In this book, the authors analyse and offer some insights into the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The story is told within the context of its conflicts, with an exploration of the complex and multilayered conflict causes and the attempts to resolve the conflict based on liberal peacebuilding. The book delves into an examination of gender relations in the country with insight into the gendered dimensions of conflict in the DRC and how liberal peace failed to resolve the conflict because of hidden agendas and interests by the West and other emerging powers as a typical replica of what has been ongoing in many conflict-laden countries / societies. The book is divided into two major parts. The first part, as noted above, delves into and dwells on the historicity and ontology of the conflict. The second part focuses on the various attempts at peacemaking that have taken place in the country, with emphasis on how liberal peace has failed to resolve the conflict. The book analyses various peacemaking strategies that have been employed and the role of women (or lack thereof) in peacemaking and peacebuilding processes; and finally, the failures, strengths, and weaknesses of international intervention strategies.

Looking closely at five decades of civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kisangani finds ample evidence to challenge popular paradigms on the nature of civil war.

Despite the high profile media reporting on sexual violence in the DRC, and the widely publicized responses of the international community, there is still very little real analysis of the real situation of women in the country. This book provides such detailed analysis of gender relations in the DRC, and goes beyond the usual explanations of sexual violence as a product of conflict, to examine the complex and socially constructed gender norms and roles which underlie incidences of violence. The book benefits from a comprehensive account of men’s and women’s roles in conflict, violence, peace building and reconstruction, and evaluates the impacts of national and international political responses.

Contemporary practices of international peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction are often unsatisfactory. There is now a growing awareness of the significance of local governments and local communitites as an intergrated part of peacebuilding in order to improve quality and enhance precision of interventions. In spite of this, ‘the local’ is rarely a key factor in peacebuilding, hence ‘everyday peace’ is hardly achieved. The aim of this volume is threefold: firstly it illuminates the substantial reasons for working with a more localised approach in politically volatile contexts. Secondly it consolidates a growing debate on the significance of the local in these contexts. Thirdly, it problematizes the often too swiftly used concept, ‘the local’, and critically discuss to what extent it is at all feasible to integrate this into macro-oriented and securitized contexts. This is a unique volume, tackling the ‘local turn’ of peacebuilding in a comprehensive and critical way. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

This book presents a critical analysis of the liberal peace project and offers possible alternatives and models. In the past decade, the model used for reconstructing societies after conflicts has been based on liberal assumptions about the pacifiying effects of 'open markets' and 'open societies'. Yet, despite the vast resources invested in helping establish the precepts of this liberal peace, outcomes have left much to be desired. The book argues that failures in the liberal peace project are not only due to efficiency problems related to its adaptation in adverse local environments, but mostly due to problems of legitimacy of turning an ideal into a doctrine for action. The aim of the book is to scrutinize assumptions about the value of democratization and marketization and realities on the ground by combining theoretical discussions with empirical evidence from key post-conflict settings such as Iraq and Afghanistan. These show the disparities that exist between the ideals and the reality of the liberal peace project, as seen by external peacebuilders and domestic actors. The book then proposes various alternatives and modifications to better accommodate local perspectives, values and agency in attempts to forge a new consensus. This book will be of great interest to students of peacebuilding/peacekeeping, statebuilding, war and conflict studies, international security and IR.

Africa; Sierra Leone; Afghanistan; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Timor-Leste; Sri Lanka; Palestine; Israel; United Nations; Lebanon; Cambodia; Central America.

Driven by genocide, civil war, political instabilities, ethnic and pastoral hostilities, the African Great Lakes Region, primarily Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi, has been overwhelmingly defined by conflict. Kenneth Omeje, Tricia Redeker Hepner, and an international group of scholars, many from the Great Lakes region, focus on the interlocking conflicts and efforts toward peace in this multidisciplinary volume. These essays present a range of debates and perspectives on the history and politics of conflict, highlighting the complex internal and external sources of both persistent tension and creative peacebuilding. Taken together, the essays illustrate that no single perspective or approach can adequately capture the dynamics of conflict or offer successful strategies for sustainable peace in the region.

This volume calls for an empirical extension of the “local turn” within peace research. Building on insights from conflict transformation, gender studies, critical International Relations and Anthropology, the contributions critique existing peace research methods as affirming unequal power, marginalizing local communities, and stripping the peace kept of substantive agency and voice. By incorporating scholars from these various fields the volume pushes for more locally grounded, ethnographic and potentially participatory approaches. While recognizing that any Ethnographic Peace Research (EPR) agenda must incorporate a variety of methodologies, the volume nonetheless paves a clear path for the much needed empirical turn within the local turn literature.

Peacebuilding and Reconciliation brings together a number of critical essays from members of the renowned Centre for Peace & Reconciliation Studies, based at Coventry University in the UK. This is a highly topical book covering the latest developments and issues in the discipline of peacebuilding, reconstruction, and reconciliation, using a range of global case studies. The wide range of geographic case studies provides fascinating comparisons and contrasts of different approaches to building peace and reconciling conflicting parties. Peacebuilding and Reconciliation is a cutting-edge collection ideal for students and academics in peace studies, development studies, and international relations.

Human rights and conflict resolution have been traditionally perceived as two separate fields, sometimes in competition or in tension and occasionally with contradictory approaches towards achieving a lasting peace. Although human rights norms have been incorporated and institutionalized by various national, regional, and international organizations that deal with conflict resolution, negotiators and mediators are often pressured in practice to overlook international human rights principles in favor of compliance and more immediate outcomes. The chapters in this volume navigate the relationship between human rights and conflict resolution by fleshing out practical, conceptual, and institutional encounters of the two agendas and engaging with lessons learned and windows of opportunities for mutual learning. Recognizing the increasing relevance of this debate and important gaps in the current research on the topic, this book addresses the following questions: How can we improve our practical and theoretical understanding of the complementarity between human rights and conflict resolution? How would a human rights-based approach to conflict resolution look like? How are international, regional, and national organizations promoting, implementing, and/or adapting to better coordinate between human rights and conflict resolution? Building on empirical evidence from contemporary conflict resolution processes, how have human rights been integrated in different efforts on the ground? What are the main lessons learned in this regard? Examining a wide range of countries and issues, this work is essential reading for human rights, conflict resolution, and security experts including scholars, diplomats, policy-makers, civil society representatives, and students of international politics.