and isolation; conflict triggered by self-preservation (birth of war); cooperation, barter or other types of exchange; and merging together. Following the initial engagement, intergroup relations became much more intertwined. Once the stranger was no longer unknown, the original distinction between Us and Them began to fade away. The ensuing relationship shaped their co-constructed social reality, in a long process of extending trust beyond the family circle.     

The public sphere and local democracy

After summarizing some of the main criticisms of liberal democracy, this article examines proposals to overcome the malaise through the development of a strong public sphere or public spheres and/or the re‐invigoration of democracy at the local or municipal level. In particular attention will focus on the democratic potential at the local level of ‘citizens’ juries’.     

The local in the global: rethinking social movements in the new millennium

In this article we discuss the failure of social movement theories to adequately understand and theorize locally based, grassroots social movements like the landless workers movement in Brazil, ‘livability movements’ in third-world cities, and living wage movements in the USA. Movements such as these come to the attention of most social movement analysts only when the activists who participate in them come together in the streets of Seattle or international forums like the World Social Forum. To date, it is the transnational character of these protests that have excited the most attention. Building on scholarship that looks at the link between participatory democracy and social movements, this article takes a different tack. We show how some social movements have shifted their repertoire of practices from large mass events aimed at making demands on the national state to local-level capacity building. It is the local struggles, especially the ways in which they have created and used institutions in civil society through extending and deepening democracy, that may be the most significant aspect of recent social movements, both for our theories and for our societies. Yet these aspects have received less attention, we believe, because they are less well understood by dominant social movement theories, which tend to focus on high-profile protest events. We look at the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement and the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles to illustrate the important terrain of civil society as well as the role of community organizing.     

Santam and Nando's: An advertising narrative of local humour,local conflict,local co-branding

ABSTRACT

In 2011 South African short term insurer Santam (Santam Ltd.) put in place an advertising initiative that illustrates the power of a humorous brand narrative effected in conjunction with another brand. In this case, it is the South African arm of Nando's (Nando's Chickenland Ltd.), a fast food restaurant chain specialising in Portuguese-themed chicken dishes that rely heavily on peri-peri spices. The two well-known brands aired a series of five commercials on television and the Internet, trading good-humoured jibes centred around the value proposition of each company's offering. The resultant rise in social media viewership and consumer engagement was notable and illustrates the efficacy of a cobranded narrative run over numerous media platforms; in this case radio, television, social media, print and the Internet.     

The modern face of traditional agrarian rule: local government in Pakistan

The 1980s saw an increasing enthusiasm for decentralisation and good governance in developing countries. Citing an ethnographic study of the office of Tehsil Mayor in Kharalpur, Pakistan, it is argued that decentralisation, instead of creating opportunities for people to engage in democratic participation and empowerment through modern local government institutions, has itself been subverted by the traditional norms and rules of patronage-based personalised governance. Modernity has not influenced tradition: rather, it is the other way around. This has further strengthened the power and prestige of the rural elite.     

Civil society and local activism in South Korea's local democratization

Recent studies on causes of intergovernmental transformation in old and new democracies have found that decentralization is often the outcome of negotiations between national and local political interests. South Korea is commonly believed to be an exception because local elections and institutions introduced in the early 1990s were, by and large, the product of negotiations among political elites at the centre, without significant inclusion of local actors. However, this article attempts to explicate a hitherto ignored aspect of decentralization reform in Korea: the role of civil society and local activism in the politics of decentralization. In the 2000s, several ‘triggering events’ such as economic instability, democratic consolidation, emergence of civilian leaders, and the growth of civil society provided a strong momentum for the decentralization movement. We demonstrate how civic organizations at both national and local levels have played significant roles in proposing and pushing for decentralization, and argue that the bottom-up movement for decentralization under the Roh Moo-hyun administration was surprisingly well mobilized and institutionalized, especially at the agenda-setting stage.     

The unfinished village police unit: a contested local development initiative

Community self-help has been the principal strategy for creating social infrastructure in rural Malawi since independence. One rural community in Balaka district, southern Malawi, embarked on a project to construct a police unit as a response to rising incidents of crime. Begun in 1999, the project remains unfinished. There seems to be no interest in completing the work. This paper finds the explanation in the manner the project was initiated and how the village community was involved in its execution.     

The role of local institutions in sustainable watershed management: lessons from India

The implementation and effective management of watershed-development projects is recognised as a strategy for rural development throughout the developing world. Several government and non-government agencies have launched watershed-development projects to tackle the challenges of soil conservation, improving land productivity, and economic upliftment of the rural poor for efficient use of natural resources. Participatory community-driven institutions of integrated watershed management are considered vital for the sustainability of natural resources. This study focuses on the impact of local institutions on watershed development in India and examines the degree of women's participation in relation to the effective management of natural resources and sustainable development.     

Engendering local democracy: The impact of quotas for women in India's panchayats

In 1992, India's Parliament enacted two constitutional amendments that sought to democratize local governance and engender it through quota-based reservations for women. This article asks whether participation in these institutions has enabled women to articulate and advance their interests. To evaluate this, the article deploys the distinction in feminist literature between strategic and practical gender interests. Through a survey of a wide range of studies conducted in different parts of India it points to the constraints, both of institutional design as well as of social inequalities of gender and caste, that inhibit a fuller and more effective participation by women. There is nevertheless evidence to suggest that the quotas have enabled women to address their practical gender needs and interests, even if the articulation and realization of strategic interests is moving at a somewhat slower pace.     

The defence of territory and local struggle for more democracy in post-war Guatemala

Twenty years since the signing of the Peace Accords, shifts have taken place in Guatemala’s landscape of collective struggles for democracy. Instead of the historical peasant movements or the civil society organizations based in Guatemala City that dominated collective action in the context of the Accords, over the past decade local, rural nodes of resistance to neo-liberal policies have consolidated as the most sustained attempts to instil a democratizing impetus. In the context of Guatemala’s post-war state, captured by legal and illegal elite factions, this rural agency is directed primarily towards the municipal and community level. It is framed around the defence of territory and emerges on the basis of local meanings and practices. By analysing the case of an organizational process promoted by indigenous communities in Guatemala’s northern highlands, I argue for paying attention to these organizational patterns despite their limited geographical projection. I derive the importance of this collective agency from their attempts to transcend a purely antagonistic stance by reconfiguring local political interactions and making their immediate surroundings more democratic.     

Aid and development by design: local solutions to local problems

This article makes a case for a reconceptualisation of aid and development programme design. Specifically, it questions the role of the international “development expert” in the design and implementation process. We argue that by employing “design thinking” as a guiding principle, the way in which aid programmes are envisaged and delivered can be radically overhauled, resulting in dramatically improved outcomes for the users of aid. We argue that practical improvements in delivery are achievable through locally rooted, “user-driven” development solutions that originate from the beneficiaries themselves. Design thinking as applied here goes significantly further than other programme design and implementation methodologies that champion locally owned, needs-driven assistance. Furthermore, we make a case for this approach addressing wider problems within the sector, namely the perception, in some quarters, that aid is intrinsically “neo-imperialist” in design and ideologically driven.     

Japan: the contested boundaries of alien suffrage at the local level

The provision of local level electoral rights in Japan for tokubetsu eijūsha (special permanent residents) and eijūsha (permanent residents) has sparked an ongoing controversy between opponents and proponents of extending the boundaries of suffrage. Periodically igniting for over a decade, the debate has involved politicians from across the political spectrum as well as local authorities, non-governmental organizations and academic scholars, yet remains locked into a cycle in which a period of optimism is followed by inaction and stagnation. In January 2008 the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan reignited the issue once more. Against this background, the goal of this paper is to highlight and trace the way in which the mainstream debate for and against electoral rights is being played out in the public arena. In so doing this paper makes two claims. First, we need to recognize the way that certain historical–social influences emanating from the processes of state-building since 1945 influence the current debates. Second, this must combine awareness of both legal/constitutional and normative aspects, as well as a sense of intra-party and inter-party political contestation.