Nigeria's Post-1999 Political Settlement and Violence Mitigation in the Niger Delta

Almost fifteen years after transitioning to civilian-electoral rule, Nigeria is still wrestling with the legacy of a protracted period of military government and the ‘resource curse’ associated with its huge oil wealth. The ‘Niger Delta question’, as it is often referred to in Nigeria, is not close to resolution. The region has temporarily been pacified and oil production has gone up again, though it still falls short of Nigeria’s full production potential. But the reintegration of former mid-ranking militant commanders and fighters is faltering and social unrest persists due to high youth unemployment and poverty. Large scale organised criminal activity continues, and violence could quickly re-erupt and send the Delta back to where it was before 2009 if no remedying action is taken by the Nigerian authorities and their international partners.DFI

Education for Sustaining Peace through Historical Memory

Informed by the author’s long-standing work on violent conflict, peace and education in countries of the Global South, particularly Colombia, this open access book presents a comprehensive narrative about the relationship between peace education, historical memory and the sustaining peace agenda, advocating for the adoption of a new perspective on education for sustaining peace through historical memory. Education on and for peace in countries wrestling with, or emerging from, protracted violent conflict is up against major challenges, and both conventional and critical approaches to peace education are limited to address these. Incorporating a focus on historical memory, without losing sight of its own pitfalls, into peace education can support learners and teachers to come to grips with achieving positive, peace-sustaining change at both the micro (individual) and macro (social and institutional) levels, and to develop concepts and practices of effective and legitimate alternatives to violence and war. Conceived in these terms, historical memory-oriented peace education also stands to enhance the work-in-progress that is the UN-led sustaining peace agenda, including its Sustainable Development Goals

‘External Stresses’ and Violence Mitigation in Fragile Contexts: Setting the Stage for Policy Analysis

Following on from the World Bank’s World Development Report 2011 on conflict, security and development, a debate has emerged about the role of so-called ‘external stresses’ in generating ‘new’ forms of violence and insecurity in poor and fragile countries. The Bank posits that the combination of internal stresses (e.g. low income levels, high youth unemployment) and external stresses (e.g. cross-border conflict spillovers, illicit drug trafficking) heightens the risk of different forms of violence, which are not confined to inter-state and civil war but range from communal conflicts to criminal violence and terrorism. This perspective is useful, yet a more comprehensive and nuanced framework for policy analysis is called for, based on the recognition that external stresses: (a) tend to involve external, internal as well as transnational actors and variables that are often interrelated; (b) create both losers and winners, and can promote the interests of powerful state and non-state groups in and outside of the country or world region under ‘stress’; and (c) do not all have the same kind of impact on states and societies in terms of generating violence.DFI

Education for Sustaining Peace through Historical Memory

Informed by the author’s long-standing work on violent conflict, peace and education in countries of the Global South, particularly Colombia, this open access book presents a comprehensive narrative about the relationship between peace education, historical memory and the sustaining peace agenda, advocating for the adoption of a new perspective on education for sustaining peace through historical memory. Education on and for peace in countries wrestling with, or emerging from, protracted violent conflict is up against major challenges, and both conventional and critical approaches to peace education are limited to address these. Incorporating a focus on historical memory, without losing sight of its own pitfalls, into peace education can support learners and teachers to come to grips with achieving positive, peace-sustaining change at both the micro (individual) and macro (social and institutional) levels, and to develop concepts and practices of effective and legitimate alternatives to violence and war. Conceived in these terms, historical memory-oriented peace education also stands to enhance the work-in-progress that is the UN-led sustaining peace agenda, including its Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction – Localising Governance: An Outlook on Research and Policy

The past two decades have seen an enormous increase in academic and policy attention to, and engagement with, governance at the sub?national and local levels. Yet, our understanding of the conditions that enable local governments to deliver services to citizens, reduce poverty, be inclusive and responsive, bridge cleavages in divided post?conflict societies or represent citizen interests to higher levels of authority remains limited. Drawing on different perspectives, the articles contained in this IDS Bulletin take a fresh look at how local governance ‘really’ works and how it could become more accountable, effective and legitimate to support development that favours poor and marginalised people. Extending the boundaries of prevailing debates on methodological and conceptual issues, civil society, political and power relationships, and the challenges of decentralisation in (post)?conflict settings, the authors offer an outlook on taking forward the work on localising governance and designing policies that help improve its performance

Decentralisation and Accountability in War-to-Peace Transitions: The Case of Kosovo

Pre-submitted version of article for IDS Bulletin 45.5.In spite of the scant evidence of a positive correlation between decentralisation and strengthened local development and governance, decentralisation has been promoted as a tool to consolidate peace and rebuild states in countries emerging from violent conflict, especially in settings torn apart by ethnic and other identity-based cleavages. A key difficulty decentralisation has faced in many non-conflict settings is related to the challenge of instituting effective mechanisms of accountability. This difficulty is compounded in war-to-peace transitions. Using Kosovo as our case study, we highlight the risk of negative trade-offs between what we call the ‘political’ (peace-building) and ‘functional’ (state-building) dimensions of decentralisation. While quite successful in terms of mitigating tensions between the Albanian majority and Serb minority, decentralisation has contributed little to enhancing cooperation and trust between the two communities and improving local governance. Weak accountability – both formal and social – needs to be addressed to conclude Kosovo’s war-to-peace transition.SD

How Does State Fragility Affect Rural Development?

International development agencies are focusing increasingly on fragile and conflict affected states and the challenges they are facing in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Recognizing that fragile states are ‘different’ from more stable and less vulnerable (though not necessarily poorer) developing countries, donors are nowadays paying more attention than before to specific problems of governance, service delivery, the development of core state functions, and – more recently – conflict resolution, peace-building and violence mitigation in fragile and conflict-affected settings. However, despite the fact that many fragile states have large rural populations and (subsistence) agriculture and associated, nonfarm economic activities constitute significant sectors of their economies, the relationship between state fragility and rural development remains underexplored

Anotaciones sobre la escritura de lo político

Escribir bien sobre lo político es una forma de arte. Hoy, pocos escritores entienden el significado de esta premisa. Constantemente nos enfrentamos a artículos, ensayos, informes y libros mediocres y sesgados que pretenden ser “políticos” y “científicos”, pero que en realidad son expresiones de sensacionalismo y confusión ideológica o de falta de conocimiento empírico del autor, y generalmente de perspectiva