Militias and the challenges of post-conflict peace : silencing the guns

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Militias and the challenges of post-conflict peace : silencing the guns

Chris Alden, Monika Thakur and Matthew Arnold

Zed Books, 2011

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-183) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Militias have proven to be a consistent and enduring challenge to achieving peace in war zones around the world. Whether armed by embattled governments in defence of their territory or fostered by external actors in the interests of greed or grievance, these groups occupy an uncertain and deeply controversial position in the changing landscape of conflict. Linked variously to atrocities against civilians or international criminal elements, part of what distinguishes them from more traditional combatants is their willingness to engage in violent tactics that defy international norms as well as a proclivity to embrace expediency in alliance-making. As such, their diversity of form, unorthodox nature and sheer numbers make achieving short-term stability and an enduring peace a consistently difficult proposition. Bringing together the lessons learned from four intensively researched case studies - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and Sudan - the book argues that the overly rigid 'cookie-cutter' approach to demilitaristation, developed and commonly implemented presently by the international community, is ineffective at meeting the myriad of challenges involving militias. In doing so, the authors propose a radical new framework for demilitarization that questions conventional models and takes into account on-the-ground realities.

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations List of tables Preface 1. Introducing Militias and Demilitarisation 2. Conceptualising Militias: A Framework of Analysis 3. The South Sudan Defence Force 4. The White Army Militias of South Sudan 5. The Mutineers of Timor-Leste 6. Militias in the Eastern DRC 7. Afghanistan's Long and Ongoing Experience with Militias Conclusion: Militias and the Search for Local Security Bibliography Notes

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

  • NCID
    BB06013731
  • ISBN
    • 9781848135277
  • LCCN
    2011380473
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    London
  • Pages/Volumes
    xii, 191 p.
  • Size
    22 cm
  • Subject Headings
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