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9492. Rethinking Post-War Security Promotion
- Author:
- Robert Muggah and Nat J. Colletta
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Security Sector Management
- Institution:
- Centre for Security Sector Management
- Abstract:
- The intensity and complexity of post-war violence routinely exceeds expectations. Many development and security specialists fear that, if left unchecked, mutating violence can potentially tip 'fragile' societies back into war. An array of 'conventional' security promotion activities are regularly advanced to prevent this from happening, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and other forms of security sector reform (SSR). Meanwhile, a host of less widely recognised examples of security promotion activities are emerging that deviate from – and also potentially reinforce – DDR and SSR. Innovation and experimentation by mediators and practitioners has yielded a range of promising activities designed to mitigate the risks and symptoms of post-war violence including interim stabilisation measures and second generation security promotion interventions. Drawing on original evidence, this article considers a number of critical determinants of post-war violence that potentially shape the character and effectiveness of security promotion on the ground. It then issues a typology of security promotion practices occurring before, during and after more conventional interventions such as DDR and SSR. Taken together, the identification of alternative approaches to security promotion implies a challenging new research agenda for the growing field of security and development.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, War, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States
9493. Security Sector Reform, Democracy, and the Social Contract: From Implicit to Explicit
- Author:
- Mark Knight
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Security Sector Management
- Institution:
- Centre for Security Sector Management
- Abstract:
- This paper asserts that there is a tension between traditional development paradigms and the post-Cold War leitmotif of democratisation which is as yet unresolved within the present SSR discourse. This tension is identified between what the paper describes as the developmental objectives of SSR, and its inherent democratic articulation. The paper argues that democratic principles remain the organisational logic within which SSR processes are conceived as taking place; and that a democratic environment is supported in order for the purpose of SSR – development – to be achieved. The paper takes issue with this model, and advocates for two alterations in the present SSR discourse. First, that SSR should be viewed as a democratising endeavour, specifically focused upon the security and justice processes, but retaining democracy as its intended measurable output. Second, that the conceptual device of the 'social contract', that describes the citizen/state relationship, should become a pivotal consideration when conceiving and delivering support to SSR processes.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Development, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe
9494. Table of Contents
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- No abstract is available.
9495. Editor's Note
- Author:
- Ahmed I. Samatar
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- As Bildhaan ends its ninth year of existence, Somali society in the Horn of Africa enters yet another phase of its endless descent into violent contest over an already pestilent present. Nearly half of the Somali population in the country are now designated as malnourished and, thus, increasingly dependent upon international food assistance. This fact and others make Somalia the worst country in the whole world in terms of the Quality of Life Index.
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Somalia
9496. About Bildhaan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Is an annual refereed scholarly journal that welcomes submissions relevant to any aspect of Somali society. In addition, the Journal seeks works that are transdisciplinary in both perspective and method. Hie length of the essays and articles should he up to 3000 words, double spaced, with notes and bibliography at the end. Moreover, all figures and tables should be professional in appearance and professionally produced, if appropriate. Present one figure or table per page. Proclucing figures and tables on a laser printer will render camera-ready quality.
9497. A Buraanbur
- Author:
- Caasho Sheekh Maxamed
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Illaahow boqorow baryadaada ha igu qadin Allow samadaada oo igu beeg ballaqan Allow awoodd buuxda oo aan baaqan lagu aqbalo Allow buuggaaga sharafta leh bog lagaga qoro Allow u bayaami sida waa baryiyo dharaar
9498. The Partition of Knowledge in Somali Studies: Reflections on Somalia's Fragmented Intellectual Heritage
- Author:
- Lee Cassanelli
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- This article is a preliminary and exploratory examination of three distinct traditions of intellectual production in Somalia: the Western secular tradition, the Islamic religious tradition, and the indigenous Somali poetic tradition. Historians who seek to reconstruct Somalia's past have found valuable knowledge in the products of each of these traditions, and analysts of contemporary Somalia have argued that Somalis must draw on the wisdom and experience of all three if they hope to escape from their current national crisis. Unfortunately, most scholars of Somali Studies (myself included) draw their assumptions, pursue evidence, and conduct their research from within only one, or at most two, of these intellectual traditions. As a consequence, our understanding of Somalia has been limited by the fragmentation of knowledge as it is produced, transmitted, and received by successive generations of Somali Studies students and scholars.
- Political Geography:
- Somalia
9499. Battling on Two Fronts: Introducing Maryan Omar Ali
- Author:
- Ahmed I. Samatar
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- It is a bit muggy but still a gorgeous and clear morning in Toronto, Canada, in early August 2008. A brief and comfortable train ride from the center of the city, one of North America's most cosmopolitan urban concentrations, delivers me to the stop where Ms. Maryan Omar Ali, Aryette, was waiting for me to visit with her. After a few minutes of looking for each other among a throng of people in the arrival area—I have not seen Maryan for more than 17 years—we greeted warmly and then left the station together for the very short bus ride to the large building where her residence is located. Maryan, despite the passage of so many years and some testing health-related experiences, looked buoyant, tranquil, and eager to show me around and then engage in a thorough conversation about her background, passion for Somali literary aesthetics and production, and developments in her life in recent years. We arrived at her compact and neat apartment. Her mother, Sahra Omer Goud, whose strong and kind voice I have heard over the telephone on numerous times, was at the door with a genuine welcoming smile. Once I entered, I could smell the appetizing aroma of the legendary Zeila cooking—perhaps the most sophisticated culinary tradition in all of the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn of Africa. As is customary, we took off our shoes and walked into the living room. Before we sat, I requested to go to the bathroom to put on a comfortable macawis that I had brought with me for the occasion. We washed our hands and began to devour a tasty lunch of spiced and grilled wild-caught salmon, delicious rice cooked with cloves, cumin, and cardamom and flavored with a dash of raisins, followed by lots of fresh salad and fruits. Soon, Maryan and I were sitting opposite each other with the tiny but powerful recording machine between us. We were surrounded by numerous artistic artifacts, almost all Somali, and stacks of carefully labeled disks—a testimony to her well-established reputation, among those in-the-know, as a premier cartographer and archivist of types of Somali literary production. We agreed to divide the interview into three main parts: her background; her collection and knowledge of popular songs; and her courageous fight against an onslaught of breast cancer—an illness heretofore not publicly discussed by Somalis with the misfortune of contracting it.
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Canada, Somalia, and Toronto
9500. The North-South Divide in Everyday Life: Londoners Sending Money "Home"
- Author:
- Anna Lindley
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- These views neatly capture the ambiguous feelings that soon become apparent when asking Somali Londoners about sending money “home.” A relative minority of the Somali regions' so-called “missing million” have settled in the Global North, but they provide the bulk of remittance funds. A key node in global trade and finance, London has also witnessed “globalisation from below”: by the beginning of the 21st century over one third of the workforce was born abroad. While the dynamics and impact of immigration and asylum in London are relatively well-recorded and well-researched, the fact that London is also a key source of remittances for poorer countries has only come to the attention of researchers and policymakers in recent years. The World Bank in 2008 suggested that migrants in the U.K. sent official remittances amounting to some $4.5 billion in 2006.
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom, London, and Somalia