19 Dec 2013
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Top 15 articles of 2013

TransConflict recommends the following 15 articles published during 2013. To share your own favourite articles from TransConflict from throughout the year, please use the comment function provided.

1) After Syria

David B. Kanin – The Lebanonization of Syria means the latter could face a long period of instability and rivalry among sectarian, tribal, and other competitors for power, resources, and status. Read more…

 

2) International criminal law – justice or mirage?

Matthew Parish – It is indefensible to ignore the debate on international criminal law, all the more when the pretext for doing so involves relying upon the misery of war crimes victims as a means of perpetuating a branch of the legal profession. Humanity improves by examining vexed subjects until the best ideas win. To stifle debate is to suppress the social progress to which we surely all aspire. Read more…

 

3) Time for the UN Security Council permanent five to give up their vetoes?

Gerard M. Gallucci – Why has the relationship between Washington and Moscow not become more “normal” and permitted a greater degree of partnership in the Security Council? Reasons exist on both sides. But the world would be a better place if the US stopped trying to remake it in its own image and instead worked within the international community as part of that community. Read more…

 

4) Former prisoners and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland

Dr. Orna Young – The changing dynamics of ‘post conflict’ political discourse, coupled with the emergence of a new generation who did not necessarily live through the thirty year conflict, requires a re-imagining of conflict transformation by former prisoners. They need to move beyond discourses which informed their journey to the prisons and re-evaluate their roles in the current socio-political context. Read more…

 

5) The military, in the barracks and in society

David Kanin – By staging a coup, Egypt’s generals have acted against the grain of an era in which militaries have become less involved in politics. That is their problem. Read more…

 

6) US foreign policy and the pursuit of “democracy”

Gerard M. Gallucci – The problem with the US effort to push “democracy” is that it doesn’t seem to help anyone. When the US talks democracy, it means the kind it has – with checks and balances and all. Yet, democracy cannot simply be transferred or grafted onto another country, it rather must arise from within the historical experience and political culture of a society. Read more…

 

7) Anything but democracy – the EU’s policy in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Jasmin Mujanović – An EU-brokered agreement to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution into accordance with the 2009 European Court of Human Rights’ Sejdic-Finci verdict does not serve to create a functional democratic system in BiH, with equal rights and opportunities for all its citizens, but is rather an attempt to appease the most narrow and chauvinistic interests of BiH’s oligarchs. Read more…

 

8) Five inconvenient truths about Kosovo

Michael Rossi – If Kosovo is ever to be the functioning state its supporters think it is, considerable attention will have to be paid to issues of power-sharing between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians, reduction in the dependency the United States and other powers place in highly corrupt individuals to ensure stability and order, and an honest assessment of conflict resolution with Serbia that defines what Kosovo’s status is within an international legal framework. Read more…

 

9) Syria disfigured – options for the West

Matthew Parish – To understand what a militarily-inspired democratic transplant might achieve in Syria, one might look at what happened when the Iraqi Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Read more…

 

10) R2P and International Law

Gerard M. Gallucci – The responsibility to protect is an international responsibility and not the exclusive burden of any one country, not even the US. But the use of force now or at any time should be left to the Security Council to decide. President Obama should now earn his Noble Peace Prize by scrupulously following international law. There is no reason for the US to act as an outlaw just because Assad has. Read more…

 

11) Sport in conflict transformation – why sport has power to change the world

Heidi Green – Sport is an incredible approach to helping youth in areas of conflict resolve prejudice; helping them to rethink the way they treat others, whilst assisting in the overall development of youth and society. Read more…

 

12) Republican Youth and ‘brave decisions’ in post-conflict (Northern) Ireland

Seán Byers – Northern Ireland requires a new political leadership in order to make tangible progress on the problems that continue to frustrate the attainment of ‘positive’ peace, reconciliation and social justice. Read more…

 

13) On reconciliation in Kosovo

Nora Ahmetaj – The Balkans, in general, and Kosovo, in particular, will not come to terms with the past without real political determination and recognition. The process of reconciliation cannot be taken as a separate process in Kosovo, since the legacies of the armed conflict affected all countries in the Former Yugoslavia, and thus needs to be addressed as such. Read more…

 

14) The culture of denial in Prijedor

Haris Subašić – According to the verdicts of the Hague Tribunal, this year marks the twenty-first anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Prijedor’s non-Serb population. However, as the case of Prijedor’s memorial culture shows, a culture of denial continues to shape the past, present and future memories of the crimes against humanity committed. Read more…

 

15) The politics of reconciliation in Zimbabwe

Gift Mwonzora – A delay in establishing the constitutionally-guaranteed National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) raises profound questions about the commitment of Zimbabwe’s political elites to achieving justice and reconciliation. Read more…

 

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TransConflict undertakes conflict transformation projects and research.

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  1. Pingback : December 2013 Review | TransConflict

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