Post-Conflict Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The aim of this study was to conduct a review of the literature to identify
the efficacy of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) for traumatised children
and adolescents suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in resource-poor, post conflict societies. The results provide a summary of the
studies which have used NET treatment approaches with children and adolescents from non-Western populations, indicating that NET has empirical evidence
for the treatment of PTSD in children and adolescents within this population.

This book examines the legacy of Lebanon’s civil war and how the population, and the youth in particular, are dealing with their national past. Drawing on extensive qualitative research and social observation, the author explores the... more

- by craig larkin
- •
- Education, Lebanon, Postmemory, Post-Conflict
- by Daniel Jewesbury
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- Photography, Contemporary Art, Northern Irish Politics, Photography Theory

During the last few years, some donor countries (especially the US and the UK) have been increasingly outsourcing services in post-conflict operations to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and private military and security companies (PMSCs). These states have also adopted ‘integrated approaches’ to their policy interventions, contributing to the emergence of an ‘aid and security market’. The article uses ideas from both development and defence studies and re-problematises the contracting states’ relationship with PMSCs and INGOs. It argues that although INGOs and PMSCs are very different types of non-state actors, there are striking similarities in outsourcing practices. Moreover, it demonstrates that the leading contracting states have poorly managed their contracts with both INGOs and PMSCs, and have not seriously reflected on the unintended consequences of their contracting practices on the recovery of war-affected countries.

Sebha is the key and the most populated city in Fezzan,
the South of Libya, and the main gateway between
North and South. In 2018, it es􀆟matly hosts around
210,000 inhabitants constitu􀆟ng around 2/3rd of its
governorate.
It has experienced figh􀆟ng and damage, especially in
2011 and 2014. Most of the displaced were within the
boundaries of the city and its immediate
neighborhoods, accelerating the development of its
informal settlements.
15,190 IDPs from Sebha outside the region has
returned, cons􀆟tu􀆟ng today 7% of the population. This
is while there are s􀆟ll 8,390 displaced IDPs.
Sebha became also a major step on the migra􀆟on road
from Africa to the North. 35,040 migrants were
accounted for in August 2018 (18% of the municipality
popula􀆟on), in an accelera􀆟ng trend. 89% of the
migrants are from Africa, mainly Niger and Nigeria.
Their humanitarian situation is a priority issue.

- by Fabiano Micocci and +3
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development, Urban Planning, Urbanism

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation that may be applicable in other post-conflict societies.

- by Matthew Light
- •
- Security Studies, Post-Soviet Regimes, Post-Soviet Politics, Post-Soviet Studies

Community-driven development (CDD) – a widely practiced tool by development donors and practitioners worldwide - strives to empower and develop communities by giving them joint control over aid allocations. This is expected to improve local development, local governance, and strengthen social cohesion. However, the empirical evidence for the third outcome is quite weak. This paper presents the findings of an impact evaluation research examining the extent the community driven development intervention implemented during 2014-2017 strengthened social cohesion in two regions in Kyrgyzstan. Our findings are that, on the one hand, the CDD project led to a sense of unity and cooperation and to a perception of improvements in local governance and educational services. On the other hand, the program had at best a weak effect on deep-trenched perceptions, attitudes and trust for closely related social groups and local institutions. We posit that these results obtained in part because the duration of the CDD interventions was rather short and the micro-projects were only realized in less than a half of villages in treatment sub-districts. It stands to reason that larger and longer CDD projects would have had larger impacts on social cohesion as well.

- by IPPA UCA
- •
- Governance, Impact Evaluation, Local Development, Social cohesion

The first formal published research conducted on Retired Special Forces Operators with the direct input of retired and serving Special Forces Operators. The research opportunity, co-operation of the Special Forces League, co-operation of the Special Forces Brigade and co-operation of interviewees was facilitated and managed by Stuart Sterzel. The research itself was conducted by Guy Lamb while at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, and published in Track Two - the quarterly research Publication of the Centre for Conflict Resolution (from Page 39 onwards).

- by Stuart Sterzel
- •
- Military History, Military Veterans, Combat Veterans, Research

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement both ended the Bosnian War and created the consociational democracy that exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day. The ethnic autonomy created by the Dayton Agreement has resulted in a frozen conflict between ethnic groups that has manifested itself in the country’s monoethnic education system. This study explores the short-term stability under consociationalism and the long-term stability under a multiethnic education system. Additionally, this study explains the importance of the country’s only multiethnic education system in Brčko District and how it came into existence.

- by Safal Ghimire and +2
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Protection, Nepal, Livelihood
- by FREDERIC LABARRE, PhD
- •
- NATO, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ebook

The purpose of this report is to raise attention to the constraints that presently restrict the provision of finance in Southern Sudan, and recommend actions that would stimulate the development of the sector as well as a more broad based... more

- by Melody Atil
- •
- Access to Finance, Post-Conflict, A2F, South Sudan
- by Jacqueline Siapno
- •
- Indonesian Studies, Islamic Studies, Aceh, Post-Conflict

The protracted LRA war in northern Uganda was characterised by the
abduction and abuse of an unknown but significant number of girls and
women. These girls were forced to carry guns and become wives to
rebels, among other roles during captivity. Based on thirteen child
mothers’ interviews and eight key informant interviews, the study found
that the lives of formerly abducted mothers are tainted with stigma,
rejection, and discrimination by in-laws, relatives, and the community,
which leads to identity problems and limited possibilities for their
integration. Child mothers’ return to school, small business engagement,
and social involvement reduced their plight.

- by Annie Weber
- •
- Street Children, Weber, northern Uganda, Post-Conflict

This paper discusses and defines stability operations, analyzes recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, highlights American weaknesses in conducting stability operations, and applies those lessons to improve America’s ability to... more

- by Bradley Martin
- •
- NATO, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ebook
- by Martina Fischer
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Reconciliation, Peacebuilding, Bosnia and Herzegovina

C. Aoki, A. Al-Lami and, S. Kugaprasatham. 2014. Environmental management of the Iraqi marshlands in the post-conflict period. In Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, ed. E. Weinthal, J. Troell, and M. Nakayama. London: Earthscan.

- by Dr. Ali Allami
- •
- Water, Post-Conflict, Post Conflict Issues

In 1999 NATO began a 78-day bombing campaign of targets across Serbia, including the capital of Belgrade, in order to force the hand of Slobodan Milošević to remove Serbian forces from Kosovo and end atrocities against ethnic Albanians. The operation, officially known as "Operation Allied Force," was widely contested across the global stage as it sidestepped UN authorization in the name of 'humanitarian intervention.' This event, in the larger context of the Balkans in the 1990s, marks a site to explore various aspects of collective memory within post-conflict Serbia and the former Yugoslav republics. Approaching Belgrade as a mnemonic landscape, a fragmented urban topography, that pushes our focus on the material and spatial spread of the city, we can study this 'space' as 'place' in order to clarify the relation of the past with in post-conflict Serbia.

- by Marco Lanier
- •
- Political Sociology, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Post-Conflict

Titulaire d'un MBA et d'un DEA en Histoire, Dima de Clerck est docteur en histoire de l'Université Paris I. Sa thèse a porté sur les mémoires collectives communautaires dans le Liban d'après-guerre et plus précisément sur les cas des villages druzo-chrétiens. Elle est chercheuse associée à l'Institut français du Proche-Orient et auteur de plusieurs articles publiés.

- by Dima de Clerck
- •
- Peace and Conflict Studies, Middle East Studies, Refugee Studies, Conflict

This article introduces the concept of ethnicity in relation to gendered security problems in conflict and post-conflict settings. Feminist research has established that men and women experience conflict and post-conflict situations differently owing to issues of identity and power. National and gendered identities and women’s disadvantageous location within global and local power structures combine to put women at risk, while simultaneously providing little room for them to voice their security problems. Theories on women as female boundary-makers show how ethnicity appears in part to be created, maintained and socialized through male control of gender identities, and how women’s fundamental human rights and dignity are often caught up in male power struggles. In post-conflict settings, gender construction appears to be further complicated by both nationalagendas of identity formation and re-formation, which often include an ethnic focus, and the presence of a competing ‘fraternity’ as aconsequence of the arrival of the international community.

To reconstruct or not to reconstruct is now the question... to post conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina this was not the question, or maybe it is better to say for post Dayton peace agreement
in Bosnia and Herzegovina (14 December, 1995). How strong agreement for peace can be?
Well it stopped the long conflict and arranged many things such as return of refugees and reconstruction of destroyed cultural heritage. Was this the end or just the beginning? Maybe
now, after the years, it is the proper time to say. In a way it helped to resolve a lot of starting questions, and surely helped to safe rest of many destructed monuments and to safeguard
them to be restored in proper manner, even there were attempts not to do so. Large number
of properties were considered impossible to restore and way too difficult we can say now that
reconstructing the heritage in B&H was a task that is still not finished, there are numbers of
monuments that are still waiting to be reconstructed or they are in the way to be reconstructed.
How to justify these reconstructions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not difficult, by its placement in Dayton peace agreement it is clear that annex 8 is considered as part of human right
of people to its heritage, coming just after annex 7 that is based on return of refugees to their
homes after exile. Main aim of the research is to discuss questions about post conflict reconstruction of cultural heritage properties and involvement of peace agreement into a return
of refugees and reconstruction of their destroyed cultural heritage. This can be reviewed by
examples of reconstruction on significant monuments like Mostar old bridge (UNESCO site),
Ferhat pasha mosque in Banja Luka, Handanija mosque in Prusac, Kujundžiluk bazaars in
Mostar, Orthodox Monastery in Zavala and Land museum in Sarajevo. Investigation is focused by the results of survey on assessment of the impact of Swedish organization Cultural
Heritage without Borders engagements in Bosnia and Herzegovina in post conflict time. A
reflection of economic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina is more evident in the study, than
on other hand their attitude towards cultural heritage or importance of its reconstruction.

- by Rizki Amalia Affiat
- •
- Gender, Islam, Aceh, Post-Conflict

This paper tries to understand the notion of peace in the post-war Sri Lankan context. In Sri Lanka ‘peace-building’ is at a crossroads as a
theory as well as practice. Peace-building does not take place in
a vacuum, so it is important to look at the ambit of
realpolitik in order to understand peace in the post-war
Sri Lanka. The paper argues that National security is preferred to human
security in a world that seems to be moving from
prevention towards pre-emption and peace needs to be understood in this setting.

- by MeeNilankco Theiventhran
- •
- Sri Lanka, Peace, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict

In addressing the de-Baathification in post-2003 Iraq, this article outlines the efforts by Iraqi lawmakers to codify de-Baathification in Iraq’s new constitution of 2005 as well as in subsequent pieces of more detailed legislation. The article then goes on to study the actual implementation of these laws in relation to the Iraqi parliamentary elections of 2010 and 2014, as well as the local elections of 2013. Throughout the chapter, special emphasis is given to the considerable discrepancies between the principles enshrined in the formal de-Baathification legislation and the way those principles are applied in practice. Finally, this chapter concludes by suggesting that Iraq needs to openly and honestly deal with its Baathist past if it is ever to move beyond patterns of political
sectarianism, violence and autocracy.

- by Benjamin Isakhan
- •
- Political Sociology, Political Geography and Geopolitics, Law, Criminal Law

The special issue ‘Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the !elds of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility’ label in the legitimisation of Western policy interventions in countries facing violence and profound poverty. They also emphasise the agency of actors ‘on the receiving end’, describing how the elites and governments in so-called ‘fragile states’ have incorporated and reinterpreted the concept to !t their own political agendas. A !rst set of articles examines the role played by the World Bank, the OECD, the European Union and the g7+ coalition of ‘fragile states’ in the transnational diffusion of the concept, which is understood as a critical element in the new discourse on international aid and security. A second set of papers employs three case studies (Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda) to explore the processes of appropriation, reinterpretation and the strategic use of the ‘fragile state’ concept."

- by Sonja Grimm and +2
- •
- Development Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development, Security Studies

In the two decades since the end of the 1992-93 Georgian-Abkhaz war, the border area between Georgia and Abkhazia has seen multiple, diverse forms of violence. This area was relatively peaceful before the war and was barely touched during the war. As the war ended, it became the epicenter of organized political violence in Abkhazia. This article seeks to explain why violence has persisted in the Georgian-Abkhaz border area into the post-war period. While major approaches to this problem are developed at the macro, state level, I turn to how events developed among key actors the micro level to explain the observed variation. I locate violent events in the Gali region in the contested zone, predominantly controlled by the Abkhaz, and argue that a complex, embedded social structure of violence based on fear emerged between armed actors on both sides of the border and the local population in Gali. In this structure local residents are subjected to pressure from both sides to collaborate, and as a consequence suffer reprisals. This in turn supports the continuation of violent conflict between Abkhaz and Georgian forces.

- by Anastasia Shesterinina
- •
- Border Studies, Civil War, Political Violence, Human Security

This paper describes a participatory project that combines cultural heritage restoration activities with heritage tours and dialogue events in order to explore the relationship of heritage with identity in a multi-ethnic setting. The approach, which was used by an international non-governmental organisation based in Peje/Pec, Western Kosovo, is offered as a tool for integrating restoration into the wider social aims of humanitarian projects. The project encouraged constituent groups to negotiate their own path through the tensions presented by universal heritage value, local values and cultural diversity as well as concepts associated with humanitarian culture, such as multiculturalism, human rights, peace, reconciliation and democracy. I have evaluated its success in terms of its ability to increase opportunities for communication between communities and demystify the negative meanings associated with heritage sites and their restoration

- by Sarah Wolferstan
- •
- Cultural Heritage, Dialogue, Kosovo, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

After more than 20 years of sporadic separatist insurgency, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government signed an internationally brokered peace agreement in August 2005, just eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Aceh’s coastal communities. This article presents a medical hu-manitarian case study based on ethnographic data I collected while working for a large aid agency in post-conflict Aceh from 2005 to 2007. In December 2005, the agency faced the first test of its medical and negotiation capacities to provide psychiatric care to a recently amnestied political prisoner whose erratic behavior upon returning home led to his re-arrest and detention at a district police station. I juxtapose two methodological approachesdan ethnographic content analysis of the agency’s email archive and field-based participant-observationdto recount contrasting narrative versions of the event. I use this contrast to illustrate and critique the immediacy of the humanitarian imperative that characterizes the industry. Immediacy is explored as both an urgent moral impulse to assist in a crisis and a form of mediation that seemingly projects neutral and transparent transmission of content. I argue that the sense of immediacy afforded by email enacts and amplifies the humanitarian imperative at the cost of abstracting elite humanitarian actors out of local and moral context. As a result, the management and mediation of this psychiatric case by email produced a bureaucratic model of care that failed to account for complex conditions of chronic political and medical instability on the ground.

- by Jesse Hession Grayman
- •
- Psychiatry, Humanitarianism, Narrative, Traumatic Brain Injury

Why has the internationally-promoted Weberian-style bureaucracy failed to replace patronage as the dominant principle of state organization in post-war Kosovo? This article explores how international actors’ rule-promotion activities and local actors’ strategies of resistance play out and interact to explain the failure. The empirical analysis focuses on rules of recruitment in the civil service system in the period 2000-2016. The analysis juxtaposes two consecutive stages of the state-building process, which are marked by different degrees and forms of international involvement: the pre-independence period, 1999-2008; and post-independence period, 2008-2016. Evidence from the case suggests that during the pre-independence period, legal inconsistencies embedded in the internationally promulgated legislation enabled local actors’ formal and informal strategies to recruit political cronies in the newly created civil service system. The transfer of authority from international administrators to elected local authorities, especially after Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, did not solve the problem of legal inconsistencies, and instead, served to consolidate governing parties’ strategies of control over recruitment in the state bureaucracy. More often than not, patron-client relationships that thrive at the borderline between formality and informality of political behaviour, continued to undermine external rule transfers.

After the second intifada, and the concurrent destruction of the Palestinian Authority security forces’ (PSF) infrastructure, the development and training of the security forces recommenced with renewed vigour, with substantial support of the EU and US, as well as increased cooperation with the Israeli army and intelligence. The reinstatement of the PA’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force and its role as the sole provider of security in the West Bank is facing serious challenges, however, by non-state actors, as well as the continued presence of Israeli Defence Forces. Due to the social, political and geographical fragmentation of the West Bank, various local actors have been able to develop a certain autonomy where it concerns providing security to their respective communities . This phenomenon, which can be called fragmented sovereignty, has substantial consequences for the Palestinian nation-state-building project, while it bolsters identification with sub-state communities and undermines the legitimacy of the PA, which is already under pressure because of increased cooperation with Israel. Paradoxically, the Israeli military infrastructure also hampers the performance of the PSF, which further erodes trust and legitimacy. This article explores how the divisions between the various actors, both state and non-state, and the context of occupation cause the delegitimisation of the PA and analyses the effects on Palestinian security.

- by Martijn Dekker
- •
- Security, Civil War, Legitimacy, Occupation

This paper analyses the origin and evolution of the Aguu, a group of street youth/children labelled as a criminal gang operating in the streets of Gulu, Uganda. Based on a series of interviews, focus group discussions, participant observations, archival work and literature review, the paper traces the origin of the Aguu to the conflict in Northern Uganda, and describes the transformation of the Aguu from street youth/children linked to war and displacement to their present day labelling as ‘criminal gang’. Anchored in an analysis based on Assemblage Theory, this paper demonstrates the complexity, multiplicity and fluidity of the Aguu identity as a group whose inception and evolution, both internal and external, occurs through a process of relationship between social, political, economic and infrastructural changes linked to war, culture, aid and politics, affecting present day security discourses in Gulu, Uganda.

- by Arthur Owor and +1
- •
- Security, Africa, East Africa, Uganda

Transitional justice (TJ) has developed in relative isolation from development discourse. However, in recent years, a growing number of academics, practitioners and policy makers have advocated for the adaptation of participatory methods from development studies to TJ. This article critically analyses the opportunities and challenges of implementing participation in TJ. I argue that participation can provide avenues for the voices of victims and other stakeholders to be heard, albeit not without significant challenges. I also argue that there should be increased focus to carry out participatory attempts where victims and affected community members are partners and decision makers; this just might be a starting point to ensure that TJ is indeed victim-centric.

This report features the baseline survey findings for the project Social Cohesion through Community-based Development. The baseline survey, administered at the individual, household, and community levels, and with a sample of 2,000 households and over 6,000 individuals, offers comprehensive information on a wide range of topics facilitating a rigorous impact evaluation analysis. The findings based on the data indicate success in randomization, but the levels of outcome indicators are found to be high which raises implications for both research and intervention components of the project.

- by IPPA UCA and +2
- •
- Governance, Impact Evaluation, Local Development, Social cohesion

Different formulas of truth, justice and reconciliation in post-conflict settings have been promoted by various peacebuilding agents with the aim of dealing with past atrocities and support the social reconstruction of divided societies. The different approaches to reconciliation (international, national, local and grassroots) affect the way peacebuilding is understood and assimilated by individuals residing in post-conflict settings. The aim of this paper is to critically look at the different meanings given to reconciliation in academic and policy literature in order to further explore the differences between problem-solving and critical approaches to peacebuilding. Starting from an understanding of the introduction of critical approaches to peace research and debates around liberal peacebuilding, the paper will discuss possible points of convergence and divergence in the understanding of reconciliation as reconstruction practice and present a framework for looking at the divide between top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacebuilding.

This paper presents an innovative and effective approach for conducting surveys with preliterate adults in a context of limited infrastructure in post conflict Burundi, Africa. We conducted surveys with parents/carers of children with a disability and community members, as a component of mixed methods research to provide baseline data for Handicap International in developing programs to prevent sexual abuse among children with a disability. To meet the challenges of conducting surveys on the sensitive topic in such field conditions, we developed specifically adapted researcher-assisted self-completion questionnaires (RASCQ) using images and verbal guidance. RASCQ allowed researchers to provide respondents with supports needed to complete surveys and the privacy and confidentiality needed to encourage honest answers. This paper discusses the development process, details of survey implementation, and quality of data obtained. RASCQ proposed in the current study can be used in various studies with marginalised groups and people in developing countries.

- by Jung-Sook Lee and +2
- •
- Survey Methodology, Survey Research, Post-Conflict
- by Louise Rasmussen
- •
- International Development, Kosovo, Post-Socialism, Post-Conflict

With rich resources and an untapped consumer market, South Sudan holds great potential for investment. However, the short run challenge lies in solutions that can connect the current skills and capacities of the local population to thriving sectors including: petroleum, construction, catering, accommodation, trade and procurement. South Sudanese have trouble accessing such business opportunities due to the lack of capital, as well as their weak client connections and technical skills. Given current limitations, backward linkages from such booming sectors present an interesting alternative for South Sudanese to benefit from current market opportunities. Along these lines, a “local content” rating and reward system could be instrumental in helping foreign investors engage further with the local economy, whilst a “local content” small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) fund would be helpful in promoting local job creation, enhancing income along the value chain and developing a competitive local industry as well as a balanced middle class.

- by Melody Atil
- •
- Employment, Value Chain, Private Sector Development, Access to Finance

Conceiving of interviews as relationships of knowledge-creation involving a researcher and a research participant, we engage with the ethical implications of the unpredictabilities of this relationship when conducting research in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Through a conservative application of the precautionary principle that prohibits change of all involved in the research process, presuming change (always) implies harm, scholars to date have overlooked the ethical challenges that stem from the unpredictability of the interview method. In turn, this perspective has limited our ability to capture and mitigate possible forms of harm, undermining the legitimacy and appropriateness of existing ethical guidelines. We argue for a deliberative and iterative approach to understandings of harm and harm thresholds in interview research. This argument draws on recent debates on the precautionary principle in natural sciences which address the unpredictabilities of research, allowing us to think about change in ways that is ethical.

- by Denisa Kostovicova and +1
- •
- Ethics, Peace and Conflict Studies, Research Methodology, Research Ethics
- by Monika Palmberger
- •
- Social and Collective Memory, Social Memory, Youth, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Political memories—which are crucial for establishing and maintaining ‘political capital’, based on individual and group positioning during past conflict and wars, but also in relation to present day politics—are important when considering varied outcomes from negotiations and other interactions that occur in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in relation to large-scale economic land concessions. This paper continues to expand on the idea of political memories of past conflicts and wars by considering the concept in relation to the theoretical framework proposed by Hall et al. (2011) in their book Powers of Exclusion, which stresses the importance of interactions between regulation, force, the market and legitimation for understanding different types of exclusionary processes, especially those linked to land access. I argue that political memories are particularly relevant when it comes to legitimation, but that expanding the concept so as to include political memories is important. In relation to large-scale plantation, mining and hydropower dam concessions, I also stress the importance of political memories in (re)shaping understandings of landscapes, thus creating particular varieties of memory laden political landscapes, which too are constituted by the past but are also politically mobilized in the present.

- by Ian G Baird
- •
- Conflict, Politics, Land tenure, Cultural Landscapes
- by Kenneth Guest
- •
- NATO, Afghanistan, Federalism, Pakistan

This paper attempts to show the many challenges faced by the media while covering post-conflict electoral processes in six Central African states. The polls that took place in Burundi (2005), the Central African Republic (2005), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2006), Congo-Brazzaville (2002, 2007), Chad (1996, 2001, 2006) and Rwanda (2003) were crucial for peace-building. In some cases, they were widely supported and supervised by the international com- munity, being considered the last step of a peace process and the first step toward establishing a truly representative “post-conflict” regime. The media were expected to play a large part in supporting these elections, both to inform the citizens, so they could make an educated choice, and to supervise the way the electoral administration was organizing the polls. This paper attempts to show the many challenges faced by the media while covering these post-conflict electoral processes. In a context of great political tension, in which candidates are often former belligerents who have just put down their guns to go to the polls, the media operate in an unsafe and economi- cally damaged environment, suffering from a lack of infrastructure, inade- quate equipment and untrained staff. Given those constraints, one might wonder if the media should be considered actual democratic tools in Central Africa or just gimmicks in a “peace-building kit” (including “free and fair” elections, multipartism and freedom of the press) with no real impact on the democratic commitment of the elite or the political participation of the pop- ulation.

- by Marie-Soleil Frère
- •
- African Studies, Journalism, Media, Elections