Short-term and long-term effects of United Nations peace operations

Earlier studies have shown that United Nations peace operations make a positive contribution to peacebuilding efforts after civil wars. But do these effects carry over to the period after the peacekeepers leave? And how do the effects of UN peace operations interact with other determinants of peacebuilding in the long run? The author addresses these questions using a revised version of the Doyle and Sambanis dataset and applying different estimation methods to estimate the short-term and long-term effects of UN peace missions. He finds that UN missions have robust, positive effects on peacebuilding in the short term. UN missions can help parties implement peace agreements but the UN cannot fight wars, and UN operations contribute more to the quality of the peace where peace is based on participation, than to the longevity of the peace, where peace is simply the absence of war. The effects of UN missions are also felt in the long run, but they dissipate over time. What is missing in UN peacebuilding is a strategy to foster the self-sustaining economic growth that could connect increased participation with sustainable peace.Post Conflict Reintegration,Peace&Peacekeeping,International Affairs,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Politics and Government

Ethnic partition as a solution to ethnic war - an empirical critique of the theoretical literature

Some theorists of ethnic conflict argue that the physical separation of warring ethnic groups may be the only possible solution to civil war. Without territorial partition and (if needed) forced population movements, they argue, ethnic war cannot end and genocide is likely. Other scholars have counter-argued that partition only replaces internal war with international war, creates undemocratic successor states, and generates tremendous human suffering. So far this debate has been informed by few important case studies. The author uses a new set of data on civil wars to identify the main determinants of ethnic partitions and to estimate their impact on the probability of war's recurrence, on low-grade ethnic violence, and on the political institutions of successor states. The author's analysis is the first large-sample quantitative analysis of the subject, testing the propositions of partition theory and weighing heavily on the side of its critics. He shows that almost all of the assertions of partition theorists fail to pass rigorous empirical tests. He finds that, on average, partition does not significantly reduce the probability of new violence. A better strategy might be to combine ethnic groups, but most important is to establish credible and equitable systems of governance. It is also important not to load the strategy with subjective premises about the necessity of ethnically pure states and about the futility of inter-ethnic cooperation.International Affairs,Peace&Peacekeeping,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Children and Youth,Peace&Peacekeeping,International Affairs,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Children and Youth

How much war will we see? Estimating the incidence of civil war in 161 countries

Quantitative studies of civil war have focused either on war's onset, or its termination, producing important insights into these end points of the process. The authors complement these studies by studying how much war we are likely to observe in any given period. To answer this question, they combine recent advances in the theory of civil war initiation, and duration, and, develop the concept of war incidence, denoting th probability of observing an event of civil war in any given period. They test theories of war initiation, and duration against this new concept, using a five-year panel data set for 161 countries. Their analysis of the incidence of war corroborates most of the results of earlier studies, enriching those results by highlighting the significance of socio-ppolitical variables as determinants of the risk of civil war. Their findings: 1) Steps toward advancing political liberalization, or economic development reduce the risk of civil war, whatever the degree of ethno-linguistic fractionalization in a society. 2) This effect is amplified in polarized societies. The probability of civil war is lower in very homogeneous societies, and (less so) in more diverse societies. 3) In polarized societies, the risk of civil war can be reduced by political, rather than economic liberalization. At high levels of political freedom, ethnic diversity - even polarization - has a minimal impact on the risk of civil war. 4) Economic diversification that would reduce a country's reliance on primary exports would also reduce the risk of civil wars, especially in polarized societies. 5) In strategies for preventing civil war, political liberalization should be a higher priority than economic development, but the best possible results would combine political reform, economic diversification, and poverty reduction.Peace&Peacekeeping,International Affairs,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Social Conflict and Violence,Safety Netsand Transfers

External interventions and the duration of civil wars

The authors combine an empirical model of external intervention, with a theoretical model of civil war duration. Their empirical model of intervention allows them to analyze civil war duration, using"expected"rather than"actual"external intervention as an explanatory variable in the duration model. Unlike previous studies, they find that external intervention is positively associated with the duration of civil war. They distinguish partial third-party interventions that extend the length of war, from multilateral"peace"operations, which have a mandate to restore peace without taking sides - and which typically take place at war's end, or at least when both sides have agreed to a cease-fire. In a future paper, the authors will examine whether partial third-party interventions - whatever their effect on a war's duration - increase the risk of war's recurrence. If that proves true, then even if interventions reduce the length of civil war, they may do so at the cost of further destabilizing the political system, and sowing the seeds of future rebellion.Children and Youth,Peace&Peacekeeping,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Post Conflict Reconstruction,International Affairs,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Social Conflict and Violence,Peace&Peacekeeping,Post Conflict Reconstruction,International Affairs

Political Exclusion, Lost Autonomy, and Escalating Conflict over Self-Determination

Most civil wars are preceded by nonviolent forms of conflict. While it is oftenassumed that violent and nonviolent conflicts are qualitatively different and havedifferent causes, that assumption is rarely tested empirically. This article uses atwo-step approach to explore whether political exclusion and lost autonomy - two common causes of civil war according to extant literature - are associated with the emergence of nonviolent separatist claims, with the escalation of nonviolent separatist claims to war, or both. Our analysis suggests that different types of grievances matter more at different stages of conflict escalation. We find that political exclusion is a significant correlate of the escalation of nonviolent claims for self-determination to violence, while its association with the emergence of nonviolent separatist claims is weaker. By contrast, lost autonomy is correlated with both the emergence of nonviolent separatist claims and, if autonomy revocations are recent, their escalation to violence. We argue that these results are consistent with both grievance- and opportunity-based theories of conflict

The effects of economic austerity on pro-sociality: Evidence from Greece

The European sovereign debt crisis resulted in policies of fiscal austerity and economic downturn in Greece, marked by a prolonged period of recession and high unemployment. This article explores the social impact of the economic crisis, focusing on its effects on altruism using new household-level survey data and quasi-behavioral outcomes. We focus on the effects of joblessness, the most severe form of economic hardship imposed as a result of the crisis. Our findings reveal a strong relationship between job loss in the household and decreased altruism. We provide experimental evidence of these effects and of in-group bias in charitable giving as a result of joblessness. Our results show that joblessness intensifies survey respondents’ preferences for national as opposed to foreign charities

Mythos Praxis um jeden Preis? Die Wurzeln und Modellierung des Lehr-Lern-Labors

Lehr-Lern-Labor-Seminare sind seit vielen Jahren in der Naturwissenschaftsdidaktik und seit kurzem auch in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Didaktik anzutreffende universitäre Seminarkonzepte, die mehrmalige Schüler*innenbesuche an der Universität implementieren. Diese bewirken auf den ersten Blick eine Erhöhung der Praxisanteile im Lehramtsstudium, die dem Wunsch nach mehr Praxis vieler Studierender entgegenzukommen scheint und dem zu theoretisch anmutenden Lehramtsstudium entgegenwirkt. Analysiert man die Situation allerdings genauer, so erscheint nicht ein „mehr“ an Praxis, sondern „bessere“ d.h. mit Theorie vernetzte, reflektierte Praxis als wünschenswert für eine moderne, adäquate Lehramtsausbildung in der ersten Phase. Die Lehr-Lern-Labor-Seminare können eine solche, „bessere“ Praxis bieten, sie müssen allerdings eine Reihe von Kriterien erfüllen. Hierzu zählt nicht nur eine längst überfällig erscheinende Definition und theoretische Modellierung des Lehrformats, sondern auch die explizite Einbettung theoretischer und reflexiver Phasen. Ersteres wird in diesem Beitrag erarbeitet und vorgestellt, letzteres bedarf einer empirischen Prüfung, die auch im Lehr-Lern-Labor-Seminar-Projekt der Freien Universität Berlin vorgenommen wird

Mehrsprachigkeit im Englischunterricht in Berliner Schulen – Hintergründe, Herausforderungen, Herangehensweisen

Die Sprachenvielfalt an Berliner Schulen stellt Lehrkräfte vor besondere Herausforderungen. Der Beitrag diskutiert den Umgang mit Mehrsprachigkeit im Englischunterricht und zeigt Wege auf, unterschiedliche Sprachen lerner*innenorientiert in die Unterrichtspraxis einzubinden. Der erste Teil fasst die wichtigsten Hintergründe zur Förderung von Mehrsprachigkeit im Englischunterricht zusammen. Hier werden Bezüge zu gegenwärtigen Tendenzen in der Englischdidaktik hergestellt und aktuelle Befunde der Hirnforschung in den Blick genommen. Daran inhaltlich anknüpfend werden unterrichtspraktische Beispiele zur Förderung individueller Mehrsprachigkeit im Englischunterricht vorgestellt. Der letzte Teil des Beitrages stellt die Ergebnisse zweier Erhebungen zur Haltung von (mehrsprachigen) Lehrkräften zur Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik und deren Herangehensweisen an die Einbindung unterschiedlicher Familiensprachen in den Fremdsprachenunterricht vor

Und Action! Vom Hirn ins Herz bis in die Füße

Was ist der Mehrwert eines performativen Unterrichts? Warum wirken die kreativen Ansätze, die den Körper mit in das Lernen einer fremden Sprache einbeziehen? Und wie kann der tertiäre Bildungsbereich im Rahmen eines Embodied Learning von neueren Forschungsarbeiten aus dem Bereich der Neurowissenschaften, der Psychologie und der Didaktik profitieren? Die beiden Vortragenden stellten ein gemeinsames Projekt vor, das im Frühjahr 2019 bei Cornelsen publiziert wird. In drei Themenfeldern wurden die Bereiche Neurowissenschaften und Performative Didaktik verknüpft und mögliche Synergieeffekte beleuchtet. In ihrer bewegten Lecture Performance gingen die beiden Vortragenden den eingangs gestellten Fragen nach. Hierzu wurden zunächst ausgewählte Befunde aus der entsprechenden neurowissenschaftlichen Forschung in drei Mini-Inputs kompakt und verständlich referiert. In einem weiteren Schritt wurden diese Wissensbestände mit dramapädagogischen Impulsen für den Fremdsprachenunterricht in Verbindung gesetzt, die gemeinsam ausprobiert wurden. So wurde beispielsweise die Speicherung von Gedächtnisinhalten erklärt und anschließend von den Teilnehmer*innen der Tagung in eine fantasievoll-anregende Performance umgesetzt. Durch die Erarbeitung dieser Performance setzten sich alle Teilnehmer*innen bewusst und intensiv mit einer Kernfrage des Fremdsprachenunterrichts auseinander, die zuvor thematisiert wurde: Wie gelangen die lexikalischen Strukturen in den Kopf und vor allem, wie bleiben sie dort in abrufbarer Form erhalten? Die unterschiedliche Speicherung von episodischem oder deklarativem Wissen führte ..