| 1. |
- Rock, Anna Ida R.
(författare)
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Statebuilding through diaspora recruitment? : The role of capacity, norms and representation for legitimacy in Somaliland and Liberia
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How do the local elites and the wider population perceive returnees in post-war governments and what shapes these returnees’ legitimacy? Overall, while acknowledging some benefits, local elites in Somaliland and Liberia highlight challenges connected to returnees’ presence in governments and question their legitimacy. These challenges are mirrored in the perceptions of the Liberian population, who see returnees as less legitimate in government positions than stayees. The legitimacy of these returnees is mainly shaped by notions of capacity, democratic norms and practices as well as by how well they represent the local population. This thesis provides several pioneering studies of how diaspora returnees are perceived domestically. These issues are examined through three essays that rely on a wide array of novel data from Somaliland and Liberia. In essay I, I discuss under which conditions returnees in the Somaliland government are seen as legitimate. In essay II, I demonstrate how Liberian elite perceptions and experiences of returnee ministers only slightly correspond to the expectations held in international and national policy circles. In essays I and II, I mainly rely on elite interviews. However, in essay III, I investigate the research question from the perspective of the general Liberian population. Using a survey experiment, I demonstrate how a high presence of returnee ministers negatively affects cabinet legitimacy. This effect, however, is attenuated when returnees indicate that they will give up their ties to their host country. In this way, this thesis problematizes expectations of diaspora returnees by showing how they seldom constitute ideal interlocutors in statebuilding activities and their engagement often implies difficult trade-offs between central peacebuilding and statebuilding objectives. Dominance by returnees in the government excludes local actors and signals that qualifications acquired in the Global North are valued over domestic knowledge. This thesis concludes that in these contexts diaspora recruitment is highly political.
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| 2. |
- Nilsson, Johanna, 1986-
(författare)
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Between Political Party and Armed Group : Understanding Renamo as a Hybrid Party
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the concept of hybridity within the context of rebel-to-party transformation, with a particular focus on Renamo during the period of 2015-2017 in Mozambique. This timeframe was marked by a resurgence of organised systematic violence, disrupting the relative peace that had prevailed in Mozambique since 1992. The central conflict revolved around the issue of local self-governance, with Renamo asserting its claim to govern in six out of Mozambique's ten provinces. During this period, Renamo operated both as a political party with a significant presence in parliament and as an armed group engaged in systematic violence.The rebel-to-party literature has sparked discussions about groups that seem to retain elements of their violent past while transitioning into political parties, leading to the emergence of the concept of hybrid parties. However, this concept remains relatively undefined and underexplored. This thesis seeks to contribute to this discussion through an in-depth qualitative study of Renamo's elite-level politicians, aiming to enhance our understanding of hybrid parties.The study, conducted during the conflict years, closely examines how elite politicians in Renamo navigate their dual roles. It encompasses 14 months of fieldwork from February 2015 to January 2017, drawing on elite interviews, elite-level public statements, and elite observations of parliament, enriched by ethnographic sensibility. The analysis is grounded in a theoretical framework that allows for an exploration of Renamo's behaviour and perceptions as both an armed group and a political party, particularly concerning the issue of local self-governance. Through this analysis, the study aims to elucidate the intersections, thereby advancing our comprehension of how hybridity manifests.The main findings suggest that Renamo's hybridity predominantly manifests through processes related to contemporaneity in behaviour, elite-level legitimisation, and one key political issue. Furthermore, I argue that the hybridity is maintained through narratives of democracy and a charismatic leader. The thesis advocates for a deeper exploration of these processes to enhance both empirical understanding and the theoretical discussion surrounding hybrid parties.
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| 3. |
- Giandomenico, Jessica, 1974-
(författare)
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Transformative Power Challenged : EU Membership Conditionality in the Western Balkans Revisited
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The EU is assumed to have a strong top-down transformative power over the states applying for membership. But despite intensive research on the EU membership conditionality, the transformative power of the EU in itself has been left curiously understudied. This thesis seeks to change that, and suggests a model based on relational power to analyse and understand how the transformative power is seemingly weaker in the Western Balkans than in Central and Eastern Europe.This thesis shows that the transformative power of the EU is not static but changes over time, based on the relationship between the EU and the applicant states, rather than on power resources. This relationship is affected by a number of factors derived from both the EU itself and on factors in the applicant states. As the relationship changes over time, countries and even issues, the transformative power changes with it.The EU is caught in a path dependent like pattern, defined by both previous commitments and the built up foreign policy role as a normative power, and on the nature of the decision making procedures. This path dependent pattern prevents the EU from actively using its strongest tools when trying to influence and steer the applicant states regarding reforms and norm transfer, effectively weakening the transformative power.Evidence from elections in Albania and Macedonia show how the domestic electoral stakeholders actively can resist, and even prune, important norms and laws, on best electoral practice, a key feature for the democratic structures required for EU membership. It is also apparent how there are few domestic change agent strong enough to actively promote normative changes, leaving much of the work for the EU. The clientelistic structures of these countries are a key aspect in shaping interests and actions of the political elite. The result is that layers of old and new institutions are created, producing the mixed pattern of reforms observed all over the Western Balkans.By combining the findings at both the EU level and in the applicant states, this thesis makes both important empirical and theoretical contributions, challenging some core aspects of the Europeanisation literature.
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| 4. |
- Söderström, Johanna, 1981-
(författare)
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Politics of Affection : Ex-Combatants, Political Engagement and Reintegration Programs in Liberia
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Ex-combatants' relationship with post-war politics is crucial for the continued democratization and peace processes, irrespective of what has shaped it: the war or their post-war experiences. In this thesis, the relationship with politics, after the end of the Liberian civil war (1989-2003) is explored among ex-combatants, following the research question: How do ex-combatants in Liberia think about politics and how do they engage in politics? Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) programs are a large component of contemporary peacebuilding efforts that target ex-combatant populations. However, current research has failed to seriously examine the political consequences of these programs. Therefore, this thesis is also driven by an interest to explore whether the reintegration programs can shape the ex-combatants’ relationship with politics. Using focus group interviews with 101 ex-combatants in 18 different groups, with six different program experiences, as well as survey data from the Afrobarometer, these questions are examined using nested analyses, at both the group and individual level.Expanding on the concept of political reintegration, using the literature on democratic citizenship, this examination addresses the implicit democratic ideals that surround current DDR practices. In the case of ex-combatants in Liberia, their relationship with politics can be described using four dimensions: political involvement; tolerance of dissent; inclusion; and expressed antagonism. As a whole, the ex-combatants express a relation with politics indicative of a politics of affection, as their understanding of politics is often driven by a logic of emotion. Politics is filtered and understood through an emotive lens. Using a policy feedback framework, this thesis also shows how some reintegration programs can accentuate democratic ideals (e.g. participation and inclusion), while others emphasize more conflictual and antagonistic political practices, through their program design. Program procedures thereby provide cognitive cues, and provide an opportunity for political learning through an interpretive mechanism.
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| 5. |
- Barnes, Philippa, 1990-
(författare)
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When processes collide : leadership, legitimacy and liberation in Palestine
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Palestinian national movement leadership has long been intertwined with thecontext of the national movement processes – liberation, peace and statebuilding. Over time, as these processes have not come to fruition, the numerousleadership groups have had to negotiate their relationships with these processesas both the groups and processes increasingly overlap, creating significantobservable points of tension within Palestinian politics. There are currentlymultiple levels of leadership across the national movement: two representativegoverning institutions – the Palestine Liberation Organisation and thePalestinian Authority; two dominant political movements – Fatah and Hamas;and numerous popular resistance initiatives such as the Boycott, Divestment andSanctions movement coalition that has different levels of endorsement (or lackof) by the other leaderships. This thesis seeks to map the Palestinian nationalliberation movement leadership, examining the inter-relations between themultiple leadership groups and internal (i.e. intra-Palestinian) legitimacies.Examining the internal legitimacies of the Palestinian leaderships results in anexpansion of how internal legitimacy can be conceptualised. For the historicalperiod (1958-2008) analysed, I found revolutionary, representative,oppositional, institutional, democratic and moral legitimacy types within thePalestinian case. Furthermore, these were all attributed to respective nationalmovement processes. Analysing the recent period (2016-2017) requires the useof a relational approach to further develop understandings of legitimacy. Thisapproach transforms legitimacy into a process of (de)legitimisation, whichinteracts with the national movement processes and helps us capture and analysethe complexities of the Palestinian case – that of concurrent, multiple andcontending perspectives. I found the continuation of the liberation and statebuilding processes as simultaneous bases of legitimisation to be a critical point oftension within the tandem legitimisation-delegitisimation process. Engaging arelational approach demonstrated the need for ongoing leadershipreconstruction. I conclude that, in order to negotiate the interactions andcontestations between the multiple and dynamic processes that underlielegitimacy, leaderships face an ultimatum of ‘reconstruct or delegitimise’. WherePalestinian leadership groups have stagnated and not engaged with a process ofreconstruction, we see processes of delegitimisation arising that can explain thecurrent leadership complexities within the Palestinian national movement.
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| 6. |
- Boulanger Martel, Simon Pierre, et al.
(författare)
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Peace with Adjectives : Conceptual Fragmentation or Conceptual Innovation?
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Studies Review. - : Oxford University Press. - 1521-9488 .- 1468-2486. ; 26:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What strategies can be employed to conceptualize peace? In recent years, scholars have introduced an impressive array of “peace with adjectives” in order to make sense of some of the normative and empirical underpinnings of peace. Negative, positive, everyday, virtual, illiberal, partial, insecure, relational, emancipatory, agonistic, and feminist are some of the qualifiers that have been associated with the concept. While the growing attention to conceptualization is a welcomed development, we argue that the proliferation of new terms has led to increased fragmentation in the field of peace studies. Conceptual fragmentation impedes cumulative knowledge production and generates missed opportunities for fruitful discussions across theoretical and conceptual divides. In this article, we aim to provide more clarity to our field by mapping existing peace conceptualizations and identifying the strategies employed by scholars to construct innovative new terms. In our review, we identify 61 concepts and suggest that these conceptual innovations in peace research belong to one of three analytical strategies: developing diminished subtypes, conceptual narrowing, and conceptual expansion. Building on this categorization, we make recommendations for how peace researchers can enhance clarity and deepen constructive discussions between different conceptual approaches.
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| 7. |
- Cardenas, Magda, 1982-
(författare)
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Women-to-women diplomacy : the pursuit of feminist peace in Georgia and Myanmar
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why and how do women engage in peacebuilding efforts across conflict divides? This dissertation coins a novel concept, women-to-women diplomacy – or W2WD – to explore women’s peace activism in Georgia and Myanmar. W2WD consists of three components: 1) the promotion of women’s agency as a key aspect of mobilisation and peacebuilding practices; 2) women’s own experiences of conflict as a basis for bridging divides; and 3) women’s visions of gender equality as a fundamental part of peace. This concept emerged from my empirical observations of women’s organisations and activists from Georgia and Myanmar as charted through interviews and participant observation. It also builds on previous research on bottom-up peacebuilding and literature on women and peace. Until now there has been limited knowledge about the practices, motivations and visions of peace underpinning women’s peacebuilding efforts. This dissertation addresses this gap by exploring women’s peace activism at different stages of inter-ethnic civil conflict based on case studies from two conflict contexts, Georgia and Myanmar, covering situations of active fighting, ongoing peace negotiations, and frozen conflicts. The dissertation shows that W2WD is an alternative peacebuilding approach which creates platforms for dialogue and cooperation by facilitating personal encounters between women who share both experiences of conflict as well as a common goal of achieving equal rights. By developing the concept of W2WD, this dissertation theorizes and makes visible recurring patterns in women’s peacebuilding practices across conflict settings and contributes a new analytical framework that can be used in further research. The findings of this dissertation are also important for practitioners who wish to broaden their understanding of women’s organisations as key partners in the formulation of alternative peacebuilding strategies.
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| 8. |
- Giandomenico, Jessica, 1974-
(författare)
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Power Asymmetry Revisited : Reconciling EU Foreign Policy Goals and Enlargement Conditionality in the Western Balkans
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The EU is assumed to have a strong top-down transformative power over the states applying for membership. This leverage is based on a power asymmetry where the applicant states want to join the EU more than the EU wants to enlarge, and that the applicant states gain more than the member states from the enlargement.This thesis criticises the assumption of a strong top-down power over EU applicant states. There is growing evidence that this power asymmetry is not as strong as initially assumed. A historical institutionalist approach is used to explain how the power is weakened through the design of the conditionality and the management of the enlargement policy. The first study shows how the member states are locked up in a path dependent pattern where their capacity to act is limited. Lock-in effects narrow down the options to act for the EU member states, giving priority to political considerations over technical standards and thus limits its transformative power. In addition to that the EU has demonstrated a strategic interest in the Western Balkans, further undermining the power asymmetry. The second study demonstrates how the EU has limited capacity to influence the implementation of the conditionality, leaving much room for interpretation to the domestic actors. The design of the EU conditionality, with its focus on formal structures and rules, is not adequate to address also the desired normative transformation of the applicant states. The EU can provoke formal changes, but layers of the old structures and habits remain beyond the reach of the EU’s transformative power. Together these two studies demonstrate that the EU’s assumed top-down control over applicant states has some built-in weaknesses both at the Brussels level and in the applicant states, and that those weaknesses affect the transformative power of the EU. The tendency to give priority to political considerations over strict conditionality, in combination with limited scope of the conditionality, demonstrate that the power asymmetry is not that asymmetric, and that the EU does not have the institutional capacity to be the normative power and change agent it strives to be.
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| 9. |
- Höglund, Kristine, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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The Predicament of Elections in War-Torn Societies
- 2009
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Ingår i: Democratization. - London : Frank Cass Publishers. - 1351-0347 .- 1743-890X. ; 16:3, s. 530-557
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why do elections held in the shadow of civil wars sometimes generate more violence in already war-torn societies, while in other circumstances they do not? This article develops a conceptual framework based on three clusters of factors to analyse the conflict-generating aspects of elections in war-torn societies: the key actors in the electoral processes; the institutions of elections; and the stakes of the elections. Two types of war-related elections are distinguished: elections held during an ongoing civil war, and elections held in the post-war period when peace is to be implemented. While different in many respects, the two contexts share critical characteristics through their association with the legacy of warfare. Several important implications emerge from the analysis. First, relating to militant and violent actors, incentive structures need to be altered by addressing both the opportunities and means of violence. Second, to prevent inducements for violent behaviour, institutional arrangements - including electoral commissions have to be crafted with consideration given to local conflict dynamics and the history of violent conflict. Finally, the stakes of elections in war-shattered societies can be reduced through, for instance, constitutional pact-making and the oversight of external actors in electoral processes.
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| 10. |
- Jarstad, Anna, 1966-
(författare)
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Changing the Game : Consociational Theory and Ethnic Quotas in Cyprus and New Zealand
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study addresses the question of what makes ethnic quota systems in parliament work to manage ethnopolitical violence. By a reconstruction of Arend Lijphart’s theory on consociationalism, two causal mechanisms are identified. The first mechanism levels the power balance of contending groups by permanent inclusion in parliament. The second mechanism reduces the number of conflict issues to be agreed on jointly, by decentralization of decision-making to the respective ethnic groups. According to the logic of consociationalism, ethnic quotas in parliament are expected to prevent violence by levelling the power balance in parliament.The study includes an investigation of the ethnic quota systems of the world. Two cases which challenge Lijphart’s theory in two different ways, are selected for in-depth analysis. Contrary to the predictions of consociational theory, Cyprus as a typical consociational case has failed in conflict management, whereas New Zealand as the prime example of non-consociational cases has succeeded in promoting peace.The essence of consociational theory is reconstructed in a two-player game which is applied to the cases of ethnic relations in Cyprus and New Zealand. The conclusion is that ethnic quotas can contribute to changes in the actor’s ranking order of preferences by upgrading the value of cooperation. Only under the condition that the actors appreciate the mutual benefits of such cooperation, can ethnic quotas contribute to viable peace.
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