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7452. Human Rights and Sustaining Peace
- Author:
- Aissata Athie and Youssef Mahmoud
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Human rights violations and lack of accountability for such violations are often drivers of conflict. Monitoring human rights, therefore, could provide early warning of and help prevent destabilization of societies. Secretary-General António Guterres alluded to this in his April 2017 address to the Security Council, where he observed that “upholding human rights is a crucial element of prevention,” and “human rights are intrinsically linked to sustaining peace.”
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7453. Reframing the Protection of Civilians Paradigm for UN Peace Operations
- Author:
- Namie Di Razza
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Since the late 1990s, POC has continuously gained prominence, both as a concept and in practice, and has become the mandated priority for most UN peacekeeping operations. However, while POC has become a centerpiece of peacekeeping for many stakeholders, it has also become diluted as a consensual label used to justify diverse actions and approaches.
- Topic:
- Peace Studies and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7454. Applying the HIPPO Recommendations to South Sudan: Toward Strategic, Prioritized, and Sequenced Mandates
- Author:
- International Peace Institute
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the past year, political and military actors and agendas in South Sudan have increasingly fragmented, and the political process has stalled. These developments have undermined the security of civilians, the stability of the country, the humanitarian situation, and the viability of efforts to pursue sustainable peace. The population’s mistrust toward international actors has further curtailed the ability of the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) to implement its mandate.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Sudan
7455. Comparative Continuismo: Presidential Term Limit Contravention Across Developing Democracies
- Author:
- Kristin McKie
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Since presidential term limits were (re)adopted into many constitutions during the third wave of democratization, 207 presidents across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have reached the end of their terms in office. Of these, 30% have attempted to contravene term limits whereas 70% have stepped down in compliance with tenure rules. Furthermore, of the presidents who have attempted to alter tenure restrictions, some have succeeded in fully abolishing term limits, others have only managed a one-term extension, while a minority have failed in their bids to secure any additional terms in office. What explains these divergent trajectories? On the basis of a series of statistical analyses, I argue that trends in electoral competition over time are the best predictor of the range of term limit contravention outcomes across the board, with the least competitive elections permitting full term limit abolition and the most competitive elections saving off attempts at altering executive tenure rules. Furthermore, results show that failed contravention attempts are true borderline cases, rather than instances gross miscalculations of success by the president and her party, in that they feature less competitive elections than non-attempt cases but more competitive elections than successful contravention cases. These findings suggest a linkage between political uncertainty and constitutional stability more generally.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7456. Working with Culture on the Peripheries of Idi Amin’s Uganda
- Author:
- Derek Peterson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper is about the prosaic work that it took to constitute sites of memory in Idi Amin’s Uganda. Why, at a time when government and economy were so dysfunctional, at a time when tens of thousands of people were killed by the malevolent agents of state security, did earnest and high-minded men and women invest themselves in the project of cultural recovery? This paper focuses on an obscure bureaucrat, a man named John Tumusiime, who from 1972 to 1976 was the ‘Culture Officer’ of Kigezi, the southernmost district in Uganda. Men like Tumusiime thought themselves on the front lines of a globally consequential effort to revivify African culture. Even in the face of tremendous logistical difficulties, their commitment and ingenuity led them to seek out venues where the lessons of the past could be concretized, hard-coded in the collective lives of their people.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Uganda
7457. The Andean Indigenist Program, 1951–1975: Integration, Development, State Formation, and Women
- Author:
- Mercedes Prieto
- Publication Date:
- 06-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the Andean Indigenist Program (AIP) sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO), other United Nations agencies, and the Andean states as a response to their need to administer rural Andean populations. The paper argues that development, as a globalized mode of administration of indigenous peoples, overlaps both the old national concerns about political integration of such peoples and the protection of indigenous workers advocated by the ILO. In this sense, development is a discourse with multiple layers; it is not merely a novel cultural artifact produced in the framework of the Cold War but a product of long global and national debates over the governance of indigenous peoples. At the same time, this convergence of integration, social protection, and development sparked concerns about indigenous women that guided actions to confine them as mothers in the home while also educating them and offering them a public role as subjects empowered to receive and reproduce locally the policies of the program and the national state—a process that was resisted and challenged by women themselves. The AIP is not only a product of global discourses but embodies interventions through discursive imagery and bureaucratic mechanisms installed in state apparatuses to foster social protection in rural areas. Its effectiveness as a mechanism for the administration of populations comes from an encounter between the economy and processes of self-subjection to the state through what came to be called “community development.”
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7458. Rebelocracy: A Theory of Social Order in Civil War
- Author:
- Ana Arjona
- Publication Date:
- 06-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- War zones are usually portrayed as chaotic and anarchic. In irregular civil wars, however, they are often ordered. Furthermore, different forms of order often coexist in areas controlled by the same non-state armed group, where the behavior of both civilians and combatants vary substantially. What explains this variation? In this paper I present a theory of the creation of order in war zones that analyzes the behavior of non-state armed groups, the responses of local populations, and the effect of their interaction on wartime institutions. My central argument is that disorder emerges when armed groups have short time horizons, which usually happens when they fight for control with other warring sides or are undisciplined; under these conditions, they are unlikely to establish a social contract with the local population. When armed groups have a long time horizon, a social contract is established, giving place to a new order. In this new order, armed groups may intervene minimally or broadly in civilian affairs; their choice, I argue, depends on the likelihood of organized civilian resistance, which is, in turn, a function of the quality of pre-existing local institutions, especially those dealing with adjudication of disputes. I also present extensions of the theory that account for variation in the strategic value of territory, variation in local capacity for collective action, and armed groups’ information about local institutions.
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7459. Time, Relations and Behaviors: Measuring the Transformative Power of Love-Based Community Life
- Author:
- Mario Maggioni and Simona Beretta
- Publication Date:
- 05-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper is about measuring if and how vulnerable persons’ choices and attitudes change when they undergo a significant modification in their lives, as they begin experiencing care and support within durable relationships in love-based communities. Although there is anecdotal evidence that love-based experiences produce a restorative and rehabilitative impact on vulnerable people’s lives, we still lack adequate empirical frameworks for measuring the transformative power of such experiences on individual choices and attitudes. This paper proposes an innovative methodology for measuring personal transformation. We use a mix of behavioral economics experiments, textual analysis, and validated psychological tests to perform a longitudinal analysis of individuals in love-based communities. Changes in behavioral parameters and qualitative answers, observed over a significant period of love-based “treatment,” provide empirical evidence of the transformative impact on deep behavioral traits and attitudes (altruism, gratitude, sincerity, trust). This methodology, which significantly innovates on existing behavioral experiments and on conventional longitudinal studies and field experiments, has been applied to three ongoing case studies of love-based treatment: 1) formerly addicted people living in Italian rehab communities; 2) Californian convicts attending Guiding Rage into Power (GRIP) programs; 3) vulnerable schoolchildren experiencing Distance Support in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This paper is meant to present our methodology to researchers interested in human and social development, hoping to receive from them comments, suggestions, and possibly interest in a collaboration on other case studies.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7460. Delegating Away Democracy: How Good Representation and Policy Successes Can Undermine Democratic Attitudes
- Author:
- Mathew Singer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Theories of democratic legitimacy argue that people who believe that the government is well managed and that the government represents their interests are likely to defend the democratic status quo. Principal-agent theory predicts, however, that these same groups are also more likely to support the executive taking steps to restrict free speech or opposition rights via delegative democracy. Citizens who feel represented by an ideologically sympathetic and competent executive may be willing to delegate to him or her authority to restrict the opposition, even at the expense of civil rights. Survey data from eighteen Latin American countries from 2006 to 2012 are consistent with the principal-agent hypothesis; those who voted for the ruling party in the previous election or who perceive that the economy is strong are more likely to favor restrictions on civil rights for regime opponents. Political winners are particularly likely to display low levels of tolerance for expressions of opposition in polarized party systems. Thus, for democracy to prosper, it must not only satisfy the losers of political and economic processes but also find ways to encourage winners to exercise restraint.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and Democracy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus