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This paper acknowledges that civil society can play a positive role in anti-corruption activities, in particular by monitoring the behaviour of public authorities in the unstable and corruption-ridden transition from war towards peace and democracy, and also in providing a 'voice' to citizens' demands for accountability and change. However, the relationship between civil society and corruption is not limited to the former fighting the latter. Civil society organizations in postconflict states commonly incorporate and reflect the broader political and institutional context in which they operate. Where such a context is dominated by patronage, clientelism and corruption, as is regularly the case in post-conflict settings, civic associations also tend to replicate those vertical bonds. Thus, as this paper will argue, civil society plays a dual role. At its best, civil society organizations are at the forefront of anti-corruption activities. Media reports of both civil society work and intimidation against whistleblowers confirm how the determination of individuals and groups is essential to exposing corrupt activities. At the same time, many civil society organizations are part of a broader network of patron-client relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concepts energy security and climate security in the context of the energy-climate nexus. After locating the dominant understandings of energy security (international energy cooperation) and climate security (global climate change mitigation), we suggest that neither objective on its own is likely to make significant progress in terms of global governance. The energy security agenda is confronting renewed trends of price volatility and resource scarcity, while global climate objectives are being weakened by perceptions of high costs and the rise of containment or management approaches. Partly as a result of such relative stagnation, a number of 'synergistic' policy approaches have been implemented in major economies around the world. Most of these, however, turn out to be relatively pragmatic and short-term strategies aimed at enhancing specific aspects of national energy security. The fundamental conflicts at the heart of the energy-climate nexus are largely neglected. Greater compatibility might be achieved by devising energy-and-climate programmes informed by long-term strategic planning under conditions of uncertainty. Strong crosssector coalitions would be required to mobilise sufficient financial resources for a farreaching structural transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of the relationship of religion to inter-state conflict have undertheorized its role as a domestic characteristic that influences states' preferences, and the extent to a diversity of religions generates a diversity of outcomes. I theorize that it is not religious differences that precipitate inter-state conflict, but religious ideas. I present a model for testing the effects of a state's religious "Prevalence" within the population, and "Preference" of its government, on the propensity of a state to initiate an armed conflict. I find that the effects of various religious categories is at least as strong as other conventional factors, and that different religions affect a state's propensity to armed conflict in different ways. These results expose the need for the field to end its relative neglect of religions as factors in determining states' preferences, particularly for war or peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although 'knowledge' and 'technology' have been acknowledged as important for international politics and national competitiveness, whether and how knowledge is related to power shifts has remained a neglected research puzzle. Does for instance discursive knowledge equal power as many followers of Michel Foucault assume? Can the knowledge base of economies be improved simply by national education policies? The nature of knowledge is elusive; its multiple manifestations are hard to render into a coherent conceptual picture. Connecting knowledge with power is even more complicated since the latter also is an essentially contested term. This paper nevertheless develops a fourfold typology of the knowledge-power link that is sophisticated enough to capture all relevant aspects contemporary world politics. To analyze knowledge-power, I suggest distinguishing between consensual (Lakatian), co-productive (ANT), hegemonic (Foucaultian), and structural approaches. These approaches show diverging understandings of knowledge, differently relate it with power and present comprehensive and conflicting, yet not always incomprehensible spatial foci. It follows from my discussion that a clear framework for knowledge-power can be derived from existing social science approaches offering a research agenda and analytical tools for the role of knowledge-power in possible global power shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and how do states with a history of enmity transform their rivalries into robust partnerships? And in particular, how do rivals that have engaged in war achieve a stable, enduring peace? This paper takes a small step toward answering these questions. Through a "brush-clearing" exercise and preliminary analysis of a set of 44 rival dyads that, having experienced war, later achieved transitions to stable peace, the paper sets the stage for an investigation of the process of moving from warring rivalry to institutionalized cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1990s, Islamic activists have been active in promoting a series of initiatives and institutions known as the ?dialogue of civilizations.? This agenda was initiated by the former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami and subsequently promoted by faith-based movements like Gülen Movement, and organizations like the Organization of Islamic Conference. This (agenda of) dialogue provides an excellent opportunity to study ?Islamic norm entrepreneurs? and their strategies. This chapter argues that the discourse of the dialogue of civilizations is a response to the discourses of the end of history, the clash of civilizations, and the rejection of the West by the Muslim fundamentalist. Islamist activists adopt dichotomous frames for promoting their agenda: when interacting with non-Muslims, they appeal to the ?dialogue of civilizations? and ?interfaith dialogue? for mutual understanding, coexistence, and peaceful solutions to conflicts to argue for dialogue in international society. Among Muslims, however, they appeal to (the) dawa, the propagation of Islam, to justify their dialogue-related activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do democracy clauses matter in thwarting coups? With the rise of regional integration associations (RIAs), questions arise as to their ability to secure regime stability among memberstates. Increasingly various RIAs have adopted "democracy only" clauses in their treaties as a condition for membership. To date, however, research examining coups and regime stability has overlooked the effects of RIAs, particularly their democracy only clauses, on the onsets and outcomes of coups d'état. We posit that the ability of RIAs to thwart a coup attempt, and defeat a coup should one occur, depends upon both the democratic commitment of the preponderant member-state and its ability to influence the welfare of the other member-states. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the impact of RIAs and democracy clauses on the onsets and outcomes of coups d'état. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to reliably and accurately predict conflict is of vital importance to researchers and governments whose policies and objectives are affected by violent political and social conflict. The mass street protests in Iran after the June 2009 elections, followed by those in Tunisia and Egypt in winter 2011 that toppled long entrenched governments, relied so heavily upon new media that, following Mubarak s ouster, an Egyptian man named his newborn child Facebook1 in honor of the role social media played in that revolution. Although not a cause of the conflict itself, web based social media played a vital role in proliferating ideas and organizing unrest during these conflicts. It is vital for policy makers to understand these intra and sub-state conflicts. Their relationship with social media may offer greater insight into predicting and understanding when and where they may occur. Harnessing the information available through social media and understanding its relationship with conflict is a challenge that has not yet been adequately met, and is the focus of this paper. An experiment was designed to address some of the challenges to harnessing the information available in social media and to explore relationships between social media and conflict. Using automated content analysis tools developed by Social Science Automation, relationships between multiple types of conflict as reported by an English language news aggregator, BBC Monitoring, and trends in a popular Arabic language web forum, Al Jazeera Talk, were tested to search for patterns that offer predictive value. Although this is preliminary and exploratory, the results suggest that even a study of limited scope offers informative results and that the relationships explored warrant further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct the first direct experimental study of rationalist explanations for war based on private information and the commitment problem (Fearon 1995). The two factors are foundational in rational-choice theories of interstate and substate conflict. But despite their theoretical importance, little is known empirically about the actual and specific behavioral effects of private information and the commitment problem on the decision for conflict. We use incentivized laboratory experiments on a 2x2 factorial design to isolate these factors in their simplest and purest form. We find that the commitment problem has a decisive effect on the decision for conflict that is robust over repeated periods in both sequential and simultaneous-moves interactions. The results are informative as there appears to be no published experiment in economics or political science that specifically isolates the effect of the commitment problem on conflict. The effect of private information, however, is less clear. A high-resolution case study extends the empirical insights and tests for theoretical omissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current debates in IR research increasingly study corporate role shifts from regulated objects to self-regulating subjects participating in various self-regulatory initiatives. Yet, most studies consider national conditions in a company?s home state not important and leave little room for this explanatory variable. Most scholars adopt a functionalist view arguing that institutional design features of self-regulatory initiatives explain corporate norm compliance. However, research results indicate that companies have to be understood as nationally embedded. Three patterns of corporate voluntary norm compliance can be distinguished: Companies can comprehensively comply (all-embracing norm-consumers), comply sporadically (incomplete norm-consumers) or not comply at all (non-consumers). The paper investigates the conditions for companies acting as all-embracing norm-consumers. It argues that a company?s perception of the political, societal and economic home state environment determines in how far it complies. Applying the institutional isomorphism approach from sociological neoinstitutionalism, a home state-framework is proposed to show that prevailing institutional home state characteristics exert rather coercive, mimetic or normative pressures that are decisive for corporate norm compliance. This is illustrated by detailed empirical case studies of selected German Global Fortune 500 companies (G500) which qualify as all-embracing and incomplete norm-consumers in the Global Reporting Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kyrgyzstan's recent violent revolution and presidential turnover foreground the subtle ways natural resources and poverty spark political disturbance. Of the socioeconomic problems and corruption for which President Bakiev was faulted, water resource mismanagement and the electricity crisis were central; they are also at the core of regional disputes and mirrored in neighboring Tajikistan's and Afghanistan's socioeconomic instability. Kyrgyzstan's April 2010 events help us explain under what conditions environmental issues lead to collective violence. By analyzing environmental security concerns, this study provides insight about future regional conflict potential and whether the weakness of the Kyrgyz state or geographical and resource limitations best explain these revolutionary events. This paper evaluates environmentally-related collective violence by identifying public and elite opinion and mobilization trends, reporting the findings of research conducted in Kyrgyzstan one year prior to (Jan-July 2009) and three months after (June-July 2010) the revolution. The following propositions in the collective action and social capital literatures are tested: the consistency and specificity in attributing blame for environmental problems, derived from blame attribution theory (Wilson 1961; Lichbach 1995; Javeline 2003); the visibility, complexity and salience of environmental problems and the grievance actor hypothesis; and the role of community organizers and entrepreneurs (Olson 1965). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how controversies about Islamic migration impact on European politics and foreign policy. New forms of 'issue and identity politics' centred on immigration and the compatibility of Islam with liberal democracy and the rise of novel forms of populism - the phenomena of Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders are cases in point - illustrate a growing concern about values in European politics. These new populist parties share the view that Europe should not tolerate Islamic intolerance and they have become key coalition kingmakers in many of Europe's most affluent and progressive societies. Much of the IR literature - with its strict domestic/foreign dichotomy - underestimates the effects of domestic concerns about values on European foreign policy. For example, Europe's ambiguous stance towards Turkish EU accession and its management of Middle Eastern policy are indicative of the growing inter-linkage between the domestic and foreign policy agendas and the encroachment of 'issue and identity politics'. The paper finds that these new forms of political populism are not exceptional, singular, and temporary phenomena but socially accepted modes of political mobilization with serious implications for Europe's ambitions to become a 'normative power' in international affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Deutsch and those who have taken up his work on security communities universally acknowledge the relevance of increased transnational interactions as a necessary condition for integration. Yet despite an international system increasingly characterized by globalization, in most cases of increased interaction among states dependable expectations of peaceful change, the defining characteristic of a security community, have not followed. Why has increased transnational interaction led to the emergence of security communities in certain cases but not others? This paper attempts to answer this question by positing a multi-level theory of integration, which asserts that integration is contingent on the mutual identification of self-signifying practices common to intersubjectively differentiated groups, which in turn allows for enhancements in social communication and the development of a higher-order level of collective identity. By focusing on concomitant processes of integration at the regional, state and subnational levels, this theory pushes forward the discourse on security communities by explaining the emergence of new social tensions resulting from changes in the meanings of practices associated with integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specter of a long-term administrative role for the UN in post-conflict societies including Kosovo, Haiti, and Timor-Leste has led observers to dub such problematic arrangements 'neo-trusteeship.' The main supposition of this research is that 'neo-trusteeship' is primarily a by-product of the gap between Charter obligations to maintain peace and security and the resources committed to the UN to attend to those obligations. This paper draws upon the insights of the path dependency 'approach' (Pierson, 2004; Thelen, 2003) as well as two recent UN operations in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (UNTAET and UNMIT) in advancing the case that 'mechanisms of reproduction' common to the dynamic of path dependence are responsible for the emergence and reification of the 'neo-trusteeship' model in UN peace operations. In doing so, this paper seeks to demonstrate that the chief obstacle to the UN's ability to effectively deliver on its expansive mandates in post-conflict societies arises from a disjuncture between the increasing returns associated with (and accounting for) that agenda and the negative externalities of resource constraints and risk-averse decision making that characterize UN operations 'on the ground'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quantitative study examines the relationship between identity constellations, the political exclusion of identity groups, and civil war onset. In contrast to previous studies, it focuses not only on ethnicity, but also on religion and ideology. Previous studies find that the exclusion of large ethnic groups increases the risk of armed conflict. From the present study's point of view, however, the mere focus on ethnicity leads to empirical and theoretical inconsistencies. Given that political exclusion and rebellion not only run along ethnic, but also along religious and ideological lines, a simultaneous consideration of all three dimensions--ethnicity, religion, and ideology--becomes necessary. The study uses an original dataset on the population shares of politically excluded identity groups with respect to all three identity dimensions. It shows in a logistic regression analysis for 56 countries from 1975 to 2005 that the size of the largest excluded three-dimensional subgroup positively predicts the onset of civil war in non-democratic countries, and that this measure performs better than a sole ethnic indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether neutral or on the side of a combatant, third-party states' intervention in ongoing interstate con°icts is a triadic phenomenon which involves ties between a join- ing state and the two originators of the dispute. Existing studies on this topic have failed to fully capture the triadic nature of intervention preferring, instead, to focus either on the joiner's motivations or on the separate dyadic relationships between join- ers and the two separate combatants. Building on classic structural theories of triadic balance and on prior work by Maoz et al. (2007), in this paper we address the triadic aspect of both mediation and "joining behavior." The nature of the triadic relations among disputants and third parties in°uences not just the likelihood of intervention, but also the type of intervention. When triadic relations are unbalanced, third parties are more likely to intervene as intermediaries. On the contrary, when triadic relations are balanced, third parties are more likely to intervene in a partisan manner. We ex- plore our main hypotheses by constructing a triadic data set that combines Corbetta and Dixon's (2005) data on partisan third party interventions and Frazier and Dixon's (2006) data on neutral (intermediary) interventions in militarized interstate disputes with a friendship-hostility scale extracted from international events data (IDEA and COPDAB). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental security literature remains largely unsettled about the potential effects of rainfall on conflict outcomes and the causal pathways to those outcomes. Early case-�-based studies present several potential mechanisms but suffer from a lack of generalizability. Previous empirical studies have almost exclusively focused the occurrence of international or civil war as the dependent variable and, although they have used a variety of rainfall and drought indicators as the independent variable, they have focused on changes in annual aggregates of these indicators. In this paper I advance the literature in at least two significant ways. First, using the newly released Social Conflict in Africa Dataset (SCAD), I broaden the usually employed definition of conflict to include strikes, protests, riots, and communal conflict that may or may not result in violence or loss of life. Second, because populations rely on historically established rainfall patterns and climate scientists predict increased intra-�-annual variability I use deviations in monthly rainfall patterns as the independent variable. In so doing, I find that receiving too much rain in a given month significantly and substantially increases the likelihood of social conflict but receiving too little rain does not seem to have such an effect at least in the short-�-term. I argue that this difference is because receiving too much or too little rain leads to conflict through distinctly different causal mechanisms. Further research using this approach complimented by case study investigations can help illuminate these pathways to conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the variance in China's positions on 'pariah states' in the context of UN Security Council negotiations. The puzzle is twofold: that China sometimes supports sanctions, which it generally views as counterproductive; and sometimes shields pariah states, despite a desire to protect its image as a 'responsible great power.' Through a paired comparison of cases involving North Korea and Myanmar, the analysis finds that reference to two key factors� how the issue was defined, and the positions of the U.S. and its partners�is necessary to explain the difference. The paper suggests that, given perceptual and political divergences among its permanent members, the Council is poised for increasing conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that music can be a useful means for engaging youth in a dialogue for peace. Field research was conducted with two nongovernment organizations - in Australia and in Northern Ireland - involved in youth peacebuilding projects that utilize music. Research methods included participant observation and interviews with youth participants and program leaders. Music offered a mechanism for the youth to engage in dialogue across differences. The value of music here is important because most of the young people interviewed reported they would not have been interested in a peacebuilding program that was not music-focused. However, many of those same youth, after being drawn in by the musical aspect were inspired to continue working to build peace in some capacity. Obstacles and limitations are also evident, but the data suggests that music can be used to engage youth in a dialogue for peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preservation of cultural/historic resources in international border areas can have far reaching consequences beyond the mere preservation of historic sites. They have the potential to act as �olive branches� between countries which have experienced long term conflicts and negative cultural memories. In the case of the Kars Province, in the northeastern portion of Turkey, this area was occupied by various ethnic groups and Empires (Armenian, Russian, Byzantine, Ottoman etc.) who were present before the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Tensions in this area are still persisting as the border between Turkey and Armenia, including the Kars border-crossing, has been closed by Turkey in protest to the occupation by Armenia of Nagorno-Karabakh which was previously under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. These monuments when they exist along national borders particularly carry very strong possibilities to be vehicles of reconciliation that will lead to long term improved economic, social and political conditions between countries which have experienced negative cultural memories. This paper will investigate the efforts of historic preservation in the Kars Province in Turkey by local governments and Non Profit Organizations and its potential as an informal diplomatic or paradiplomatic vehicle between Turkey, Armenia and Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While globalization is often taken to be a social fact, I argue that “the global” should be thought of as an imaginary which is produced within particular structured material relations. One of the places where the global imaginary is actively produced is ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence and trauma are endemic in our world today, and affect us all. This paper examines the effect of trauma on our body, brain, spirit and relationships. It addresses multiple levels of trauma: individual, communal, and societal. It describes the ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a dataset of 57 democratic countries from the 1975 to 2000 time period, this study examines how the presence of term limitations on the chief executive office affects the likelihood of a state to become embroiled in violent conflict. The purpose of ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links the above all theoretically discussed concept of New Wars with recently published datasets. For the first time these datasets explicitly measure New Wars and Conflicts. However, they define New Wars and Conflicts as armed battle between solely private, non-state actors. Therefore, this article tries to uncover in how far the identified cases are consistent with the multidimensional concept, i.e. whether a privatization comes along with a trans-nationalization of actors, economization of motives, a brutalization of strategies and extensive fighting. Results of the empirical analyses confirm a growing significance of New Wars. Compared to conventional civil wars (between state and non-state actors) and with some limitations hypotheses on the quantity of actors, the duration of fighting and the importance of conflict resources also find support. Still, New Wars are not the dominant type of warfare, their actors are not specifically transnational in nature and they appear to be less violent. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an initial inquiry into third party mediation in civil wars using new mediation data and an extensive list of civil war dyads. This project focuses on the civil wars identified in the PRIO/Uppsala Armed Conflict dataset (see Harbom and Wallensteen 2005). These armed conflicts have a threshold of 25 battle-related deaths per year. This dataset does not ignore wars that persist for decades but have low casualty levels. We begin with the contention that civil wars fought for territorial reasons are longer and more intractable than those fought over control of government. After empirically demonstrating this simple point we turn to a consideration of whether this information can shed light on actor expectations when entering into mediation. Actors prefer negotiation where they can control process and outcome of the dispute management. When they agree to mediation they give up some control of process. Actors are more likely to enter into mediation in the more intractable cases (such as territorial wars) when expectations of the peace are low. Using a selection-duration model we find that factors that increase the probability of mediation (such as territorial wars) diminish the duration of peace. This can be interpreted that actors enter into mediation as a last resort. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no simple way to heal the wounds and divisions of a society after a violent conflict. Creating trust and understanding between groups who fought with each other in the name of ethnicity is an extremely difficult challenge. It is, however, a cruci ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong advocacy consensus that conflict acts as a vector for the spread of HIV. There is similarly broad consensus as to the reasons for this. There is growing evidence however that the link between conflict and the spread of HIV is far from st ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a curious absence from the dominant explanations for conflict escalation and war. One line of reasoning argues that they are fundamentally due to some form of misperception, in the form of differences of opinion over relative power and resolve, e ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two quite different ways to deal with the revolutionary changes in warfare which we are witnessing today: Either to mark a clear cut between “old” and “new” wars or to develop a wider concept of war, which enables to analyse on one side the real ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratic peace has been heavily studied and debated. Outside of interstate conflict, applications of the democratic peace logic are significantly fewer. We test whether a logical extension of the norms-based logic of the democratic peace (Russett ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural models of conflict usually assess a situation's tendency to instability, giving a relative risk of conflict erupting in a certain time period. Identifying "random" events that may act to accelerate, trigger, or delay conflict onset are usually considered as the key to more precise prediction of the onset of instability. However, it appears that conflictual events are diverse and poor predictors of instability onset. More useful is identifying cooperative events, which indicate when instability is likely to be avoided even in countries that appear vulnerable to severe political conflicts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration movements throughout international history have always have always been relevant to the dynamics of interstate conflict. From migration movements causing internal social disruption to migration movements being a cause of external wars, migratio ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Uganda, recent studies have revealed that traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution and social reconstruction are used successfully in some communities but not others. The paper explores a number of potential reasons for this. First, sociological ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the moral stigma attached to civilian victimization, its supposedly dubious effectiveness, and its relative increase, why are noncombatant civilians sometimes intentionally targeted by the fighting parties? One body of research explains this phenome ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of conflict analysis and resolution and of peace studies, this paper will examine the changing bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey. The study will treat Greek-Turkish relations as an illustrative case of conflict transformat ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]