Peace Studies

""This anthropological study describes a specific form of mediation, as it is practiced in Ethiopia (Northeast Africa) by members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups. It introduces elders as male household-heads in their advanced ages, who settle conflicts and arrange marriages for the members of the junior generations. There are not only 'easy' cases dealt with, which one might assume to be too 'unimportant' for state courts or other juridical institutions but also aggravated cases that may affect the wider group or that have inter-ethnic dimensions. The study uses specific case studies of marriage, bride abduction, physical injury and homicide for illustration. Within the book, reference is made to speech-act-theory and the 'new ethnographic' approach related to it. Both rhetoric strategies and non-verbal means of communication are discussed, such as postures, gestures, spatial arrangements, numerical symbolisms, or the deliberate use of certain kinds of dress and of material objects. Special attention is paid to the use of ritual in mediation procedures. The book brings to light significant regularities that are inherent to the different types of elders' proceedings. Peculiar elements and phases can be distinguished that re-occur in all types of processes analysed in the study. This cannot exclusively be explained by reference to 'process', as a general idea of people negotiating law. It moreover hints to the existence of a formal 'procedure', which follows its own rules. Accordingly, a change of perspective 'from process to procedure' is suggested in the book's programmatic title.

http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_2776.ahtml

Book Order US:
http://www.amazon.com/From-Process-Procedure-Aethiopistische-Forschungen/dp/3447066113/

Book Order Germany:
http://www.amazon.de/Process-Procedure-Mediation-Formality-Ethiopia/dp/3447066113/
http://www.buchhandel.de/detailansicht.aspx?isbn=9783447066112""

External and internal forces threatened the apartheid state in the 1980s. The refusal to perform compulsory military service by individual white men and the increasing number of white South Africans who criticized the role of the military and apartheid governance had the potential to destabilize the gendered binaries on which white social order and Nationalist rule rested. The state constituted itself as a heterosexual, masculine entity in crisis and deployed a number of gendered discourses in an effort to isolate and negate objectors to military service. The state articulated a nationalist discourse that defined the white community in virile, masculine, and heroic terms. Conversely, "feminine" weakness, cowardice, and compromise were scorned. Objectors, as "strangers" in the public realm, were most vulnerable to homophobic stigmatization from the state and its supporters

"Syria and Israel has some political problems since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. One of these problems is the Golan Heights. Syria controlled the Golan Heights from 1946 till 1967. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria after 6 Days War in 1967. Moreover, Israel annexes the Golan Heights via its laws to the territory in 1981. When Hafiz al-Asad came to power in Syria in 1970, Syrian foreign policy changed and it mainly focused on taking back the Golan Heights from Israel because, Syria lost the Golan Heights during the ministry of defense of Hafiz al-Asad.
On the other hand, the most important thing here is the peace process between Israel and Syria. It started with Madrid Peace Conference and still continues. This article will take the peace process between Israel and Syria from 1991 until 2000. It will also show what issues were discussed, what progress was made in this peace process. Of course, the problem analysis will be in this article. Moreover, this article will explain why the talks ultimately failed. In the conclusion, it will ensure overview of the analysis, briefly and it will try to mention about current status of the Golan Heights."

Border tourism attractions present the story of local heritage and historical events as well as the natural environment, arousing interest among visitors. Tourists can be exposed to the symbolism represented by these sites. The main aim of this article is to describe and analyze cultural elements of border tourism attractions that express the symbolism of peace and co-operation among neighbouring countries. The methodology selected is based on the naturalistic-qualitative approach of landscape interpretation, using descriptive analysis of three types of border tourism attractions around the world which symbolize peace. These three selected types are: one sided border tourism attractions formerly closed and fortified borders and trans-border peace parks. One sided border tourism sites can signify thoughts and hopes for peace among visitors; Formerly closed and fortified border tourism sites present the transformation from hostile and closed boundaries of the past, to cultural spaces symbolizing peace and co-operation among neighbouring countries in the present; and, the main aim of trans-borders peace parks is to act as symbols of good, sustainable peace relationships between neighbouring countries or to encourage peaceful relations among former enemy countries.

"""The present situation is essentially defined as a state of passive peace, which is the same as a passive war state in contrast with active peace.
Since 1980 there is a public monument erected in Georgia, the Georgia Guide Stones in which 10 recommendations are stated in 12 languages. The first recommendation reads: MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE What is this if not an apocalyptic recommendation and what does it mean in terms of complexity governance?
Due to cost externalization, as well as due to transaction costs within society, most countries on the planet are involved in active or passive wars (also self centered national politics, general social inequality,  sustainability is not being reached, etc…)
Passive peace does not exist. Passive peace is a truce which equals passive war.
Only active peace exists (we refer to Johan Galtung, Transcend University)
We’re building up a world-grid of complexity observatories.
The tasks of this grid are to accomplish the 7 concepts as stated on sheet 1 (same order, no change in procedures)
Any existing private or government institution may adopt a complexity observatory within its structures.
Peace needs to be established as daily routine and norm in language and in day to day attitudes. War and violence need to be outlawed as unnatural. Even though violence was accepted as part of human nature up to this date. Nevertheless, from now on it will be seen as a result of non sustainable complexity governance.
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Kant ve Clausewitz, hem Aydınlanma felsefesinden hem de Aydınlanma’ya eleştirel bakan görüşlerden etkilenmiş iki büyük düşünür olarak, çağdaş Uluslararası İlişkiler teorisini etkilemeye devam etmektedirler. Kant, liberallere; Clausewitz ise, Realistlere esin kaynağı olmaktadır. Fakat her iki düşünür de çoğu zaman yüzeysel bir şekilde yorumlanmakta ve zıt kutuplar gibi ele alınmaktadır. Oysa, her iki düşünür arasında önemli ortak noktalar vardır. Kant’ın “Ebedi Barış”ı ve Clausewitz’in “Mutlak Savaş”ı, gerçekleşmeleri mümkün olmayan birer idea’dır. Son tahlilde buluştukları nokta, belli bir ahlaki mükellefiyet telkin eden ve makuliyet içeren siyaset ile şiddetin sınırlandırılmasıdır; başka bir deyişle, “Güvenlik İkilemi”nin yönetilmesidir.

"The implications of war on other species are routinely nonconsidered. Alongside the impacts of habitat destruction, injuries and death as (not quite) collateral damage—and the killing of ‘livestock’ as a specific technique of warfare—nonhuman animals are systematically manipulated and commodified as instruments and as weapons. From use as vehicles through to more technoscientific forms of neo-Cartesian hybrids, the spectrum of uses through he history of humans waging war are rooted in ideologies of dominionism.
In this paper I draw from and reflect on historical through to contemporary manifestations of the servitude of nonhuman animals in human warfare, identifying common assumptions across the performativities of speciesism and anthropocentrism. Building on these foundations, I highlight specific manifestations (normative claims) of human sovereignty and dominion, strategic-willful ignorance and—as a contrast—examples of other species flourishing in the spaces created by military conflicts."

"Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills.

This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism.

Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
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Reviews:

Gunn, G. C. 2013. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43.1: 188-191.

Brickell, K. 2011. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52.3: 372-374.

Percival, T. 2011. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32.2: 270-272.

Christie, R. 2010. South East Asia Research, 19.2: 349-372.

Ordóñez de Pablos, P. 2010. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 1.4: 65-66."