For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.
{"title":"Citizenship or Repression? Coca, Eradication and Development in the Andes","authors":"Thomas Grisaffi, Kathryn Ledebur","doi":"10.5334/STA.440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.440","url":null,"abstract":"For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2016-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86665422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper argues that demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) trajectories of non-state armed groups are shaped by a group’s internal organization. Extensive research by political scientists has demonstrated a correlation between internal features of armed groups and their behaviour (e.g. extent of violence used against local communities). I extend this analysis to DDR outcomes by illustrating how two features of an armed group’s internal organization – command profile and financing architecture – influence post-conflict DDR trajectories. To substantiate the theory, four case studies from Colombia, Nepal and Libya are reviewed. The article concludes with the limitations and opportunities of this approach, including the potential of predicting DDR challenges.
{"title":"DDR and the Internal Organization of Non-State Armed Groups","authors":"Brian Mcquinn","doi":"10.5334/STA.412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.412","url":null,"abstract":"This paper argues that demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) trajectories of non-state armed groups are shaped by a group’s internal organization. Extensive research by political scientists has demonstrated a correlation between internal features of armed groups and their behaviour (e.g. extent of violence used against local communities). I extend this analysis to DDR outcomes by illustrating how two features of an armed group’s internal organization – command profile and financing architecture – influence post-conflict DDR trajectories. To substantiate the theory, four case studies from Colombia, Nepal and Libya are reviewed. The article concludes with the limitations and opportunities of this approach, including the potential of predicting DDR challenges.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2016-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81137651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There are competing theories of what drives crime in cities and neighbourhoods. Two widely cited theoretical approaches focused on social disorganization and institutional anomie propose different explanations for the causes and dynamics of criminality. Yet these theories are seldom empirically tested, much less acknowledged, outside of North America and Western Europe. This article considers their applicability in Mexico’s capital, a sprawling metropolis of more than 20 million people. The authors administer spatial and general statistical tests to explain the geographical patterns of crime rates across multiple forms of criminality. The assessment demonstrates that both theories accurately predict the spatial distribution of crime. The article concludes with a host of policy conclusions, emphasizing social crime prevention over more traditional law and order measures. and consolidating families, parents and childcare.
{"title":"What Explains Criminal Violence in Mexico City? A Test of Two Theories of Crime","authors":"Carlos Vilalta, Robert Muggah","doi":"10.5334/STA.433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.433","url":null,"abstract":"There are competing theories of what drives crime in cities and neighbourhoods. Two widely cited theoretical approaches focused on social disorganization and institutional anomie propose different explanations for the causes and dynamics of criminality. Yet these theories are seldom empirically tested, much less acknowledged, outside of North America and Western Europe. This article considers their applicability in Mexico’s capital, a sprawling metropolis of more than 20 million people. The authors administer spatial and general statistical tests to explain the geographical patterns of crime rates across multiple forms of criminality. The assessment demonstrates that both theories accurately predict the spatial distribution of crime. The article concludes with a host of policy conclusions, emphasizing social crime prevention over more traditional law and order measures. and consolidating families, parents and childcare.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2016-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77669037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Myanmar is confronted with a contested peace process after over six decades of armed conflict between the national army and around 20 ethnic Armed Non-State Actors (ANSAs) in the country’s resource rich borderlands. Although a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) was signed by eight ANSAs in October 2015, other groups have not, and fighting continues in some areas. A key controversy is insecurity about the future political and economic positions of the ANSAs, along with mistrust in the army’s commitment to peace. In this article we discuss five re-integration options for ANSA members, including not only economic integration, but also integration into political parties, local government, civil society organisations and the security sector. We argue that conventional DDR programming is unrealistic in Myanmar, because the ANSAs are strongly opposed to any disarmament and demobilization before a far reaching political settlement towards federalism is reached. This calls for a more flexible sequencing of DDR that begins with reintegration options or what has been called RDD. In addition, reintegration efforts should not only be technical exercises, but be firmly embedded in disaggregated power-sharing guarantees, including for lower- and middle-ranking ANSA members at the local level. This will not only support more sustainable peace, but also help build more trust in the peace process. We conclude the article by considering the role of the international community.
{"title":"Integration and Power-Sharing: What are the Future Options for Armed Non-State Actors in the Myanmar Peace Process?","authors":"H. Kyed, M. Gravers","doi":"10.5334/STA.GT","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GT","url":null,"abstract":"Myanmar is confronted with a contested peace process after over six decades of armed conflict between the national army and around 20 ethnic Armed Non-State Actors (ANSAs) in the country’s resource rich borderlands. Although a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) was signed by eight ANSAs in October 2015, other groups have not, and fighting continues in some areas. A key controversy is insecurity about the future political and economic positions of the ANSAs, along with mistrust in the army’s commitment to peace. In this article we discuss five re-integration options for ANSA members, including not only economic integration, but also integration into political parties, local government, civil society organisations and the security sector. We argue that conventional DDR programming is unrealistic in Myanmar, because the ANSAs are strongly opposed to any disarmament and demobilization before a far reaching political settlement towards federalism is reached. This calls for a more flexible sequencing of DDR that begins with reintegration options or what has been called RDD. In addition, reintegration efforts should not only be technical exercises, but be firmly embedded in disaggregated power-sharing guarantees, including for lower- and middle-ranking ANSA members at the local level. This will not only support more sustainable peace, but also help build more trust in the peace process. We conclude the article by considering the role of the international community.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"66 5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77436334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Renamo’s recent upsurge against the Mozambican Frelimo-led government after 22 years of relative stability has challenged the country’s often celebrated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process (1992 to 1994). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Maringue (Sofala province), the location of the rebels’ wartime headquarters and a post-war Renamo stronghold, this paper shows that while the DDR program supposedly ended Renamo’s command and control structure, the former rebel network continued to be a central feature of ex-combatants’ social worlds. Former Renamo combatants spend most of their time in the company of their ‘colleagues of the trenches’ and engaged in relationships of dependency with political Renamo leaders and former commanders. These relationships were not only shaped by the former military structure, but also by friendship, marriage, and patronage dynamics, providing ex-Renamo combatants with physical and economic safety, a sense of belonging and economic possibilities. Recent events in Mozambique suggest that the post-conflict continuation of informal wartime networks is a threat to peace and a failure of demobilization. Nevertheless, the fieldwork conducted in Maringue reveals that the dismantling of the command and control structure is often in vain, as it may be worthwhile for ex-combatants to maintain ties with their former military group for various reasons. Therefore, I argue that it may be useful to consider these networks based on the former armed group in processes of violence reduction, also in the development of DDR programs, as these may offer possibilities for the re-positioning and transformation of (former) armed actors.
{"title":"Former Military Networks a Threat to Peace? The Demobilisation and Remobilisation of Renamo in Central Mozambique","authors":"N. Wiegink","doi":"10.5334/STA.GK","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GK","url":null,"abstract":"Renamo’s recent upsurge against the Mozambican Frelimo-led government after 22 years of relative stability has challenged the country’s often celebrated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process (1992 to 1994). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Maringue (Sofala province), the location of the rebels’ wartime headquarters and a post-war Renamo stronghold, this paper shows that while the DDR program supposedly ended Renamo’s command and control structure, the former rebel network continued to be a central feature of ex-combatants’ social worlds. Former Renamo combatants spend most of their time in the company of their ‘colleagues of the trenches’ and engaged in relationships of dependency with political Renamo leaders and former commanders. These relationships were not only shaped by the former military structure, but also by friendship, marriage, and patronage dynamics, providing ex-Renamo combatants with physical and economic safety, a sense of belonging and economic possibilities. Recent events in Mozambique suggest that the post-conflict continuation of informal wartime networks is a threat to peace and a failure of demobilization. Nevertheless, the fieldwork conducted in Maringue reveals that the dismantling of the command and control structure is often in vain, as it may be worthwhile for ex-combatants to maintain ties with their former military group for various reasons. Therefore, I argue that it may be useful to consider these networks based on the former armed group in processes of violence reduction, also in the development of DDR programs, as these may offer possibilities for the re-positioning and transformation of (former) armed actors.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"10 1","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88637681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Though NATO and other military forces increasingly recognize protection of civilians as a key objective in their operations, implementation remains challenging. To effectively protect, the military force must understand the threats that exist and match capabilities to counter them. The authors strongly believe that military planners need a more formal structure to conceptualize physical protection, and here outline ‘The Protection Ladder’ as a tool for military planners and leaders, to explain the legal obligations and additional operational capabilities necessary for civilian protection. The article offers practical suggestions on how civilian protection can be effectively addressed before, during and after military operations. NATO should develop its protection capabilities, for future mission success depends upon it.
{"title":"Operationalizing Protection of Civilians in NATO Operations","authors":"Marla B. Keenan, A. W. Beadle","doi":"10.5334/STA.GR","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GR","url":null,"abstract":"Though NATO and other military forces increasingly recognize protection of civilians as a key objective in their operations, implementation remains challenging. To effectively protect, the military force must understand the threats that exist and match capabilities to counter them. The authors strongly believe that military planners need a more formal structure to conceptualize physical protection, and here outline ‘The Protection Ladder’ as a tool for military planners and leaders, to explain the legal obligations and additional operational capabilities necessary for civilian protection. The article offers practical suggestions on how civilian protection can be effectively addressed before, during and after military operations. NATO should develop its protection capabilities, for future mission success depends upon it.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72940306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stabilisation, as a concept and set of practices, has proliferated over the past two decades and is now implicitly integrated into a range of global frameworks. However, this enthusiasm has at times risked turning this increasingly common, albeit contested, idea into a piece of jargon that discounts its unique facets: a focus on all sorts of violence, not just conflict, that create political instability and human harm and a problem-solving approach that draws selectively on various forms of intervention (e.g., statebuilding, counterinsurgency, peacekeeping, etc.) without being beholden to any one toolkit. The pragmatism inherent within the concept of stabilisation will grow increasingly important as new security challenges emerge or proliferate. These include the fragmentation and regionalisation of conflict systems, transnational organised crime, large-scale migration and new, disruptive technologies. Novel approaches rooted in big data and technology will increasingly need to be applied. Most importantly, in foreign policy, military and development communities often driven by perceptions about what causes, ends or prevents violence, stabilisation must maintain its agnostic, problem-solving roots and allegiance to evidence over ideology.
{"title":"Preparing Stabilisation for 21st Century Security Challenges","authors":"S. A. Zyck, Robert Muggah","doi":"10.5334/STA.GS","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GS","url":null,"abstract":"Stabilisation, as a concept and set of practices, has proliferated over the past two decades and is now implicitly integrated into a range of global frameworks. However, this enthusiasm has at times risked turning this increasingly common, albeit contested, idea into a piece of jargon that discounts its unique facets: a focus on all sorts of violence, not just conflict, that create political instability and human harm and a problem-solving approach that draws selectively on various forms of intervention (e.g., statebuilding, counterinsurgency, peacekeeping, etc.) without being beholden to any one toolkit. The pragmatism inherent within the concept of stabilisation will grow increasingly important as new security challenges emerge or proliferate. These include the fragmentation and regionalisation of conflict systems, transnational organised crime, large-scale migration and new, disruptive technologies. Novel approaches rooted in big data and technology will increasingly need to be applied. Most importantly, in foreign policy, military and development communities often driven by perceptions about what causes, ends or prevents violence, stabilisation must maintain its agnostic, problem-solving roots and allegiance to evidence over ideology.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"178 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87707490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyses the tension or conflict that can exist between the principles of local ownership and gender equality that guide Security Sector Reform (SSR) programmes when gender discrimination and patriarchal values characterise the local environment (and ‘locals’ do not value gender equality). In these situations, international actors may be reluctant to advocate gender equality, regarding it as imposing culturally alien values and potentially destabilising to the SSR process. It is argued, however, that the tension between local ownership and gender equality is deceptive and merely serves to protect the power of dominant groups and disempower the marginalised, often serving to disguise the power relations at play in post-conflict environments and avoid addressing the security needs of those who are often at most risk. The paper concludes that rather than a tension existing between the two principles, in fact, local ownership without gender equality is meaningless. Moreover, failing to promote gender equality undermines the extent to which SSR programmes result in security and justice sector institutions that are representative of and responsive to the needs of both men and women. It can also perpetuate structural inequalities and conflict dynamics and, ultimately, limit the success of SSR and broader peacebuilding processes.
{"title":"Security Sector Reform and the Paradoxical Tension between Local Ownership and Gender Equality","authors":"E. Gordon, A. Welch, E. Roos","doi":"10.5334/STA.GJ","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GJ","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the tension or conflict that can exist between the principles of local ownership and gender equality that guide Security Sector Reform (SSR) programmes when gender discrimination and patriarchal values characterise the local environment (and ‘locals’ do not value gender equality). In these situations, international actors may be reluctant to advocate gender equality, regarding it as imposing culturally alien values and potentially destabilising to the SSR process. It is argued, however, that the tension between local ownership and gender equality is deceptive and merely serves to protect the power of dominant groups and disempower the marginalised, often serving to disguise the power relations at play in post-conflict environments and avoid addressing the security needs of those who are often at most risk. The paper concludes that rather than a tension existing between the two principles, in fact, local ownership without gender equality is meaningless. Moreover, failing to promote gender equality undermines the extent to which SSR programmes result in security and justice sector institutions that are representative of and responsive to the needs of both men and women. It can also perpetuate structural inequalities and conflict dynamics and, ultimately, limit the success of SSR and broader peacebuilding processes.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"98 1","pages":"1-23"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73624849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
2014 was a hopeful year for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The M23 movement had been defeated in military operations in which one of the last peacekeeping experiments, the UN Force Intervention Brigade, had played a decisive role. A third UN stabilization plan, the ‘islands of stability’ was proposed to continue the stabilization of a country considered in a post-conflict phase. However, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has almost tripled in the country since 2007. This article will argue that DRC is still immersed into an old social conflict that existed before the Congo Wars and the roots of which are not being addressed. It will argue that the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the ‘islands of stability’ strategy can address some of the secondary causes of the Congo conflict, such as its internationalization, the presence in DRC of foreign armed groups or the ‘blood minerals’, but cannot address its primary causes: land struggles, an old cycle of violence and the fragmentation of the Congolese society and political elite that is jeopardizing the restoration of the state authority. The huge dimensions of each of these factors make the Congo conflict ‘one of the most complex and intricate environments ever faced by a peacekeeping mission’, for which MONUSCO’s mandate, resources and stabilization strategy do not seem powerful enough. When the UN organized the 2006 elections legitimized a ‘spoiler state’, the bottleneck of all the reforms needed to stabilize the country. The UN fell thus into a trap and became part of the conflict. Lessons learned should be taken for future UN operations.
{"title":"The Congo Trap: MONUSCO Islands of Stability in the Sea of Instability","authors":"A. Barrera","doi":"10.5334/STA.GN","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GN","url":null,"abstract":"2014 was a hopeful year for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The M23 movement had been defeated in military operations in which one of the last peacekeeping experiments, the UN Force Intervention Brigade, had played a decisive role. A third UN stabilization plan, the ‘islands of stability’ was proposed to continue the stabilization of a country considered in a post-conflict phase. However, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has almost tripled in the country since 2007. This article will argue that DRC is still immersed into an old social conflict that existed before the Congo Wars and the roots of which are not being addressed. It will argue that the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the ‘islands of stability’ strategy can address some of the secondary causes of the Congo conflict, such as its internationalization, the presence in DRC of foreign armed groups or the ‘blood minerals’, but cannot address its primary causes: land struggles, an old cycle of violence and the fragmentation of the Congolese society and political elite that is jeopardizing the restoration of the state authority. The huge dimensions of each of these factors make the Congo conflict ‘one of the most complex and intricate environments ever faced by a peacekeeping mission’, for which MONUSCO’s mandate, resources and stabilization strategy do not seem powerful enough. When the UN organized the 2006 elections legitimized a ‘spoiler state’, the bottleneck of all the reforms needed to stabilize the country. The UN fell thus into a trap and became part of the conflict. Lessons learned should be taken for future UN operations.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73981855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Periods of conflict erode trust between national and local authorities and the people they govern, a trust that needs to be re-established. As peace operations are undertaken by inter-governmental bodies that tend to be inherently state-centric, however, peace operations need to go beyond merely supporting the extension of state-authority and strengthen inclusive state-society relations by supporting and facilitating inclusive processes that can address social cohesion, inequalities and marginalization. In order to support the emergence of resilient societies, these operations must help states and their societies to develop inclusive processes that enable participatory and responsive state institutions that are closely connected to the social institutions in the communities they serve. Furthermore, peace operations are often perceived as being partial to the party in government, while the government of the day often discourages peace operations from engaging with civil society. In the first part of this paper we explain why strengthening inclusive state-society relations is an important issue to address when peace operations are mandated to foster peace processes that can resist relapse. The second half of the paper shifts the attention to how peace operations can enhance and support state-society relations. In addition to monitoring the effect peace operations have on state institutions, operations should monitor how people experience the role and impact of peace operations. This can be assessed in a number of ways, including by involving representative advisory groups from civil society and local communities in assessments, analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation, so as to ensure continuous direct input and feedback from the society on the work of the peace operation.
{"title":"Towards More People-Centric Peace Operations: From ‘Extension of State Authority’ to ‘Strengthening Inclusive State-Society Relations’","authors":"C. D. Coning, J. Karlsrud, Paul Troost","doi":"10.5334/STA.GL","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5334/STA.GL","url":null,"abstract":"Periods of conflict erode trust between national and local authorities and the people they govern, a trust that needs to be re-established. As peace operations are undertaken by inter-governmental bodies that tend to be inherently state-centric, however, peace operations need to go beyond merely supporting the extension of state-authority and strengthen inclusive state-society relations by supporting and facilitating inclusive processes that can address social cohesion, inequalities and marginalization. In order to support the emergence of resilient societies, these operations must help states and their societies to develop inclusive processes that enable participatory and responsive state institutions that are closely connected to the social institutions in the communities they serve. Furthermore, peace operations are often perceived as being partial to the party in government, while the government of the day often discourages peace operations from engaging with civil society. In the first part of this paper we explain why strengthening inclusive state-society relations is an important issue to address when peace operations are mandated to foster peace processes that can resist relapse. The second half of the paper shifts the attention to how peace operations can enhance and support state-society relations. In addition to monitoring the effect peace operations have on state institutions, operations should monitor how people experience the role and impact of peace operations. This can be assessed in a number of ways, including by involving representative advisory groups from civil society and local communities in assessments, analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation, so as to ensure continuous direct input and feedback from the society on the work of the peace operation.","PeriodicalId":44806,"journal":{"name":"Stability-International Journal of Security and Development","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2015-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91137299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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