This thesis focuses on the visual message made by the new Neo-muralist movement in México City, taking as a protagonist the collective of art Germen crew. The study asks: What is the message behind Mexican Neo-muralism, taking into consideration the visual elements involved, such as Indigenous and Pre-Hispanic images in a social context marked by exclusion toward indigenous communities and persons with indigenous background.
The material for this ethnographic study is based upon semi-structured interviews and observations made through fieldwork in México. The collected material is later analyzed by framing theories.
The results made by this study show that Neo-muralism movement is trying to preserve and rebuild denied Indigenous identities through an artistic narrative and non-violent practice. The contribution made by this movement as a non-violent group in resistance has made Neo- muralism the voice of those who have been silenced over time under conditions of exclusion.

UN peacekeeping is a core pillar of the multilateral peace and security architecture and a multi-billion undertaking reshaping lives around the world. In spite of this, the engagement between the literatures on UN peacekeeping and International Relations theory has been a slow development. This has changed in recent years, and there is now a growing interest to examine UN peacekeeping from various theoretical perspectives to yield insights about how international relations are changing and developing. The volume is the first comprehensive overview of multiple theoretical perspectives on UN peacekeeping. There are two main uses of this volume. First, this volume provides the reader with insights into different theoretical lenses and how they practically can be applied to better understand UN peacekeeping. Second, through case studies in each chapter, the volume provides practical examples of how International Relations theories – such as realism, liberal institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, constructivism, critical security studies, practice theory, and complexity theory – can be applied to a specific policy issue. Applying these theories enhances our understanding of why UN peacekeeping, as an international institution, has evolved in a particular direction and functions the way that it does. The insights generated in the volume can also help shed light on other international institutions as well as the broader issue of international cooperation.

"The ‘concept’ of peace in Mesopotamia":
The study of the ancient world has contributed to the development of peace studies, attempting to reconstruct a history of ideas of peace. Within these investigations into the past, however, the peoples of the ancient Near East have often been thought of as purely warlike and lacking a ‘concept’ of peace. For these reasons, this paper investigates why it is so difficult for modern scholars to recognize the presence of an idea of peace in Mesopotamia. In doing so, this research focuses on reconstructing the mode of narration and conceptualization of peace within Sumerian and Akkadian literary texts.

In December 1931, Mahatma Gandhi visited Rome with a desire to meet the Pope. It was Mussolini, however, who was eager to meet him. Could 'Il Duce' have seized the opportunity to boost his own image and to further his own devices? Whatever his intentions, history bears testimony to the adverse effects of that ten-minute encounter - for Gandhi and for India's march to freedom. In this paper the author reconstructs the intriguing turn of events based on the writings of the key persons involved, especially the diaries of Romain Rolland, Mahadev Desai and Gandhi himself.

The geography of The Sudan is the first challenge of the country. Sudan is the largest country in Africa. It is bordered by nine countries; in the north by Egypt, east and north east by Ethiopia and Eritrea, south by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Kenya, in the west by Central African Republic and Chad, and North West by Libya. Darfur is in the north western part of The Sudan. Darfur itself is a remote vast region, almost the size of France. It is 2,500 kilometres from the Red Sea coast and its infrastructure, particularly roads and airports capable of taking the largest aircraft, is underdeveloped. The environment is austere and highly demanding. Daytime temperatures in the summer regularly exceed 50° Celsius and the rainy season can prevent all road movement across large parts of Darfur for four months. Malaria is rife. It seems that these factors were not fully appreciated when the deployment of African Union/United Nations Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) was first conceived. This is one of the main reasons why the deployment and sustaining of the main UNAMID force and its equipment was slower than expected, but I will return to this later.

The flurry of activities involving practitioners, policy-makers, researchers, and scholars in PCIAs for about three decades has led to appreciable volume of scientific knowledge on the nature, dynamics and the implications of the interactions of intervention and its context. Thus, there is relatively high level development in the practice of PCIAs, however, the level of development of the theory of PCIAs is significantly low. This paper argues that the building blocks for developing theories of PCIAs abound, however, disincentives also abound in the conditions that informed the emergence of Page1 Page1 the field, the inherited orientation and normative commitment of PCIAs, stakeholders' justifiable preference for practice, and the epistemological contention in social science methodologies. Despite these encumbrances, there is need to bridge the gap between theory and practice by making concerted effort for building both context-specific and generalizable theories in the different domains of PCIA employing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

An Stelle durch einen Vorteil bringenden Irrtum gegeneinander  gemein im Sinne von bösartig - aus böse & artig zu sein, weil wir Dominanz mit Sicherheit, in einer strukturellen Gewalt auf den Kopf gedreht & gestellt haben.
Die Menschheit ist es gewohnt, durch das Gesetz der Gewalt und Brutalität zu gehorchen. Das ist es, was die Freiheit einschränkt. Eine Freiheitsbeschränkung ist nicht dasselbe wie eine Sicherheit. Sicherheit in der Moderne soll eine eingeschränkte Freiheitsstruktur garantieren, die wir als Demokratie bezeichnen. Demokratie ist nicht dasselbe wie Gerechtigkeit oder gleiche Chancen für alle, aber sie soll zB das kleinere Übel in Bezug auf soziale Gerechtigkeit, Meinungsfreiheit usw. sein. Die Untergrabung der Demokratie durch die Auferlegung der Dominanz des einen über den anderen zerstört die Sicherheit. Die NATO und die USA bekennen sich offen zur Abschreckung durch „Kriege gewinnen“, ein falsches Versprechen.
In diesem Dokument möchte ich verdeutlichen, warum der Beitritt zu einem Militärbündnis, das existiert und erklärt, Traumata verursachen und Schmerzen zufügen zu wollen, ein Widerspruch in Bezug auf die Sicherheit ist.
Lassen Sie mich klar und offen sagen: Das NATO-Militärbündnis dient einem Zweck, wie Jamie Shea es auf einer Konferenz am 19. April 2022 ausdrückte:
„… baut seine Streitkräfte in Mittel- und Osteuropa auf, äh, sowohl zur Abschreckung, als auch weil Abschreckung jetzt, äh, Kriegsführung bedeutet! Es bedeutet, Kriege zu gewinnen und nicht mehr nur zu hoffen, sie zumindest vorerst zu verhindern.“
Sagen Sie mir, wann immer ein Krieg wirklich zu einer gewinnenden Situation in Bezug auf Stabilität und Frieden führt? Hat je ein Krieg dazu geführt, dass der Verlierer des Krieges wirklich den Weg der Vertu eingeschlagen hat? Geht Deutschland nach der Niederlage im 2. Weltkrieg den Weg der Vertue? Wer behauptet, dass Deutschland, das die Demokratie am Hindukusch verteidigt, auf dem Weg der Vertue ist?

Die Unterbrechung des Kreislaufs aller Formen an Gewalt,
ist die einzige intelligente und meisterhafte Art zu leben.
Diese eine & freie Form der achtsam, harmonisch, bedingungslos in liebevoller Weise zu Leben, erfüllt sich nur in einen harmonisch, liebevollen Paradies, durch Schenken & Helfen & in der Achtung zum kosmisch, wirksamen Schöpfergesetz.

Conflict is part of human existence and it cannot be prevented entirely. The only way to survive it is to adapt to it. Many internal conflicts are seen in countless countries around the world with Africa having the largest share. Ghana is described as the gate way to Africa because of the peaceful atmosphere of the country and the desire not to be tag as warmongers. However, Ghana should not allow complacency to take away the hard earn international reputation as far a peace is concern. This paper tries to analyse the theories underpinning conflict and how the implications of these theories can help strengthen the socio-political development of Ghana.

'One man's revolutionary is another man's terrorist.'
                      Madras Cafe,2013.
The essay highlights the honour, progressiveness and also false representation of the 'Tamilian Identity' in the Contemporary World Politics and also the Indian Sub-Continent. The essay does not only uphold the struggle of the LTTE as ' a just revolution' in Sri Lanka, which proscribed as 'terrorism' by the Europe and also the US but also romanticizes the culture, an egalitarianism and humility of the 'Tamils' in the World Politics.

A discourse to peace educators and activists from Palestine and Israel on the techniques of 'Satyagraha', created and employed by Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for Indian independence. While the techniques are identified and briefly explained, a diagrammatic presentation of the context within which he acted reveals the courage and discipline required in a Gandhi-inspired subversion of structural and cultural injustice.
Date of discourse: 10, March, 2007.
Date of publication on Academia.edu: 2012

Conflict Management – использование принципов и методов науки управления общественными процессами в конфликтологии.
    * Это сознательная деятельность по отношению к конфликту, осуществляемая на всех этапах его возникновения, развития и завершения участниками конфликта или третьей стороной.
    * Это целенаправленное, обусловленное объективными законами воздействие на его динамику в интересах развития или разрушения той социальной системы, к которой имеет отношение данный конфликт.

The world's youngest country has not exactly hit the ground running. After years of secessionist violence, independence in 2011 brought yet more conflict in the form of a civil war. The process of nation-building and state-building have been put to one-side it seems. This essay will aim to assess the extent to which Arend Lijphart's consociational democracy theory is compatible with the Republic of South Sudan given the fractured civil society, poisoned political landscape, ethnic and financially motivated tensions that currently prevent growth. The analysis will draw from lessons learnt from other similar cases such as Burundi and the Balkans, and ultimately finds that as long as the theoretical pillars of consociation are adjusted and personalised to the deeply divided society in question, Lijphart's theory can provide a stable foundation from which to move forward.

Se consideran las siguientes temáticas relacionadas, aunque no exclusivas:

Pedagogías para la paz: el nuevo rol de la cultura de paz en la educación del siglo XXI Teorías de cultura y educación para la paz
Conceptos centrales de la educación para la paz
Capacidades docentes para la construcción de paz en América Latina Metodologías para la construcción de paz en contextos escolares
Cultura y educación para la paz en Asia y África: teorías y metodologías Educación para la paz y análisis de los costos de la violencia en América Latina Derechos humanos y educación para la paz en el sistema educativo mexicano Filosofía de la no-violencia para jóvenes
Investigación en educación para la paz y estudio de conflictos

Every year reportedly more and more school age children are facing bullying from their peers due to having a mild form of Autism known as Asperger's Syndrome.  This paper will explore various ways to recognize and combat bullying all within an Anabaptist peacemaking perspective.

This paper analyses the security threats emanating from the cross-border movement of displaced Rohingya Muslims from
Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The paper presents a brief background of the ethnic conflict involving Rakhine Buddhists and
Rohingya Muslims to explicate its historical context. The objective of the analysis is to understand the consequences of
escalation of latest crisis in Myanmar. For analysing the threats, reports of leading international organizations such as
International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and
first-hand accounts of leading international media houses have been consulted. In the conclusion of the study, the author
concludes that why is it imperative to prevent further escalation of the ethnic conflict and how.

Sparrow argues that military robots capable of making their own decisions would be independent enough to allow us denial for their actions, yet too unlike us to be the targets of meaningful blame or praise—thereby fostering what Matthias has dubbed “the responsibility gap.” We agree with Sparrow that someone must be held responsible for all actions taken in a military conflict. That said, we think Sparrow overlooks the possibility of what we term “blank check” responsibility: A person of sufficiently high standing could accept responsibility for the actions of autonomous robotic devices—even if that person could not be causally linked to those actions besides this prior agreement. The basic intuition behind our proposal is that humans can impute relations even when no other form of contact can be established. The missed alternative we want to highlight, then, would consist in an exchange: Social prestige in the occupation of a given office would come at the price of signing away part of one's freedoms to a contingent and unpredictable future guided by another (in this case, artificial) agency.

There is increasing awareness and international support for rebuilding states that have gone through conflict. Third-party interventions in bringing peace to countries that have emerged from civil wars have been channeled through a fundamental concept known as liberal peacebuilding. Liberal peacebuilding, even though it faces much criticism, has been a prominent strategy for third-party intervention in postwar countries since the end of the Cold War. This paper deals with the liberal peacebuilding process in Sierra Leone, after its decade-long brutal civil war. The focus lies on Dr Roland Paris' institutionalization before liberalization (IBL) peacebuilding strategy, its strengths and shortcomings, and its contributions to sustaining peace in Sierra Leone since the end of the war in 2002. Arguing that the IBL strategy has helped to maintain peace in Sierra Leone after ten years of civil war, the paper analyzes how peacebuilding has been implemented in postwar Sierra Leone under the six different pillars of the IBL strategy.

Amidst chronic war and global discord, few folks believe sustainable global peace can happen within their lifetime(s).  Reference wars in Syria, the Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Africa, and so forth this past year.  And guerilla wars elsewhere.  Tragic losses: life, limb, and human dignity; property, land, natural resources.  To many, it seems hopeless; and inevitable.  In fact, ‘Si vis pacem para bellum’ (if you seek peace, prepare for war), is often deemed sound societal safety and security protocol.  And the populace concurs: though humans at heart seek peace.  Central to psychology’s legacy, pioneers in the field recognized this conundrum of human existence—and spoke against war (see William James, 1911, 1917; Sigmund Freud, 1915, 1919, 1933; also see Morton Prince, 1917).  But we shifted course in 1918: circa World War I.  Appealing to psychology’s pacifist history—and its wealth of knowledge, principles, theory, data—this paper isolates the human mind as means to end conflict and bloodshed (Leidner, Tropp, & Lickel, 2013).  Pessimism derails; few see realistic paths to peace (sans war).  Thus, an essential task is to reframe peace as realistic—‘Si vis pacem, para pactum’ (if you seek peace, prepare for peace; paraphrased from Andrew Carnagie, 1907; National Arbitration and Peace Congress).  The model is that war arises from ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ (Leidner et al., 2013) and ‘universal learned helplessness’ (Abramson, Seligman, Teasdale, 1978) steeped in beliefs about death (see Terror Management Theory; e.g., Pyszczynski, Motyl, Vail, Hirschberger, Arndt, & Kesebir, 2012).  Revamping peace as a ‘psychologically solvable problem’ at the interpersonal level (see Nelson, 2013) gives us traction forward.  To prepare for war while praying for peace undermines goodwill’s efficacy.  Instead: think peace; prepare for peace.  Propelling into motion psychology’s (largely untested) propensity for (and ability to bring about) peace could fetch lasting harmony: in our time!

This paper deals with civil society mobilizations and resistance in relation to a world heritage site—the ninth-century Khmer temple Preah Vihear, which is located in the northern province of Cambodia and borders eastern Thailand. In particular, the paper explores resistance in terms of (re)categorizations from a historical and discursive–materialistic perspective. The field of resistance studies has mainly been preoccupied with entities such as texts, signs, symbols, identity, and language. In this article, however, we bring in physical and material entities in order to display the ways in which matter is of importance in the (re)construction of discourses and thereby for resistance.

Until the late 15th century, the term “crisis” – from Greek krinein “to decide” – denoted the turning point of a grave illness, a change that leads either to patient’s recovery or death. Today, an international crisis, if not averted, can result in the death of millions of people.

Since the end of World War II, the UN has played a major role in preventing political disagreements, military accidents, ethnic and religious tensions from turning into large-scale armed conflicts. The OSCE has been one of the key organizations to share this responsibility with the UN, focusing primarily on the European continent. The OSCE’s crisis management capabilities began to grow in the early 1990s. During this process, the dissolution of Yugoslavia and of the Soviet Union triggered an ad hoc creation of OSCE field operations, now a key instrument in the OSCE’s crisis management toolkit. The first long-term OSCE operation – the Observation Mission of Long Duration in Kosovo, Sandjak and Vojvodina – commenced in 1992. Soon after, further field operations were established in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Since their creation, OSCE field operations have demonstrated mixed results in their crisis management work. The OSCE Centre in Bishkek was unable to avert the 2010 crisis in Kyrgyzstan. Not only did it turn violent, but also its death toll was higher than in the previous 1990 Kyrgyzstan’s inter-ethnic clashes. Tajikistan, Moldova and FYROM, despite their earlier history of civil and separatist wars, have only experienced minor conflicts in recent years. And many crises were averted from turning violent, not without the contribution made by the OSCE field operations in these three countries. Finally, Ukraine, which had not gone through even a minor armed conflict during its late Soviet and post-independence history, since 2014 has been coping with a crisis that has already taken almost 10,000 lives, and which the OSCE was not able to prevent.

The central research question of this study is: Why have some OSCE field operations been more effective in crisis management than others?

This study aims at providing academic advice that could inform policy and aid in improving the OSCE’s operation and strategy. It, therefore, analyzes the factors that lie firmly in the hands of the OSCE and of its participating States: the mandates of OSCE field operations and the resources at their disposal.

The study is based on document and secondary literature analysis. Where necessary, we requested information from respective OSCE field operations.

The paper is organized as follows. The next chapter provides a brief overview of the current policies and the state of the art in international crisis management in general and the role of OSCE field operations therein in particular. In the second chapter, we present our theoretical model of crisis management success. The third chapter lays out the case selection, research method and design. The fourth chapter is a case study that offers empirical evidence to assess our hypothesis. The final results and the main findings of the study are summarized in the conclusions.

In 2013, talks were held in Kuala Lumpur between Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC) and representatives of the Malay-Muslim separatist group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). The unprecedented announcement of this formal ‘peace dialogue’ between the Thai state and an insurgent group led to much scepticism from different parties concerning the motivations of the NSC and the level of influence of the BRN delegation’s chief representative, Hassan Taib. This article critically examines the turbulent ten month period from the February 28th declaration in Kuala Lumpur to the December 29th announcement by General Prayuth Chan-ocha that the military, and not the NSC, would represent Thailand at the next round of talks. This article also evaluates the positive aspects of the talks and the current barriers toward further progress for peace in the region. Additionally, attention is also drawn to the relevance of BRN’s communication with both the general public and the NSC.

Conflict is part of human existence and it cannot be prevented entirely. The only way to survive it is to adapt to it. Many internal conflicts are seen in countless countries around the world with Africa having the largest share. Ghana is described as the gate way to Africa because of the peaceful atmosphere of the country and the desire not to be tag as warmongers. However, Ghana should not allow complacency to take away the hard earn international reputation as far a peace is concern. This paper tries to analyse the theories underpinning conflict and how the implications of these theories can help strengthen the socio-political development of Ghana.

original description by TV3 CCMA: Andreu Ginestet és un mediador per la pau català instal·lat a Alemanya que intervé en alguns dels principals conflictes del món. Hem aprofitat per parlar amb ell de com es veu el procés català a les altres instàncies mundials, del conflicte entre Rússia i Ucraïna, per Ginestet "el que més preocupa en aquest moment", i també s'ha referit a l'organització Estat Islàmic.

Description by Andreu Ginestet: In this film on Catalan State television we concentrate on the Catalonia versus Spain conflict, Ukraine, IS, Iraq and the mesh of conflicts and interests. Conflicts are explained as connected net-works of conflict that are overlaid by networks of interests.

This essay is about impartiality in international mediation. The core research question is: To what extent is impartiality a component of international mediation: when it is important, when not? Mediation is defined in this essay following the definition offered by the United Nations (2012: 4) ''a process whereby a third party assists two or more parties, with their consent, to prevent, manage or resolve a conflict by helping them to develop mutually acceptable agreements. The premise of mediation is that in the right environment, conflict parties can improve their relationships and move towards cooperation. Mediation outcomes can be limited in scope, dealing with a specific issue in order to contain or manage a conflict, or can tackle a broad range of issues in a comprehensive peace agreement.'' The Charter of the United Nations identifies mediation as an important means for the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts, and it has proven to be an effective instrument to address both inter-State and intra-State conflicts. According to the United Nations (2012: 10), ''Impartiality is a cornerstone of mediation – if a mediation process is perceived to be biased, this can undermine meaningful progress to resolve the conflict. A mediator should be able to run a balanced process that treats all actors fairly and should not have a material interest in the outcome. This also requires that the mediator is able to talk with all actors relevant to resolving the conflict. Impartiality is not synonymous with neutrality, as a mediator, especially a United Nations mediator, is typically mandated to uphold certain universal principles and values and may need to make them explicitly known to the parties.'' Evidently, there are cases in international mediation when impartiality matters more although effective mediation has got its unique logic of which impartiality is a cornerstone value. For example, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon (2012), ''To be effective, however, a mediation process requires more than the appointment of a high-profile individual to act as a third party. Antagonists often need to be persuaded of the merits of mediation, and peace processes must be well-supported politically, technically and financially. Ad-hoc and poorly coordinated mediation efforts – even when launched with the best of intentions – do not advance the goal of achieving durable peace.'' Mediation often exists alongside facilitation, good offices and dialogue efforts. Mediation, however, has its own logic and approach, aspects of which may be relevant to other approaches to the peaceful settlement of disputes. Mediation differs from “good offices” in that the mediator usually takes more initiative in proposing terms of settlement. It differs from arbitration in that the opposing parties are not bound by prior agreement to accept the suggestions made. However, in this essay, mediation will be considered in the context of studies on International Relations. There are not many works that aim to trace the idea of impartiality to the original debate between opposing camps of idealists and realists within the field of International Relations. The big idea is that the essence of mediation is to bring the conflicting sides to the negotiating table, establish some legitimated norms whilst attempting to understand parties’ motivations, and the source of force that pushes them to remain in conflict. The concept of 'cosmopolitan ethics' and 'dialogic community' will be discussed, as well as the notion of ripe time for resolution will be highlighted. A conflict becomes ripe for resolution when the parties realize that the status quo, namely - no negotiation - is a lose-lose situation (because they cannot win), not a zero-sum (win-lose) situation. Thus to avoid the mutual loss, they must consider negotiation. For example, Zartman (2001: 8) observed, ''While most studies on peaceful settlement of disputes see the substance of the proposals for a solution as the key to a successful resolution of conflict, a growing focus of attention shows that a second and equally necessary key lies in the timing of efforts for resolution (Zartman 2000). Parties resolve their conflict only when they are ready to do so—when alternative, usually unilateral means of achieving a satisfactory result are blocked and the parties feel that they are in an uncomfortable and costly predicament. At that ripe moment, they grab on to proposals that usually have been in the air for a long time and that only now appear attractive.'' As Zartman (2008: 9) noted, ''Ripeness is only a condition, necessary but not sufficient, for the initiation of negotiations. It is not self-fulfilling or self-implementing. It must be seized, either directly by the parties or, if not, through the persuasion of a mediator.'' If a mediator is impartial, it could only enhance peace process. ''MHS can be a very fleeting opportunity, a moment to be seized lest it pass, or it can be of a long duration, waiting to be noticed and acted upon by mediators.'' (Ibid.: 13). In mediation, there are different approaches that prescribe different levels of impartiality depending on the nature of conflict. It will be argued that there are two opposite styles of mediation that can be applied under different circumstances. The first is the power-political approach, which operates within the neorealist framework whereby stress is placed on strategic rationality and cost-benefit calculations of mediators. The second is the facilitative approach whereby mediators serve as communicators whose main task is to sustain dialogue between the parties. The chosen method of this paper is critical analysis and balanced discussion. This leads to a conclusion that there are some situations, in which impartiality is more important; and others, in which impartiality does not serve as a decisive factor. There are analysts who agree with the traditional thesis that mediator impartiality is a critical quality for successful mediation (Jackson, 1952: 125-9; Young, 1967: 81; Northedge and Donelan, 1971: 299; Assefa, 1987: 22; Miall, 1992: 62; Hume, 1994; quoted in Kleiboer, 1996: 369). These authors ''seem to assume a chain of effects following from impartiality: mediator impartiality is crucial for disputants' confidence in the mediator, which, in turn, is a necessary condition for his gaining acceptability, which, in turn, is essential for mediation success to come about.'' (Ibid.). There are also analysts who claim that ''a mediator need not to be impartial to be successful (Touval, 1975: 67; Kochan, 1981: 133; Smith, 1985: 371; Orme, 1989: 60; Jabri, 1990: 8). Some analysts go a step further by arguing that mediator acceptability is neither contingent upon impartiality not on trust in the mediator, but instead on a mediator's bias towards one of the parties (Touval and Zartman, 1985: 15; Bercovitch, Anagnoson and Wille, 1991: 15; quoted in Kleiboer, 1996: 370). Thus, if any summarizing statement can be made is that impartiality is not a definitive component of all successful mediation cases in all geographical settings and all contexts though it remains a substantial factor, at least, according to the first group of analysts mentioned above. Impartiality is among the key fundamentals that should be considered in a mediation effort next to: preparedness; consent; inclusivity; national ownership; international law and normative frameworks; coherence, coordination and complementarity of the mediation effort; and quality peace agreements. Although no golden formulas for achieving mediation success has been found yet, this essay argues that impartiality has to be at all times exercised by a skilful mediator since alongside other key fundamentals it may determine the overall success of international mediation process. According to the United Nations (2012: 23), the importance of a supportive external environment for the mediation process is vital. For the success of international mediation to be complete, emphasis is also placed on the need for cooperation among entities involved in mediation, ''While all these factors are important, the success or failure of a mediation process ultimately depends on whether the conflict parties accept mediation and are committed to reaching an agreement. If the parties are genuinely willing to explore a negotiated solution, mediators can play an invaluable role.'' The impact of the essay is to bring attention of statesmen, decision-makers and wider world to the peaceful resolution of conflicts through international mediation since the benefits of mediation outweigh costs plus the potential risk of legitimising past violations of international law. Consistency with international law and norms contributes to reinforcing the legitimacy of a process and the durability of a peace agreement. When applied skilfully international mediation could bring peace to many ongoing conflicts around the world.

Contributors hail from twenty-three different countries and offer a rich composite of multicultural experiences with one goal in mind -to eradicate violence and terrorism and replace it with hope and peace. A variety of expression is shared, including thoughtful and well-researched articles, art, poetry, short stories, and essays. I feel that each piece has been carefully chosen to stimulate interest, thought, discussion, and, most importantly, action.

Description: First edition. I Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2or9. I Series: Syracuse studies on peace and conflict resolution I Includes bibliographical references and index. I Summary: ""People's Peace: Prospects for a Human Future" is a collection of essays highlighting the everyday and ordinary acts of peace committed by people living in community. The essays span a range of humanities disciplines: history, philosophy, theology, anthropology, cultural studies, and peace studies. Putting these approaches and methods in dialogue with each other produces a theoretical intervention that aims to shift the study of peace away from high organizations and institutions and locate it within people's lives and lived culture. Each essay in this book provides an important instance of people's peace where individuals defy authority or overcome cultural stigmas to assert the value of peaceful relations with others and their own personal dignity. People look for peace, they make peace, and, in doing so, make us aware that common people on their own have always worked and continue to work toward resolution rather than division"-Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019035274 (print) I LCCN 2019035275 (ebook) I ISBN 9780815636571 (hardcover) I ISBN 978081563661 8 (paperback)

"Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context o its own cosmology and symbolism. In this article, I muse on the provenance of “Berkeley School” genius at the UC Berkeley site in relation to its “power of place,” using a simplifed feng-shui model. My examples introduce and elaboration the propitious synchronicities found at the site perhaps responsible for the flowering of three prestigious “Berkeley Schools” of creative endeavorollowing WWI: Carl Sauer’s Berkeley School o Cultural Geography; Al-red Kroeber’s Berkeley School o Cultural Anthropology; and John Haley’s Berkeley School of American Scene Landscape Painting. I muse over some auspicious peculiarities in the common ground at the UC Berkeley siterom which these three landscape schools emerge. A general
feng-shui cosmological model describes how creative arrays o primal natural forces might converge at the campus site, creating a cosmic force feld that generates and shapes the successful thoughts, visions, and creative output of certain of the site’s inhabitants. The founding fathers of these three Berkeley Schools, although
unbeknownst to each of them, are perhaps beneficiaries of UC Berkeley’s excellent
feng-shui site. The model provides a provocative alter-native understanding of forces responsible for the longevity and continuing vitality o the “Berkeley School” tradition o cultural geography."

In the course of its professionalization and institutionalization, peace and conflict studies face the threat of shrinking to merely a form of vocational training. In such a tamed version of social analysis, scholars will not be able to provide adequate answers to complex questions. Drawing on the reading of Christa’s Wolf’s novel Cassandra, this article lays out tasks and challenges for peace and conflict studies from a feminist, post- and decolonial perspective. Through Cassandra, we know that it is of utmost importance to discover, decipher and expose the rules of the pre-war period in order to prevent and transform conflicts successfully. In the spirit of the mythical figure of Cassandra, this article calls for an uncomfortable criticism to be cultivated within peace and conflict studies, to intervene in the public sphere, and to dare to address the scholarly terrain itself.

Success of any organisation is not only determined by the quantity, but quality of human resources (personnel) available. The paper examined the impact of training on workers' effectiveness and efficiency in achieving organisational goal. The work is descriptive in nature. The study revealed some essentialities of training to include raising the standard of personnel, promotion of good image of the organization, motivating factor in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce and rapid expansion of the organization among others. Despite the positive impact, personnel training is been hindered by a number of challenges amongst paucity of fund, corruption, lack of viable training policies and poor quality in the delivery of training programmes which is a product of lack or inadequate of qualified training personnel. The paper concluded by recommending provision adequate funds, putting in place measures to guide against diversion of fund, viable training policies and delivery high quality training handle by a professionals in the field of training.

What brutalises rebels? What makes them cruel, or makes them do things that we consider cruel and immoral? That is a primary question—which can be put to all kinds of armed actors—of my research on rebels and rebellion, i.e. the “violent opposition to the ruler, government regime[,] or state for any personal, collective or ideological purpose” (Ten Dam 2015a: 6 (quote), 15). Arguably, rebels or insurgents are the most important and dominant kind of armed non-state actors. After all, without rebels, no rebellions.
The question of brutalisation i.e. increasing resort to violence that violates local and/or international norms—that I hold are ultimately based on conscience, empathy and honour (Ten Dam 2014: 8-9)—is of prime importance to the field of conflict studies in general and to the “emerging multidisciplinary field” of ethnogeopolitics (Rezvani 2013: 4) in particular.1 Apparently, most conflicts are internal, insurgent, ethnic and separatist in nature, and one wishes to prevent or curtail the suffering involved.

Conflict bias is a tendency of people to ignore peace and opportunities for its achievement. Mediation as liberal peace management can help people to realize they have a choice whether to participate in conflict or not, and make their choice in favor of peace. Schemes exposing conflict bias may be used in mediation. Конфліктна упередженість є схильністю людей не помічати мир та можливості його досягнення. Медіація як ліберальний менеджмент миру може допомогти людям побачити, що у них є вибір, чи брати участь в конфлікті, і зробити вибір на користь миру. В медіації можуть бути використані схеми викриття проконфліктності.

In this draft conference paper, I argue that people tend to overestimate conflicts and undervalue peace in social life, the tendency creates a risk of conflict escalation, which may be prevented if a mediator manages to help conflicting parties to discover deep peace behind apparent conflict and empower them to develop the peace. Also, I propose to use in the mediation visualization schemes, showing that peace and conflict may be confused with one another, to explain to participants that they have a choice between peace and conflict and their way of thinking determines the outcome of mediation. Research presented here is related to my master's project conducted during the Master's Program in Mediation and Conflict Management at KROK Business School, which is part of the project "Mediation: Training and Society Transformation/ MEDIATS" co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. I will present the research at online conference on 20 November 2020, organized by KROK University (Kyiv, Ukraine).

Theories are important to understanding real life situation and events. As such, it becomes pertinent to theorize conflicts in Africa in order to get a better understanding of their causes, patterns, trends and prevention. This is with the view to enhance prevention mechanisms. This is the very thrust of this chapter.

Intractable conflicts are prevalent worldwide, causing severe damage to the rival parties. Even when these conflicts are resolved by signing peace agreements, without proper attention to this damage, these conflicts can re-erupt. To prevent this, the current article describes - based on a literature review - an inclusive model that integrates three main processes that heal this damage (active reconciliation, passive reconciliation and self-healing) while discussing their interconnections and implications in promoting sustainable peace. Some of the main topics that are addressed are third party involvement, mutual positive impacts of the three processes, why the model is "inclusive" and "integrated", the difficulties in initiating the three processes, the sequence of their initiation, parallel practice of the three processes, the impact of the three processes on signing a peace agreement and the applicability of the model also to other types of collective violence (other than conflicts).

Pacification denotes a process whereby a state attends to extend its monopoly of violence onto politically autonomous groups outside its sphere of control and thereby curtails any further collective violence between those groups and armed resistance against the imposition of state control. It is a process that has been occurring throughout history in situations of colonial conquest and state expansion. Despite the importance and prominence of these processes not only for the state but even more so for the indigenous groups affected, there is remarkably little systematic analysis and theoretical reflection on the causal factors that led members of such groups to agree to lay down their weapons and refrain from pursuing further acts of collective violence.

In this thesis, I look at colonial processes of pacification in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and establish the causal mechanisms that lead to the elimination of indigenous warfare between the late 1940s and the mid-1960s. I not only document and analyse these processes in detail, but also develop a methodological and analytical toolkit to compare processes of pacification in general, and an encompassing theoretical framework to explain the gradual but ultimately successful transition to a colonially induced peace.

The thesis centres on four communities in three ethnic groups in the Okapa and Obura-Wonenara Districts of the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, namely Purosa among the Fore, Amaira among the Auyana, and Bibeori and Obura among the Southern Tairora. All of these communities were first contacted between 1947 and 1949 by government patrols of the Australian Administration. The ensuing process of pacification has been far from uniform, however. While indigenous warfare ceased quickly among the Fore and Auyana, it persisted for a much longer period among the Southern Tairora. These temporal variations and the differing outcomes form an ideal setting to compare different trajectories of pacification and extract general features conducive to the elimination of warfare.

Introduction
The lecture will be on Stella Ghervas’ forthcoming book upon the role of Peace in the elaboration of political Europe, as well as on the process of “legalization” and “institutionalization” of the international order. Ghervas will trace European values back to their historical origins, showing how the ideas of peacemaking expressed by political philosophers crystallized as early as the eighteenth century into a concept of European unification. The lecture will cover five key moments that
redefined the political order of Europe: the Peace of Utrecht (1713), the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), the creation of the League of Nations (1919), the birth of the European communities in the 1950’s, and finally the foundation of the European Union at the treaty of Maastricht, after the fall of Soviet Union.

Biographical note
Stella Ghervas is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an Associate of the Department of History at Harvard University. She is currently also Mihaychuk Fellow 2016-2017 at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Among her many publications are “Réinventer la tradition: Alexandre Stourdza et l’Europe de la Sainte- Alliance” (2008), which was awarded the Guizot Prize of the Académie Française, and “Lieux d’Europe: Mythes et limites”, ed. (2008). Her new book “Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union” is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. She is now working on a new monographic project “Calming the Waters? A New History of the Black Sea, 1774-1920s”, and co-editing a volume on the cultural history of peace in the Enlightenment.

Link: http://www.vub.ac.be/CORE/

Domestic Violence has been a common practice throughout the recorded history. Corresponding to the other parts of the world, domestic violence has been one of the major problems that affect the lives of many women both in the urban and the rural areas of Bangladesh. Now a day, Bangladesh ranks one of the highest in the world with respect to violence against women and, in terms of domestic violence, 50% to 70% of women in the country report being abused by their male partners. Major forms of domestic violence in Bangladesh include physical, sexual, economic and psychological violence. However, the patriarchal social structure, the culture of acceptance and the wide practice of community violence are considered as the key factors promoting domestic violence in the country. Existing legal and institutional mechanisms often seem inefficient and malfunctioning to protect the rights of the victims. Following rigorousness of the phenomena, there are several initiatives to be made by the stakeholders on the basis of short, medium and long run in order to stop domestic violence from Bangladesh.

Historically, calls for reducing military expenditures were present in all expressions of pacifist thought. Under the peace dividends concept, disarmament has had a long history of debates and proposals, particularly in the pacifist economic spheres, which focused on the idea of opportunity cost of military spending and how reducing defense budgets can be a great opportunity to get resources to allocate to social policies. In this paper we review the status of the issue of peace dividends, explaining on the one hand how the concept that arose in the context of the Cold War turned out to be a missed opportunity for peace; and on the other hand detailing how the idea of reducing military spending is a central idea in pacifisms.