| 1. |
- Jarstad, Anna, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Three approaches to peace : a framework for describing and exploring varieties of peace
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For decades, peace and conflict studies have devoted more attention to conflict than to peace, and despiteits centrality, peace itself has been under-conceptualized. In this paper, we propose a theoretical frameworkand methodologies to make peace beyond the absence of war researchable. The framework is designed to capture varieties of peace between and beyond dichotomous conceptions of positive versus negative peace, or successful versus failed peace processes. To capture the complexity of peace in its empirical diversity, our framework approaches peace in three different ways: as a situation or condition in a particular locality; as a web of relationships; and as ideas or discourses about what peace is or should be. These approaches provide different avenues for researching peace, and taken together they provide a fuller picture of what peace is, how it is manifested, experienced, and understood. We argue that this framework provides a way forward in advancing conceptual understandings and empirical analyses of peace that can facilitate systematic, comparative, qualitative analyses while at the same time accounting for the complex, multifaceted nature of peace.
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| 2. |
- 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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| 3. |
- 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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