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This article introduces the Deadly Electoral Conflict dataset (DECO): a global, georeferenced event dataset on electoral violence with lethal outcomes from 1989 to 2017. DECO allows for empirical evaluation of theories relating to the timing, location, and dynamics of deadly electoral violence. By clearly distinguishing electoral violence from related (and sometimes concurrent) instances of organized violence, DECO is particularly suitable for investigating how election-related violence is connected to other forms of violent political contention. In the article, we present the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the data collection and discuss empirical patterns that emerge in DECO. We also demonstrate one potential use of DECO by examining the association between United Nations peacekeeping forces and the prevalence of deadly electoral violence in conflict-affected countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the contributions of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) towards transparent and violence-free elections in African countries with specific focus on Nigeria, which is the largest democracy in the continent. Many countries have witnessed violent electoral contests, arising from the inability of the electoral umpire to conduct free and fair elections, hence the introduction of ICTs to correct the lapses. The objectives of this paper were to identify major ICTs gadgets for the conduct of elections in Nigeria and evaluate the extent to which the devices have curtailed electoral violence. The paper adopted an interpretive case study as its research methodology. The interpretive method is based on analogical deductions and re-analysis of relevant existing literature from secondary sources to generate new findings. Findings from the paper were that the ICTs have added tremendous values to the credibility of electoral process in Nigeria by securing elections from intense manipulation and violence through the use of electronic gadgets, including the use of Direct Data Capturing Machine (DDCM), Automated Finger Prints Identification System (AFIS) and the Smart Card Reader (SCR). However, it is concluded that the use of ICTs has improved electoral credibility but has not substantially reduced electoral violence in Nigeria as the electronic gadgets have relocated such electoral debacle from physical to electronic violence, and from manual to digital electoral manipulation. Digitalized electoral process in Nigeria is also faced with machine failure, system hacking and poor logistic supports. It is recommended that the usage of ICTs in the conduct of elections in Nigeria should be sustained as a complement, rather than supplement, to the traditional manual voting system in Nigeria. This recommendation is premised on the fact that Nigeria is not yet ripe for sole reliance on electronic voting system, which is largely challenged by inadequate power supply, derth of highly skilled ICTs technicians and high rate of ICTs non-compliance illiterate voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research demonstrates how support for political violence can be reduced by providing peaceful alternatives to produce social change. In Study 1, participants watched a video documenting the activities of a violent activist group, and then either watched a video of a peaceful activist group supporting the same cause or a control video. Participants that watched the peaceful activist group reported less support for the violent activist group than participants in the control condition. Study 2 replicated and extended Study 1 by testing the underlying psychological mechanism. In line with goal systems theory, providing participants with a peaceful alternative to produce social change (vs. no alternative) reduced the perceived instrumentality of the violent group to further the ideological cause, leading to lower support for the violent group. Implications for anti‐violence campaigns are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introductory article to the special issue discusses terrorism and political violence in the Nordic countries and reviews the state of academic research on the topic. Even though the Nordic countries appear to have suffered from lower levels of terrorism and political violence than many other Western states, they have been less void and peripheral with regard to such phenomena than common wisdom and academic scholarship would suggest. While some notable acts of violence like the July 2011 attacks in Norway have been covered in research literature to a certain degree, other phenomena such as far-right violence in Sweden have attracted less attention. The article discusses the ways in which the analysis of Nordic countries could contribute to the field of research and how articles included in the special issue address existing gaps in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at how domestic acts of ideologically-motivated violence have been treated in Finnish public discussion with a particular focus on how the word “terrorism” has and has not been used to characterize such incidents. The work demonstrates that Finnish public debate has, with certain notable exceptions, primarily avoided labelling any violent attacks in the country as terrorism. This reluctance stems from Finnish traditions of crisis management, counterterrorism, and politics. Furthermore, the propensity to use the term “terrorism” cannot be explained by such characteristics of the attack itself as the number of casualties or whether it was perpetrated by ingroup or outgroup members. Rather than “what has happened,” the question of calling or not calling an act terrorism comes down to the question of “what needs to be done.” The article contributes to academic debate by investigating a surprisingly under-researched aspect of how the term terrorism is used in public discussion while also shedding new light on the debate in Finland, a country seldom touched upon by research of terrorism and political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections are in theory democratic means of resolving disputes and making collective decisions, yet too often force is employed to distort the electoral process. The post-Cold War increase in the number of electoral authoritarian and hybrid states has brought this problem into relief. In recent years the prevention of electoral violence has played an increasingly large role in the democratic assistance activities undertaken by international agencies, following increased awareness within the international community of the specific security challenges that elections entail. However, there has to date been little systematic evaluation of the success of different electoral violence prevention (EVP) strategies in reforming electoral institutions so as to enable them to maintain the peace during the electoral period. This article assesses the effectiveness of two common types of international EVP activity. Using a new global dataset of EVP strategies between 2003 and 2015, this article finds evidence that capacity-building strategies reduce violence by non-state actors, whereas attitude-transforming strategies are associated with a reduction in violence by state actors and their allies. The findings are relevant both for understanding the dynamics of electoral violence, and also for policymakers and electoral assistance providers in the international community who have responsibility for the design of democratic assistance projects in states at risk of electoral violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present article focuses on how 13 professionals in key organisations in Sweden – all commissioned to design social and pedagogical efforts to prevent recruitment to terror groups that commit violence in the name of Islam – understand and reason regarding the root causes of recruitment and possible measures to counteract it. The 13 informants’ reasoning is analysed through critical discourse analysis, the aim being to investigate discursive practices that influence the construction of a Swedish discourse on the “prevention of violent extremism”. The analysis shows that in the informants’ reasoning, a conflict can be found between security-driven doctrines that strive to individualise the issue of “violent extremism”, and their understanding that segregation is the primary, though indirect, factor sparking “radicalisation”. This conflict seems to impair the use of a professional language to describe and talk about the practical methodology that the informants are developing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 50 years, Colombia has experienced intense socio-political violence associated with its internal armed conflict. As a result of this violence, long and complicated processes of land dispossession have taken place throughout the country, and more than seven million people have internally displaced. Currently, the Colombian state is implementing a Land Restitution Program, which aims to restitute the dispossessed lands and to transform deep inequalities associated with massive forced displacement. This case study on both the complexities of the land takings in Colombia and the Land Restitution Program's ambitious goals contributes to strengthening the socio-legal concepts of dignity takings and dignity restoration. In this study, I develop a set of variables to empirically assess the extent to which a property takings case involves dignity takings. Applying this set of variables, I find that land dispossession victims in Colombia have suffered different forms of dignity deprivation and yet, only some of them reach the level of dehumanization or infantilization. Moreover, my analysis shows that paying more attention to the context, historical processes leading to property loss, and the particular position of the land-taking victims in a community can capture fundamental elements to achieve a deeper understanding of dignity deprivation. Therefore, the interaction between widespread violence, deep inequalities, and land dispossession is critical to comprehend the effects of dignity takings processes. By using a content analysis of judicial rulings and semi-structured interviews with officials, I analyze the Land Restitution Program's transformative goals and foster a conversation between the concepts of dignity restoration and transformative reparation. Based on this conversation, I suggest that dignity restoration can play a significant role in transitional contexts beyond those that fit the concept of dignity takings, particularly if dignity restoration is considered a remedy for massive human rights violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 5th triennial Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Conference, which featured workshop on how parliament could promote legislation to protect women from political violence, delivered by British Labour Party politician Roberta Blackman-Woods. Topics include the goal of the CWP to increase the number of female Parliamentarians, the use of public platforms to address the issue of political violence against women and democracy of women in politics.

‘International accompaniers’ use their physical presence as a form of peaceful intervention to deter political violence against local human rights defenders. Threatened members of Guatemala’s civil society have relied on accompaniment as part of their security strategy since the early 1980s. Approximately one thousand volunteers from a dozen countries have accompanied in Guatemala. International accompaniment has been a key component of the effort to prosecute former military general and president Efraín Ríos Montt and other perpetrators of mass human rights violations in Guatemala. Victim witnesses and their legal counsel have included accompaniment as part of their protection strategy since 2000. Important questions have nonetheless been raised with respect to accompaniment’s effectiveness as a tool for witness protection and the possibility that it reinforces power inequalities. This article builds on Gada Mahrouse’s critique of accompaniment and draws on Michel Foucault’s understanding of reflexivity and power. The authors use insights from two case studies to support the argument that accompaniment’s usefulness as a tool for witness protection depends on its ability to accommodate the witnesses’ position within webs of interconnected power dynamics and the multiple ways in which they conceive of security. It also depends on how intelligible these different power dynamics are to accompaniers. This argument is used to highlight how accompaniment in Guatemala is relevant for other situations where the prosecution of human rights atrocities is long term and depends on witness testimony. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article offers a first academic evaluation of the Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, two British undercover police units working for the Metropolitan Police Service at different times between 1968 and 2011. It provides a historical overview of their infiltration of political groups involved in protest for the purpose of gathering criminal and political intelligence aimed at preventing violence, public disorder, and subversion. It discusses the controversies surrounding these units, and the related institutional responses, and offers an attempt at understanding their operations within the remit of intelligence-led policing and against a political culture that prioritizes action over inaction in reducing risks and threats to the State and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the goals of peacekeeping operations is limiting the amount of violence that takes place during a civil war. However, peacekeeping forces cannot occupy every part of a country that is engulfed in a civil conflict. This raises the question as to where peacekeeping forces decide to go once they are deployed to a civil war-torn country. In this article, we contribute to the burgeoning research that examines peacekeeping at the microlevel by attempting to determine whether peacekeeping operations go to those areas that are in most need of their help. Utilizing geocoded data from the UCDP GED and PKOLED projects, we use spatial analysis techniques to create kernel density estimates of civil war violence and peacekeeping operations at site-specific locations. We then use these newly generated variables in a variety of regression models to determine whether the location of civil war battles influences the location of peacekeepers. The analysis confirms our expectations in that the location of violence significantly predicts the location of peacekeeping operations, but only after these operations have been in a civil war-torn country for a considerable length of time. Contrary to our expectations, however, peacekeeping operations do not seem more adept at identifying and responding to government and rebel violence relative to attacks against civilians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From January 1979 to December 2009, the Maoist insurgent Shining Path committed a total of 9,034 violent acts in a concerted attempt to topple the Peruvian government. These acts of violence included bombings, armed assaults, and assassinations. The Shining Path's leader Abimael Guzmán was captured by the Peruvian government on 12 September 1992. Using quarterly data and an interrupted times-series AutoRegressive Integrative Moving Average (ARIMA) study design, we investigated the effect of Abimael Guzmán's capture on the ability of the Shining Path to wage its war against the Peruvian government. Maximum-likelihood results revealed that the frequency of terrorist acts committed by the Shining Path dropped by 143 incidents per quarter a short time after Guzmán was captured. The analysis also evinced a positive relationship between the lethality of attacks and the frequency of the Shining Path's terrorist activity. We conclude that targeted capture shows some promise as an effective counterterrorism strategy, at least for terrorist groups such as the Shining Path that have a top-down type of organizational structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on a session of the 5th Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) focusing the political violence against women held on December 14, 2016 in London, England. Topics discussed include the role that civil society and media can play in preventing violence against women; the need safeguard women's rights in politics; and the discussion by legislator Shirley Osborne on the stereotypes against women.

The principal object of this paper is to study the effects of extremist propensity, exposure to extremist moral settings and their interaction effect on political violence in sub groups by gender and immigrant background. The situational action theory, as outlined by Wikström is used as a framework. Although previous studies have found empirical evidence for this interaction effect in the light of general offending, no study so far has applied SAT to the study of violent extremism. In doing so, we will also address the stability of the interaction effect by gender and immigrant background. The present study is based on a large web survey on self-reported political violence as a measure for violent extremism. Strong support is found for the hypothesis that the effect of exposure to violent extremist moral settings is depending on the strength or weakness of individual violent extremist propensity. This indicates that exposure to violent extremist moral settings has the strongest effect on political violence for individuals with a high propensity to violent extremism. These results imply that SAT can be used to as a framework to explain individual violent extremism. This pattern is found for boys and girls of both native (Belgian) and immigrant background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This writing presents an orientation to work alongside survivors of torture and political violence centred in witnessing resistance and an activist informed ethical stance for decolonising and antioppression practice (Reynolds & polanco, 2012). This includes descriptions of what constitutes torture and political violence, and understandings of witnessing, and resistance as ever present and useful despite the fact that resistance is often not enough to stop oppression (Wade, 1997; Reynolds, 2010a). This writing highlights Bahman, a survivor of torture from Iran, and illuminates his poetic resistance to torture, including poems that Bahman wrote during our therapeutic work together. I will provide enough context of the political situation and particular acts of violence and torture so that the acts of resistance in Bahman's poems are understandable, and make visible structures of safety (Richardson & Reynolds, 2014, in press) and accountability practices. Bahman's poems are interspersed throughout the text and following each of his poems there is a link to Gwen Haworth's film of the poem read by Bahman in Farsi and Colin James Sanders in English. Bahman then reflects on the experience of re-visiting his resistance, our therapeutic work together, and his poems through an interview with Colin. Finally, Sekneh Hammoud-Beckett offers a reflection of this work from her location as a woman from a Muslim background and as a therapist with a commitment to creative resistance (2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the effects of diplomatic sanctions and engagement on reducing the severity of ongoing instances of genocide or politicide. I argue that neither diplomatic measure will be effective in slowing or stopping the killing. I argue that diplomatic sanctions merely reduce the flow of information without credibly signalling intent or commitment, while diplomatic engagement does not challenge perpetrators. Neither policy raises the costs of perpetrating genocide or politicide. Therefore, neither is expected to be useful in mitigating ongoing atrocities. Ordered logit analyses of ongoing genocides and politicides from 1976 to 2008 confirm these assumptions, and demonstrate that changing levels of diplomatic representation with atrocity perpetrators may make policymakers feel like they are ‘doing something’, but does little to reduce the lethality of ongoing mass killing. Under one set of circumstances, increased engagement even exacerbates the atrocities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most interpretations of prevalent counterinsurgency theory imply that increasing government services reduces rebel violence. Empirically, however, development programs and economic activity sometimes increase violence. Using new panel data on development spending in Iraq, we show that violence-reducing effects of development assistance are greater when: (i) projects are small; (ii) troop strength is high; and (iii) professional development expertise is available. These findings are consistent with an information-centric ('hearts and minds') model, which implies that violence-reduction is greatest when projects are secure, valued by community members, and services derived are conditional on government control of the territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature exploring large-scale, identity-based political violence, including mass killing and genocide, debates the plausibility of, and prospects for, early warning and prevention. An extension of the debate involves the prospects for creating educational experiences that result in more sophisticated analytical products that enhance preventive policy action. This article details an attempt to bridge the theory to practice gap. It describes the role of a simulation COUNTRY X within the educational contexts of both a graduate course in prevention of mass killing and genocide at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a practitioner training workshop designed for regional conflict early warning analysts in Africa. The authors review educational theory describing problem-based learning and apply it to a web-based educational simulation. Using a recent training of professional conflict early warning analysts as their case study, they explore several assumptions regarding the utility of simulated environments as educational tools in moving from theory to practice. Use of the simulation resulted in active and engaged participation by learners, increased capacity for well-reasoned perspective taking, and improved analytical confidence in complex scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on mother-activism and how a mother can make a difference in violence and corruption in governments. She relates her childhood experience during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the death of her son in Iraq War that led her to be an advocate in Women's Congress and an anti-war activist. She calls for women to support and join organizations that fight to make a change in chauvinistic policies.

If the assessment of ASEAN's success in the past is difficult, speculations on whether ASEAN will be a success will be close to impossibility. Yet this is what is intended in this article. However, this is done by first defining robust criteria of success of conflict prevention. Conflict prevention is successful if conflicts and battle deaths can be avoided, either by means of conflict resolution or transformation, or simply by means of conflict avoidance. By starting with this criterion the article will argue that ASEAN peacefulness cannot be explained by durable objective conditions. Instead, it is built on imagined realities. The imagined realities of the ASEAN Way are getting more difficult to sustain due to their interaction with material and normative/institutional developments. Many of the constructed foundations of the ASEAN Way are unsustainable in the new realities where communication has become easy and uncontrollable, and societies have become wealthier and more democratized. However, the article will show that evidence of existing conflict violence suggests that ASEAN has started to reformulate its approach to conflict prevention and that this has largely been successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the division of the United Nations (UN) Security Council on its response efforts to the Arab Spring crisis in Syria. It says that the Council has faced difficulties in addressing the crisis for the first five months due to subsequent disagreement on the measures to be taken to suppress the violence in the country. It mentions that the Council has issued a non-binding Presidential Statement, the first decision taken by the Council on Syria since the start of the uprising on August 3, 2011, which criticizes the violence in the country against civilians. It adds that the statements issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council, League of Arab States (LAS), and the U.S. have shown the illegitimacy of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad as the ruler of the country

When facing a climate sensation of impunity concerning flagrant, massive and systematic violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the question arises of what to do to make less burdensome the condition of the victims. Frequently, one thinks of punishing the perpetrators of these violations, when in fact the problem is much more complex. In our opinion, without prejudice to the role played by legal sanctions, is the prevention of the crime where the greatest difficulties appear to guarantee the respect for the IHL. It is precisely where our reflections point. In this regard, we intend to address the scope and content of the obligation -not simply as a duty- to prevent violations or breaches of IHL. But it will be in a second instance where we will approach the obligations of the State specifically in this area. Finally, we will address the question of the obligations regarding to the conduct of hostilities and operational law, in particular; because it is there where the legal regulations find its biggest challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of individuals or groups that use violence or terrorism in the pursuit of political goals typically focus on the specific actions that these individuals or groups have taken, or may take, and on the policies that defenders against such actions adopt in response. Comparatively less attention is devoted to the preconditions that may lead to the contemplation and commitment of such actions and how or why defenders may obviate these actions before they occur or why they may never occur. This case study is an examination of the politics of Quebec separatism, which looked set to follow a violent path in the 1960s and early 1970s, but ultimately did not, and explores why it did not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers tips on how to conduct counter-insurgency operations in the U.S. Violence and asymmetrical warfare are considered the primary tools of terrorism using terror psychology for maximum effect. It suggests to change counterterrorism policy to avoid terrorism. It points out the necessity to concentrate on liaison relationships with other friendly countries. It adds that problems on terrorism can be solved through the deployment of special operations teams.

The article discusses the spectra of passive terrorism and its potential impact on the intensification of terrorism problem in the U.S. It explores the possible causes of inactive terrorism, its types and dynamic relationship with active terrorism. It cites that passivity against terrorists may increase the possibility of Western Islamic organizations to obtain financial support from other Islamic groups or individuals in the Muslim population. It further notes the need to encourage and promote the implementation of firm rulings against terrorists within the Muslim societies to help weaken radical Islam.

There was consensus that election-related conflicts were not new to Kenya and other democracies. However, the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya was the most severe. Parliament was instrumental in establishing the coalition government and in ensuring its sustainability and success. Members inevitably play a critical role in achieving durable peace which is linked to the existence of credible democratic institutions and enhanced government accountability. Initially, state-sponsored violence was used as a tool for manipulating election results. In properly elected governments, Parliaments hold enormous responsibility and capacity to stem conflict and ensure existence of an all-inclusive society, the workshop heard. The role of legislating is key in creating a framework for addressing historical injustices, political stability and sustainable peace. However, Members do not yet perform this role perfectly. To stem future reversals, participants concurred that the following are imperative: the focused implementation of Kenya's new constitution, the enhancement of multi-stakeholder fora, the entrenchment of a culture of constitutionalism and the promotion of continuous peacebuilding processes, even in the absence of potential conflicts. Workshop A primarily addressed Kenya's post-election violence in 2008 which led to property destruction and claimed 1300 lives. There was consensus that inter-ethnic conflicts were universal phenomena that was neither new to Kenya nor to other democracies. The Kenya Parliament earned an admirable achievement by playing a dynamic role of passing several laws to bring about peace and political stability during the 2008 post-election violence. Parliament's resolve to anchor and legitimize political settlements into the constitution proved that the traditional role of Parliament is evolving, and that its capacity to concretize ideas, mobilize popular support and turn them into practice remains the duty of modern Parliaments. Parliamentarians observed that the existence of credible democratic institutions is pivotal to the achievement and sustainability of durable peace and political stability. The supportive role of the international community and whether their intervention was interest-driven was also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers and practitioners concerned with small arms control have traditionally focused narrowly on 'supply-side' forms of regulation and containment. Concerned that excessive arms availability might destabilise fragile and post-war countries, they typically advance a host of activities such as weapons embargoes, export and import controls, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes and weapons collection schemes. These initiatives often achieve fewer dividends than expected. This article argues for a broader conceptualisation of 'availability' that accounts for both supply and demand dimensions. Availability would thus extend from arms production and diverse forms of weapons circulation to the manifold factors shaping acquisition and the multiple ways arms are used and misused. A broad spectrum treatment directly acknowledges the many faces of armed violence and allows for more sophisticated diagnosis, treatment and cure. This article considers how a host of 'second generation' armed violence prevention and reduction activities might enhance efforts to promote security in the aftermath of Africa's wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from war to peace is fraught with tension and the risk of a return to bloodshed. With so much at stake, it is crucial that the international community and local stakeholders make sense of the complex mosaic of challenges, to support a lasting, inclusive and prosperous peace. Recent missions, such as in Afghanistan, Somalia or Sudan, have highlighted the fact that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach to steering countries away from violence and towards stability. This Adelphi offers a series of economic perspectives on conflict resolution, showing how the challenges of peacebuilding can be more effectively tackled. From the need to marry diplomatic peacemaking with development efforts, and activate the private sector in the service of peacebuilding aims, to the use of taxes and natural-resource revenues as a financial base for sustainable peace, this issue considers how economic factors can positively shape and drive peace processes. It examines the complex ways in which power and order may be manifested in conflict zones, where unpalatable compromises with local warlords can often be the first step towards a more lasting settlement. In distilling expertise from a range of disciplines, this Adelphi seeks to inform a more economically integrated and responsive approach to helping countries leave behind their troubled pasts and take a fuller role in constructing their futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterterrorist state forces and terrorist insurgents compete to control not only territory and populations but language. The success of counterterrorism, therefore, hinges crucially on representational practices. Defeating terrorism in the long run requires both undermining the legitimacy of political violence and its purveyors and opening space for the pursuit of a less violent but still legitimate politics, and these are fundamentally rhetorical projects. Yet the literature has not shed much light on either the range of conceivable counterterrorist representational strategies or on states' particular representational choices. This article presents and illustrates a typology of counterterrorist representational strategies. It argues that state leaders should ideally delegitimize the extremists' means while politicizing some of their aspirations. Leaders often do not pursue this rhetorical path, however, due to the constraints imposed by existing understandings of terrorist organizations and especially by foundational discourses. These arguments are explored empirically through studies of the Indian, Spanish, and Turkish counterterrorist campaigns. The article concludes by extending the framework to clarify why the militarized rhetoric of the so-called 'War on Terror' is counterproductive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution analyses Western governments' responses to the 2008 Kenyan crisis. It argues that while donors' reactions to the crisis were a vast improvement over their responses to previous elections and eruptions of political violence, they failed to learn some important lessons from the past and take a more proactive role in preventing violence, notably because they disregarded key governance problems that made violence easily imaginable, if not utterly predictable. Moreover, by focusing on ending the violence as quickly as possible, donors placed greater priority on peace than on justice or democracy, a trade-off that undoubtedly saved many lives but compromises the political reform agenda and carries significant future risks for Kenya and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant body of research points to the central role of identity in creating and maintaining conflict. However, less research has focused on the protective role of social identity in such situations. Using a survey sample of 3,000 participants, 2,000 of whom were resident in a conflict-affected region (Northern Ireland) and 1,000 in a region more distally affected (the Border counties of the Republic of Ireland) the potential moderating and mediating impact of national identification on the relationship between direct and indirect experience of political violence and psychological well-being is examined. Findings indicate that national identification mediates the impact of direct political violence on well-being in Northern Ireland. This relationship is strongest where preferred nationality is relevant to the social division underlying the conflict. Those more distally affected, resident in the Republic of Ireland, did not evidence this pattern of relationships. Discussion of results focuses on the potential positive and negative implications of these findings for personal and societal well-being, respectively. Un corps de recherches significatif pointe le rôle central de l’identité dans la création et le maintien d’un conflit. Toutefois, un nombre de recherches moins important s’est focalisé sur le rôle protecteur de l’identité sociale dans de telles situations. En utilisant un échantillon de 3,000 sujets, 2,000 résidant dans une région affectée par un conflit (Irlande du nord) et 1,000 dans une région moins touchée (les comtés limitrophes de la République d’Irlande), l’impact potentiellement modérateur et médiateur de l’identification nationale sur les relations entre l’expérience directe ou indirecte de la violence politique et le bien-être psychologique est examiné. Les résultats montrent que l’identification nationale relie l’impact de la violence politique directe au bien-être en Irlande du Nord. Cette relation est plus forte là où la nationalité est préférée à la division sociale sous jacente au conflit. Ceux qui sont le moins touchés par le conflit et qui habitent la République d’Irlande, ne relèvent pas de ce modèle de relation. La discussion se focalise sur les implications potentiellement positives ou négatives de ces résultats sur, respectivement, le bien-être personnel et sociétal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses ways in fighting the global financing of transnational threats. It outlines three important levels of the measure which include deterrence, prevention and disruption, and stresses the advantage of strategy to keep terrorists from doing illicit activities. It explores the challenges of international agencies in opposing the innovative ways used by terrorist groups in collecting funds. It also mentions the effort of the U.S. government to combat with terrorist financing.

The article presents a response to the article "Sexual, politics, torture, and secular time," by Judith Butler presented in this issue. The author critiques Butler's advocacy of a "politics that opposes state coercion and violence," with the author focuses on her comments on the relationship between secularism and religion. The author uses the United States and France as two countries that have internalized and express modern secularism in different ways. The author highlights the severe honesty with which Butler critiques a progressive, modern sexual politics.

Drawing upon data collected through in-depth interviews with 20 victims of the Ethio-Eritrean war, this article addresses how psychosocial impacts of political violence are coped with in a Tigrayan context in northern Ethiopia. Qualitative procedures of condensation and categorization of interview texts revealed that informants presented three kinds of coping strategies, all aimed at avoiding indulging in sorrow: (1) diverted thinking, (2) distraction, and (3) future investment. As their main rationale for employing such coping strategies, informants reported the belief that grieving and crying would have negative impacts on their health, their household, and on their relationship with God. This belief is discussed in terms of how it is informed by sociocultural discourses of the Tigrayan community in general, and discourses of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in particular. Some implications concerning the mismatch between the western trauma discourse and local discourses for psychosocial coping are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminologists have mostly followed the criminal law in adopting an apolitical concept of crime. They paid limited attention to both political crime and the political power to criminalise. The article traces efforts to redress this since the 1960s. It nevertheless remained a minority concern, mostly of critical criminology. Yet crime has been politicised in various ways by other developments, also examined in the article. The events of 9/11 have crowned the emergence of crime as a strategic security issue posing a challenge to criminology to engage with politically inspired crime and its control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on U.S. anti-terrorism laws after 9/11 terrorist attack. The author states that U.S. President George W. Bush has signed on November 13, 2011 a military order creating military commissions for suspected terrorists and he also declared on September 20, 2001 the formation of Homeland Security Office, assigned with collecting intelligence and coordinate anti-terrorist efforts. Moreover, the USA Patriot Act passed by U.S. Congress and Bush on October 26, 2001 targets both U.S. citizens and foreigners opposing government policies against domestic terrorism. The author argues that the anti-terrorism laws change the way the U.S. treats its people and immigrants and expands executive power in an effort to eliminate terrorism.