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481. A Choice for Peace? The Story of Forty-One Days of Mediation in Kenya

Author:
Elisabeth Lindenmayer and Josie Lianna Kaye
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
The postelection violence that erupted in Kenya in December 2007 resulted in the deaths of over one thousand people and left three hundred thousand people displaced. While catastrophic, the scale of the social and economic destruction, not to mention the loss of life, could have been much greater were it not for the peace mediation mandated by the African Union in January 2008. The Panel of Eminent African Personalities, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, led the forty-one-day peace process, culminating in the Agreement on the Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government, which was signed by President Mwai Kibaki and the Honorable Raila Odinga on February 28th, putting an end to the crisis which engulfed the nation and took the world by surprise.
Topic:
Political Violence and Democratization
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

482. Pakistan: Countering Militancy in FATA

Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The military operation in South Waziristan is unlikely to succeed in curbing the spread of religious militancy in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), unless the Pakistan government implements political reforms in that part of the country. Pakistani Taliban groups have gained significant power in the tribal agencies, seven administrative districts bordering on Afghanistan. While state institutions in FATA are increasingly dysfunctional, the militants have dismantled or assumed control of an already fragile tribal structure. This encroaching Talibanisation is not the product of tribal traditions or resistance. It is the result of short-sighted military policies and a colonial-era body of law that isolates the region from the rest of the country, giving it an ambiguous constitutional status and denying political freedoms and economic opportunity to the population. While the militants' hold over FATA can be broken, the longer the state delays implementing political, administrative, judicial and economic reforms, the more difficult it will be to stabilise the region.
Topic:
Political Violence, Islam, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia

483. Dying for Action: Decision time for an urgent, effective Arms Trade Treaty

Author:
Edmund Cairns
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2006 the United Nations voted to start work towards an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). This was recognition by a majority of nations that the current patchwork of laws, regional agreements, and embargoes is ineffective, and insufficient to limit the catastrophic effects of easily available weaponry.
Topic:
Political Violence, Arms Control and Proliferation, United Nations, and War

484. Spoilers or Governance Actors? Engaging Armed Non-State Groups in Areas of Limited Statehood

Author:
Ulrich Schneckener
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Armed non-state groups pose a severe challenge for peace- and state-building processes. Depending on the situation, they may act as both spoilers and governance actors. This paper aims at presenting a framework for analysing armed groups as well as forms of engagement for international actors. It first describes various armed groups, which need to be distinguished in order to highlight specific profiles, as ideal types. Secondly, a number of strategies for dealing with these groups will be introduced and discussed by referring to realist, institutionalist and constructivist approaches. Thirdly, the conclusion will point to key problems and limits of these approaches when addressing the spectrum of armed groups. The argument here is that these approaches - despite their differences - by and large are directed to similar profiles of armed groups while other forms of non-state violence are systematically neglected.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Terrorism, and Armed Struggle

485. Gunning: Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence

Author:
Ghada Al-Madbouh
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence is a daring attempt to analyze the thinking of Hamas as a social movement and not simply as a terrorist organization. Using a combination of political theory and empirical research, Jeroen Gunning, a lecturer in international politics at the University of Wales (and deputy director of the university's Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence), contextualizes issues of democracy, religion, and violence as they relate to Hamas. Methodologically, Gunning offers an extensive discussion of his interpretive ethnographic fieldwork in the Gaza Strip (conducted 1997–2004), taking his analysis beyond the straightforward causality or correlation of mainstream political science. The main merit of the book, however, rests in Gunning's attempt to wed the study of Hamas's discourse to the study of its actual practices regarding religion, democracy, and violence.
Topic:
Political Violence and Religion
Political Geography:
Gaza

486. Six Important Issues for Sudan and Its Future

Author:
Jon Temin
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Over the past few months, much of the international attention devoted to Sudan has focused on “CPA implementation.” Within that focus on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), most attention is paid to the status of Abyei, if and when nationwide elections will happen, border demarcation and, above all else, the 2011 referendum on the status of southern Sudan. But there are other aspects of the north-south dynamic deserving of discussion and strategic thinking that don't receive their due. This Peace Brief describes six of those issues and questions that, while they get some attention, could use a little more as decisive events in Sudan's political history approach.
Topic:
Political Violence and Democratization
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

487. Crisis in the Niger Delta

Author:
David R. Smock
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
The demands of the population in the Niger Delta to enjoy greater benefit from the oil produced in their region continue to go unanswered. The people in the Delta complain that oil-spill pollution has made their water undrinkable, gas flaring has made the air unfit for breathing, while revenue from the oil has paid for mansions to be built in the capital, Abuja. Although well armed militias have suspended their attacks for a few weeks, they threaten to resume operations soon. A Technical Committee appointed by Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Aduato make recommendations for action relating to the Delta made its report nine months ago, but the government has taken no action on the report. The government has offered an amnesty to the militants for a period that expires in early October, but so far few militants have responded. Oil production continues to be seriously reduced by the militants' attacks and by the stealing of oil (termed “bunkering”) by militants and others.
Topic:
Political Violence and Oil
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

488. What Role for the United Nations in Haiti?

Author:
Robert Maguire
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
On October 13, 2009, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a one-year extension of the mandate for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The sixth mission since 1995, MINUSTAH was first authorized in 2004. The mission, under Brazilian command, comprises 6,940 soldiers and 2,211 police. It also has unprecedented star power since the May 2009 appointment of former U.S. President Bill Clinton as U.N. special envoy to Haiti.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Democratization, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Brazil, Caribbean, and Haiti

489. Somaliland: A Way out of the Electoral Crisis

Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The stalled electoral process has plunged Somaliland into a serious political crisis that presents yet another risk of destabilisation for the region. If its hard-won political stability collapses under the strain of brinkmanship and intransigence, clan leaders might remobilise militias, in effect ending its dream of independence. The political class must finally accept to uphold the region's constitution, abide by the electoral laws and adhere to interparty agreements such as the electoral code of conduct and memorandum of understanding signed on 25 September 2009, so as to contain the crisis and permit implementation of extensive electoral reforms. International partners and donors should keep a close watch on developments and sustain pressure for genuinely free and fair general elections in 2010.
Topic:
Political Violence and Democratization
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

490. Venezuela: Accelerating the Bolivarian Revolution

Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
President Hugo Chávez's victory in the 15 February 2009 referendum, permitting indefinite re-election of all elected officials, marked an acceleration of his “Bolivarian revolution” and “socialism of the 21st century”. Chávez has since moved further away from the 1999 constitution, and his government has progressively abandoned core liberal democracy principles guaranteed under the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The executive has increased its power and provoked unrest internally by further politicising the armed forces and the oil sector, as well as exercising mounting influence over the electoral authorities, the legislative organs, the judiciary and other state entities. At the same time, Chávez's attempts to play a political role in other states in the region are producing discomfort abroad. The September 2010 legislative elections promise to further polarise an already seriously divided country, while unresolved social and mounting economic problems generate tensions that exacerbate the risk of political violence.
Topic:
Political Violence and Armed Struggle
Political Geography:
Latin America and Venezuela