The Business of Peace and the Politics of Inclusion: The Role of Local Business Actors in Yemen (2011–16)

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-202
Author(s):  
Josie Lianna Kaye

This chapter explores the role that businesses played in Yemen 2011-2016 and their place in the strategies of UN mediators. Research demonstrates that businesses – including ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, ‘licit’ and ‘illicit’ play distinctly political roles in war to peace transitions, as conflict instigators, mediators, benefactors and beneficiaries; indeed, such actors are normally deeply enmeshed simultaneously in the production of statehood, and in processes that undermine it through networks of patronage, nepotism and corruption. Yet the increasing recognition of the negative and positive roles played by businesses in countries in conflict has yet to translate into the consistent inclusion of these so-called ‘economic actors’ in peace negotiations and of ‘economic issues’ in peace settlements. The marginalisation – and in some instances omission - of such actors sheds light on and calls into question the discourse on inclusive peace processes.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332098265
Author(s):  
Valerie Sticher ◽  
Siniša Vuković

Research shows that conflict parties engage in ceasefires in pursuit of a variety of objectives, some of which reduce while others fuel violent conflict. This article provides a framework that links these objectives to a larger process. Building on bargaining theory, three distinct bargaining contexts are specified for intrastate conflicts. In the Diminishing Opponent context, leaders believe that a military solution yields a better outcome than a political settlement. In the Forcing Concessions context, they recognize the benefit of conflict settlement, but expectations about a mutually acceptable agreement still widely diverge. In the Enabling Agreement context, expectations converge, and leaders seek to pursue settlement without incurring further costs. In line with these readings, conflict party leaders adapt their strategic goal, from seeking to set up a military advantage, to boosting their bargaining power, to increasing the chances of a negotiated settlement. They may use ceasefires in the pursuit of any of these three goals, shifting the function of a ceasefire as they gain a better understanding of bargaining dynamics. A comparison of violence and ceasefire patterns in six contemporary peace processes and a congruence test conducted on the 2012–16 peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the guerilla organization FARC offer support for the theoretical framework. The findings highlight the important, and shifting, role ceasefires play in the transition from war to negotiated peace.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 941-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Bell ◽  
Catherine O'Rourke

AbstractOn the 31 October 2000 UNSC Resolution 1325 was adopted. The resolution provided for a range of measures aimed at the inclusion of women in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict. In particular, several of the resolution's provisions addressed the role of women and gender in peace negotiations and agreements. This article examines whether and how Resolution 1325 has impacted on the drafting of peace agreements. We analyse explicit references to women and gender in peace agreements from 1990 to 2010, providing a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the extent to which women and gender are addressed. We conclude by using our findings and analysis to address the relationship of feminist intervention to international law, and debates around the strategies and trade-offs which underlie feminist promotion and use of UN Security Council Resolutions in particular.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar V. Bautista-Cespedes ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Augusto Castro-Nunez ◽  
Thomas A. Groen

AbstractThe Amazon rainforest covers roughly 40% of Colombia’s territory and has important global ecological functions. For more than 50 years, an internal war in the country has shaped this region. Peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) initiated in 2012 resulted in a progressive de-escalation of violence and a complete ceasefire in 2016. This study explores the role of different deforestation drivers including armed conflict variables, in explaining deforestation for three periods between 2001 and 2015. Iterative regression analyses were carried out for two spatial extents: the entire Colombian Amazon and a subset area which was most affected by deforestation. The results show that conflict variables have positive relationships with deforestation; yet, they are not among the main variables explaining deforestation. Accessibility and biophysical variables explain more variation. Nevertheless, conflict variables show divergent influence on deforestation depending on the period and scale of analysis. Based on these results, we develop deforestation risk maps to inform the design of forest conservation efforts in the post-conflict period.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debora Revoltella ◽  
Philipp-Bastian Brutscher ◽  
Alexandra Tsiotras ◽  
Christoph T. Weiss

Author(s):  
I. Strelets ◽  
M. Stolbov

The authors consider the impact of financial innovations on the macroeconomic situation. The increasing complexity of financial market instruments is the way to decrease its transparency and, consequently, the overall economic stability. The global crisis of 2008-2009 demonstrated the relevance of this problem. However, the authors believe that the nations can take advantage of new financial products, technologies and business processes if the regulators manage to fully track and timely offset the accompanying risks. It is important that execution of the financial innovations correspond with the structure of the funding companies and banks. It is concluded that adequate regulation of financial innovation will allow better use of their potential in order to address a number of important economic issues. In particular, it may help to accelerate the development and introduction of new drugs, to the implementation of environmental projects, the financing of social progress in the developing countries for achieving the Millennium Goals proclaimed by the UN in 2000.


Author(s):  
Liubov Zhvanko ◽  
Oleksiy Nestulya

The Ukrainian lands became an epicentre of the movement of refugees who were assisted by a range of organisations. This chapter considers the role of governmental bodies in the Russian Empire and the new entities that appeared on Ukrainian territory following the February 1917 Revolution: the Ukrainian Central Rada, and the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). It discusses the developing framework and implementation of public policy in relation to refugees, the activity of local government and non-governmental organisations which supported refugees. The chapter considers refugees’ life in Ukraine in 1914-18. During the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk in February 1918, Ukrainian delegates took the initiative in organizing the re-evacuation of refugees; the agreement between Ukraine and Austro- Hungarian, German, Polish and Russian representatives concerning repatriation was an early example of inter-governmental regulation of a new humanitarian problem.


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