Sudan\u27s Expensive Minefields: An Evaluation of Political and Economic Problems in Sudanese Mine Clearance

Sudan is an extremely difficult place to run a demining program. Mine clearance agencies face astronomical prices of goods and services, monumental logistical challenges, bureaucratic impediments from government, fraught labor disputes and a deeply embedded political economy of conflict. This multitude of problems has made Sudan one of the most unproductive demining programs, in terms of ordnance or area cleared per US dollar, in the world. This begs the question whether the level of international investment in Sudanese mine action is truly worth it. This paper will argue that in terms of saving lives or increasing access to socio-economic development, much of the money pouring into Sudanese mine action might be better spent in other severely mine-impacted countries. However, other considerations make such a cost-benefit calculation more complicated. There may be a genuine argument for pouring funding into Sudan for the political reasons of supporting the peace between the North and South. The political, economic and social dividends from demining (including increased freedom of movement, return of displaced people and a reduction in perceptions of insecurity) may justify some of the high financial and other costs. That said, donors should not deceive themselves about the limits to mine action\u27s ability play the role of a midwife of peace

Mine Action with a Human Face: A Human Security Doctrine for Mine Action

Mine action needs to rediscover its ‘human face\u27,1 to remember, as UNMAS has said, that “It is not so much about mines as it is about people….”2 Empirical research in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan show that mine action is in danger of becoming distracted by commercial and strategic priorities. This is especially true since the advent of the ‘War on Terror\u27 and the continuing trend of consolidating the commercial mine action sector into the private security sector. Ten years ago a group of NGOs critical of the donor and commercial interests tried to develop a framework to guide mine action. The resulting document, “Mine Action Programmes from a Development-oriented Point of View”, sometimes referred to as ‘The Bad Honnef Framework\u27, argued that mine action must be guided by basic principles of participation, co-operation, coherence, sustainability and solidarity. Unfortunately, its influence has been relatively limited; in some places mine action is becoming a commodity to buy or an activity in support of counterinsurgency. To counteract these trends, we need a ‘Human Security Doctrine for Mine Action\u27, guided by the following five principles: 1. Doing no harm 2. Protecting the vulnerable 3. Participation 4. Stewardship 5. Building peace. The following will outline each of these principles in more detail and explain how they relate to mine action

Mine Action in Bosnia’s Special District: A Case Study

The Brčko Municipality, located in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), was a fierce battleground during the war from 1992 to 1995. Because of the Brčko district’s unique, strategic and symbolic significance to all sides of the conflict, it was the only issue left unresolved by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in December 1995, which had divided the country into two decentralized semi-autonomous “entities”: the Republika Srpska (populated mostly by Serbs) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (populated mostly by Bosniaks and Croats)

Like Oil and Water : Adaptation as Textuality, Intertextuality, and Metatextuality in Lady Snowblood (Fujita, 1973)

Toshiya Fujita’s 1973 film adaptation of Kazuo Koike and Kazue Kamimura’s manga series Lady Snowblood is a case study in the challenges inherent in adapting a complex graphic narrative to film. A sprawling episodic story of assassination and revenge, the original manga text offers challenges to any adapter in terms of content, form, narrative construction, and media affordances, challenges that Fujita and his screenwriter Norio Osada gamely take up in their film. In their attempts to adapt their source material, Fujita and Osada rely on three adaptation strategies—textuality, intertextuality, and metatextuality—that reveal both their nimble thinking about adaptation as an aesthetic process, but that also demonstrates the limitations of these strategies for containing and assimilating the capacious source material upon which the film is based. Ultimately, Fujita’s film is a fascinating text that both reworks and revises its source material while also allowing it to remain a legible contesting presence within its own narrative

Community organizing and community health:Piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London

BACKGROUND: The importance of community engagement in health is widely recognized, and key themes in UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations for enhancing community engagement are co-production and community control. This study reports an innovative approach to community engagement using the community-organizing methodology, applied in an intervention of social support to increase social capital, reduce stress and improve well-being in mothers who were pregnant and/or with infants aged 0–2 years. METHODS: Professional community organizers in Citizens-UK worked with local member civic institutions in south London to facilitate social support to a group of 15 new mothers. Acceptability of the programme, adherence to principles of co-production and community control, and changes in the outcomes of interest were assessed quantitatively in a quasi-experimental design. RESULTS: The programme was found to be feasible and acceptable to participating mothers, and perceived by them to involve co-production and community control. There were no detected changes in subjective well-being, but there were important reductions in distress on a standard self-report measure (GHQ-12). There were increases in social capital of a circumscribed kind associated with the project. CONCLUSIONS: Community organizing provides a promising model and method of facilitating community engagement in health

USING THE ARMS TREADE TREATY TO ADDRESS PARTORALIST CONFLICT AND WILDLIFE CRIME IN KENYA’S MARGINALIZED REGIONS

Militarized responses to pastoralist conflict and wildlife crime in Kenya –including to the collapsing elephant and rhino populations – often fail to meet human rights standards and undermine local capacities for sustainability, peace and alternative livelihoods. Heavy-handed state suppression encourages extrajudicial violence and introduces new weapons that often enter the illicit market. This article outlines alternative approaches rooted in human rights, the rule of law and international cooperation and assistance, including the use of regional instruments regulating the trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW), including the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The article draws on fieldwork in Kenya and participant observation in advocacy on the ATT.Las respuestas militarizadas al conflicto pastoralista y los delitos contra la vida silvestre en Kenia, incluidos los colapsos de las poblaciones de elefantes y rinocerontes, a menudo no cumplen con los estándares de derechos humanos y socavan las capacidades locales de sostenibilidad, paz y medios de vida alternativos. La represión Estatal de mano dura alimenta la violencia extrajudicial e introduce nuevas armas que a menudo entran en el mercado ilícito. Este artículo describe enfoques alternativos arraigados en los Derechos Humanos, el Estado de Derecho y la cooperación y asistencia internacional, incluido el uso de instrumentos regionales que regulan el comercio de armas pequeñas y ligeras (SALW, por su sigla en inglés para Small Arms and Light Weapons), incluido el Tratado de Comercio de Armas (ATT, por su sigla en inglés para Arms Trade Treaty) de 2013. El artículo se basa en el trabajo de campo en Kenia y la observación participante en la incidencia sobre el ATT.Respostas militarizadas ao conflito em área pastoril e aos crimes contra a vida selvagem no Quênia - incluindo o colapso de populações de elefantes e rinocerontes - muitas vezes não atendem aos padrões de direitos humanos e prejudicam as capacidades locais de sustentabilidade, paz e meios de subsistência alternativos. A repressão do Estado encoraja a violência extrajudicial e introduz novas armas que muitas vezes entram ilicitamente no mercado. Este artigo descreve abordagens alternativas enraizadas nos direitos humanos, no Estado de Direito e na cooperação e assistência internacionais, incluindo o uso de instrumentos regionais que regulam o comércio de armas pequenas e leves (SALW, na sigla em inglês para Small Arms and Light Weapons), incluindo o Tratado de Comércio de Armas (ATT, na sigla em inglês para Arms Trade Treaty) de 2013. O artigo baseia-se no trabalho de campo no Quênia e na observação participante na defesa do ATT

THE NUCLEAR TABOO AND THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

This article uses Mary Douglas’ landmark theorization of purity and danger to explore the development of the ‘nuclear taboo’ and ICAN’s creative manipulation of discourses of nuclear pollution. ICAN placed people who had long been marginalized by nuclear diplomacy – survivors, women, indigenous people, civilians, representatives of small states – at the center of the conversation about nuclear weapons. In doing so, ICAN deconstructed discourses legitimating nuclear weapons, revealing the ambivalence and fear underneath diplomatic euphemism. ICAN also turned the stigma associated with nuclear weapons onto those who defended them. I conclude by reflecting on the importance in being transparent about how pariah status for a weapon is socially constructed. Openly discussing the process of stigmatization need not undermine or delegitimize it. Rather, seeing pariah status as a political process enables us to have a conversation about how to address threats to human security without resorting to coercive control

The Rhetoric of Intermediality Adapting Means, Ends, and Ethics in Atonement

In this paper, I examine the ending of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement and Joe Wright’s film adaptation, considering the ways in which the shift in medium necessarily entails different rhetorical strategies which, in turn, entail different ethical judgments on the narrative’s central figure, Briony Tallis. Using the tools of rhetorical narrative theory, I argue that McEwan’s novel presents a particular challenge for adapters because its plot, its ontological play, and its ethics are all inextricably entwined with the affordances of verbal prose narrative, in the form of a novel-within-a-novel and a first-person diary coda. In order to transpose McEwan’s story to the screen, then, Wright must not only transpose the plot, but must do so by relying on the affordances of cinema to reproduce and reinterpret the novel’s rhetorical effects. But this move from prose to filmic discourse also necessarily shifts the ethical focus of the narrative from Briony’s own responsibilities as a character and an author to the audience’s investment in the fictional worlds which she creates, thereby also shifting McEwan’s indictment of Briony onto the film’s viewers. In order to see both the logic of Wright’s transmedial adaptation and its ultimate ethical effects, I focus on two questions in particular: first, how do McEwan and Wright each prepare their different audiences for the radical reconfiguration of the narrative’s twist ending, each relying on a different set of medial affordances; and second, how are these different audiences affected by the ethics of these disparate endings once the twist is revealed? Further, addressing these questions leads me to reflect on the troubled concept of fidelity, considering in what ways it can be recuperated as a theoretical tool

Governance and post-statist security: The politics of US and Norwegian foreign aid for demining in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan.

While governance has traditionally been the realm of states, new "Emerging Political Complexes," as Mark Duffield calls them, incorporate networks of public and private actors. These networks of governance come in two competing ideal types: a) strategic-commercial complexes, shaped by particularist interests, that provide protection to a select few, whether citizens of a great power or 'the client', and b) human security-civil society complexes, shaped by norms, ideals and more global notions of public interest, that aim to extend protection to whole populations. This PhD examines the effects and impact of these two approaches in managing and neutralizing the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance. At the donor level, it compares the US and Norway, arguing that Norway, working with NGOs, churches and other small states, has been at the forefront of efforts to ban landmines and cluster munitions, whereas the US has resisted tight regulation. Moreover, US funding of clearance and mitigation programs was shaped by narrow strategic interests and favored a commercially-driven process. In contrast, Norway's programs, implemented through international NGOs, were shaped more by more global conceptions of interest and normative commitments to humanitarianism, multilateralism and international law. At the level of implementation in mine and ordnance-affected countries - Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan - the PhD argues that Norwegian long-term grants to international NGOs produced demining that, while more expensive and slower, was better targeted on humanitarian priorities, safer and of better quality. Such programs also attempted to build inclusive institutions and resist the politics of violence. In contrast, US efforts, often driven by strategic concems and tendered out to commercial companies, were cheaper and faster but also less safe and of lower quality. These companies were also embedded in the political economy of war and may have contributed to the fragmentation of the public monopoly on force

Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering

Both the human factors engineering (HFE) and formal methods communities are concerned with finding and eliminating problems with safety-critical systems. This work discusses a modeling effort that leveraged methods from both fields to use model checking with HFE practices to perform formal verification of a human-interactive system. Despite the use of a seemingly simple target system, a patient controlled analgesia pump, the initial model proved to be difficult for the model checker to verify in a reasonable amount of time. This resulted in a number of model revisions that affected the HFE architectural, representativeness, and understandability goals of the effort. If formal methods are to meet the needs of the HFE community, additional modeling tools and technological developments are necessary