Monday 20 April The SPLM (IO) conference in Pagak was kicked off, the agenda is to discuss the status of the peace negotiations, and the proposed IGAD +. President Kiir’s address at the opening of the national assembly was met with mixed reactions from its members. Tuesday 21 April President Kiir has once again asked… Read more »
Patterns of Peacemaking
When do we see international mediation, and what are the impacts?
International mediation is a form of diplomatic intervention aimed at reaching negotiated solutions to armed conflict, political violence and international crises. Used by states, organizations, groups or individuals, mediation continues to be an important form of peacemaking. We outline the major trends in international mediation, identify relevant empirical trends and discuss implications for policy.
Photo: U.S. Department of State/flickr.
- Mediation increases the likelihood of short-term peaceful settlement of conflicts.
- While international mediation has become increasingly common, many conflicts are still unmediated.
- The distribution of mediation is globally skewed, with Europe and the Middle East attracting the most attention.
- States and the UN remain key mediators, but regional organizations are becoming increasingly active and competent.
- There is no evidence of a positive long-term effect of international mediation.
Read more in a recent Policy Brief from the Conflict Trends project at PRIO.
Earthquake in Nepal and we are Safe
Peace researchers often have the opportunity to witness the ‘real world’ of conflict and post-conflict during fieldwork in countries such as Nepal. In some cases we also cooperate with local institutions where we benefit from working with fellow peace researchers and other partners. In Nepal we have had the great pleasure of working with Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, director of the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR) on a collaborative project called Making Women Count for Peace.
This image was tweeted 25 April by @ashbel_nialler
When the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and its surrounding areas on Saturday, our first thoughts naturally went to Bishnu, his colleagues and their families. After initial messages that they were unharmed by the earthquake and the numerous aftershocks, we received the following update from Bishnu this morning:
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Recognising and Denying Armenian Losses in Cyprus
Cyprus was one of the first countries to recognise the Armenian genocide, but the relationship that the country has with its own Armenian population is more complicated than it seems.
First Armenian Genocide march at Eleftheria square in Nicosia (1975). Wikimedia Commons
The centenary of the Armenian Genocide on 24 April this year comes amidst heightened speculation about a resumption of peace negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The timing is coincidental and yet it is telling of how, in Cyprus, the Armenian issue (more so than others) has been mired in the Greco Turkish dispute.
Comics and the Liberation from Patriarchy
New media, new content
Reem: “Thorn,” Tuk-Tuk 7, pp. 37. Tuk-Tuk is a bi-monthly independent magazine run by a collective of young artists.
Warning: This is all work in progress, so it leaves much to be desired. But this subject is so fun working on that I wanted to share what I have even if it is still pretty undeveloped. OK, here goes:
During the last few years, the literary scene in Egypt has been enriched by a new kind of medium: Comics for grown-ups. Arab comics for grown-ups is a new cultural phenomenon which is only now beginning to attract attention, not least thanks to the efforts of Marcia Lynx Qualey, and it provides a rich, fun and stimulating window into contemporary Arab culture. In the course of a few years, we have seen manga-inspired horror stories, crime noir set in Cairo, and anthologies with stories ranging from the funny and surreal to deeply disturbing accounts of poverty and oppression. The most visible venue for the new comics is Tuk-Tuk, a bi-monthly independent magazine run by a collective of young artists.
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Social Media Responses to this Winter’s Terror Attacks
Social media have brought Kenya into focus recently, with people’s reactions to the attack at the University of Garissa spreading on Facebook and Twitter. Social media users have been sharing an image of a candle against a black background, accompanied by the single word “Kenya”. In this way they have demonstrated sympathy for the 148 victims and show that they care. The reactions have been not only to the actual attack, but also to the fact that there was relatively little international attention to it when it happened.
Today, the Nigerian schoolgirls are still in captivity. US First Lady Michelle Obama initiated the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag in support of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping. Posted to the FLOTUS Twitter account on May 7, 2014.
Unlikely Partners: The EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative
Should the EU cooperate with regional states to manage and control migration from the Horn of Africa?
Proponents of greater migration control within the EU increasingly favor the use of political and economic incentives as an approach to prevent migration from the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, effectively through increasingly externalizing border control. While the unfolding humanitarian disaster in the Mediterranean shows the urgency of finding creative solutions, we argue that the solution does not lie in cooperating with states that create refugees or cannot guarantee to uphold the non-refoulement principle that EU countries have signed up for in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Refugee shelters in the Somali refugee camp Dadaab in Northern Kenya.
A Burden no one Wants to Share: Why do Refugees from the Horn of Africa try to Cross into Europe?
The humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean, with staggering high numbers of deaths of asylum seekers and migrants attempting to cross by sea, shows the urgency of an alternative approach to Europe’s current border policies.
Across the EU, mounting internal political pressures have intensified debates about migration and asylum, encouraging policies devised to restrict and control asylum and migration. These policies do not prevent people – many of whom originate from the Horn of Africa – from trying to cross the Mediterranean.
In 2014, Eritreans composed the second largest migrant group to Europe, after the Syrians, reaching 34,320 according to the International Organization for Migration. These figures give an indication of the ongoing and prolonged political repressions in Eritrea. Tragically, these asylum seekers often face further insecure conditions in Libya; a hub for migrants en route to the EU, and a country on the brink of state collapse.Read More
Beware of Putin Talking Shop
Firestorm in Khakassiya allegedly set by “specially trained oppositionists”.
“Boring” is perhaps the prevalent impression of President Vladimir Putin’s televised four-hour-long Q & A session that aired last Thursday (April 16), which was meant to demonstrate his good health and relaxed attitude to the great many problems worrying his loyal subjects….
[…]
Typically, such commentary by high officials is merely camouflage for Russia’s real intentions. But Moscow is unlikely to try to escalate the conflict in the coming few weeks as the Russian Armed Forces are going through the spring draft cycle. Even more importantly, Putin obviously wants to stage picture-perfect May 9 Victory Day celebrations in Red Square, even if the list of confirmed foreign guests is embarrassingly short. By mid-May, however, these restraining influences will disappear, and any sudden exacerbation of the economic crisis (the recent strengthening of the ruble actually makes it more vulnerable to a new collapse) could trigger the order to launch a new military offensive. Neither Lavrov nor the top brass are apparently involved in the decision-making on this crisis manipulation; while Putin’s performance indicates that he is briefed primarily by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and is supplied mostly with news and analysis he wants to hear. His leadership style is turning increasingly self-defensive and mistrustful of even the top elites, whose predatory corruption curtails his options for playing a benevolent “father of the nation.” Peace just does not work for him, and it remains to be seen how far he is prepared to go on the “hybrid war” path.
The rest of the article is in the Eurasia Daily Monitor, April 20.
Tainted by Stigma
Imagine being at a dinner party with friends. Some you know from before and some are new to you. You are served a welcome drink, smile, and begin to greet the other guests. The conversation starts amicably with exchanges about the weather, where you are from, recent events and perhaps your connections to the host or hostess. After initial pleasantries have been exhausted, the conversation turns to lines of work. One guest might work in insurance, his spouse could be an engineer and their friends, the hosts, might be teachers and writers. A few new guests join your conversation which then moves to schools and the state of the roads in the city. Then the insurance guy tells a surreal story about an insurance fraud case he has just recently worked on. Everybody laughs, spirits are high, and then the smiling crowd suddenly turns to you and the inevitable question is asked: So what do you do? Imagine that you are me in this setting.
My job, and research focus, are not dinner-party or small-talk material… Funeral during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. Photo: Mikhail Evstafiev – Mikhail Evstafiev. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
This is the moment to take stock of my audience quickly and accurately, because the rest of the evening hinges on my answer. Is this a crowd where the answer should be “I am a researcher,” suggesting a kind of generic occupation, perhaps evoking images of a scholarly detective equipped with methodological and theoretical knowledge to tackle the undiscovered? In such a case, the remainder of the evening will entail discussions about science and research. Or is this a crowd where I can go a little further and say “I am a peace researcher”, which inevitably turns any conversation into a sombre discussion of world affairs, in which men turn talkative and women turn silent. Or is it the kind of crowd where I can talk about what I really do? Can I utter the following explicit sentence: “I am a researcher in psychology focusing on crimes of sexual violence in war?” What is at risk if I do? How will the evening unfold after a confession like that?Read More