JournalTOCs

Stability : International Journal of Security and Development
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.438

Citation Impact (citeScore): 1
Number of Followers: 7

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 2165-2627
Published by CSG

[1 journal]

Legitimate Targets: What is the Applicable Legal Framework Governing the
Use of Force in Rio de Janeiro'
- Abstract: The belief that the favelas of Rio de Janeiro constitute a ‘war zone’ is widely held in Brazilian society. The intensity of the violence and the level of organization of some of the armed actors are comparable to those in officially recognized non-international armed conflicts elsewhere in the world. As conflicts are increasingly fought in situations where it is challenging to distinguish civilians from combatants, the binary divisions of international law are failing to address the contemporary experience of violence in what has been termed the ‘new wars’. There is an emerging agreement in international jurisprudence and state practice that the provisions of international human rights law and international humanitarian law must be concurrently applied in officially recognised ‘war zones’. This article argues that this analysis could also be used in other situations of violence, such as Rio de Janeiro, but the ‘armed conflict’ rhetoric risks conferring legitimacy of the use of lethal force between its parties. Published on 2022-11-16 13:13:03
Deriving Countermeasures to the Use of Housing, Land and Property Rights
as a War-Financing Commodity
- Abstract: Efforts to thwart the trafficking of conflict commodities to finance wars constitute an ongoing endeavour. As specific approaches become effective for certain commodities, belligerent actors pursue new forms of exploitation. The trafficking of housing, land and property (HLP) rights in war zones has now reached a pervasiveness, lucrativeness and severity to warrant significant attention on the derivation of countermeasures. This article proposes a set of potential countermeasures to trafficking in HLP rights in war zones by examining five sets of possible mechanisms and how they would work: detection, transnational governance, local-level countermeasures, public messaging, and targeting non-state armed groups. Published on 2022-11-01 12:40:56
Challenging how Danger is Understood: A Research Practitioners’ Note
on Migration in Africa
- Abstract: A significant increase in research on movement in and from Africa, much of which has been commissioned, conducted or promoted by international humanitarian and development agencies, has resulted in a disproportionate focus on the dangers of migration. It has helped to generate a policy narrative dominated by the harms associated with movement that is strongly influenced by a Euro-centric lens. This distorts both the true nature of migration across Africa and the risks involved. Movement is extremely dangerous for some. But this practice note argues that this is by no means the whole story, or even a predominant part of it. Drawing on two empirical research studies on movement within and from Africa, this note seeks to better locate issues of harm and danger in the experience of movement. The analysis provides an alternative story of migration in which many move safely, or at least with relative safety; in which migrants have agency and understand the risks of movement but make complex choices and decisions; and in which not moving is often the least safe option. We use this evidence to call for those commissioning and conducting research on migration intended to influence policies and programmes to be more objective in how their research is framed, more transparent in how it is presented, and more realistic about the recommendations that should follow. Published on 2022-04-20 10:33:31
Reflections on the Evolution of Conflict Early Warning
- Abstract: Conflict early warning is supposed to identify and trigger actions to reduce the onset, duration, intensity, and effects of multiple forms of political violence. While the commitment of nations to broader conflict prevention was not universally shared in the twentieth century, the concept of conflict prevention – and by extension, conflict early warning – has acquired salience in international relations over the last 30 years. This growing engagement, coupled with advances in computing, has triggered increased investment in enhanced early warning mechanisms with increasingly sophisticated temporal and spatial dimensions. Yet, the practical operationalization of conflict prevention and conflict early warning lags behind its theoretical development for several reasons. These include, inter alia, limitations in early warning assessments; the limited availability, coverage, quality and verifiability of real-time data; complex modelling challenges emerging from endogeneity inherent in conflict processes; and, not least, an inherent lack of political will among relevant actors to act upon robust and compelling evidence of heightened risks of organized violence. The latter is the core of the so-called ‘warning-response’ gap. Despite these challenges, investments in advanced data collection and analysis techniques including machine learning, natural language processing and artificial intelligence are influencing the practice of early warning and response. This article offers a descriptive review of the form and function of conflict early warning systems over the past four decades. In the process, it provides insight into why many of these systems have yet to live up to expectations. Published on 2022-03-28 10:51:06
Housing, Land and Property Rights as War-Financing Commodities: A Typology
with Lessons from Darfur, Colombia and Syria
- Abstract: The ongoing use of landscape-based conflict commodities — diamonds and other minerals, timber, wildlife, etc. — to finance wars continues to evolve. The success with which such commodities can be transacted to support militaries, militias and insurgencies has led belligerents to innovate with additional commodities. Housing, land and property (HLP) rights within war zones have belatedly joined the list of conflict commodities that are subject to transaction, and to such an extent as to warrant significant concern. However, the use of ‘conflict HLP rights’ has not yet been operationally described in the way that other conflict commodities have been. This is a necessary first step towards deriving and designing countermeasures. This article makes a preliminary attempt to delineate the exploitation of conflict HLP rights by examining how they are transacted to support belligerent groups in three conflicts: Darfur, Colombia and Syria. Published on 2022-03-18 10:18:56
A Comparative Analysis of One-Sided Violence and Civil War Peace Agreement
Implementation
- Abstract: Does one-sided violence create a negative cascading effect on the success of peace agreement implementation' If violence influences peace accord implementation negatively, how can such violence be contained to safeguard the implementation process' While post-conflict one-sided violence can be viewed as residual, the use of such violence can significantly influence peacebuilding outcomes. Implementing the agreement is a contentious process as both sides expect to maximize their benefits and minimize their losses from intended reforms negotiated in the agreement. Implementation success is achieved by minimizing the difference in policy reforms through mutual trust, reciprocity, and sequential policy moves. In such a contentious implementation setting, the use of one-sided violence by any actor undermines trust and reciprocity between signatories and subsequently forestalls implementation success. Empirical analyses of a global sample of comprehensive peace agreements since 1989 show a significant and negative relationship between the use of one-sided violence and the peace agreement implementation rate. Rebel one-sided violence has a larger negative effect on implementation compared to state and other non-state one-sided violence. Published on 2020-05-29 14:33:42
‘They Were Going to the Beach, Acting like Tourists, Drinking, Chasing
Girls’: A Mixed-Methods Study on Community Perceptions of Sexual
Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti
- Abstract: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has been marred by reports of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) perpetrated against local women/girls. However, there is very limited empirical evidence on the community’s perceptions regarding these sexual interactions. Through a mixed-methods approach, this article examines community experiences and perceptions of SEA, with three prominent themes arising: peacekeepers as tourists, peacekeepers as sexual exploiters and abusers, and peacekeepers as ideal partners. Uruguayan (n = 107, 28.1 per cent) and Brazilian personnel (n = 83, 21.8 per cent) were most commonly named in SEA narratives. We explore how these perceptions of MINUSTAH peacekeepers undermine the purpose and legitimacy of UN peace support operations, and propose strategies to prevent and address peacekeeper-perpetrated SEA. Published on 2020-05-21 12:18:40
‘The Swarm Principle’: A Sub-National Spatial Analysis of Aid
Targeting and Donor Coordination in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Abstract: Do bilateral and multilateral foreign aid donors target poverty' To answer that question, we present a framework for assessing the quality of aid targeting sub-nationally. If donors cluster aid in areas with concentrated poverty, or spread out aid in areas of diffuse poverty, then we conclude that donors are targeting aid well. Furthermore, because co-financing may be a mechanism that improves coordination and information-sharing among donors, we examine whether the frequency of donor co-financing increases the quality of aid targeting. Recently released sub-national georeferenced foreign aid data for all bilateral and multilateral donors are available in five sub-Saharan African countries, making it possible to map the placement of foreign aid along with sub-national poverty levels. Results indicate that foreign donors target poverty in some countries but not others, and higher co-financing is associated with lower quality targeting across all cases. Published on 2020-05-15 10:28:13
‘Is Help Coming'’ Communal Self-Protection during Genocide
- Abstract: Despite the rhetoric of the Responsibility to Protect principle (R2P), vulnerable groups continue to experience genocide. Some, such as the Yazidis in Iraq, have tried to mitigate genocide through communal self-protection. The dominance of R2P in contemporary normative discussions about responding to genocide, however, means that there has been a lack of research into the lived realities of such experiences. This article explores the phenomenon of communal self-protection during genocide, through a multiple case study analysis. It examines the pre-eminent examples of communal self-protection during three cases of modern genocide — the experiences of the Armenians at Musa Dagh during the 1915 Armenian genocide, the Tutsi at Bisesero during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and the Yazidis in Sinjar during the 2014 Yazidi genocide. It presents a typology of communal self-protection strategies during genocide, developed from the case study analysis. The article finds that communal self-protection is only feasible as a strategy in exceptional circumstances. Even in a best-case scenario, communal self-protection offers a temporary reprieve, rather than sustainable living conditions. Vulnerable groups attempting communal self-protection are ultimately reliant on external rescue for their survival, which may not be forthcoming. Communal self-protection should therefore not be regarded as a viable strategy to mitigate genocide in any circumstance. Published on 2020-05-14 11:40:25
From Exile to Homeland Return: Ethnographic Mapping to Inform
Peacebuilding from Afar
- Abstract: When violent conflict flares up, forced migration often follows. Ethnographic data shows that forced migrants remain attached to their places of origin and often express a desire to return once conflict has abated, be it after weeks, months, or years. Conversely, peacebuilders in the homeland have not effectively integrated displaced persons within their strategic programming. This is cause for concern considering the literature connecting the collapse of fragile peace to ‘refugee spoilers.’ There is a critical gap in peacebuilders’ commitment to understanding refugees’ needs and claims, and the implications these pose on peace stability following repatriation. This article argues that ethnography of refugees still living in exile can generate rich datasets useful to the development of peacebuilding programming. More than this, it proposes a methodology — ethnographic mapping — that can collect both spatial (maps) and narrative (descriptions) information in tandem and across cultural groups living in refugee camps. Published on 2020-04-29 12:10:38