Value of cultural worldviews and message framing for the acceptability of sustainable land use zoning policies in post-conflict Somalia

Public acceptability is important for sustainable land use zoning policy to be successfully implemented. This study examined the effectiveness of tailoring messages with cultural worldviews to induce positive attitudes and improve public acceptability of sustainable land use zoning policy in a post-conflict setting. A total of 538 participants were randomly divided into three groups. Two were treatment groups and received promotional information about a hypothetical land-use zoning policy, and one group was the control group and received no promotional information. The results indicate that information provision results in positive attitudes and higher public acceptability of land use zoning policy. Arguments that correspond to participants' cultural worldviews generated more positive attitudes and higher acceptability than arguments that conflict with their cultural worldviews. This study recommends targeting messages with peoples’ cultural worldviews as an effective strategy in inducing positive attitudes and higher acceptability for sustainable land use zoning policy in Somalia.

Does UN Peacekeeping Prevent Communal Violence? Evidence from Disputes in Burkina Faso and Mali

Research in political science has shown that UN peacekeeping operations are an important tool for ending civil war violence. However, much less is known about how UN peacekeepers affect communal violence at the level of the individual, family, or community. Given that communal disputes over local issues such as land use, cattle herding, or access to resources are the main source of instability in Africa, understanding how international actors can contribute to their resolution is a pressing concern. How does the presence of UN peacekeepers affect communal violence between civilians in conflict settings? We address this question by offering a straightforward empirical test of how UN peacekeeping patrols affect the likelihood that a communal dispute will become violent in an active conflict setting with a multidimensional peacekeeping operations. We build on the literature on communal conflicts to argue that peacekeepers deter violence against violence. To test our argument, we examine the case of Mail, the site of large-scale communal violence managed by UN peacekeepers since 2013. We employ a Geographic Regression Discontinuity Design (GRDD) around the border of Mali and Burkina Faso to estimate the causal effect of deploying peacekeepers to an area with growing communal tensions. We find that the presence of peacekeepers reduces the probability of the onset of communal violence by 17%. Furthermore, we show that the magnitude of this effect increases as the number of peacekeepers deployed to a given area increase. Ultimately, our research provides robust causal evidence that UN peacekeeping works at the local level.

Does UN Peacekeeping Prevent Communal Violence? Evidence from Disputes in Burkina Faso and Mali

Research in political science has shown that UN peacekeeping operations are an important tool for ending civil war violence. However, much less is known about how UN peacekeepers affect communal violence at the level of the individual, family, or community. Given that communal disputes over local issues such as land use, cattle herding, or access to resources are the main source of instability in Africa, understanding how international actors can contribute to their resolution is a pressing concern. How does the presence of UN peacekeepers affect communal violence between civilians in conflict settings? We address this question by offering a straightforward empirical test of how UN peacekeeping patrols affect the likelihood that a communal dispute will become violent in an active conflict setting with a multidimensional peacekeeping operations. We build on the literature on communal conflicts to argue that peacekeepers deter violence against violence. To test our argument, we examine the case of Mail, the site of large-scale communal violence managed by UN peacekeepers since 2013. We employ a Geographic Regression Discontinuity Design (GRDD) around the border of Mali and Burkina Faso to estimate the causal effect of deploying peacekeepers to an area with growing communal tensions. We find that the presence of peacekeepers reduces the probability of the onset of communal violence by 17%. Furthermore, we show that the magnitude of this effect increases as the number of peacekeepers deployed to a given area increase. Ultimately, our research provides robust causal evidence that UN peacekeeping works at the local level.

Transformation in Political Economy of Post-conflict North Waziristan, Pakistan

Post-conflict North Waziristan is experiencing a fundamental shift in the political and economic environment at a very fast pace. This paper examines the complex political economy of post-conflict North Waziristan to assess factors promoting sustainable peace in the region. It identifies the multi-pronged official strategy that is significantly contributing to the transformation of the political and economic environment in the post-conflict setting. These steps include inter alia effective border management to counter illicit trafficking and cross-border terrorism, security sector reforms, improving the mechanism of governance, and diversifying ‘formal’ economic opportunities. The analysis suggests that post-conflict North Waziristan exhibits considerable improvements towards establishing and promoting conditions that are pivotal for sustainable peace.

Decision-Making in U.S. Foreign Policy Crises: Presidential Leadership and Outcomes

Scholars of foreign policy decision-making have argued that international interactions ultimately are grounded in people acting singly or in groups. Unfortunately, data limitations prevent many of these crucial foreign policy decision-making theories from being rigorously tested and systematically compared with theories from alternative perspectives. A promising approach to remedying this deficiency is the addition of decision-making variables to existing, large- N data sets. In this study, we coded a series of foreign policy decision-making variables for all U.S. cases in the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) data set, and examined how these decision-making variables compared with structural factors in shaping crisis outcomes. The results reveal that when controlling for structural factors such as conflict setting and power discrepancy, foreign policy decision-making variables related to leaders’ traits, advisory structure, and the political context shaped the severity and centrality of violence employed by the United States. We conclude that including decision-making variables alongside structural variables will enhance the quality of data analysis in the areas of conflict studies and foreign policy analysis.

Trauma Psycho Social Support Plus® and EMDR therapy for children and adolescents in a post-conflict setting

Being confronted with the alarming situation in countries like Iraq and Syria – areas shaped by war, of people having lost their homes and suffering from horrible experiences - TraumaAid has designed and conducted a training program, especially for health workers in refugee camps. Clearly the intervention would have to adjust to specific circumstances; it would need a method adapted to another language and culture, an approach that could be used in a not-yet-secure situation with an undetermined number of sessions with every client. Resilience is an important aspect enabling people who suffered from different traumata to resume an everyday life again. Resource installation is a basic technique in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which intensifies an integral awareness of individual resources for the client. As easy as this method may seem, a careful priming for its actual use is required. A profound understanding of how a traumatic experience affects body, thoughts and emotions is needed as background knowledge. Moreover qualified skills concerning the interaction with children are needed to be able to establish a trustful relationship in the first place. The following article describes a pilot project in Kurdistan / Northern Iraq - a training for psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals working in different refugee camps. The aim was to provide the staff members with background knowledge of the dynamics of traumatization and teach them how to use resource installation in a responsible way to work with children, adolescents and their parents.

What differs former, light and heavy smokers? Evidence from a post-conflict setting

Background: Evidence suggests that people who live in regions affected by the armed conflict are more likely to smoke. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess factors associated with smoking status in a sample of students in the northern Kosovo province. Materials and methods: A total of 514 students enrolled in University in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo, were recruited be- tween April to June 2015 at Student Public Health Center during mandatory health checks. Participants filled in socio-demo- graphic and behavioral questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Based on responses about smoking, students were categorized in non-smokers, former smokers, light smokers (1-13 cigarettes/day) and heavy smokers (> 13 cigarettes/ day). Results: Of 514 students, 116 (22.6%) classified themselves as smokers. Higher education level of fathers (Odds ra- tio [OR]=2.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30-6.44, p=0.009), not living with smokers (OR=0.42, 95%CI 0.15-0.97, p=0.017) and longer exposure to second hand smoke (OR=1.07, 95%CI 1.01-1.13, p=0.036) was associated with former smoking. Studying medical and natural sciences (OR=2.07, 95%CI 1.05-4.18, p=0.040), consuming alcohol (OR=2.98, 95%CI 1.19-10.03, p=0.020), living with smokers (OR=2.88, 95%CI 1.49-5.56, p=0.002), longer exposure to second hand smoke (OR=1.06, 95%CI 1.01-1.11, p=0.019) and having a more intense depressive symptoms (OR=1.08, 95%CI 1.03-1.13, p=0.002) was associated with light smoking. Being male (OR=0.22, 95%CI 0.07-0.41, p=0.001), older (OR=1.47, 95%CI 1.21-1.78, p=0.001), living with smokers (OR=3.78, 95%CI 1.69-8.07, p=0.001), longer daily exposure to second-hand smoke (OR=1.10, 95%CI 1.04-1.16, p=0.001), and having more severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.12, 95%CI 1.07-1.18, p=0.001) were associated with heavy smoking. Conclusion: Smoking prevention and cessation programs should include the entire community, because exposure to en- vironmental second hand smoke may facilitate initiation and more intense smoking. Screening of student smokers for depression should be prioritized in the process of rebuilding the framework for primary and secondary prevention in the post-conflict period. Keywords: Students; smoking; tobacco; prevention.