Peacebuilding

For the many years of Colombia’s civil war, youth have been trying to find their way in complicated and dangerous situations. A central component of this is their relationship with armed groups, something that has evolved considerably over the past ten years. This practice note examines the context within which these connections are formed and the implications this has for self/social identity and meaningful resistance. The ideas in this practice note are based on consultations with young Colombians, particularly those displaced from 2000-2013. These sessions included art activities, focus groups and individual interviews. Art activities involved descriptive and expressive projects so that participants could explore their feelings and memories of situations and experiences. This provided a base for group discussions where youth exchanged information and debated issues. A total of 34 workshops were held over a twelve year period. These consultations revealed how war flows all over young people, touching every aspect of their identity. The boundaries between the personal and political no longer exist in today’s civil wars, if indeed they every truly did. Young people growing up inside Colombia’s war understand this at a deep level. An acknowledgement of this pain – showing the connections between the personal and political dimensions of war – is, they would maintain, the basis for their personal healing as well as an important tool for the building of sustainable peace.

This is the introductory chapter to our edited book on Different Resources and Different Conflicts: Varieties of Armed Conflict and Criminality in the Colombian Regions. In the context of an ongoing peace process between the Colombian government and the two remaining guerrilla groups, the book addresses the sources of risk for the Colombian post-conflict. It centers on the connections dating back several decades between legal natural resources and the dynamics of the armed conflict and criminal activity in different Colombian regions. Our focus on the sub-national level as well as on the mechanisms linking different resource extraction mechanisms and production schemes to conflict and criminality complements the existing literature on the political economy of armed conflict and peacebuilding. In this chapter we lay out our analytical framework, suggesting that the links between resources, armed conflict, and criminality are three-fold: In some cases, resources are the motivating factor attracting illegal actors to certain regions, confirming the prevailing prediction of the scholarly literatur linking resources to war. In other cases, illegal actors complement their finances with income from resources, which however do not explain their presence in a specific region. Third, we account for the possibility that, even in a war-torn country such as Colombia, the propensity of natural resources to fall prey to violence can not only be limited but also prevented and even reverted. Indeed, some legal resources have developed institutional mechanisms accounting for their resilience to war-related looting. We examine how these mechanisms unfold and account for different forms of conflict dynamics and intensity in regions linked to the production of oil, coal, gold, emeralds, coffee, flowers, and bananas. In selecting these cases, we intentionally sought to distance ourselves from the prevailing emphasis on the drug trade and its role in fueling the Colombian conflict. In brief, our study calls for the need to broaden our view beyond drugs in terms of identifying the sources of material support for illegal actors, to consider the sub-national level in providing insights into the differing mechanisms linking resources to armed conflict and criminality, and to pinpoint some of the risks related to the legacies of regionally-specific war economies the country will face in its upcoming transition.

The 28-page open letter -- which uses classical religious references and covers 24 issues such as "the killing of innocents," "killing of emissaries," "jihad," "declaring people non-Muslim," "torture," and "the caliphate" -- is a result of deliberations by dozens of experts on Islamic law and offers a point-by-point deconstruction of any claimed religious justification for ISIS's brutal actions.

In its executive summary, the letter notes that Islam forbids the killing of innocent people, including diplomats, journalists and humanitarian aid workers. It also states that any jihad may only be defensive in nature with strict rules of conduct, that it is forbidden to harm religious minorities like Christians and Yazidis, and that it is forbidden to practice slavery, destroy religious shrines or deny the rights of women.

The letter's conclusion states:

"Islam is mercy and its attributes are merciful. The Prophet (peace be upon him), who was sent as a mercy for all the worlds, summarized a Muslim's dealings with others by saying: 'He who shows no mercy, will not be shown mercy;' and: 'Have mercy and you will be shown mercy.' But, as can be seen from everything mentioned, you have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder. As elucidated, this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world. Reconsider all your actions; desist from them; repent from them; cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy."

To read the entire letter and initial list of signatories, go to: http://lettertobaghdadi.com/index.php

The first phase of modernization, involving major foreign influence over the political thinking and ideologies of the Middle East, lasted until the de facto disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1917. With the end of the war and the postwar agreements, the second phase began. It was marked by deep disappointment at the fact that the League of Nations sanctioned foreign presence in the region, and by the division of the Arab territories into a series of newly created entities. This second phase in the political history of the Middle East lasted until the 1967 war and was characterized by the development of unique Arab nation-states.  In the aftermath of the 1967 war each Arab country rendered the concept of a single, overarching Arab nation-state useless. During this phase the concept of the separate Arab nation-state became fully legitimate. With the “Arab Spring” a new phase began: now that the Arab nation-state has been legitimized, the nature of the local regimes is at stake. 
Keywords: Middle East, Arab spring, Nasser, international relations, history
 

Existential Harmony means inherent harmony in Nature and Existence (what ever exist), which is a perennial and orderly presence in the whole Existence. Existence is Co-existence. Each unit is self-organized within itself (Niyam, niyantran, santulan sahit nishchit aacharan ke sath) and fulfils its harmonious relationship with all whole/larger order. Every unit in the existence is harmoniously ordered and in a definite system i.e. existentially harmonious. There is no inherent and perennial conflict within the matter/unit. Nothing exists in isolation; everything is related to everything else. There is an inherent harmony (order) and balance in existence. Everything in nature is complementary and mutually enriching each other.

This article deals with two of the truisms which are usually associated with the peacekeeping and reintegration processes operated in war-torn societies around the world, primarily by the UN. The first is the claim that violence is once again on the rise in our world. It is often stated that the 20th century was the most violent century in the entire history of mankind. More people died due to wars, genocides, terrorism and crimes, than in any other period. But a closer look to the relative number of deaths compared with the size of the general population, shows us a century blessed by unprecedented levels of peaceful coexistence. For this, I rely mostly on the arguments of Steven Pinker. The second claim is that the reintegration process depends on the practice of peace dialogue. I will show that this practice lacks a strong theoretical foundation and that it contains several logical flaws, leading to possible practical contradictions. Finally, I’ll suggest that a combination of evolutionary psychology and Luhmannian social systems theory may provide a theoretical framework and redefine a whole range of reintegration problems as basic communication problems, which can be dealt with and solved using less trial-and-error approaches.

Violence and conflict still continue all over the globe. Much of this violence stem from ethnic, religious and other “mental fences” that people have been educated from childhood. These boundaries and loyalties divide people in the planet. The third of the four pillars of education in the 21st century recommended by the UNESCO Delors Commission is “learning to live together” or “learning to relate.” Clearly, there is a need to come to a global consensus on what concrete actions we need to consider in overcoming these harmful and tragic boundaries. This paper explores several options towards a global action agenda in transboundary learning and innovation. Transboundary learning covers learning processes that occurs across boundaries, whether political, ethnic, geographical, religious, corporate or administrative. Transboundary innovation is innovation that redefines or transcends such mental fences, boundaries and affiliations.

Three avenues of transboundary learning and innovation are explored and concrete actions are proposed under each avenue: (1) developing and application of Third Delors Technologies, (2) developing dialogue practices between religions, and (3) establishing programs to disseminate enterprise innovations. “Third Delors Technologies” is the new term proposed for those tools for helping people to “learn to live together” such as generative dialogue, training in bridging leadership and educational programs on glocality. Glocality is “thinking globally and acting locally”; it is acting locally while being informed with a broad planetary perspective. Social hostilities and physical conflicts arising from religion is increasing over the last few years. Conflict between Abrahamic religions continue to claim lives in various places in the world and even places a grave threat of nuclear war in the Middle East. The second avenue is collecting, developing and learning effective dialogue practices between religions. The enterprise is the major engine of growth in the world but its gaps and weaknesses lead to sub-optimal wealth creation and sometimes to massive wealth destruction as we had seen in the 2008 global financial crisis. The third avenue is transboundary innovation to bridge gaps in the manner that enterprises are defined and practiced.

The proposed actions are offered as contributions to what can become a global action agenda to directly address the root causes of so much violence and warfare, as well as economic losses taking place around the world today.

This paper arises from the ideas generated through the conclusion of my doctoral research, which has offered a qualitative study on the impact that participatory media have in reconciling divided communities after civil violence. The aim is to suggest additional research directions that are needed to both demarcate and assess the emerging field of Communication for Development (C4D) in Peacebuilding.

While a number of organisations - including agencies such as UNICEF - have began to extend their focus to this area of practice, scholarly research on communication for development has not yet provided a framework that defines the scope of this new paradigm, identifies its processes and channels, and evaluates empirical evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness. While fields such as media & conflict, peace communication and ICT in peacebuilding relate, for some aspects, to this domain, it is crucial to recognise C4D in Peacebuilding as a distinct concept.

‘Voice’ is addressed, in this submission, with the idea of people having a say in rebuilding their social, political, and cultural environment. ‘Matter’, in turn, will be looked at by considering how the power shifts that take place through C4D in Peacebuilding interventions materialise in a strengthened civil society that strives to maintain peace.

After offering its definition, this paper highlights the key areas in which Communication for Development can play a role in the aftermath of conflict, with a focus both at the community and at the national level. It identifies research directions that aid to shed light on the effectiveness of C4D interventions targeting issues that are specific to post-conflict environments. It distinguishes a set of channels, whose targeted application can contribute to the achievement of sustainable peace in the aftermath of violence. Finally, it recognises its strengths when working in conjunction with broader peacebuilding programmes.

The title of this essay comes from Hannah Arendt’s book Men in Dark Times, a collection of essays describing the activities of men and women who provided a glimmer of light and hope during sinister periods. “Israeli Peace Camp in Dark Times” invokes the meaning Arendt ascribed to her title but also adds another dimension.
It is not only that the Israeli peace camp is attempting to provide a light
during times that—according to all accounts (right and left)—are dark. In addition it has recently experienced its own share of darkness. At the critical moment, the Israeli peace camp faltered: it remained silent when it should have cried out, it became complacent when it should have resisted, and it betrayed its partners when it should have expressed compassion and solidarity. Examining this second dimension, the darkness within the peace movement rather than the
one surrounding it, will be our subject here.