Oiling the Rigs of State-building: A Political Settlements Analysis of Petroleum Revenue Management in Timor-Leste

Timor-Lestes extractive industry became economically and politically important during the post-conflict transition period. The government established the Petroleum Fund in 2005 to protect the economy from a resource curse. However, the management of the Fund has since become a source of controversy as it created opportunities for corruption and unsustainable spending practices. We argue in this article that political dynamics, in addition to if not more than weak institutions, engendered corruption, clientelist rule, and economic disenfranchisement in postconflict Timor-Leste. Using the Political Settlements approach as an analytical framework, we demonstrate that patronage, rivalry, and rent seeking in the manage ment of petroleum revenues are associated with economic and political challenges in Timor-Lestes state-building process

Climate-Induced Stressors to Peace: A Review Of Recent Literature

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a threat to global peace and security. This paper intends to provide a better understanding of the nature of interactions between climate change and events that undermine peace through a systematic review of recent literature. It highlights major methodological approaches adopted in the literature, elaborates on the geographic focus of the research at the nexus of climate change and peace, and provides further information on how various climatic stressors, such as extreme temperature, floods, sea-level rise, storms, and water stress may be linked to different events that undermine peace (e.g. civil conflict, crime, intercommunal violence, interstate conflict, political conflict, and social conflict) through direct and indirect pathways. Results confirm previous findings that statistical techniques and qualitative case studies are dominant methods in climate-conflict research but show that there has been an increase in the geographic information system based risk analyses and qualitative comparative analyses in the recent years. In line with previous reviews, results show that the literature is mainly focused on certain regions of the world and several major regions that have experienced numerous conflicts over the past few years and/or are vulnerable to adverse climatic events are understudied. However, a new finding is that, in the past few years, there has been an increasing focus on Asia, which contrasts with previous reviews that show an African focus in the literature. Also, there is an unbalanced attention to different climatic stressors and peace-related events. Interactions between water stress/extreme temperature and civil and interstate conflicts have received more attention. A major finding is that, only under certain conditions climatic stressors may act as driving forces or aggravating factors. In fact, there is a strong consensus that climate change is less likely to undermine peace in isolation from a wide range of contextual socio-economic and institutional factors such as political instability, poor governance, poverty, homogeneous livelihood structures, and ethnic fractionalization. However, such contextual factors can contribute to undermining peace via either direct or indirect pathways. The former may occur through direct psychological/physiological effects of climatic impacts or via competition over scarce resources. In contrast, in indirect pathways climate change may lead to conflict through diminishing livelihood capacities and/or inducing migration. In addition to synthesizing literature on contextual factors and direct/indirect pathways, the review identifies gaps that need further research

Who Laughs at a Rape Joke? Illiberal Responsiveness in Rodrigo Duterte\u27s Philippines

When a presidential contender makes a joke about lusting over a dead Australian missionary, calls the Pope the son of a whore, and confesses to killing criminals during his tenure as city mayor, one could expect that this candidate would not go very far. But not in the year 2016. Dubbed as ‘the year of voting dangerously,’ the Philippines rode the tide of global discontent and gave landslide victory to the controversial Rodrigo Duterte. This chapter examines the discursive underpinnings of Duterte’s rise to power by focusing on the process in which his supporters made ethical calculations from listening to his official speeches, live performance on television debates, and broader discussions in news and social media during the campaign period. We argue that Duterte’s ‘crass politics’ is a push back to the dominant moral politics perpetuated by institutions associated to the Philippines\u27 liberal democratic elite. While we condemn the Duterte regime’s disregard for human rights and due process, especially in the context of his bloody war on drugs, we also advocate a closer look at the ethics of Duterte’s responsiveness to deep-seated injuries endured by his constituencies both among marginalised and middle-class communities. Through a careful yet critical unpacking of his ‘crass politics of responsiveness’ from ethnographic research with Duterte supporters and media analysis of Duterte’s public performances, we hope to put forward a precise understanding of the emerging moral politics that underpins this unorthodox regime

The Pitfalls of Local Involvement: Justice and Reconciliation in Cambodia, Kosovo and Timor-Leste

The critiques of the liberal peacebuilding framework led to recommendations of further enhancing local involvement during a peacebuilding process, including transitional justice. Previous studies highlight the importance of grounding transitional justice mechanisms on local contexts to better address the needs of victims in post-conflict societies. However, there are instances when local actors exploit the legitimacy of liberal institutions to advance their political interests or deny the pursuit of justice for the sake of short-term stability. This has happened in Cambodia, Kosovo and Timor-Leste when the decisions of the local elite failed to reflect the local aspirations for justice and reconciliation. This article raises caution over the potential pitfalls of exclusive local involvement in transitional justice

The Effect of Implementing Culturally Relevant and Anti-Bias Activities with Young Children in a Preschool Classroom

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2012The effects of a culturally relevant, anti-bias curriculum on a child's awareness of his or her classroom peers were studied in preschool aged children of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. Eighteen students (7 Black, 5 White, 5 Mixed-race, and 1 Latino) enrolled in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) classroom participated in this study. The culturally relevant, anti-bias unit titled, "Classroom Community" included a variety of activities involving books, music, art, and discussions conducted in both small and large group settings. Overall, goals of the unit were to increase each student's ability to understand, appreciate, and respect differences and similarities in their classroom, as well as build a safe and supportive classroom community where students can learn together and value the range of diversity. Students were assessed by two methods: the Draw-A-Person test and semi structured interviews. It was hypothesized that culturally relevant and anti-bias education would enhance a child's ability to portray the members in their classroom community. After four weeks of the "Classroom Community" unit, students increased the number of human figures depicted in their drawings from a mean of 5.21 human figures per drawing to 7.29 human figures per drawing. In addition, semi structured interviews were conducted to address the following: are students aware of the differences and similarities of their classmates, what are their perceptions of skin color, and is it feasible for educators to implement culturally relevant, anti-bias lessons and activities to preschool aged students

A Detour in the Local Turn: Roadblocks in Timor-Lestes Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Liberal missteps have paved the way for the local turn in post-conflict peacebuilding. However, localized peacebuilding does not always produce peaceful outcomes. Several scholars have previously demonstrated that unresolved tensions from international-local encounters result in a negative hybrid peace in which political and social hierarchies are preserved and conflict and violence persist. To add to existing analyses on the local turn in peacebuilding, this article analyzes some of the causes and consequences of negative hybrid peace using the case of Timor-Leste. Exclusive and superficial local involvement, political cleavages within the local leadership, and unresolved tensions from international-local encounters were roadblocks in Timor-Lestes post-conflict peacebuilding. These characteristics prelude a return to a status quo dominated by the local elite and plagued with governance and socio-economic issues

The Limits of Liberal Peacebuilding and Pitfalls of Local Involvement: Cambodia, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste in retrospect

Scholars continue to debate how to best rebuild post-conflict societies. Some argue that the liberal peacebuilding framework is incompatible with local contexts and therefore recommend more substantial involvement of local actors. Others suggest that the problem is not the liberal peacebuilding framework itself, but its poor implementation and therefore recommend increased emphasis on strong institutions and capacity-building. Given the ongoing liberal rhetoric of the United Nations (UN) in rebuilding post-conflict societies, this thesis contributes to this debate by asking the question, does liberal peacebuilding really work? To find out the answer, the thesis assesses the UN transitional administrations in Cambodia, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste using a comparative case-study approach. This assessment includes an evaluation of how these transitional administrations implemented their mandates and how local involvement factored into the conduct of their peacebuilding activities. It also includes an examination of the outcomes of international and local encounters and top-down and bottom-up approaches in rebuilding security, pursuing justice and reconciliation, and promoting development by obtaining personal insights from the international and local actors who were involved during the transition. This thesis thus interrogates both the liberal assumption that the liberal peacebuilding framework can promote and sustain peace and the recommendation of liberal peacebuilding critics that local actors and agencies should be better incorporated into the peacebuilding process. This thesis finds that shallow liberal peacebuilding with fragile institutions and co-opted local involvement failed to build long-lasting peace. It reveals instances when the UN transitional administrations in Cambodia, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste departed from their liberal peacebuilding objectives. They were not consistently liberal because they failed to live up to their liberal mandates and they were also not entirely peace-building because they failed to espouse the original and holistic conceptualization of peacebuilding, which includes both negative and positive peace. When confronted with threats of instability, the UN transitional administrations analysed in this thesis leant too far towards the local even at the cost of liberal values. They also demonstrated a tendency to limit local involvement to actors who they feared might incite instability. The case studies show that local involvement that is exclusive, superficial, non-representative, and politicized does not contribute to a long-lasting peace. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of both liberal peacebuilding and local involvement, this thesis proposes a middle-ground alternative or a locally-moderated liberal peacebuilding approach that integrates the local in liberal peacebuilding while consistently anchoring local involvement in liberal values. The analyses of the case studies and the recommendations drawn from them aim to contribute to informing the debates about liberal peacebuilding and to advising future international post-conflict peacebuilding missions

Exploring the link between mine action and transitional justice in Cambodia

This paper examines mine action in Cambodia and its implications for common conceptions of civil society and transitional justice. The complexities of past Cambodian conflicts and the strained state-civil society relationship at present have led to a complicated legacy of landmines. The collective harm Cambodian people have experienced also blurs the line between victimhood and perpetration of crime, further complicating transitional justice in the Cambodian context. Exploring the link between mine action and transitional justice in Cambodia reveals that civil society organisations involved in mine action are not separate from the state contrary to the common conceptualisation of civil society as autonomous. It also demonstrates that mine action is responding to more complex elements of Cambodian conflicts than the retributive model of transitional justice. The participatory approaches to mine action highlight local agency and active involvement, which are crucial in creating a civil society that encourages an empowered citizenry.This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [Project Number: 17F17780]