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The Postconflict Interregnum

Teo Ballvé

in The Frontier Effect: State Formation and Violence in Colombia

This chapter delves into the country's ongoing experiment with transitional justice, illustrating the messy renegotiations of rule the postconflict entails. Indeed, the postconflict conjuncture has ... More

This chapter delves into the country's ongoing experiment with transitional justice, illustrating the messy renegotiations of rule the postconflict entails. Indeed, the postconflict conjuncture has become the latest springboard for Colombia's frontier state formations. Throughout the country's purportedly stateless frontiers, which continue to be major sites of organized violence and a still-raging war on drugs, the forces of law and order have not so much trumped the power of violent outlaw groups as become fused with them. The chapter explores these antinomies of postconflict statecraft through an ethnographic account of land restitution in Tulapas. This small region demonstrates how the contradictions of postconflict state formation have materialized sharply around the politics of community. It is at the scale of community that the postconflict's intense yet often hushed renegotiations of rule are taking place.Less

Rebuilding With or Without Women?: Gendered Violence in Postconflict Peace and Reconstruction

Jacqui True

in The Political Economy of Violence against Women

Chapter 8 examines the spike of sexual and gender-based violence in postconflict and peace-building environments. Despite recent UN Security Council resolutions, the invisibility of this violence ... More

Chapter 8 examines the spike of sexual and gender-based violence in postconflict and peace-building environments. Despite recent UN Security Council resolutions, the invisibility of this violence against women during and after conflict marginalizes women in postconflict state-building and economic reconstruction processes. This economic and political marginalization of women exacerbates violence after conflict and hinders these peace-building efforts. The first part of the chapter applies the political economy approach of the book to reveal how gendered peacekeeping economies exacerbate violence against women. It critiques the prioritization of law and order over social and economic opportunities. The second part examines the role of women in peace-building decision making and economic reconstruction in places as diverse as East Timor; Aceh, Indonesia; Mindanao province in the Philippines; Iraq; Afghanistan; Colombia; Guatemala; the Congo; and Darfur. The chapter concludes by critically assessing two approaches to postconflict prevention of violence against women: the “good practice” of placing women peacekeepers in postconflict zones and the role of reparations in ensuring women's equal access to postconflict development.Less

The Sons of War

Valery Tishkov

in Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society

This chapter discusses Chechen fighters actively involved in the war. Chechen sons of war were not only the young men; as the war escalated, both the age limits and the geography and manner of ... More

This chapter discusses Chechen fighters actively involved in the war. Chechen sons of war were not only the young men; as the war escalated, both the age limits and the geography and manner of participation widened. The goals of the Chechen resistance leaders were largely different from the interests of rank-and-file fighters. War meant more than motherland and freedom; it meant protecting home and family, exacting vengeance for their loss, a certain satisfaction in wreaking violence on others, and/or a consuming pleasure in plundering. Many of the fighters were unable to escape the cycle of violence they had embarked upon, and what ensued was chaos and demodernization. The war became a giant sea change for most of the active fighters. After losing sight of the declared goal, or in some cases even having reached it, they found themselves outcasts from peace and its values. The postconflict reconstruction after the second war becomes extremely difficult, even impossible, without therapy and the social rehabilitation of the military segment of war-torn society.Less

Exit and Peace Support Operations

William J. Durch

in Exit Strategies and State Building

This chapter is about exit strategies and complex peace support operations (PSOs). It sets up a typology of operations that emphasizes the degree of operational involvement in and authority over ... More

This chapter is about exit strategies and complex peace support operations (PSOs). It sets up a typology of operations that emphasizes the degree of operational involvement in and authority over postconflict state-building. It examines alternatives to outright mission success as sources of mission exit and notes the common sources of such shortfalls. It examines the debate that continues about how much state-building is enough to ensure a reasonable chance of successful exit—a debate that arose when holding national elections was abandoned in the 1990s as sufficient reason for a complex operation to draw down and leave. That shift changed PSO exits from an event to a sometimes-extended process, whose successful implementation requires continuing, high-level political cover, over which the operation often has little control.Less

The Colombian Model

Alexander L. Fattal

in Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia

The conclusion considers Colombia’s place in a global hierarchy of security expertise and questions its efforts to establish a model of demobilization policy for other war-torn countries to follow. ... More

The conclusion considers Colombia’s place in a global hierarchy of security expertise and questions its efforts to establish a model of demobilization policy for other war-torn countries to follow. It looks specifically at the relationship between Colombia and the United States, and the South American nation’s role as a laboratory for U.S. Empire, a lower stakes setting where policy elites to experiment with strategies to apply in the flashpoints of the Global War on Terror, especially Afghanistan. The conclusion suggests that other countries should be wary about adopting Colombia’s militarized version of demobilization policy, for it mires ex-combatants betwixt and between military and civilian spheres and makes demarcating a “postconflict” period nearly impossible. The conclusion tracks a tour organized by the Colombian reintegration agency for twenty-three policy elites from nineteen countries reeling from armed conflicts in the Global South. In analyzing the highly choreographed expedition, the conclusion underlines branding’s role in Colombia’s efforts to project an image of a postconflict future internationally. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx, the conclusion then pivots to examine the relationship between the demobilization program scrutinized Guerrilla Marketing and the then-looming demobilization of FARC guerrillas after the 2016 peace accord.Less

Conclusion

Paul D. Miller

in Armed State Building: Confronting State Failure, 1898-2012

This concluding chapter summarizes conclusions, sketches the scope conditions under which these conclusions hold, explores alternative hypotheses, offers policy recommendations, looks at the most ... More

This concluding chapter summarizes conclusions, sketches the scope conditions under which these conclusions hold, explores alternative hypotheses, offers policy recommendations, looks at the most recent state-building operations, and engages briefly with the discussion about the normative merits of armed state building. The chapter also introduces four additional areas for further research. First, scholars should compare cases of state building to “negative cases” of failed states to isolate the interventions’ impact on postconflict societies. Second, scholars should explore other periods of history to identify pre-twentieth century cases of state building. Third, scholars should test the distinction between state building and imperialism, and examine if dynamics of imperial rule mirror those of state-building operations. Finally, scholars should start looking at the foreign policy processes of state building.Less

Introduction: Ambitious Aims and Meager Plans

Aaron Rapport

in Waging War, Planning Peace: U.S. Noncombat Operations and Major Wars

This introductory chapter provides an overview of noncombat operations. Noncombat operations are activities carried out by personnel in a theater of combat in which the use or threatened use of force ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of noncombat operations. Noncombat operations are activities carried out by personnel in a theater of combat in which the use or threatened use of force is not the primary means by which objectives are secured. They are typified by activities such as the provision of humanitarian assistance; civil affairs operations, up to and including the administration of an occupied territory; the reconstruction of infrastructure; and the reform, restoration, or creation of political institutions. They are also sometimes misleadingly referred to as “postconflict” or “postcombat” operations, but as the 2003 intervention in Iraq demonstrated, the assumption that such activities will take place in a peaceful environment is highly suspect.Less

In Defense of Imperialism?: The Rule of Law and the State-Building Project

Tom Ginsburg

in Getting to the Rule of Law: NOMOS L

This chapter demonstrates skepticism about the idea that a nation can do a better job in postconflict intervention and institutional construction with more resources, better knowledge, and improved ... More

This chapter demonstrates skepticism about the idea that a nation can do a better job in postconflict intervention and institutional construction with more resources, better knowledge, and improved coordination—an argument of technocratic nature. For the difficult situations of postconflict reconstruction, only intervention on a far more intrusive scale, something no longer politically acceptable—such as imperialism—has the potential to truly transform the societies and to enable them to achieve anything approaching the “rule of law.” The chapter begins by examining significant studies on self-enforcing institutions, and records of successful postconflict intervention, specifically within modern Japanese legal history. The final section contains some thoughts on international criminal justice.Less

The Place of History: Heritage, Tourism, and Community in Derry/Londonderry

Glenn Hooper

in Heritage at the Interface: Interpretation and Identity

This chapter examines the development of heritage and tourism attractions in Derry/Londonderry, but it considers them in the context of community participation and regeneration and, just as ... More

This chapter examines the development of heritage and tourism attractions in Derry/Londonderry, but it considers them in the context of community participation and regeneration and, just as important, as part of a renewed strategy of narrative reengagement in a postconflict society. Drawing on heritage-from-below critiques as appropriate, this chapter discusses a number of sites, some recently refurbished, some closed, some awaiting the move to new premises, but all of which have contributed to a steadily emergent heritage and tourism narrative of considerable import for the city and its citizens.Less

What Does Postconflict Security Mean for Women?

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

in Gender, Violence, and Human Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives

This chapter demonstrates how postconflict security conversations continue to exclude women's experiences with violence and focus primarily on state actors. Indeed, the dominant theme in much policy ... More

This chapter demonstrates how postconflict security conversations continue to exclude women's experiences with violence and focus primarily on state actors. Indeed, the dominant theme in much policy work addressing postconflict security reform shows a dominant narrative of masculinity pervading security sector analysis. This metanarrative is also linked to a pervasive emphasis on what is deemed to constitute the core elements of the security sector in such societies. Typically, this emphasis fails to engage with broader sites and causes of harms, including private violence experienced by women. The chapter thus argues for a view of security that “encompasses physical, social, economic, and sexual security” as a way of addressing gendered security. Such a view includes democratic transformation and incorporates equality principles of multiple legal spheres along with a redistributive economic dimension.Less

The Vulnerable Protecting the Vulnerable: NGOs and Human Security in the Aftermath of War

Laura J. Heideman

in Gender, Violence, and Human Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives

This chapter argues, in the context of postwar Croatia, that human security issues are of central concern and should not be treated as secondary to state security. Moreover, the causes of state ... More

This chapter argues, in the context of postwar Croatia, that human security issues are of central concern and should not be treated as secondary to state security. Moreover, the causes of state insecurity and human insecurity are similar, necessitating solutions that are intertwined. From the Greek Civil War in the 1940s to the more recent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, research has shown that local ruptures were more important than national ones. Thus, addressing human security concerns is not just a dividend of peace. It is indispensable to postconflict reconstruction and preventing the recurrence of conflict. It also puts people's welfare at the center of the agenda, along with their priorities and needs.Less

Bougainville: A Source of Inspiration for Conflict Resolution

Volker Boege and Lorraine Garasu

in Mediating Across Difference: Oceanic and Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution

This chapter illustrates what can be learned from Bougainville, one of the few recent successful cases of postconflict state-building. It clarifies and elaborates on a ‘road to sustainable peace’: a ... More

This chapter illustrates what can be learned from Bougainville, one of the few recent successful cases of postconflict state-building. It clarifies and elaborates on a ‘road to sustainable peace’: a mode of reconciliation that carefully involves emotion and incorporates everyone, including ancestral spirits. This process must resist instrumental and short-term temptations, developing instead a sustainable long-term, step-by-step engagement with different layers of problems. Time is crucial in this approach, which revolves around finding out when exactly which people are ready for which step in the reconciliation process. Reconciliation on Bougainville is thus seen as an ongoing process that involves entwined relationships and contains spiritual and ritual dimensions. The latter are, in fact, an integral and indispensable element of conflict resolution, rather than simply aspects of ceremonial functions.Less

Bringing Foreign Powers Back In

in Foreign Powers and Intervention in Armed Conflicts

This chapter reports a conceptual evaluation of intervention. It describes interventions in the preconflict and postconflict stages and combines literatures on preventive interventions and ... More

This chapter reports a conceptual evaluation of intervention. It describes interventions in the preconflict and postconflict stages and combines literatures on preventive interventions and postconflict reconstruction. It then defines what the term intervention stands for in security scholarship and discusses its important aspects. This term frequently referred to a wide range of policies that include military involvement in civil wars, overt or covert operations aimed at destabilizing foreign governments, and initiation of hostile actions against other nations that fall within the study of the causes of conflict. Most interventions were insufficient in the multilateral framework and institutional authorization that international law requires. Furthermore, coalitional intervention invoked several significant questions that present new avenues of research as scholars search for more accurate ways to model the multinational environment of armed conflicts.Less

Transnational Contentions: The Moral Economy of Postconflict Migration

in Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War

This chapter examines the moral economy of postconflict migration in Machaze, Mozambique. It considers migrancy as a new transnational life strategy and as a form of public performance implicated in ... More

This chapter examines the moral economy of postconflict migration in Machaze, Mozambique. It considers migrancy as a new transnational life strategy and as a form of public performance implicated in the negotiation of this new social strategy's legitimacy. This chapter analyzes the narratives of migrants and suggests that migrancy served not only as the key mechanism for enacting a range of new transnational life strategies but also as a form of moral performance implicated in the negotiation of the social legitimacy of those strategies.Less

Where to Be an Ancestor?: The Struggle for the Postconflict Social Imagination

in Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War

This chapter sums up the findings of this study about social survival and change in Mozambique during the war. It demonstrates how an anthropology of the social condition in war might contribute to ... More

This chapter sums up the findings of this study about social survival and change in Mozambique during the war. It demonstrates how an anthropology of the social condition in war might contribute to questions of broader theoretical importance to the discipline as a whole. It also proposes a theoretical framework for explaining the specific direction of war-time and postconflict transformation in Machazian social relations.Less

Postconflict Displacements: The Social Problematics of Refugee Return

in Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War

This chapter examines how the transformation of social relations in Machaze, Mozambique during the war informed projects of postconflict return. It describes how the war-time development of ... More

This chapter examines how the transformation of social relations in Machaze, Mozambique during the war informed projects of postconflict return. It describes how the war-time development of transnational polygyny transformed the life strategies of Machazians in ways that placed them at odds with the international community's understanding of what repatriation should entail. This chapter argues that Machazian men sought to pursue new transnational life strategies that presumed continued social connections and investment in both Mozambique and South Africa.Less

Congolité: Elections and the Politics of Autochthony in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Stephen Jackson

in Rhetorics of Insecurity: Belonging and Violence in the Neoliberal Era

This chapter examines the politics of authenticity revolving around the concept of Congolité in the Democratic Republic of Congo from mid-2006 onward. Emerging shortly before the country's first ... More

This chapter examines the politics of authenticity revolving around the concept of Congolité in the Democratic Republic of Congo from mid-2006 onward. Emerging shortly before the country's first democratic elections in more than four decades, Congolité—best translated as “Congoleseness”—dominated discussions of the elections so much that substantive policy debates about postwar reconstruction became unimaginable. Alongside the “non-Congolese” or outright “foreigners,” presidential candidates or groups supporting them were included or excluded according to where they belonged in a set of overlapping binaries: western Congolese or eastern, Lingalaphone or Swahiliophone, Francophone or Anglophone. It is argued that the elections were the catalyst that caused this new discourse to crystallize out of a number of distinct but related preexisting elements. This reveals a paradox at the heart of the liberal project of postconflict state building. The process of constructing democratic institutions can in fact electrify discursive forms of violence that are either homegrown or imported.Less