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11. Go Long: Six Actions to Structurally Address Organized Violence

Author:
J. Brian Atwood and Erwin van Veen
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Contemporary organized violence has evolved beyond the now rare interstate conflicts that marked the first half of the twentieth century, and even beyond the intrastate conflicts of the 1990s that tended to feature a government and a rebel group. Organized violence is a broad notion that refers to the use or threatened use of force by groups to inflict injury, death, or psychosocialharm. In this brief we focus on forms of organized violence that have a significant international impact and are most likely to trigger an international response as a result.
Topic:
Political Violence, Crime, Development, Health, Peace Studies, United Nations, War, and Narcotics Trafficking

12. Aid Effectiveness in Fragile States: Lessons from the First Generation of Transition Compacts

Author:
Christina Bennett
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Amid growing recognition that international efforts to support fragile and conflict-affected states are falling short of expectations, donors and partner governments continue to seek new approaches. Attention has recently focused on the notion of “compacts”—instruments that allow national and international partners to agree on the most urgent priorities requiring a collective effort in support of postconflict peacebuilding in a particular country, and identify how, and from which sources and instruments, implementation will be financed.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, Peace Studies, United Nations, and Foreign Aid

13. Peace Negotiations in the Philippines: The Government, the MILF and International NGOs

Author:
Claudia Hofmann
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
In many peace negotiations International Contact Groups have been a helpful tool in preventing a peace process from stalling or failing. Members, commonly states and international organizations, exert leverage on the parties to the conflict, sustain the parties' commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and restore mutual trust. While international nongovernmental organizations have been overlooked in this context, they may expedite problem-solving by contributing through their networks within civil society, their experience from similar peace processes in different countries, and their perceived independence from the parties to conflict. With the assistance of international nongovernmental organizations a peace process may lead to a higher degree of efficiency and legitimacy in delivering sustainable results. The recent negotiations between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front use this potential and incorporate four nongovernmental organizations to an unprecedented degree as part of an International Contact Group. This Peace Brief illustrates their innovative methods and capacities during this ongoing negotiation process. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for April 27 and 28, 2011.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Non-Governmental Organization, Peace Studies, and Armed Struggle
Political Geography:
Philippines

14. Making UN Peacekeeping More Robust: Protecting the Mission, Persuading the Actors

Author:
Patrice Sartre
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
The debate about robust peacekeeping pits the enthusiasm of "diplomats," who believe in peacekeeping but worry that it might not succeed in violent situations, against the scepticism of the "military," who see its failures as proof that the proper role of military forces is war fighting.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, War, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Europe

15. The UN Security Council and Conflict Prevention: A Primer

Author:
Paul Romita
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
At a recent conference on conflict prevention attended by over fifty UN member states, a UN official remarked, “we are living in a conflict prevention moment.” In recent years, there has been a surge of interest and activity related to conflict prevention in the UN system, at the regional level and among member states. While the UN has made great strides in refining peacekeeping doctrine and strategy, it has also made significant progress in its political response and preventive activities in recent times. In 2007, the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) established a mediation support unit “to plan and support mediation efforts in the field.” In late 2008, DPA also secured member-state support to create forty-nine additional posts; it now has approximately 270 staff members. While this was less than half of the number of new posts requested by the department, it did help desk officers to more substantially engage on conflict prevention and good-offices work in their portfolio countries. The UN Office in West Africa (UNOWA) has played a critical preventive role in recent crises in Mauritania and Guinea. A UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) was also established in March 2011 to “assist member States and sub-regional organizations in consolidating peace and preventing future conflicts.” In recent years, the African Union (AU) has been an influential mediator in high-profile cases, notably in Kenya (2008) and Sudan (2010–2011). Among the UN membership, especially among African member states, statements calling for the need to strengthen conflict-prevention tools are now consistently voiced. The Security Council, which now holds monthly “horizon scanning” sessions to discuss emerging and ongoing crises, appears to be a part of this trend.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Political Violence, Diplomacy, Peace Studies, United Nations, and War
Political Geography:
Kenya, Guinea, and Mauritania

16. Security and Development: Searching for Critical Connections

Author:
Neclâ Tschirgi (ed.), Michael S. Lund (ed.), and Francesco Mancini (ed.)
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Academic research bears some good news: the number of wars and the lethality of warfare have been declining since 1992. This includes civil wars, which decreased from a high of forty-six in 1992 to twenty-one in 2006. In the same stretch of time, the most severe conflicts declined by 80 percent. Yet deeper analysis of these trends provides disturbing findings. The University of Maryland's report Peace and Conflict 2008 notes that the downward trend in conflict is not the result of effective prevention of new conflicts but rather the termination of ongoing wars. The report confirms that the number of ongoing active conflicts dropped significantly over the post–Cold War period. Meanwhile, there has been no discernible change in the number of newly initiated conflicts. In fact, in the report's words, “for the past sixty years, the rate at which new armed conflicts emerge each year has been essentially unchanged.” This suggests that, despite almost two decades of research, advocacy, and action, international efforts to prevent violent conflicts have seriously lagged behind efforts to resolve existing conflicts. If the steady out-break of new wars is to be arrested and reversed, the conflict prevention agenda that gained prominence in the immediate post–Cold War years needs to be revitalized. This requires deeper investigation of the sources of violent intrastate conflicts that threaten both human and international security.
Topic:
Security, Cold War, Development, and Peace Studies

17. Election-Related Disputes and Political Violence: Strengthening the Role of the African Union in Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict

Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy, allowing the people's regular input in choices about leaders and policy. Yet they are also competitive processes, unleashing conflict and tensions that, if not constructively managed, could potentially destabilize the fabric of states and societies. Since the new wave of democratization in Africa in the early 1990s, elections have become a core ingredient of popular participation in the governance process. At the same time, elections have spawned conflicts and violence and scrambled ethnic and regional alliances that sometimes threaten the social order, economic development, and efforts to strengthen regional integration. With the steady decline of some of the historic causes of African conflicts, elections have emerged as one of the major recent sources of conflict across Africa. The challenges occasioned by election-related conflicts and political violence underscore the importance of building institutions that balance competition with order, participation with stability, and contestation with consensus.
Topic:
Political Violence, Democratization, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Africa

18. The Sudan Referenda: What Role for International Actors?

Author:
Paul Romita
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Two referenda are scheduled for January 9, 2011, in Sudan. In one, the people of Southern Sudan will decide whether they will remain part of the Republic of the Sudan or form an independent country with its capital in Juba; in the other, residents of the Abyei region will determine whether or not Abyei will become part of Southern Sudan.
Topic:
Civil War, Islam, Peace Studies, Treaties and Agreements, Sectarian violence, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Africa and Juba

19. Transnational Organized Crime

Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Transnational organized crime (TOC) is no longer the sole preserve of specialist criminal organizations. It is now an essential strategy for armed groups around the world, and a source of funding for terrorists, corrupt politicians, warlords, and rogue governments. But states and international organizations have largely failed to anticipate the evolution of TOC into a strategic threat to governments, societies, and economies. At the international level, an outdated understanding of TOC does not adequately contemplate the strategic impact of TOC and fails to ensure that peace efforts and crime fighting are not working at cross-purposes.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Crime, International Law, Peace Studies, War on Drugs, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

20. Peace Operations

Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Major reassessments of UN peacekeeping have tended to follow in the wake of large-scale failures of peacekeeping operations. Continued violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the inability to mount a UN operation in Somalia, and the lack of progress in Darfur may or may not count as major failures. However, it is clear that some kind of reassessment is required.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Somalia