Policing, rule of law, state capacity and sustainable peace in Timor-Leste

This paper sets out to demonstrate the link between development, state capacity and peace, employing Timor-Leste as the case study. It employs the association between state capacity and development to illustrate where if state capacity is lacking or functions improperly there is likely to be a low level of state legitimacy. This in turn manifests as lack of respect for or failure of rule of law, developing as generalised lawlessness and anti-state activity and eventually manifesting as intra-state or civil conflict. In particular, policing is seen as a critical component in state legitimacy, being the 'front line' of the judicial system from which legitimacy ultimately derives. This issue is particularly critical in states emerging from traditional legal and judicial structures, but which have not yet articulated into 'rational-legal' structures. Ipso facto, key state institutions, such as the judicial system and police are required to function well, while these are alone not enough to guarantee peace, they are significant contributors to and guarantors of peace.

Aiming for world peace by promoting 'violence' in education

In order to contribute towards UNESCO’s goal of pursuing world peace, aims of education must transcend the limited scope of national self-interest which has dominated schooling systems in the West for the last two centuries and further back when the survival of each polis in Ancient Greece was of paramount importance. Aims must therefore become different and the environment that is thought best for this to occur is a democratic one. The case is made that such a democratic environment should involve opportunities to evaluate the value of current aims of education and to explore others in light of the pressing need to pursue peace on a global scale. In order to promote such a democratic environment of discussion and debate the notion of ‘violence’ is considered as a potential framework for such a re-evaluation. The sort of ‘violence’ that is called for is in reference to its use by Emmanual Levinas who employed it emotively to misinterpret Kierkegaard. The use of this misapplied term ‘violence’ may nevertheless be of use in initiating the sort of inquiry of a Deweyean type regarded here to be necessary to improve aims of education democratically in order to pursue world peace.

Does the Australian national framework for values education stifle an education for world peace?

This paper aims to offer an evaluation of Australia's National Framework for Values Education in terms of its educative value. The criteria to be employed in this evaluation shall be drawn primarily from the works of UNESCO and John Dewey. In addition to a re-evaluation of values, consideration will also be given to how individual learners are being prepared to participate democratically in the quest for world peace. It will therefore be necessary to determine whether the Australian framework promotes the potential for democratic participation through inquiry or whether through schooling its overtly nationalistic agenda actually stifles the capacity of persons to participate in a pursuit for global understandings and world peace.

A heuristic approach to Asian hedge fund allocation

The article offers information about hedge funds, which refers to pooled investments that are privately organized and professionally managed by investment managers. It examines the statistical properties of the 70 Asian hedge funds and shows the inappropriateness of the traditional mean-variance optimizer to form optimal hedge fund portfolios. The article also introduces a practical heuristic approach using the senti-variance as a measure for downside risk, and describes the risk measures and the methodology to generate optimal hedge fund portfolio.

Rethinking religion : transforming cultures of violence to cultures of peace

Humanity has always been preoccupied with the search for peace and happiness. Many people turn to and rely on religion to provide them with a means of understanding the human condition and as a methodology of how to find peace within themselves and work towards the creation of peace on earth. Religions however, while providing many valuable tools for peacebuilding, can also contribute to perpetuating cultures of violence.

Developing a culturally-specific peace curriculum for Vietnamese primary schools : a case study of participatory action research in cross-cultural design

In 2003 the International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia, produced a primary school teaching manual for UNESCO Vietnam in consultation with ASP schoolteachers and principals. The finished manual included lessons plans and materials for a five year, 50 lesson peace education course. The Manual is one of the first examples of a systematic core national curriculum in peace education worldwide.

Development of the Teaching Manual posed a number of challenges including differences in language, culture, government and education system. To meet these challenges, a Participatory Action Research approach was central in the project’s development and curriculum design. This case study is offered as a model for effective cross-cultural curriculum development of peace education materials. In particular, the creation of a systematic core course in peace education and the use of UNESCO’s peace keys are outlined as innovative aspects of the project.

A missing peace? The role of religious actors in countering terrorism

Despite the surge of scholarly interest in terrorism and counter-terrorism in the post-9/11 world, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of religious actors (especially faith communities and faith leaders) in combating the threat of terrorism. However, the resurgence of religiosity in contemporary politics should not be viewed as an inherently dangerous force. As Appleby has argued, a new secular-religious model of inter and intra-state diplomacy looms as a development with significant potential to resolve conflict and deny terrorist groups access to communities of support. By drawing on an Australian example, we argue that in societies that have a strong multicultural and multifaith character secular-religious diplomacy pitched at the national and sub-national level can play an important role in the formation of a flexible long-term counterterrorism strategy.

Developing a peace education curriculum for Vietnamese primary schools : a case study of participatory action research in cross-cultural design

In 2003, the International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia, produced a primary school teaching manual for UNESCO Vietnam. The finished manual included lesson plans and materials for a five year, 50 lesson peace education course. The manual is one of the first examples of a systematic core national curriculum in peace education worldwide. Development of the Teaching Manual posed a number of challenges including differences in language, culture, government and education system. To meet these challenges, a participatory action research approach was central in the project’s development and curriculum design. This case study is offered as a model for effective crosscultural curriculum development of peace education materials. In particular, the use of games and reflective materials and the use of UNESCO’s peace keys are outlined as innovative outcomes of the project.

Must Dewey and Kierkegaard’s inquiry for world peace be violent?

Amongst the many aims of education, surely the pursuit of global peace must be one of the most significant.The mandate of UNESCO is to pursue world peace through education by primarily promoting collaboration.The sort of collaboration that UNESCO endorses involves democratic dialogue,where various persons from differing backgrounds can come together,listen,negotiate and discuss possible ways in which peace might be pursued.While this sort of democratic dialogue with its associated free intellectual inquiry is more readily acceptable for issues dealing with problems in the realm of physical nature, it is not so easily tolerated in the realm of ethics and values. Indeed inquiry into the realm of ethics by Kierkegaard has been described by Levinas to be a form of violence. Similarly John Dewey’s work has been included in a list of the ten most harmful books by some conservatives in the United States because he promoted inquiry into morals and religion. Dewey argued against the assumption that there are two-realms—one physical and one moral.He and Kierkegaard both encouraged democratic inquiry into ethics,which is the sort of collaboration recognised by UNESCO as being necessary if we are to pursue world peace.Yet such investigations can be considered by some to be violent and harmful. It is argued here that pursuing inquiries into ethics and aims of education,while appearing to challenge the status quo, should not be construed as being violent but rather should be understood as democratic and educative.