Owning Peace: Assessing the Impact of Local Ownership of Police Reforms on Post-conflict Peace

In the aftermath of armed conflict the (re) establishment of well-functioning and legitimate security institutions is touted as fundamental for the development of sustainable peace. Post-conflict police reform, often carried out with considerable involvement from external donor organisations, has become one of the most frequently implemented mechanisms of peacebuilding. Unfortunately, the track record of post-conflict police reform is, so far, mixed at best. Scholars (see, Donais, 2008; Gordon, 2015) argue that donors too often fail to engage local actors during the reform process and ‘impose’ reforms that are neither wanted by the host state and its society, nor befitting of the context. As a result, reform processes fail due to a lack of what is referred to as ‘local ownership’. The overall aim of this study is to provide new empirical and theoretical insights into the effects of local ownership on post-conflict peacebuilding. The overarching research question this study aims to address is: How does the local ownership of post-conflict police reform impact post-conflict peace? To answer this question, this study takes a mixed methods approach. The first part of the analysis is statistical, and considers the effects of local ownership on police reform in every post-conflict country globally, from 1989-2014. It includes new global data on police reform, external involvement and four types of local ownership based on the engagement of local actors – the executive, parliament, the police and civil society – in post-conflict police reform. New global data on community policing and female representation programs is also presented. The second part of the analysis is qualitative, and was completed through fieldwork in Kosovo, where 23 people were interviewed in relation to local ownership and its effects on the post-conflict police reform process there. The participants were from external donor organisations, Kosovo Police and government personnel, and members of civil society. The findings of the quantitative study suggest that local ownership plays a vital role in the promotion of post-conflict peace. The strongest association to post-conflict peace pertains to executive ownership, while police and civil society ownership are also demonstrated to have a positive relationship to post conflict peace. The findings from the qualitative study support the quantitative analysis and show that local ownership was significant for the success of Kosovo’s police reform program and for its overall stability, highlighting the importance of executive and civil society ownership in particular. The results also showcase the importance of time, and that local ownership can be separated into ownership of the reform process, and ownership of the reformed institutions. The fieldwork also suggests three factors that have hindered the development of local ownership: corruption, justice and impunity issues, and socio-economic development. This is the first study to examine the effects of local ownership on any type of post-conflict peacebuilding using large-N global data. It contributes to existing research most notably in relation to the presentation of new global data on post-conflict police reform and local ownership. This study also reconceptualises the term local ownership and focuses on one aspect of it: the engagement between local and external actors. It also distinguishes between the breadth and the depth of engagement, and concerns itself with only the breadth of local actor engagement in reform processes. Through deepening our understanding of local ownership, the findings of this research shed light on how to improve the implementation of post-conflict police reform processes so that they are better able to meaningfully improve peace in post-conflict societies

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Striking it Free? Organized labor and the outcomes of civil resistance

This study draws from organizational theory to explain the outcomes of civil resistance campaigns. Organizational theory suggests that organizations embedded in extensive interpersonal networks upon which the state partially depends bring “leverage” to civil resistance campaigns and increase the likelihood of major government concessions in the short term. Also, organizations with strong local ties and a confederal “national” structure should bring resilience and reduce the probability of short term failure. We argue that, in general, National Trade Unions (NTUs) approximate these organizational features. Using new data on the participation of NTUs in civil resistance campaigns, our results suggest that NTU participation increases the likelihood of short-term success and decreases the chances of short-term failure. NTU participation also improves the prospects of postconflict democratization. In contrast, campaign size is robustly associated with short-term success but not with the probability of failure or postconflict democratization. Our research suggests that an “organizational” turn is a productive step toward understanding the short- and long-term outcomes of nonviolent campaigns

‘Preaching Disaffection’ in the Presbyterian Atlantic: Jotham Blanchard and the Reform Crisis in Scotland and Nova Scotia, c. 1827–37

In the 1820s and '30s Jotham Blanchard (1800-38), assemblyman for Pictou, Nova Scotia, launched a reform campaign against the Nova Scotian government. With the help of his mentor, the Rev. Thomas McCulloch, a Presbyterian missionary from Scotland, Blanchard attacked the colonial establishment for its failure to support the Pictou Academy, a college of higher learning for religious dissenters. Connected to a transatlantic denominational information web, Blanchard and McCulloch were inspired by the radical ecclesiology of the Scottish United Secession Church, with which McCulloch was affiliated. In 1831 Blanchard travelled to Britain to lobby the Colonial Office. There he was aided by the ministers of the United Secession, currently embroiled in their own local campaign in support of the Reform Bill. Blanchard's visit impacted on the domestic scene and the two campaigns became closely interwoven. Unfortunately for Blanchard his mission failed and he was written out of Nova Scotian history. Colonial historiography, concerned with celebrating the role of local heroes in the struggle for national self-determination, has focused overwhelmingly on the legacy of Joseph Howe, the triumphant champion of responsible government. Situating the Nova Scotian campaign within a transatlantic context, this article resurrects Blanchard's career and underlines its importance.</p