Alpaslan Özerdem

Use them or "lose" them: engaging Liberia's disconnected youth through socio-political integration .

The war that ravaged Liberia between 1989 and 2003 had myriad causes and belligerents, but there can be little question of the demographic cohort that provided the manpower for the war machine: youth. Young, disconnected Liberians became easy recruits to the conflicts warring factions as they sought a sense of importance and independence away from the cultural background that marginalized them. Building on qualitative field research in Liberia, this article bridges its primary case study with theory and secondary data, to examine the threat of post-war re-marginalization and disengagement of youth in the country. The article argues that economic reintegration programmes have not addressed issues of youth empowerment directly enough, and that targeted political and social engagement strategies from a vertical and horizontal integration perspective would be more effective in the re-engagement of youth in civilian life.

Identity, Ideology and Child Soldiering: Community and Youth Participation in Civil Conflict – A Study on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao, Philippines

The cessation of the governmental offensive to eliminate key figures of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2009 imparted fresh impetus to the peace process in Mindanao, Philippines. Recent clashes have resulted in large-scale and ongoing displacement. This stalemate, together with the end of Gloria Macapagal Arroyos Presidential term, has revived concerns about the future dynamics of the Bangsamoro struggle. An important dimension in this is the ‘voluntary’ nature of the participation of children and young people in the ranks of the MILF, sanctioned and often encouraged by their families and community. This presents an interesting contrast to the predominant literature on child soldiering that seems overly aligned with the coercive recruitment and related trauma-healing axis. In this article we examine the role of identity, ideology, the family and community in this presumed voluntary participation of children and youth in the MILF, in order to refine the linkage between recruitment experience of children and youth and their reintegration outcomes, and prescribe more appropriate reintegration interventions for youth in scenarios of participation sanctioned by family and community.

Sustainable reintegration to returning refugees in post-Taliban Afghanistan: land-related challenges

The lives of millions of people around the world continue to be thwarted with violence, obliging them to flee from their own country or community mainly for reasons of persecution and armed conflict. Resolving this problem is a complex and pressing challenge. This is because of their needs not only while in exile, but also during their return home as the situation improves, ensuring their rights to protection and sustaining their reintegration requirements. This article focuses on the return of refugees in post-war situations, and the challenges and complexities of ensuring a durable return and sustainable reintegration in the country of return. It focuses on ‘land’, and the concerns and complexities surrounding it as one of the key obstacles to the sustainability of return and reintegration. Within a general discussion, the issue of land is explored by looking at it in the context of returnee reintegration against the backdrop of various aspects such as security, politics, disputes, restitution and livelihoods. The case in discussion is Afghanistan, referring to the voluminous return of refugees and the challenges in seeking solutions to their reintegration problems since the political changes in late 2001 underlined by the US-led military intervention, the ouster of the Taliban regime and the Bonn Agreement.

A future disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process in Sudan: lessons learned from Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda

The conflict that broke out in Sudan on the eve of its independence from Britain in 1956 has devastated the country, retarded developmental progress, drained human resources and damaged the social fabric of the entire nation. However, the Protocol of Machakos which was signed by the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Sudan Peoples Liberation Army on 20 July 2002, states the commitment of the parties to a negotiated, peaceful and comprehensive resolution to the conflict within the unity of the country. With peace now in sight, the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants is essential to avoid the mistakes made in 1972. It is crucial to build a new future for the generations that have suffered so much in five decades of war. This paper examines the challenges that might confront DDR in post-conflict Sudan. It draws on past experience following the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement between the regime of President Gaffar Mohammed Nimeiri and the Anya-nya rebels, and on the experiences of countries that have gone through similar situations, such as Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda.

Tiles, taps and earthquake-proofing: lessons for disaster management in Turkey

This paper explores the lessons learned from the disaster management experience in Turkey in response to the Marmara earthquake in August 1999. It discusses why this earthquake produced such a large impact, including the shortcomings in the measures meant to ensure that buildings were more earthquake proof. It suggests why, unlike with previous earthquakes, the public reaction to the shortcomings in disaster preparedness for this earthquake may promote important changes within Turkish society. Finally, it outlines possible responses to these shortcomings, including a greater role for house buyers in ensuring that what they purchase is adequately built and the role of international support in increasing the effectiveness of Turkey’s disaster response institutions.

The ‘responsibility to protect’ in natural disasters: another excuse for interventionism? Nargis Cyclone, Myanmar

The ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) places the ‘international community’ under an obligation to take coercive action for the protection of lives in the circumstances of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Following the dismal response to the May 2008 cyclone disaster in Myanmar where many affected people were provided with almost no relief assistance by the countrys military regime that also hampered external assistance, the idea of military humanitarian intervention under the rubric of R2P was proposed by Bernard Kouchner. However, considering the urgency of the provision of relief assistance in an emergency, which is often a matter of life or death, this paper questions the effectiveness of invoking R2P as a possible response strategy in the aftermath of natural disasters. Therefore, in relation to state sovereignty the paper focuses on the concept of ‘humanitarian diplomacy’ at macro and micro levels as an alternative strategy and having analysed the issue in the wider framework of humanitarianism, the paper concludes with the importance of exploring the opportunities provided by humanitarian diplomacy before invoking R2P in the context of natural disasters.

From a ‘Terrorist’ Group to a ‘Civil Defence’ Corps: The ‘Transformation’ of the Kosovo Liberation Army

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which was regarded as a ‘terrorist’ group in the early 1990s, has now been ‘transformed’ into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) with the primary objective of protecting this war-torn province against ‘natural’ disasters. The creation of a ‘civilian’, uniformed and ‘multi-ethnic’ corps is a unique experience for the international community as it has been undertaken by a United Nations interim administration within the sovereignty of a state-the now defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia-that had no input during the planning or implementation of this transformation process. In fact, if it ends up comprising the core of a future Kosovar army, as its members hope it will, the KPC is likely to pose a direct threat to the sovereignty of Serbia and Montenegro over Kosovo. This article explores the KPC transformation experience with a security sector reform perspective, focusing on institutional, political, financial and security aspects in order to identify lessons that can inform similar processes elsewhere.

How to Assess Social Reintegration of Ex-Combatants

The social reintegration of ex-combatants is one of the most critical aspects of peacebuilding processes. However, contrary to economic reintegration in which it would be possible to set up some quantitative indicators in terms of accessing vocational training opportunities, employment and livelihoods income for the assessment of success, social reintegration is an intangible outcome. Therefore, what constitutes a successful social reintegration and how it could be assessed continues to be the challenge for both academics and practitioners. This article will undertake an investigation of the preliminary parameters of social reintegration at the macro, meso and micro levels in order to identify a set of indicators for programme assessment. A nuanced understanding of ex-combatant reintegration is expected to allow the development of context-based indicators according to the specific characteristics of that particular environment. The article also recommends the use of participatory research methods as they would be more appropriate for the measurement of social reintegration impact.

International Peacebuilding: An Introduction

Introduction Part I: Concepts and Theories of Peacebuilding 1. Armed Conflict and Peace 2. The Peace Process 3. Liberal Peacebuilding Model Part II: Three Phases on Peacebuilding 4. Conflict Resolution 5. Post-conflict Reconstruction 6. Conflict Transformation Part III: The Practice of Peacebuilding 7. Political and Security Reconstruction 8. Socioeconomic Peacebuilding 9. Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Conclusions

The Contribution of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to the Peace Process in Mindanao

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has been involved in conflict resolution of a highly complex and intractable civil war in the context of Mindanao in the Philippines for over a period of 35 years. This article presents an investigation of such a long-lasting and arduous response by first, presenting an overview of the OIC in terms of its mandate, structure and previous conflict resolution activities. Second, it contextualises the Mindanao conflict by focussing on its main actors; and third, the OICs response as a third party through different types of conflict resolutions modalities in the historicity of the peace process will be explored in the analysis section. The conclusions will summarise a set of reasons why the OICs response has overall been ad hoc, politically charged and ineffective in bringing about a peaceful resolution to the Mindanao conflict.