Equality in North-South Research Collaboration

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Research collaboration across Global South-North divides is an articulated aim in many academic institutions. In this blog we point to the value added, as well as some of the challenges of such collaboration, based on our experiences from collaborative research on migration and transnationalism in Pakistan and Norway.

Fieldwork in Pakistan. Photo: Marta B. Erdal, PRIO

We are writing this blog post as our co-authored article appears on ‘early view’ ahead of publication in the journal Population, Space and Place. Our article is the result of longstanding collaboration between us, as young researchers.

In this blog post we reflect on our experience of research collaboration, and the challenges of striving for an equal research partnership. Research collaboration across geographic borders is important for quality in knowledge production, and a key condition for realizing ambitions of co-production of knowledge.

But the co-production of knowledge in practice is associated with a number of challenges and obstacles.

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From IDPs to Victims in Colombia: Transition from Humanitarian Crisis through Law Reform?

Posted by and & filed under Humanitarianism, Law and Ethics

What are the challenges of responding to displacement as a problem of transitional justice? In the Colombian context, pervasive violent conflict coexists with constitutional democracy. In recent years, the legal framework for dealing with internal displacement has been altered by the 2011 Victims’ Law. Based on newly published work on Colombia, this blog post discusses the changing conditions for displaced women’s legal mobilization.

Internally Displaced in Colombia. Photo: EC/ECHO/FAO

Imposing the rule of law in post-conflict situations has often been seen as a means of filling normative voids that both enable and result from conflict. Colombia offers a unique opportunity to reflect critically on how progressive legal frameworks — particularly those that formally and extensively incorporate international law — fare in practice.Read More

PRIO Global Fellow, Luka Biong Deng: ‘The AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan: justice first or peace? ‘

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With the eruption of conflict in December 2013 and the subsequent serious human rights violations committed, the AU Peace and Security Council in its meeting on 30th December 203 at the level of heads of state and government held in Banjul, the Gambia, resolved to establish a Commission to investigate these violated human rights and… Read more »

The “Resister’s Toolkit”

Posted by & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Conflict Patterns, Non-state Conflict Actors

In his article in the May 2015 issue of APSR, Evgeny Finkel makes a splash by arguing that exposure to “selective repression” (such as surveillance, beatings, arrests, and torture) helps dissidents to develop a robust skill set with which to maintain enduring resistance later on. He supports this argument with data from an unlikely case—Nazi repression against three Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust—and shows how operational skills (the “resister’s toolkit”) often develop as an indirect result of past exposure to state repression. These skills then help dissidents to remain active in resistance even when the state is engaging in widespread, indiscriminate, and severe repression. I’ll direct you to Finkel’s article for more detail on the argument, data, and findings.

Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested after protesting in London [1907-1914]. Via the National Archive of the Netherlands.

So, what skills does Finkel identify as being crucial elements of a resilient, enduring violent resistance? He points to five tasks that can “outfox” the government’s repressive agents:

  • “establishing secure communications channels;
  • procuring weapons without being detected by government agents;
  • maintaining well-hidden meeting places and munitions cashes;
  • producing high-quality forged identification documents; and
  • being able to identify and neutralize informers and government agents trying to infiltrate the organization” (341).

These all make sense from an operational perspective. Intuitively, maintaining organizational viability would be a necessary (but insufficient) condition for sustained rebellion. The key insight, I think, is that Finkel views these skills as learned. People can teach, experience, develop, perfect, and sustain them.

If that’s true for violent resistance, maybe it’s true for nonviolent resistance as well.

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Endangered Co-Existence: Buddhist-Muslim Friction in Asia

Posted by & filed under Religion

Disputes about everything from holy sites to ritual animal slaughter and compulsory family planning are causing dangerous tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in countries such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
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Friction between Buddhists and Muslims in Southeast Asia is putting pressure on a centuries-long tradition of religious co-existence, tolerance and shared cultural values.
Hate speech, violence involving Buddhists and Muslims, attacks on religious minorities, and new laws designed to control religious conversion, family planning and interfaith marriage are now contributing to increased conflict in the region.Read More

Back in Business? Diaspora Return to Somalia

Posted by & filed under Business and Peace, Migration

In most post-conflict contexts, returning diaspora members contribute to reconstruction efforts; including through investments in businesses.

While many invest in traditional ventures, others introduce new ideas for entrepreneurship. In Somalia, diaspora businesses are visible and valued; especially for their development and peacebuilding potential. The conflict has affected Somali citizens inside and outside the Somali region for over 25 years. With the cautious optimism about developments in south-central Somalia in the last few years, however, we see the number of people returning to the region increasing considerably. Full daily flights into Mogadishu offered by Turkish Airlines attest to this.

Living in a recovering failed state like Somalia means being innovative. At The Village Restaurant, a popular open-air hangout for Mogadishu’s returning diaspora community, a charcoal-powered Italian espresso machine brews Somalia’s best cappuccino. Photo: BBC

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EU is paying attention to Arctic security matters

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EUISS has just published a report entitled Arctic Security Matters concluding that the EU, “as a distinctly ‘soft’ security actor”, could play a useful role “in attempts to build up mutual trust and to give assurances that military assets in the Arctic create stability”. The bottom lime is “While much of this positive assessment of the… Read more »

The Reality of Firearms Trafficking

Posted by & filed under Conflict Patterns

The film The Lord of War and high profile trial of Victor Bout helped to seal in the public imagination the image of an illicit arms trafficker as being someone who smuggled planeloads of Kalashnikovs around the world and into war zones.

Example of the firearms seized by the Attorney General of California in a sweep for illegal weapons. Photo: Seth Taylor

Such characters do exist, but the reality of firearms trafficking (especially outside war zones) is very different. With two exceptions, the 48 participating countries did not have wars on their territories, so the study provides a picture of trafficking associated with criminality (and crime accounts for far more deaths than armed conflict).  Some of the findings from the study show that firearms trafficking is much more prosaic than often imagined.Read More

ASEAN’s Rohingya Challenge: Can ASEAN fail to act and yet be a Community?

Posted by & filed under Migration, Regions and Powers, Religion

A human tragedy has been unfolding in the Bay of Bengal. Thousands of poor Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees and job seekers have been the victims of xenophobia, cynical smugglers and incapable governance.

Many of the perhaps 1.3 million Rohingya… have so poor living conditions, or are so badly treated, that tens of thousands place their fate in the hands of smugglers. As long as this tragedy is allowed to persist, it will lead to new acute crises. Photo: Joseph Allchin

What has ASEAN done? So far very little. Yet this crisis is exactly the kind of non-traditional trans-national security challenge that ASEAN must cope with if it means seriously its ambition to form a peaceful “ASEAN Community” by December 2015.

  • The exodus of refugees and job seekers from Myanmar and Bangladesh presents an acute challenge for ASEAN
  • Four member countries are directly involved: Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia
  • ASEAN lacks a capacity for handling trans-national security challenges
  • A minister-level working group should be established

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The Child Welfare Services in Norway and Migration

Posted by & filed under Migration

The recent demonstrations against Norway’s Child Welfare Service (Barnevernet), in Oslo and outside Norwegian embassies abroad, express the deep frustration and fear felt by some parents with immigrant background. In recent years this frustration has received increased attention both in Norway and internationally. The international diplomatic repercussions of this crisis of confidence between the Child Welfare Service and families with immigrant background reveal how this is not purely a domestic matter, although it concerns children in Norway.

 

Lithuanians demonstrating outside the Norwegian Embassy in London 30 May, protesting against the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (Barnevernet). Foto: Espen Aas/NRK

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