Diálogos de La Habana (2012-2016) : ¿Ahora sí la paz?

Tras conocer cuatro años de debate (dentro y fuera de La Habana), los borradores de dos puntos de la agenda y presenciar el crecimiento de bandas criminales y/u organizaciones sucesoras del paramilitarismo, de la mano de la expansión de economías ilegales y una polarización creciente (y preocupante por sus características) en torno a la paz y el conflicto social/armado en el país, el presente trabajo pretende analizar a profundidad el carácter y alcance de los discursos emitidos por los negociadores en La Habana.

Participación de niños y niñas en los grupos armados ilegales de Colombia : una revisión de la literatura de los procesos de reclutamiento, permanencia y desmovilización desde el enfoque psicosocial

El presente trabajo tuvo como objetivo realizar una revisión de la literatura sobre la participación de niños y niñas en los grupos armados ilegales de Colombia en estudios nacionales, para analizar desde un enfoque psicosocial los procesos de reclutamiento/vinculación, permanencia y desmovilización. Se revisaron 26 investigaciones publicadas entre 2005 y 2015 de bases de datos especializadas y catálogos de universidades. Los resultados mostraron que la mayoría de los estudios realizados sobre participación de niños y niñas en los grupos armados se concentran en los procesos de vinculación y desvinculación. Puntualmente, los estudios desde el enfoque psicosocial encontrados hacen referencia a la comprensión del fenómeno desde el enfoque ecológico. En ello, abordan temas como la configuración de la identidad, las motivaciones, las interacciones con su entorno cercano y con las instituciones sociales y políticas.

Las reparaciones simbólicas en escenarios de justicia transicional

Resumen Cuando una sociedad intenta hacer una transición de situaciones de conflicto armado a paz o de regímenes dictatoriales a democracias, debe tomar decisiones políticas que garanticen los estándares internacionales en materia de derechos de las víctimas de violaciones a derechos humanos, pero que permitan pactos entre las partes implicadas. En este contexto el derecho a la reparación es el centro de álgidos debates. Por eso, en este artículo se propone visibilizar las reparaciones simbólicas como parte de la reparación integral y como importante mecanismo para que las sociedades en transición logren superar los hechos victimizantes sin olvidarlos y para que estos no se repitan; entonces, los simbolismos reparadores buscarán nombrar y dignificar a las víctimas, recordar la verdad y solicitar perdón asumiendo responsabilidades. Abstract When a society tries to make the transition from armed conflict to peace, or dictatorships to democracies, political decisions must be taken to ensure international standards concerning the rights of victims of human rights violations, but allowing agreements between the parts involved. In this context, the right to reparation is the peak center of discussions.So, this article proposes to visualize the symbolic reparations as part of the internal reparation and as an important mechanism so that societies in transition can overcome the victimizing facts without forgetting them, and in order to stop them too. Then, the repairing symbolism would seek to appoint and dignify the victims, to remember the truth, taking responsibilities, and asking for forgiveness.

ETHNIC MINORITIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS THE AFRO-COLOMBIAN CASE1

ResumenLa discriminación racial, la pobreza y la exclusión social son problemas estructurales que han afectadoa las minorías étnicas colombianas por décadas. De los grupos minoritarios del país, los(as)afrocolombianos(as) experimentan el más alto nivel de pobreza, hecho que se demuestra en sulimitado acceso a las políticas de educación, salud, empleo y demás servicios públicos y programassociales. De hecho, las regiones con fuerte presencia afrocolombiana presentan los peores indicadoressocio-económicos y la mayor parte de las víctimas (directas) del conflicto armado internoque afecta a la nación son las comunidades afrocolombianas. Las violaciones de derechos humanos contra los(as) afrocolombianos(as) han sido cometidas tanto por instituciones del Estado comopor actores no-estatales. Dichas violaciones son prohibidas por la Constitución Nacional y por lostratados de derechos humanos ratificados por el Estado colombiano. Sin embargo, los efectos de lasmismas siguen sin ser analizados a profundidad. En este texto se estudia en detalle las normas dederechos humanos que buscan proteger a la población afrocolombiana como grupo étnico minoritario.También se estudian las principales consecuencias de las prácticas racistas contra las comunidadesafrocolombianas y los retos de éstas en el marco del conflicto armado interno. El artículo se convierteen una de las pocas investigaciones que explica la compleja situación de derechos humanos de lascomunidades afrocolombianas en la historia reciente del país.Palabras clave: Afrocolombianos(as), minorías, derechos y discriminación. AbstractRacial discrimination, poverty and social exclusion are structural problems that have affected the Colombianethnic minorities for decades. Among these minority groups, Afro-Colombians experience the highest levelof poverty, which is demonstrated by their limited access to education, health, employment, and other socialprograms and services. In fact, most regions with Afro-Colombian presence endure the worst socio-economicindicators, and the main victims of the internal armed conflict are the Afro-Colombian communities. Humanrights violations against Afro-Colombians have been committed by both state and non-state actors.These violations are prohibited by the new Colombian Constitution (approved in 1991) and human rightstreaties ratified by the Colombian state. However, their effects on Afro-Colombians have not been extensivelyexplored. This paper analyzes in depth the domestic human rights framework that seeks the protectionof Afro-Colombians as an ethnic minority. Also, it studies in detail the consequences of racist practicestowards the Afro-Colombian communities and the challenges of their struggle for human rights in the frameof the internal armed conflict. The text represents one of the few works of its kind that explains the mainaspects of the complex human rights situation of Afro-Colombians throughout the nation’s recent history.Keywords: Afro-Colombians, minorities, rights and discrimination. 

Una arquitectura internacional difícil de imitar: el caso de Filipinas

ResumenLas guerras en el siglo XXI son la continuación de conflictos armados internos surgidos a mediados del siglo XX, y otras son el resultado de la segunda gran descolonización en algunos territoriosde Asia y África ocurridos por la misma época. En ambos casos se reflejan problemas estructurales de los estados, generalmente los llamados del tercer mundo. Después de la caída del muro de Berlín y la unificación alemana a finales de los 80, el inicio de la lucha contra el narcotráfico y la actual lucha contra el terror a finales de los 90 e inicios del 2000. Los países en situación de guerra interna reciben apoyo de actores de la comunidad internacional, comolos que les interesa negociar conflictos y como los que deben contribuir a la paz y la seguridad internacional. Filipinas, estado ubicado en el sudeste asiático, sostiene un conflicto armado interno de casi 60 años. Durante el 2010, ha sostenido un proceso de paz entre el gobierno nacional y la guerrillamusulmana MILF (Frente Moro de Liberación Nacional), en donde varios actores de la comunidad internacional como los Estados Unidos, los países vecinos y la Unión Europea han jugado un papel importante para el restablecimiento de la paz.Palabras clave: paz, conflictos armados internos, comunidad internacional, negociación, Filipinas. AbstractWars during the 21st century are extension of Internal Armed Conflicts which began in the middle of the 20th century. Others conflicts are the result of the second de-colonization of some Asian and African territories. In both cases, they reflect the state’s structural problems; commonly known as the “third world.” After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German unification in the late 1980s, the beginning of war against drug trafficking and the war against terrorism in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the countries in a Internal Armed Conflict situation have received International Aid from states that are interested in resolution of wars and their own interest in global peace and security.The Philippines is a country in southeastern Asia. It has been involved in an Internal Armed Conflict for more than 50 years. In 2010, the National Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Fronthave developed a round tables/ peace panels, where some international community actors such as the United States, neighboring countries, and European Union, have played a very important role for establishment of peace.Keywords: peace, internal armed conflicts, international community, negotiation, Filipines.

Military implications of NATO enlargement and post-conflict Iraq : hearing before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, One Hundred Eighth Congress, first session, April 10, 2003.

Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.

Temper and Temperature: The Missing Link of Climate on Armed Conflicts

We investigate the causes of a conflict by adding ambient climate factors to the existing bundle of most significant variables. It turns out that – controlling for possible associations – temperature could actually induce a conflict. We emphasise that temperature could not be a dominant reason in starting a conflict; however, it could escalate the chances when other factors are present. This paper references some of the related psychological studies to support this claim. We also show that grievance factors could actually be rightfully effective in starting an internal conflict alongside greed based reasons. In the end, we believe that it could be informative to study ambient factors more often in economics.

Conflict, Peace and Security in Africa: an Assessment and New Questions After 50 Years of African Independence

Since the independence processes in the African continent, armed conflicts, peace and security have raised concern and attention both at the domestic level and at the international scale. In recent years, all aspects have undergone significant changes which have given rise to intense debate. The end of some historical conflicts has taken place in a context of slight decrease in the number of armed conflicts and the consolidation of post-conflict reconstruction processes. Moreover, African regional organizations have staged an increasingly more active internal shift in matters related to peace and security, encouraged by the idea of promoting “African solutions to African problems”. This new scenario, has been accompanied by new uncertainties at the security level and major challenges at the operational level, especially for the African Union. This article aims to ascertain the state of affairs on all these issues and raise some key questions to consider.

Companies in Conflict Situations: Advancing the Research Agenda. Seminar proceedings. Barcelona, october 2011

Seminar proceedings about the Seminar “Companies in Confict Situations”, organized by ICIP, with the aim of reflecting on the causes, the dynamics and the consequences of the participation of companies in armed conflicts. Over thirty international experts will be participating in the conferences to analyze the role and responsibilities of companies in connection with the international arms market (especially regarding small arms, light weapons and conventional weapons), the provision of military and security services, and the exploitation of, and trade in, natural resources.

Hybrid warfare – just a twist of compound warfare? : views on warfare from the United States Armed Forces perspective

The wars the Western armies are involved with today are different from those that were fought in the end of 20th century. To explain this change, the Western military thinkers have come up with various different types of definitions of warfare over the last 30 years, each describing the tendencies involved in the conflicts of the time. The changing nature of conflicts surfaced a new term – hybrid warfare. The term was to describe and explain the multi-modality and complexity of modern day conflict. This thesis seeks the answer for the question: what is the development of thought behind hybrid warfare? In this thesis the Vietnam War (1965-1975) is used as an example of compound warfare focusing on the American involvement in the war. The Second Lebanon War (2006) serves as an example of hybrid warfare. Both case studies include an irregular opposing force, namely National Liberation Front in Vietnam War and Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War. These two case studies are compared with the term full spectrum operations introduced in the current U.S. Department of Army Field Manual No. 3-0 Operations to see the differences and similarities of each term. The perspective of this thesis is the American point of view. This thesis concludes that hybrid warfare, compound warfare and full spectrum operations are very similar. The first two terms are included in the last one. Although hybrid warfare is not officially defined, it will most likely remain to be used in the discussion in the future, since hybrid wars and hybrid threats are officially accepted terms.

Dangerous identities : the impact of fundamental ethnic identities on conflict intensity

Bien que plusieurs chercheurs aient analysé l'influence de divers facteurs sur l'intensité des conflits ethniques, il a été constaté que l'identité ethnique elle-même n'a jamais été correctement examinée. Ce phénomène est essentiellement dû à ce que nous croyons être une classification inexacte des groupes ethniques. Nous proposons une nouvelle méthode de catégorisation pour les identités ethniques présentant que la religion, la langue et la race forment les distinctions les plus précises et nous les classifions alors comme les identités ethniques fondamentales. Subséquemment, une étude comparative de ces identités ethniques a été entreprise avec l'utilisation de deux bases de données différentes: l’ensemble de données Battle Deaths qui est associé avec la base de données sur les conflits armés de l’UCDP/PRIO et la base de données Minorities at Risk. Les résultats, dans leur ensemble, ont indiqué que les identités ethniques avec des attachements émotifs plus intenses mènent à une plus grande intensité de conflit. Les conflits ethniques fondamentaux ont démontré une tendance à mener à des conflits plus intenses que les conflits ethniques non-fondamentaux. De plus, la similitude parmi les groupes ethniques tend à affaiblir l'intensité des conflits. En outre, l'étude a également conclu que plus le nombre d'identités ethnique fondamentales impliquées dans un conflit est grand, plus le conflit sera intense. Cependant, les résultats ne pouvaient pas déterminer une différence conséquente parmi l’influence relative des trois identités ethniques fondamentales.

Ethnic Violence on Kenya's Periphery: Informal Institutions and Local Resilience in Conflict-Affected Communities

Deadly, inter-ethnic group conflict remains a threat to international security in a world where the majority of armed violence occurs not only within states but in the most ungoverned areas within states. Conflicts that occur between groups living in largely ungoverned areas often become deeply protracted and are difficult to resolve when the state is weak and harsh environmental conditions place human security increasingly under threat. However, even under these conditions, why do some local conflicts between ethnic groups escalate, whereas others do not? To analyze this puzzle, the dissertation employs comparative methods to investigate the conditions under which violence erupts or stops and armed actors choose to preserve peace. The project draws upon qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews, focus group dialogues, and participant observation of local peace processes during field research conducted in six conflict-affected counties in Northern Kenya. Comparative analysis of fifteen conflict episodes with variable outcomes reveals the conditions under which coalitions of civic associations, including local peace committees, faith-based organizations, and councils of elders, inter alia, enhance informal institutional arrangements that contain escalation. Violence is less likely to escalate in communities where cohesive coalitions provide platforms for threat-monitoring, informal pact making, and enforcement of traditional codes of restitution. However, key scope conditions affect whether or not informal organizational structures are capable of containing escalation. In particular, symbolic acts of violence and the use of indiscriminant force by police and military actors commonly undermine local efforts to contain conflict. The dissertation contributes to the literatures on civil society and peacebuilding, demonstrating the importance of comparing processes of escalation and non-escalation and accounting for interactive effects between modes of state and non-state response to local, inter-ethnic group conflict.

Armed conflicts in the post-Soviet region: Present situation, prospects for settlement, consequences. OSW Study 9/2003

Unresolved conflicts continue to smoulder in Transnistria, Chechnya, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia. "Para-states" have formed in most conflict-affected areas. These have grown to become permanent players in the region. In Chechnya, guerrilla fights continue in the wake of the Russian army's siege of the republic. The conflict in Tajikistan ended in 1997 and the normalisation process is currently under way. Each of these conflicts has entailed profound political, social, ethnic and economic changes, as well as affecting other spheres of life. Presently, it is impossible to return to the pre-conflict situation. The "para-states" have fortified their independence and are no longer controlled by the external powers on which they depended in the initial phases of the conflicts.

The War republics in the Donbas one year after the outbreak of the conflict. OSW Commentary Number 174, 17 June 2015

More than one year since the first pro-Russian moves in the Donbas, separatists have taken control of parts of the Donbas and Luhansk oblasts but are still unable to form truly functioning administrative structures. The exercise of power by the central administration of the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR) and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ (LPR) is restricted to resolving problems as they arise, while administration proper is the prerogative of the local authorities reporting to them which had been performing this function before the conflict broke out. The way the situation is developing and the fact that access to information is restricted make it difficult to determine the structure of the separatist government in more detail, precisely how it is organised, and what the internal hierarchy is like. The overriding goal of the governments of the DPR and the LPR is to maintain and develop their military potential. In effect, the lives of the so-called republics are subordinate to military goals. The Donbas separatism is a conglomerate of different groups of interests, with Russia at the fulcrum. Its representatives set the main tactical and strategic goals and thus have a decisive influence on the development of the situation in the region. Individual separatist groupings come into conflict, and some oligarchs linked to the former Party of Regions circles have also been making attempts to maintain their influence. The struggle between individual groups of interest is intensifying as the situation on the war front becomes calmer. Since the situation has temporarily stabilised after the seizure of Debaltseve, the central governments of the DPR and the LPR have made attempts to expand their influence, combating armed criminals who are outside their control and that of Russia. The civilian population is taking the brunt of the devastation caused by the war and the increasing militarisation of the region. Despite the fact that the intensity of the fighting on the war front is falling, worsening humanitarian problems are causing refugees to continue their flight from the territories controlled by the separatists. 2 million people have fled the conflict zone since the beginning of the war: 1.3 million of them have found shelter in other regions of Ukraine, and more than 700,000 have left for Russia. The region has also sustained great economic losses – most mines have been either destroyed or closed, many industrial plants have restricted or completely discontinued their production, and many firms have been taken over by force. In effect, the region has seen an economic downturn.